Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: C Mason Cole
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: The veteran center has been the weakest link along the offensive line for the majority of the season, but the Steelers don’t really have any attractive alternatives who can snap the ball. Cole’s snapping is already bad enough as it is with several poor snaps yesterday that resulted in one sack and one lost fumble.
Popcorn used to be an enjoyable snack that you ate while watching a movie. It was a relaxing, indulgent diversion from life. Now it’s the exact opposite. It’s the symbol of every little thing that goes wrong with no end in sight, always another kernel of misery waiting to pop.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been an inexhaustible heat source this season for the world’s largest kettle of corn kernels, just one problem after another. Yesterday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals was particularly embarrassing, featuring multiple illegal formation penalties for wide receivers not being aligned correctly.
But the most egregious unforced errors belonged to C Mason Cole, who struggled with his snapping in wet conditions throughout the afternoon. This was an area of his game that has been an issue on an off throughout the year, more so than during the 2022 season, but yesterday proved to be a disaster.
One botched snap forced QB Kenny Pickett to scramble for the ball, resulting in him taking a sack at an inopportune time. The other was even worse, as QB Mitch Trubisky was unable to recover the ball and the Cardinals took possession, blowing open the game with POOTOS (points off of turnovers, that is).
Signed as an unrestricted free agent last year, Cole struggled like the rest of the offensive line at the beginning of last season, but had seemed to clean up his game, when healthy, in the second half of the year. While he’d generally gotten better this year as the season has gone on, his poor snapping yesterday was debilitating.
And to make matters worse, there really isn’t anybody that they can bench him for. The backup interior linemen are Nate Herbig and Spencer Anderson, neither of whom are native centers and whom may be just as inconsistent. Many will suggest moving James Daniels to center, but he hasn’t played the position in years. It would be quite surprising if Cole was benched, so improvement is going to have to happen from within.
