Happy Friday and happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you.
Most of you are probably trying to enjoy the March Madness games that are taking place on this Friday and I plan on trying to do the same a little later on this evening. At the time of this post I have picked 65.6% of the games correctly in the bracket I submitted to the group Alex Kozora created on ESPN.com. By the way, I have North Carolina beating Duke in the championship game and I suppose a few of you do as well.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have only signed one outside unrestricted free agent since the start of the new league year as wide receiver Justin Hunter agreed to terms on a one-year contract a few days ago. While it has yet to be filed with the NFLPA, I suspect that deal to be for the minimum with at most an $80,000 signing bonus. I’ll find out for sure in the coming days.
The free agency pool has now been picked over pretty good but a few interesting players remain unsigned. There are two linebackers I like in Zach Brown and Gerald Hodges that figure to be cheap and two cornerbacks I think would fit with the Steelers in Alterraun Verner and Nickell Robey-Coleman. Those two cornerbacks are street free agents and have been available for quite a while now. In short, they should be cheap and be willing to sign one-year deals.
The Steelers continue to make their pro day rounds and it’s very easy to track where general manager Kevin Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin go and both were at Clemson on Thursday while offensive coordinator Todd Haley was at Penn State.
As usual, I have five questions for all of you who read this to answer in the comments below and I hope several of you take time to do just that while watching the basketball games.
Have a great rest of the weekend and thank you very much for visiting the site this past week.
Peace and love!
1 – Now that we know what linebacker Dont’a Hightower re-signed with the New England Patriots for, are you disappointed that the Steelers didn’t maker him a better offer? In short, do you think Hightower is worth a base value of $10 million a season?
2 – Not only did the Steelers sign Hunter this past week, Haley took a long look at Penn State wide receiver Chris Godwin on Thursday during his pro day. Assuming Martavis Bryant is ultimately reinstated, do you think the Steelers will ultimately draft a wide receiver in the first four rounds this year?
3 – True or false: Hunter will make the Steelers final 53-man roster out of training camp.
4 – Are the Steelers more likely to sign a free agent linebacker or cornerback next?
5 – Regardless of where he ultimately signs, should free agent Darrelle Revis continue his career as a cornerback or make the move to safety?
Recap from last week’s responses courtesy of David Orochena:
Rod Woodson was named 16 times as “the last Steelers player who ended his career with another team that you just hated seeing it happen.” Some folks may have misread the question and responded with the player who they regretted the most ending their career with another team. Hence, a couple folks went all the way back to 1983 and mentioned Franco Harris. Ryan Clark & Chad Brown were each named four times. Joey Porter was next with three. Alan Faneca, Emmanuel Sanders along with Franco were rued by two. While Mike Wallace, Mike Vrabel, Greg Lloyd, Dan Kreider, Keenan Lewis, Jason Gildon and Kevin Greene each got a single mention.
It’s Friday morning so there is still a few more hours for the Steelers to sign a free agent cornerback but eight people said that would not happen. Thirty-one are holding out hope that the Steelers will. Nine said it would happen but did not name anyone. Marcus Cooper (signed with Chicago Bears) was the most popular choice with six votes. Followed by Nickell Robey-Coleman, Patrick Robinson & Alterraun Verner with three each. Captain Munnerlyn & Brandon Flowers got two mentions. The others were Crezdon Butler, Kayvon Webster, & Morris Clairborne. The only free agent cornerback the Steelers have brought in so far is Davon House who used the Steelers fax machine to consummate his deal with the Green Bay Packers. Let’s see what happens.
The re-signing of Landry Jones split the Depot readers on whether the Steelers would still draft a quarterback. Sixteen said no – use the draft picks elsewhere there is at least another year before needing to get a quarterback. Nineteen said yes with most predicting 4th round or later. The 5h round was the most popular choice but one bold respondent even went with pick 30 if Patrick Mahomes was available. Another thought the 3rd round compensatory pick might be used on a quarterback. Draft day is coming.
As for naming the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback in week one this season, Brock Osweiler was the most popular choice with 10 votes. There was a 4-way tie for second with five votes each for Cody Kessler, New England Patriots back-up Jimmy Garappolo (giving the evil empire even more draft picks), an unnamed new quarterback not on the Browns current roster and who cares. Bo Callahan; Josh McGown; Deshaun Watson & Mitch Trubisky (2) were also noted as possibilities.
26 folks correctly prognosticated that the Steelers next transaction would be signing an outside free agent when WR Justin Hunter was picked up. A couple folks went with extending Le’Veon Bell’s contract which still hasn’t happened. Others mentioned Sean Spence or Terrence Garvin to rebuild depth at linebacker.
Not bad folks. Let’s see how the Steelers Depot Despots do on tonight’s questions.
