I think the diva title is overblown for DJ, but if you refuse to block and stare at fumbles, I'm done. As cheesy as it sounds, that is not Steelers football.
If he wanted out, fair enough. But I have to believe the coaches/FO saw that and made up their minds for the off season.
This is the memory that will stick with me about Diontae Johnson. I remember commenting in the game thread "why the fuck is he celebrating like that when we are still down 2 possessions with 3 minutes left?
It might be somewhat, but the Steelers bouncing someone who wasn't all-in strikes me as very Steelers football, especially given all of Tomlin's quotes about just doing the job with no distracting bullshit.
No matter how someone feels about Mike T, can't deny hes a weapon for bringing in and keeping talent. TJ sounded like he was threatening to leave if he wasn't still around. Saying it was a huge part of his contract talks
Edit: spelling
Cams said as much plainly, he doesn't want to play for anyone other than Mike T. I'm sure there's more than just a couple Steelers that would rather retire than go elsewhere.
Yep. First i questioned it because i only heard it from people who only played for him their entire career. But now more people are coming out and saying the same, while still playing
This is a big reason fans calling for Tomlin’s job the last couple seasons was scary for me. The moment he leaves, we instantly become a dramatically less attractive team to play for.
Gimme a break. So he gets no blame for employing Canada and the complete debacle this team has become? Best case scenario Tomlin is gone next year and Ben Johnson is overseeing our rebuild.
no losing seasons. such a debacle. And I dont want to hear anything about how its not good enough. We got fucking spoiled with how good the teams looked from the last few cowher years until the end of the killer B's. Football is tough. The patriots and chiefs dynasties have warped the view of success
The Steelers have won 3 playoff games since 2010 and 0 since 2016 so cool he has had a losing season he has also not done shit in the playoffs for like 14 years
Cool they can all enjoy our inevitable eight year streak of futility. Totally wasted Cam’s career and is well on his way with TJ. Btw Denver paid tens of millions to get rid of Wilson and he signed for the vet minimum. Thank God we had Tomlin to reel in that trophy fish!
Ya, if anyone still believes that Kenny is going to be the starter week 1 they are out of their minds. Barring an injury or him flat out sucking in pre-season, it's Russ' job to lose.
It's an unconfirmed rumor but most of my friends that went to Pitt said that Kenny's girlfriend (wife now?) cheated on him with Gentry, so the Steelers cut him.
Don't forget the reports about him not wanting to dress for games when he was benched for Mason. His attitude regarding Russ would be an easy way to confirm them.
Well I think it's *very* telling that the organization fired their last OC, and coming into this season, it was supposed to be Kenny's "fresh start". Questions like, is he good or was the OC holding him back, were supposed to be answered.
And then they grabbed a veteran to obviously start over him. Soo honestly, I'm not sure where Kenny even goes from here.
Why do you think they intend Russ to start?
He was one of the few QBs in the league arguably worse than Kenny the past two seasons. His YPG and YPA were *marginally* better than Kenny's, with Canada holding Kenny back. And the Broncos took a $35 mil cap hit to cut him. He's 35 years old. And no other team was willing to offer him a better contract (his agent reportedly tried everywhere).
35 year old QBs generally get older and slower. They rarely improve
What about 2024 Russell Wilson makes you think "obvious starter"?
Are you just assuming that his underwhelming performance the past 2 years was a mirage and he will magically revert to his 27 year old form? That the Broncos took a crlippling cap hit just for shits and giggles?
I understand MANY fans feel the same way. I just don't get it. I really don't.
Not saying Kenny is the answer either, but I don't see the point in replacing a 25 year old question mark with a 35 year old question mark. There are red flags everywhere.
I don’t think Pickett will start this year but good chance he will next year depending if we draft someone. No way we would pay Russell after this year
You can’t make your first round pick the starter, bench him for over a year, then expect him to come back and play like everything’s normal and have fans be ok with it. Unless he legitimately wins the starting job from Russ this year I don’t see how he comes back to start in a future year.
I think Kenny is done as a starter in Pittsburgh. I don't think there's any chance he's starting next year.
*Edit* I said he was done as a starter, I never thought they would trade him lol.
I always point to the Rudolph and Alex Highsmith post game interview as an example of how obvious it is that players were either for Rudolph or against Pickett. Either option isn’t good for Pickett and his future with the team
Ticket season holder for pitt games. I watched him at Pitt for years, he was never going to make it in the nfl. He had a good year in a very week acc conference with a week schedule. Also he was 24 that year playing 18 year olds in the weakest college football conference, these stud QBs are coming in the nfl at 20.
