Welcome back to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers mailbag. As always, we’re here for the next hour to answer whatever is on your mind.
To your questions!
Brian Tollini: Hope all is well, Alex-
Since the start of the first depth chart of 2023, could you make the argument that the OL or ILB groups improved more than the QB group?
QB: +Wilson, Fields, Allen (-Pickett, Trubisky, Rudolph)
OL: +Fautanu, Frazier, McCormick (-Cole, Dotson, Green, Okorafor, L. Clark)
ILB: +Queen, P. Wilson, T. Murray (-K. Alexander, Muse, Kwiatkoski, C Russell)
Alex: Doing well, Brian. Hope you are, too!
Good question. I’m actually going back and forth in my head. Obviously, we’ll just wait to see how these new faces do and be able to judge it then. There’s so many moving parts and rookies that there’s a lot we believe but not much we know. I don’t think ILB would surpass QB, especially comparing what the team had at the start of 2023 before everyone got hurt.
O-line, yeah, there’s a case. I respect their all-in mentality there. We’re going to pour everything into this one group and make it better which makes every extension of the offense better. Run game and pass game. But the QB play, even if Wilson isn’t a star, just feels like they can at least get back to normal and basic which feels so low-level but something the team’s lacked the last two years. But the o-line could become one of football’s best units and I doubt we’ll say the same about quarterback. Pittsburgh has just been starved there.
In short, yeah, you can argue o-line over QB.
Bill Antos: Steelers traded a conditional pick for Justin Fields. Does the condition specify 51% of OFFENSIVE snaps determines what Round pick the Bears receive? If Fields plays on special teams, would that have any impact on what Round the pick is that the Bears receive?
Alex: That’s a fun question. The original reporting from Schefter just said “percent of the plays” and didn’t specify offense or defense.
Of course, no one was even thinking about him and kick returns at that time. It would depend on the exact language used in whatever agreement was signed off on by both sides as terms of the deal. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. It would take a lot for that to happen. Fields would have to play some at QB but if he started, he wouldn’t be doing return work even if the team had that plan (which still seems like an off-handed joke). But he couldn’t sit on the bench as a QB all year because kick returns alone wouldn’t get him there. So things would have to fall so perfectly into place for Fields to be at say 45 percent offensive snaps and then kick returns tacking on the rest or some combination in a similar range.
Jeremy: Hey Alex! Heck of a draft, great coverage pre, during, and post. I knew all the players drafted, that is my personal goal, and I get my info here. So I have an easier, light-hearted one for you today: does it bother you that I think of Logan Lee as Alex’s guy this year (when you id’d him as a fit, not necessarily a favorite)?
Alex: Thanks Jeremy! Our team did a great job. Our best year ever in my mind.
Ha, I wouldn’t say it bothers me. But I don’t think it’s accurate. Lee was my least-favorite pick of the seven they made. But I, like you, am happy to get that right in my mock draft. It did feel like they would wait until Day Three to take a defensive lineman and that Lee would be on their list. Him coming in for a visit made that easier, obviously.
But if he turns out to be a great player, then definitely think that.
steeltown:
Hey Kozora, regarding the WR group as it currently stands and knowing you can’t address every position, ever year. Is it possible they are running with this group? I just think of some recent trends where the WR position is more easily filled with mid-tier guys with strong run game, strong Defense and Special Teams, more so than other positions.
Jefferson, Callaway and Watkins have all had 600-800yd seasons at some point. If they have a group of guys ‘only’ go for 400-500yds is that such a bad thing? Just trying to figure their thinking this offseason.
Alex: I still think their goal and hope is to add someone. But with FA offering very little, they might not have much of a choice. And yeah, they could argue to build the offense like most of Smith’s. Just one dominant outside receiver, a bunch of tight ends, and heavy run game. It’s just hard to bank on trying to squeeze enough out of Jefferson/Callway/Watkins/Austin/Miller and turn that into a solid No. 2. It’s hard to sorta chunk that together and expect it to turn into something stronger.
I think they’ve just had a hard time finding a dance partner. They wanted to address o-line early, WR was a deep class, and free agency didn’t really offer much for them.
