The journey toward Super Bowl LII ended far too prematurely for the Pittsburgh Steelers, sending them into offseason mode before we were ready for it. But we are in it now, and are ready to move on, through the Combine, through free agency, through the draft, into OTAs, and beyond.
We have asked and answered a lot of questions over the years and will continue to do so, and at the moment, there seem to be a ton of questions that need answering. A surprise early exit in the postseason will do that to you though, especially when it happens in the way it did.
You can rest assured that we have the questions, and we will be monitoring developments all throughout the offseason process, all the way down to Latrobe. Pending free agents, possible veteran roster cuts, contract extensions, pre-draft visits, pro days, all of it will have its place when the time arises.
Question: What do you feel was the most important thing to take away from Kevin Colbert’s press conference at the Combine yesterday?
While there is a miserly group that turns it nose up at the Combine festivities, there are others who try to value every step of the offseason process, especially when the Steelers are involved, and their general manager, Kevin Colbert, yesterday was involved with the Combine process, holding a press conference during which he spoke on a range of topics, most of which we covered yesterday on the site.
Of the topics that he addressed during his time at the podium, which struck you as the most important? He emphatically shot down any rumors of the team being interested in moving Martavis Bryant, though that was not much of a surprise. He also reiterated that he was optimistic about a deal getting done with Le’Veon Bell, and stated clearly that Ryan Shazier would not play this season.
While these are all significant statements, they are all statements that we were able to logically assume would be made. If I were to have written a mock press conference for Colbert heading into the day and included those topics, I would have said Shazier would not play, there’s optimism about Bell’s contract, and there is no intention of moving Bryant.
In my opinion, the most important thing that he said during his time speaking was that he believes the draft talent is lean at the inside linebacker position. Given that they have lost a starter at the position for at least this season, that certainly makes it sound like the precursor to a course of action, which is to sign a starter in free agency rather than rely upon the draft.
But aside from what he did say, is there anything that you were disappointed to hear go unaddressed?
