Tag: Steelers season

NFL analyst on Steelers QB Russell Wilson: ‘If he can’t get it done in this offense, he might as well go ahead and retire’

Is Pittsburgh the perfect situation for quarterback Russell Wilson to win in?

The Pittsburgh Steelers have gone in hard this offseason to win. The Steelers have added multiple players on one-year contracts to give the team a big push, and that includes quarterback Russell Wilson.

Wilson is coming into a situation where he should see much more success than he did in his two seasons with the Denver Broncos. ESPN analyst Booger McFarland was on “NFL Live” and didn’t hold back when he put it on the table for Wilson and the upcoming season.

“If he can’t get it done in this offense, he might as well go ahead and retire and get a tee time with me, (Dan) Orlovsky and (Dan) Graziano,” McFarland said.

While the financial investment wasn’t huge in Wilson, this doesn’t diminish the amount of pressure he is under to perform. Wilson is nowhere close to retiring, so if he wants a big contract extension with Pittsburgh at the end of the season, he has to maximize the talent in this offense. I tend to agree with McFarland that if Wilson struggles this season in a run-heavy offense with some nice weapons in the passing game, there might not be anywhere he can succeed.

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Steelers may have to break own rules with Russell Wilson contract

The Steelers have no quarterbacks signed for the 2025 season.

You have to appreciate the aggressive approach the Pittsburgh Steelers front office took to the quarterback position this offseason. The team cut ties with Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph and Mitch Trubisky and replaced them with Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and Kyle Allen.

But the Steelers might have painted themselves into a corner with the quarterback contracts and could force them to break their own rules on negotiating a contract extension with Wilson.

The Steelers rule is once the season starts, contract negotiations end. But this might not be good enough this season. The Steelers have to know if Wilson can still play before they commit to him financially. Wilson is a borderline Hall of Famer but he didn’t act like it the last two seasons. The Steelers would be wise to put aside their typical rule about contracts and give Wilson a few games to see if he can play well in this new Steelers system.

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Steelers tight ends poised for huge year in Arthur Smith’s offense

The Steelers have three tight ends with various skills and Arthur Smith needs to use them all.

We have poured over the numbers for new Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith from his time as an offensive coordinator as well as a head coach. This has led us to a few conclusions, the first being, this Steelers team is going to be highly effective running the football this season.

But what about when they have to throw the football? We are cautiously optimistic about the role of wide receiver George Pickens this season as the team’s No. 1 target. And we are also somewhat hopeful that rookie Roman Wilson will eventually work his way into a role by the midway point of the year.

However, we don’t feel like the Steelers need to overthink things when it comes to who is going to catch the football aside from Pickens. The Steelers have a trio of tight ends, all of which have their own strengths and should really fortify the passing game, if the coaches give them a shot.

The lead tight end on the list if Pat Freiermuth and we’ve seen in the past he can absolutely take over a game for periods of time but this season must be a regular part of the gameplan.

But the players I’m most excited to see are Darnell Washington and Connor Heyward. Washington is a mountain of a man and an athletic marvel who just needs to clean up his routes and play more consistency and he could be as dangerous as any player on the offense. This includes Heyward, who has shown he can work as a running back or tight end and gives the Steelers a guy they can move all over the formation.

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Steelers S DeShon Elliott on an 18-game regular season: ‘They don’t pay us enough’

Most players would only support an 18-game season if they were paied more.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has made it clear he would prefer if the league played 18 regular season games and only play two preseason games. He considers that a zero sum swap that would benefit the NFL. And by benefit, he of course means it would make the league a lot of money.

But how do players feel about the idea of playing another meaningful game? The NFL just expanded from 16 to 17 regular season games in 2021 and now just three years later we are talking about adding another. The NFL expanded the regular season from 14 to 16 way back in 1978 and the league was fine with it for decades.

ESPN polled a variety of players around the NFL including Pittsburgh Steelers safeties Damontae Kazee and DeShon Elliott. The two had very different responses to the idea of an 18-game regular season.

“Whatever the league gives you, man, you just got to adjust to it,” Kazee. “I got to this point in my life, I’m an old head now, about to be 31. You just got to adjust to everything and go on from there. … Them giving us 18 games, I mean, I wouldn’t complain about it.”

Elliott adamantly disagreed. They don’t pay us enough,” Elliott said.

Money is exactly what it’s all about. There’s no way you could justify paying players the same but subbing out a meaningless preseason game with a regular season replacement. Plus there would have to be serious logistical changes including the potential of a second bye week for all 32 teams.

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Steelers DT Keeanu Benton makes PFF All-Breakout team

Keeanu Benton looks like he’s going to be a special player for the Steelers.

The centerpiece of the Pittsburgh Steelers 3-4 defense is the defensive line. Outside linebacker gets all the attention but when the Steelers defense is at its best, they are winning in the trenches.

Last season, the Steelers drafted the next great Pittsburgh defensive tackle in Keeanu Benton. Benton started nine games in 2023 and finished with 36 tackles and one sack. Not exactly jaw-dropping numbers but the potential he flashed was enough for Benton to make the Pro Football Focus All-Breakout defensive team for 2024.

Benton finished 2023 with a 74.8 grade on Pro Football Focus. This was the fourth-highest grade on the Steelers defense and the highest grade by any defensive lineman.

If there is any player on the Steelers who is poised to take the league by storm it’s Benton. We think he’s got Pro Bowl and All-Pro potential if a few things fall right this season.

