A Steelers Depot daily segment. A quick hit of some Pittsburgh Steelers-related stories that may not require a complete article but nuggets worth mentioning and passing on to you guys.
Your Depot After Dark for March 24.
WATT PRAISES MAHOMES
T.J. Watt recently accepted his AFC Defensive Player of the Year award from the 101 Awards. He gave a short interview during the event and expressed his excitement over QB Russell Wilson joining the team, and he also had some high praise for QB Patrick Mahomes. He was asked what makes the reigning Super Bowl MVP so hard to stop.
“What doesn’t he do, is a better question. He really does it all,” Watt said in a clip posted by Sports Radio 810 on X. “He does what is required to win each and every week, and he’s very adaptable. It’s not like you can prepare for one thing. Keep him in the pocket this week and you’re gonna win the game, that’s not the case. He can dice it up from in the pocket, he can get out of the pocket. He just makes everybody around him better.”
Watt began his career with Ben Roethlisberger towards the end of his prime, so he got some solid years with a future Hall of Fame quarterback. Now he will have another chance to do the same with Wilson, who is on the HOF bubble and is likely to one day get in.
GORSCAK DRAFT GRADE ON BRADY
Former longtime Steelers scout Mark Gorscak appeared on Scouting the League podcast recently and discussed some of the intricacies of being an NFL scout. One of those topics was the idea of a scout “claiming a player,” as in, saying they knew all along that a player they had scouted would be highly successful.
“If you’re gonna go ahead and claim people, you better claim all your screwups, too,” Gorscak said. “I gave Tom Brady a free agent grade, I admit that…but then you start talking to all these other people now that he’s retired, ‘I had a third-round [grade],’ one former general manager said he had a first-round [grade]. Get outta here.”
With Brady being drafted in the sixth round, it is safe to say that the entire league was wrong in its evaluation of him. It goes to show that scouting is an inexact science and players will always slip through the cracks, or on the flipside, be drafted much higher than they should have been.
Annual NFL Coaches Photo
Say cheese! As is tradition, the NFL head coaches took a group photo at the onset of the 2024 NFL Owner Meetings in Orlando, Florida. But this year, Mike Tomlin wasn’t around for it. As shared by Adam Schefter, Tomlin was one of several head coaches absent from the photo.
It’s not clear the reason and likely was just a logistical/schedule conflict. But he’s normally not one to miss this group photo. Others who were camera shy are the Philadelphia Eagles’ Nick Sirianni, Dallas Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy, Chicago Bears’ Matt Eberflus, and the Denver Broncos’ Sean Payton. Maybe they’re in the clique of “head coaches who had ultimately disappointing 2023 seasons” club.
STEELERS CHAPLAIN DISCUSSES MINKAH’S GROWTH
While leadership on the offensive side of the ball for the Steelers in the 2023 season was a hot topic of discussion, the defense has plenty of veteran leaders. Among those is Minkah Fitzpatrick, though, up until recently it sounds like he was more of a lead-by-example type of individual. According to Steelers chaplain Kent Chevalier, his time away from the field with injuries in 2023 propelled some growth to where he is growing into more of a vocal leader, too.
“This was by far in his football career the roughest season that he has ever had personally. Injuries, disappointment of just how the season ended, and he would say that it was his greatest year of growth spiritually speaking,” Chevalier said. “He started leading differently. He even said in that speech, ‘I used to be a man that would just lead by example,’ and now he is leading by example and [with] his words.”
With players like Cam Heyward, who is an emotional leader of the team, likely to retire within the next couple seasons, Fitzpatrick emerging and stepping into a bigger role of leadership is a big positive for the Steelers team. Despite what Kenny Pickett said last season, things can be learned while on the sideline.
