Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Here are some prospects who should be on the Steelers NFL draft radar.
This week much of the NFL will be in Mobile checking out many of the top prospects for the 2024 NFL draft at the Reese’s Senior Bowl. The Pittsburgh Steelers are fortunate to have assistant offensive line coach Isaac Williams working on the American roster where he will get a behind-the-scenes look at those prospects.
However, the National roster has a significant number of who should be on the Steelers draft radar. Here are 10 to keep an eye on this week.
These are the first six Steelers who need to go.
The first order of business when comes to working on the Pittsburgh Steelers roster this offseason is to get the salary cap in order. The Steelers are currently $15.6 million over the cap so here are the first six guys the team needs to jettison so they can be buyers in free agency.
Steelers center Mason Cole sounds like it didn’t matter who the Steelers were playing as long as they made the playoffs.
All of Steeler Nation including all of the Pittsburgh Steelers were glued to the television on Sunday to see if they would get help from the Tennessee Titans and make the playoffs. And thanks to the Titans, we all knew Pittsburgh was going to the playoffs before dinner.
The Steelers seeding wasn’t set yet and we didn’t know until the end of the Sunday night game but this wasn’t enough to keep center Mason Cole awake. He wasn’t worried about who the Steelers opponent would be so long as the Steelers were in.
“Once I knew we were in, I slept like a baby,” Cole said. “I had no trouble sleeping. Maybe the best sleep I’ve had in a while. I knew by that time we knew we either go Buffalo or KC. We knew the weather was going to be crappy either way, so I slept just fine.”
Now Cole and his fellow offensive linemen need to be ready to come out and keep the momentum going of the past three games and the run game. With bad weather a certainty, it will be incumbent on the Steelers rushing attack to give the Steelers a chance to win.
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Mason Cole has had several errant snaps over the past couple of weeks.
Center Mason Cole has been proving week-in and week-out how critical drafting a top center in 2024 will be. He’s not made things easy on the quarterback — no matter who it is. Cole’s true colors have shown brightly over the past two weeks, not in a good way, after botching several snaps, leading to negative plays.
After Mitch Trubisky stepped in for the injured Kenny Pickett in Week 13, Cole put a snap at Trubisky’s feet, and the defense closed in, securing a turnover, which led to a James Connor score. It was more of the same in the Steelers’ loss to the Patriots, with three errant snaps on the game’s first drive.
And although Mike Tomlin does not seek comfort, he seeks comfort when it comes to Cole.
“There’s certain routine things that we work routinely,” Tomlin said on Monday. “We don’t wait until they become a problem in an effort to address it. C-Q exchanges is something that happens on a routine daily basis and we’ll continue with that.”
Tomlin had the perfect opportunity to sit Cole, who had a questionable designation heading into Week 14 with a neck injury. Nate Herbig sits behind Cole on the depth chart and is perfectly capable of snapping the ball the way it should be.
Tomlin sees it yet isn’t willing to address it. “I acknowledge that we’ve had some that hadn’t been good of late, but our behavior regarding it hasn’t changed because we’re not reactionary. We like to be out in front of those things. We value routine things happening routinely.”
Lately, that routine has been botched snaps. When it happens again in Indianapolis, Tomlin will regret not getting in front of it.
“It’s playoff football, four weeks early,” Cole said on Tuesday. Perhaps start playing like it.
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The Steelers need big games from these five players.
Time is running out for the Pittsburgh Steelers to get this season on track. Injuries and inconsistent play have the Steelers backing into the playoffs with no guarantees that this team will even make it. But if the Steelers are going to salvage the season it starts on Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts with a banged-up roster. Here are our five guys who must step up this week.
We expect all the questionable players to be game-time decisions this week.
The Pittsburgh Steelers offense is going to have its work cut out for it on Thursday when they take on the New England Patriots. New England has one of the better defenses in the NFL and the Steelers could be shorthanded on offense at multiple spots.
We already knew the Steelers would be without starting quarterback Kenny Pickett. But according to the team’s final injury report ahead of Thursday’s game, the team could be minus more offensive players against New England.
Starting left guard Isaac Seumalo and starting center Mason Cole are both listed as questionable. Suemalo went out in last week’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals on the same play Pickett was injured on and was unable to return. It isn’t clear if he will be able to push through that shoulder injury.