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Steelers WR George Pickens could be in for rude awakening in 2024

George Pickens has assume the No. 1 receiver role with the Steelers and everything that goes along with it.

2023 was a breakout season for Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens. Despite subpar quarterback play for much of the season, Pickens finished with an impressive 1,140 receiving yards on just 63 receptions.

Pickens might not have had great play at quarterback but what he did have was Diontae Johnson. Despite only having 51 receptions in 2023, Johnson did a great deal to pull coverage away from Pickens.

With Johnson off to the Carolina Panthers, all those double teams and bracket coverages now fall to Pickens. Unfortunately, as of now, the Steelers haven’t done a great job in replacing Johnson via free agency or the draft.

Last season, we saw Pickens display some serious immaturity issues on the field when things weren’t going his way and we worry the Steelers could be in for a repeat performance if new starting quarterback Russell Wilson can’t get him the football.

The new offense being implemented by offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is going to highlight the run game which on its own isn’t ideal for Pickens but it will be up to Pickens to put in the work to make himself a target despite being treated like a No. 1 receiver.

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Russell Wilson and George Pickens among top new QB/WR combos

Russell Wilson has himself a serious big-play target in George Pickens.

Last season, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens had a breakout campaign in Year Two. He finished with career highs in receptions with 63 and receiving yards with 1,140. Pickens also finished with five receiving touchdowns.

These numbers are made even more remarkable when you consider the hodgepodge of quarterbacks Pickens had throwing him the football. This season, Pickens gets a future Hall of Famer in Russell Wilson and Pickens is the undeniable No.1 target.

This gets Wilson and Pickens on the list of the best new quarterback/wide receiver tandems in the NFL according to CBS Sports. Here’s what CBS Sports said about the new tandem in Pittsburgh.

Pickens led the league in yards per reception (18.1) last year, and had 12 catches on balls thrown 20+ air yards outside the numbers, which ranked No. 2 behind Tyreek Hill. Wilson was a nice deep-ball thrower during his time in Seattle, but he’s coming off a season in which he averaged his worst yards per attempt ever (6.9). Plus, he has a motivated, more athletic Justin Fields breathing down his neck. 

Wilson is going to lean heavily on the run game orchestrated by new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and then pick his spots with Pickens. This could mean a dip in receptions for Pickens but more meaningful plays.

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Steelers QB Justin Fields should not be OK with being a gadget quarterback

We want to see Justin Field insist on being taken seriously as the Steelers starting quarterback.

As much as we love to get caught up in athleticism and hard skills with NFL players, competitiveness and love for the game are often times completely underrated.

We loved the Pittsburgh Steelers two big additions at quarterback this offseason. Russell Wilson is a veteran who has proven himself in the league and Justin Fields is a high-ceiling player and former first-round pick.

Wilson and Fields are both playing on one-year contracts right now and we doubt if the team will re-sign both. So whether or not Wilson wants to admit it, this is a competition. Maybe not for 2024 but for 2025 and beyond.

Which is why we don’t like the idea of Fields being OK with being a gadget quarterback for the Steelers this season. It makes sense Wilson wants this because it takes the pressure off him to be in a legitimate quarterback competition but if Fields just sits back and is good with this, I question that competitive spirit.

Training camp should be an open competition and Feilds shouldn’t be satisfied with being a situational weapon in the offense.

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NFL writer predicts Steelers will bench QB Russell Wilson

Will Russell Wislon survive the season as the starter?

Do the Pittsburgh Steelers have a quarterback problem? It’s too early to say but in the front office’s aggression to rebuild the roster, they did add two quarterbacks with significant starting experience in Russell Wilson and Justin Fields and both guys want to start this season.

NFL writer Judy Battista offered up her bold predictions for the upcoming season and one of the biggest is that she believes Wilson will kick off the season as the starter but end up benched in favor of Fields.

Steelers are paying Wilson a little more than $1 million, while the Broncos are paying the rest of his $39 million salary. That minimal investment by Pittsburgh means there will be little to keep it from turning to Fields if Wilson struggles. Arthur Smith is an experienced and successful offensive coordinator, but any struggle by Wilson — and playing against the defenses in the AFC North gives quarterbacks plenty of chances to struggle — will open the door to Fields, whom the Steelers would almost certainly like to see play before having to decide on his future. I’m calling it: Wilson wins the starting job out of camp, but he won’t hold on to it, and Fields will have Terrible Towels waving for him.

While this prediction might be bold, it’s not at all unreasonable. Pittsburgh has Wilson and Fields both on one-year contracts and they are going to want to see what they have in both guys to sort out future contracts. Even if Wilson is the starter and plays well, we expect to see Fields get reps just so the team can evaluate him for the future.

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Steelers WR Calvin Austin III says no more ‘lip service’ by the offense

Calvin Austin says it’s all business for the offense this season.

There’s no arguing the Pittsburgh Steelers offense has underperformed. Not just last season but over the last several years, this group was definitely more show than go at times. Going all the way back to when the team had the Killer Bs of Ben Roethliebrger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, this group underachieved.

But wide receiver Calvin Austin III gave us a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe the light has come on for the team and it will be less talk and more action this season. Austin met with the media at his locker after OTA practice on Monday.

Austin is one of those players who could really help the Steelers if he can just put it all together. The Steelers drafted him because of his deep speed but after a season-ending injury, he hasn’t made it all the way back yet.

Pittsburgh’s offense will be the difference this season thanks to a nightmare of a schedule. Let’s hope Austin is right and this group finally puts it all together for a full four quarters every week.

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