Welcome 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!
Rich Erenberg: Hi Alex. It’s a minor point, but I’ve been curious. Do you how much cap space we saved by waiving Johnston and keeping Waitman?
Alex: Ah, I don’t have the numbers off-hand, Rich and OTC has updated his contract now that he’s been released and signed with Buffalo. It wasn’t a significant amount of money though. A million or so. Not a needle-mover or anything like that.
Jack Hambert: Hi Alex. With Kaleb Johnson’s struggles, any chance we bring Trey Sermon up from the PS?
Alex: Think there’s a good chance of that, especially after hearing from Mike Tomlin Tuesday. If Johnson isn’t going to do kick returns, and he’s not this week, and if he’s not going to see an increase in running back snaps (which seems doubtful), then it’s hard to dress him. Sermon could take over Johnson’s role as KR and offers more help on special teams. Versatile back, a veteran with experience. He probably even plays some on third downs. Makes a lot of sense for him to come up. Heck, team could even sign him to the 53 with Scharping about to land on IR.
Reader783: Alex – how much longer can you take this? The team is the same team 7+ years running ignoring the outlier season here or there for the defense. It doesn’t even seem like Tomlin is pretending to try new things anymore. When Bellicheck mocked us for “never doing anything different”, he meant it.
Alex: I get the frustration and there’s some real concerns about this team. But they are 1-1 and if they beat the Patriots Sunday, the sky is put back up. I’m most concerned about the overall trenches of both sides given the investments and how fundamental things are. But big-picture, it’s also not a shock to see growing pains for a team that replaced over 10,000 snaps from a year ago.
I will say this defense is different. Especially up front. They’re blitzing and showing looks they didn’t a year ago. Back end is more static but that can happen when you’re more aggressive rushing and with the new faces in the secondary. With time, hopefully the menu expands. I’m just going to keep watching.
Black and Gold mafia: AK,
What do you make out of the Steelers lack of player development? We expected Frazier, JPJ, Payton Wilson, and Broderick Jones to take a jump this year and it’s pretty much been a disappointment across the board.
Alex: It’s a good question. Some of it remains to be seen as we keep watching this year. But it’s alarming to see guys play well early and then seemingly start to fall off. I have a hard time explaining that. Lack of development is an obvious reason but the why…I struggle with.
DRED1224 (Steelers12): Alex I used to be one of the biggest Mike Tomlin defenders giving him credit for keeping the Steelers competitive every season no matter the roster problems. Lately though with the offense looking stuck in the mud the coaching staff choices feeling suspect and other teams adapting quicker I have to ask in your opinion has the game passed Mike Tomlin by or is he still that elite coach who just happens to be caught in a rough stretch
Alex: It’s still worth watching the season play out. They still put up 34 in Week One and did some nice things in the play-pass game even without a running game. But for Tomlin as a whole, is he an elite coach? Probably not. Not right now at least. Nothing about his recent resume can argue in favor of that. It seems like Tomlin is a great coach at doing more with less than vice versa. I’m not sure why that is but it’s been the trend. But I’m going to keep watching this year, it’s only two weeks in, and see where the team goes. Really takes that first month to get a good feel for the makeup of a team.
Steeler fever: Steelers draft a stud RB like Kaleb Johnson and then don’t play him at RB. Just how far does Tomlin have his own head shoved up his own azz? I would like my answer in feet and inches none of that metric nonesense. TY.
Alex: Johnson not seeing much action early was to be expected. Maybe not to this degree but we warned his development had a ways to go in order to be trusted. I think there’s value in getting him more than two snaps/one carry per game to get him going but he wasn’t going to be a feature piece out of the gate. As long as Warren gets leaned on the way he was in the Seahawks game, and possibly a little more than that, I think they’ll have the right strategy. Then after the bye I can see Johnson come back and get a second chance.
At least he’ll be fresh? There’s some optimism.
Jake: T. Austin said the Yankee concept debacle “did not go unaddressed.” What do you think he meant by that? It doesn’t seem like there was any adjustment scheme-wise.
Alex: He meant they went over it in the film room and the players screwed it up. I think Slay busted the coverage and was supposed to let the over/crosser go. That he needed to fall off and carry the post to help Ramsey. And he just made an error. That’s my belief that I shared in my video breakdown and I feel as strongly about it today.
So there was supposed to be an adjustment but the players failed to do it.
Matt:
Hey Alex. Was the number of Loudermilk’s snaps through the first two games (I believe 31 and 37) a result of Harmon’s injury, or were there other factors? Were you surprised that he received that many snaps?
I came out of the summer thinking he was a borderline roster guy that’d get limited snaps in regular season games. That was wrong, but I can’t tell if I misjudged and everyone else expected it or not.
Alex: It definitely was due to Harmon’s injury. Loudermilk started in place. He only played six in the second game before getting hurt. Not a shock to see him get the initial nod over Yahya Black. And now Loudermilk is on IR. Certainly wasn’t the plan for him to play that much but losing Harmon late in the process had an impact. Pittsburgh was also in its base 3-4 a lot against the Jets, which is why his snap count was as high as it was.
