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: The Steelers need major contributions and a lot of snaps from some of their youngest players on the roster this year. A significant injury to which of the following players would be the most difficult for the Steelers to recover from?
A. Keanu Benton
B. George Pickens
C. Joey Porter Jr.
Alex: Would be tough to lose any of them, obviously, but Pickens. WR depth is just so ugly. I know cornerback depth isn’t that great and definitely unproven but unless it’s T.J. Watt or Cam Heyward, the Steelers seem to survive defensive injuries better than offensive ones. They were still the 6th-best scoring defense last year despite everyone who got hurt, including Heyward. You can scheme and hide that a bit better.
With Pickens, your only proven receiver, you’re in a really tight spot there. Lacking that known presence to stretch things vertical and produce the big play. They can’t afford to lose him and have Roman Wilson and…who knows what else.
Peter Rauch:
Hey Alex,
The Steelers have collected a surprising number of unheralded but interesting young secondary players. How many roster spots are Cory Trice/Darius Rush/Ryan Watts/Beanie Bishop fighting over, and who should have the upper hand going into camp?
Alex: Hey Peter! At corner, all that’s really a given is Porter and Jackson. They keep 5-6 corners so that leaves you with 3-4 spots for those four names. And I think they add a veteran so that would squeeze the group a bit more.
I don’t know if anyone has an upper hand. Trice and Rush have a year in an NFL building which helps but their snaps are either zero or very limited. Rush has some experience and is in his second year so I guess that nudges him ahead a bit. But they all gotta prove themselves on defense and on special teams. So you just let them fight and judge what happens in camp and preseason action. That’ll determine the spots. Upper hand right now doesn’t mean much because the margins are so slight.
WeWantDaTruth: Hey Alex! I was listening to a Cleveland sports station, and they said that Broderick Jones is “nothing special’. How do you rate his 2023 season and do you project him to be a future All Pro?
Alex: I wouldn’t pay any mind to what the Cleveland’s stations are opining about the Steelers’ personnel. His 2023 season was good. For playing very little right tackle in college to get thrown in mid-season, on a short week no less, and hold his own was impressive. Mauling run blocker who flashed. Pass pro waned down the stretch. Ceiling is still high for him. His rookie year didn’t change my pre/post-draft thoughts.
PghDSF: Steelers lost both of their gunners. Who replaces them?
Alex: Good question. We wrote about it a few weeks ago. It’s up in the air who replaces Boykin and Pierre. The CBs are going to be involved. Darius Rush was a good gunner throughout his South Carolina career. Trice will get a look. WR Dez Fitzpatrick made the practice squad last year because of his gunner/coverage work. And then you have rookies and Futures guys in the mix, too. But it’s wide open.
DoctorNoah:
Let’s get back to Cory Trice.
If his ACL is good to go, do you think he is a “hidden gem” starting cornerback?
Second question: Artie Smith seems to have a lot up his sleeve. Can you tell me a bit more about his passing game, what concepts he goes to, how that compares to some of more “avant-garde” passing games in the NFL like 49ers and LA?
Alex: There’s promise. I liked him coming out. He was a Top 100 type of talent. It was the medical that pushed him down. But many of the baseline traits were there and his ball skills were better than Porter’s out of college, to be honest. Still, we gotta get eyes on him. He’s had multiple knee/leg injuries over the last 5-ish years and has never played in a preseason game, much less a regular season one. We gotta see what he looks like on the other side of the injury before we talk about gems.
The clinic I watched on Smith focused primarily on his running game than passing game. There will be lots of play-action, glance/slant routes over the middle, spreading the ball around especially in the red zone. In my “big book of Arthur Smith,” I had a couple of quick red zone passing game notes.
“He likes using Hi-Lo concepts near the goal line, especially from 3×1 looks, often with No. 3 running a shallow cross and No. 1 a basic/in-route over the top. Or he’ll run half-field reads and combination routes like spot/snag concepts (corner/curl/back fast to the flat).
He says defenses have to simplify coverages in the red zone, which makes them easier to game plan against. He also likes going empty and spreading things out in the red zone while having his “zero beaters” (all-out blitz/Cover 0) ready.
He does not like fade passes and 1v1 throws in the red zone, calling them inefficient.”
Hope that helps.
COSteel: Big Al – really intrigued by our QB room this season. Not thinking that either of these guys are what we were used to with Big Ben, but I do believe they will be an significant upgrade over the last two years. Additionally, the team has a ‘real’ OC now – which will positively impact the result. If you had to pre-write a summary of the season from the perspective of the QB room – what would you guess?
Alex: Appreciate the question and generally agree with the sentiment. But writing a summary of the season for these guys, it might be a fruitless endeavor. There is so much “new” here. Brand new QB room top to bottom. New offensive coordinator and rare external hire. I’m in a “wait and see” approach primarily.
Hopefully there is at least competent play. “Normal” passing numbers of 3,000-plus passing yards, 20-plus passing touchdowns. Hopefully more highs but probably more lows, too. Pickett was safe and careful and protected the ball a lot. You won’t get that to the same degree as Wilson and Fields.
