The offseason is inevitably a period of projection and speculation, which makes it the ideal time to ponder the hypotheticals that the Pittsburgh Steelers will face over the course of the next year, whether it is addressing free agency, the draft, performance on the field, or some more ephemeral topic.
That is what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
The range of topics will be intentionally wide, from the general to the specific, from the immediate to that in the far future. And as we all tend to have an opinion on just about everything, I invite you to share your own each morning on the topic statement of the day.
Topic Statement: Second-year safety Terrell Edmunds is having himself a fine season that is being overshadowed by his teammates, especially shiny new safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Explanation: For a recent first-round draft pick who has been a starter for basically the entire time that he has been in the league, we are sure not talking a whole lot about Edmunds, who was drafted a year ago. He has played in every game and started all but one of them during his season and a half in the league.
Buy:
Edmunds is on pace to record over 100 tackles on the season. With each passing week he seems to solidify himself a bit more, little by little. He came up with a huge pass breakup on a two-point conversion attempt on Sunday that is a bit of a forgotten play at this point.
He is also routinely either the team leader in tackles or the second behind Devin Bush in just about every game of the season so far. Now focused more on playing in the box since Fitzpatrick came along, he is growing into that role and will continue to do so.
One thing that also should be considered is the amount of turnover he’s dealt with already. He was supposed to be a sub-package player as a rookie behind Morgan Burnett. He’s started with Sean Davis, then Kameron Kelly, and has had to adjust midstream to playing with Fitzpatrick.
Sell:
While he has certainly done some things worthy of admiration, such as his ability to adapt to playing with whoever is around him, the fact of the matter is that he hasn’t done anything particularly spectacular this season, sans perhaps that two-point conversion attempt.
Edmunds’ performance has been pretty ho-hum, typically only doing what he should be doing, and sometimes not even that. While he has a respectable number of defensive stops, he’s also missed his share of tackles, and especially early on in the season, he had some coverage lapses that reveal his lingering inexperience.
