Now that training camp has begun, following yet another year of disappointment, a fourth consecutive season with no postseason victories, it’s time to take stock of where the Pittsburgh Steelers stand. Specifically where Steelers players stand individually based on what we are seeing over the course of the offseason as it plays out. We will also be reviewing players based on their previous season and their prospects for the future. A stock evaluation can take a couple of different approaches and I’ll try to make clear my reasoning. In some cases, it will be based on more long-term trends. In other instances, it will be a direct response to something that just happened. So we can see a player more than once over the course of the season as we move forward.
Player: QB Dwayne Haskins
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Given the opportunity to play extensively last night, Dwayne Haskins did not look up to the task, and obviously lost any chance he had, if any, of winning the backup quarterback job.
Throughout the offseason and the preseason, we have heard generalized buzz around Dwayne Haskins, the former first-round draft pick, whom the Steelers signed as a futures player in January, and how he was starting the look the part.
He looked more like the futures signing than the first-round pick during his most significant playing opportunity last night, getting more than a full half to start in the preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers.
While it must be said that he wasn’t given a full deck to play with—among others, Najee Harris, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, and a few other starters or projected starters did not play, and he was playing against a starting defense—he certainly didn’t make the most of what the had to work with.
It should be said that he made some good reads, and made some throws that his targets did not capitalize on, but his overall performance left much to be desired, and solidified Mason Rudolph’s spot as the backup quarterback, if that was not already the case (and it did appear to be the case).
One might even be inclined to wonder if his spot on the 53-man roster is vulnerable. Joshua Dobbs didn’t get a ton of time to play this offseason, but he had some good snaps in the first preseason game, and they obviously know plenty about him.
If a team offered the Steelers a seventh-round pick for Haskins, would they trade him? It’s abundantly obvious that they like Dobbs, after all. Pittsburgh might have a few moveable assets over the course of the next couple of days with which they might recoup a late-round pick or two. It wouldn’t be shocking if Haskins were one such piece.
