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 May 15.
Old School Schedules
In honor of schedule release day, here’s a look at how the NFL used to create the schedule. There was no powerful algorithm that spit out the complete schedule. There was just a guy—one guy—Val Pinchbeck.
As this video from The 33rd Team outlines, Pinchbeck was in charge of creating the entire schedule, using a board on his wall to map everything out.
He served as the NFL’s VP of Broadcasting, and those who knew him said he spent hours on end creating the perfect schedule.
“To do the schedule, Val would literally work seven days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day, from mid-February until the middle of May,” Dennis Lewin once said. “And he was a genius at it.”
Now, the NFL uses AWS to do work that used to take months but now requires only a couple of hours. Find out more about their current system here.
Bijan On Arthur Smith
Current Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson joined the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast to discuss his former head coach. Robinson was asked about his inconsistent rookie workload, receiving few touches in some games.
Robinson said Smith and the team laid out a plan for him that was intended to work him hard early in the year, reduce his touches in the middle of the year, and ramp things back up towards the end.
“[The coaching staff] didn’t want to Derrick Henry me Year 1,” Robinson told hosts Taylor Lewan and Will Compton. “28 carries, 25 carries, you’re taking all this workload Year 1.”
Robinson seemed to understand the team’s process and vision and didn’t say anything negatively about Smith in that segment. He finished the season with 272 touches, though he had more than 20 carries in a game just once. Check out the full interview before. We have it timed up to the portion about Smith.
Steelers Revenge Game
To no one’s surprise, the Pittsburgh Steelers-Denver Broncos Week 2 game made Rich Eisen’s list of Top 10 “revenge” games on the docket for 2024.
“It’s not like this guy changes teams a lot in his career,” Eisen said. “He was in Seattle forever. The Gods basically said, even though you switched conferences, it just calls for your new team to go visit your old team. The Steelers and the Broncos just happened to be scheduled to play each other this year.”
Eisen is referring to the Broncos’ Week 1 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. But Wilson will face Denver the week after. The league likely made sure to schedule that game early to give Wilson the highest chance of starting.
Topping the list of revenge games on his list was the Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl rematch, which will take place in Week 7.