Cole’s injury is something of a mystery. He was listed as limited all week with a neck injury but he spoke to the media this week and seemed fine.
If Cole and Seumalo cannot go, Nick Herbig would start at center and this would mean rookie guard Spencer Anderson could get his first NFL start.
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There’s no doubt the effort wasn’t there by the players in the first half of the season.
When it comes to the NFL, nearly every topic is open to debate. Very rarely is there consensus and a clear-cut right or wrong. But when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers and whether or not the offense is better after firing Matt Canada, there is no debate. We saw this on full display on Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Center Mason Cole addressed the issue and offered something of a different perspective after the win. While he acknowledged the offense played better, he did put some of the blame for Canada’s firing at their feet for not playing harder.
“I think we all looked at each other and knew,” Cole said. “We got to play for each other. We all had a hand in Matt’s firing. We didn’t play well enough for him to keep his job. We had to make it right with the guys in this room.”
There is no doubt that the effort by this offense, especially the offense line was disappointing. Canada’s game plans might not have been great but there were times when the effort was so poor by the players, that it wouldn’t have mattered what play was called.
All that matters now is that the team is focused and brings the same level of effort and energy they did on Sunday for the rest of the season.
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Both were good in college and both of them are good in the NFL. #GoBlue
Pro Football Focus ranked four former Michigan edge rushers in the top 32 heading into the 2023 NFL season.
Switching sides of the ball, two Wolverines made the offensive line list.
Coming in at No. 6 as an offensive guard is Michael Onwenu.
A sixth-round pick out of Michigan in 2020, Onwenu has spent time at both tackle and guard spots on the Patriots’ offensive line in his three-year career so far. 2022 saw him spend the full season at right guard, though, and while his 79.3 PFF grade was the lowest of his career so far, it was still the fourth-best mark at the position last season.
The former sixth-round pick by the New England Patriots has quickly turned into one of the best guards in the NFL. Onwenu is entering his fourth season in the NFL, and he is coming off an amazing season a year ago. According to PFF, he allowed one sack last season and maybe even more impressive, only was called for two penalties in 1,044 snaps.
The second Wolverine that was ranked is center Mason Cole. He came in at No. 22 at the center position.
Cole struggled in Arizona in his first three seasons in the league but was pretty solid in his first season with the Steelers last year. His 67.1 PFF grade ranked 12th in the league among centers, though his 63.8 PFF pass-blocking grade was tied for 24th, so there is still a fair amount of improvement to be made.
Cole was a third-round selection to the Arizona Cardinals in 2018. Cole played three years with Arizona before heading to Minnesota where he played one season in 2021. He was signed by the Steelers in 2022 and projects to be the center this season with Pittsburgh.
The former Wolverine played 1,114 snaps and allowed two sacks. He allowed 21 pressures in 2022 but was called for just one penalty.
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Cole is headed to Pittsburgh
The Minnesota Vikings are losing their first free agent of the year with center Mason Cole reportedly agreeing to a three-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the intended signing on Monday.
Cole joined the Vikings last year after spending his previous three seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. Now, he’ll be taking his talents to the AFC to help in pass protection for either Mitchell Trubisky or Mason Rudolph.
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Vikings RG Mason Cole will miss the remainder of the regular season.
The Vikings traded for OL Mason Cole this offseason, and by Week 9, the team needed him.
Minnesota had to place C Garrett Bradbury on the COVID-19/Reserve list before the Week 9 clash with Baltimore. Minnesota replaced Bradbury in the lineup with Cole. Cole has been in the starting lineup ever since, sticking at center initially even with Bradbury healthy, then moving over to right guard.
Now, Minnesota will be without Cole. The Vikings placed him on IR, which means he will have to miss the rest of the regular season. He could return if Minnesota made the postseason.
Without Cole, the Vikings could simply go back to using RG Oli Udoh. Udoh started out well as the team’s starting right guard. But he committed a league-high 12 penalties and allowed 35 pressures.
That said, if Udoh can return to his level of play against the Cardinals in Week 2, the Vikings wouldn’t take a step back on the interior offensive line. That’s a tall order, though, considering the team plays Rams DT Aaron Donald this week.
