Happy Friday to yinz and welcome to another weekend without football.
The start of the 2021 NFL league year is now less than two weeks away and so we’re sure to have a lot more news concerning the Pittsburgh Steelers to discuss soon. The team made news on Thursday by announcing they had come to terms with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on a new contract. That reworking of his contract now has the team safely under the salary cap and now we’ll sit and wait to see how much under the league-wide number they will get before March 17.
We added a new member to the staff this past week in Jonathan Heitritter and he’ll be helping out with draft profiles moving forward. His first one was posted on the site Friday morning and it is very good and thorough to boot. You can follow him on Twitter at @J_Heits.
Nothing but needles for me this weekend. I’m heading to the doctor Friday afternoon and the tattoo parlor on Saturday evening. Such is life. We’ll see how both appointments shake out. Whatever rest of the time I have this weekend will mostly be spent on watching draft prospect tape.
Have you checked out our new addition to the site, The Terrible Take? We have received a lot of great feedback on these mini podcasts so far and we hope you will subscribe to them. We might add an extra Saturday episode that features a take from a reader, listener or follower. That could be fun. We have a lot of other exciting things forthcoming for the site as well this offseason so stay tuned.
As usual, I have five questions for yinz to answer during this Friday night and I hope to see several participate. Thank you for making this past week great again and thank you for all the continued patronage.
Have a safe and prosperous weekend and peace and love to all!
1 – We now know for sure that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will play in 2021. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being very sure, how sure are you that 2021 will be his final season in the NFL?
2 – What is the earliest round you would be fine with the Steelers selecting a running back in the 2021 NFL Draft?
3 – Would you cut inside linebacker Vince Williams before March 17 for a cap savings of $3.34 million?
4 – Rank this modern era former Steelers wide receivers for me:
Yancey Thigpen
Santonio Holmes
Roy Jefferson
Lynn Swann
Louis Lipps
Hines Ward
Antonio Brown
5 – True or false: The Steelers will re-sign wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster before March 18.
Recap of 2020 Third Offseason Weekend Friday Night 5 Questions
Question 1: Friday Night Five Question respondents named three quarterbacks who the Steelers have a chance to select with their current 24th pick or trading up. Alabama quarterback Mac Jones edged out Ohio State’s Justin Fields and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance as respondents favorite. Draft pundits ranked these as the third through fifth best quarterback prospects.
Question 2: Alabama running back Najee Harris is a slam-dunk, guaranteed first-round selection in the 2021 NFL draft according to 68.75% of Depot respondents. A team will draft early in the second round if he does slip from the first round. The Steelers would have to use their first-round pick to select Harris. He won’t be around late in the second round for the Steelers to grab him there unless we hear some type of injury or other news between now and draft day.
Question 3: If given the chance, respondents would most like to go to Green Bay followed by Kansas City for a Steelers 2021 away game.
Question 4: Dave Bryan asked Friday Night Five Question respondents to rank the Steelers chances of winning the Super Bowl in 2021 with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback on a scale of 1-10. The median rank offered by respondents was three.
Question 5: 75% of respondents believe either B.J. Finney, Jesse James, Kelvin Beachum, and/or Chris Hubbard will be back with the Steelers at the start of their 2021 training camp. Steelers Depot reported on Dianna Russini of ESPN tweeting that an unidentified NFL head coach stating, “it’s going to be a massacre next week around the league.” We’ll find out whether a mass of free agents come available next week and if the Steelers acquire any former Steelers.
Many thanks to all that continue participating in the Steelers Depot Friday Night Five Questions!