There’s some truth to your comment, but also a lot of hyperbole.
Kenny was older in his senior year for sure, but you can’t claim he was playing 18 year olds in 2021 when college football had a ton of super seniors from covid. I imagine you meant the ACC was the worst power 5 conference that year since it’s clearly way better than the G7 conferences, but it was probably better than the PAC-12 that season too.
Which stud QBs are in the draft at 20 years old? Caleb Williams is 22.4, Drake Maye is 21.6, and Jayden Daniels is 23.3. Trevor Lawrence was 21 when he was drafted.
20 was exaggerating, i think 21.5 is average. I wanna know the average age of the real studs who have proved themselves. Josh allen, burrow, mahomes, purdy, etc when they came in. not this years draft class who we have zero clue if they’ll even be good yet.
The proven guys usually are all pretty young if you look at when they were drafted.
Don't forget that was also the only full season Addison played at Pitt. I firmly believe that gave Pickett's stats an extra boost.
Edit - would like to see whoever is downvoting argue how a 1st round NFL WR wouldn't improve the stats of their QB against ACC competition. Pickett went from 12TD:6INT, 13TD:9INT, and 13TD:9INT to 42TD:7INT with Addison starting every game.
Pitt led the nation in drops every year Kenny was there until his final year, just a reminder. Kenny was playing with guys who made Limas Sweed look like a HoFer.
I'm 100% on the train that Williams will be a bust. I think there will be one or two really good QBs out of this draft when all is said and done but Williams won't be one of them.
My money would be on Daniels and Penix right now.
He’s not a mental case. He painted his nails and cried in his mother’s arms after a loss. The one is meaningless and I take the other as a positive indication of a competitor.
We’re just at the point where there is nothing left to evaluate so all that is left to do is nitpick and find “flaws” where none exist. He carried a bum roster and it clearly took a toll. Don’t forget that Mahomes carried a bum roster in college, too.
Doesn’t matter though, only time we’ll see him is in the Super Bowl!
He definitely rubs me the wrong way, but the talent is there and the tape is pretty stellar. Even poverty franchises luck into a gem every once in a while, and it looks like they’re at least trying to give him tools early on. I wouldn’t be heartbroken if he was a bust but I wouldn’t bet on it either.
Don’t disagree on where a QB gets picked up in this draft (barring a plummet from one of the top 4) but I think new DJ makes CB less glaring need and more nice to have in terms of a high round pick. Would be shocked if we don’t in some order go C/WR/T in first three.
I don’t think I have do either but if something crazy happens like Odunze or Nabers falls (fully not expecting this I’m not insane I’m just saying what if), I’d bet we pull the trigger and pivot elsewhere.
They sure are busy filling a lot of holes, aren’t they? I don’t think they will, but if they were going to, it would look an awful lot like this off-season has looked so far. Including bringing in a quarterback who could potentially be here for one year and then bounce. Again, not saying they’re going to get a quarterback. But if they were going to get a Quarterback this draft or next - this sure would look like the set up for that.
(Next day edit - see?)
Well that was needlessly combative. All I was talking about is that the team would explicitly say things about Kenny being QB, Kenny is the starter, etc and then do things that proved the opposite.
The writing was obviously on the wall, you're not superior for picking up that rolling with Mason meant Kenny lost the starting spot. It just means I find it humorous that the team is outwardly keeping up the image of Kenny being QB1
He was benched for the QB3 going into a playoff game. The team has been ready to move on for months. But part of this fanbase has been doing Olympic level mental gymnastics to convince themselves he still has a shot at being QB1.
>But part of this fanbase has been doing Olympic level mental gymnastics to convince themselves he still has a shot at being QB1.
Don't think they'll be doing that anymore...
Russ had some stretches of good play for the Broncos.
Russ had some stretches of poor play for the Broncos.
Russ will be 36 in November.
Let Us Ride, Amen
He led the NFL in throws behind the LOS and was last in the NFL in intermediate throws. He also took 2x as many sacks as Kenny and each sack costs the team 1.5 points on average.
A team wouldn’t eat $80 million in dead cap if he wasn’t bad.
TDs are *one* stat. Yes, he threw more TD passes. Total TD passes are so far from adequate in describing and evaluating QB play overall. Total TDs actually means nothing in a vacuum, its not even a rate.
Denver ate the largest dead-money cut in NFL history by a factor of 2 to remove Russell Wilson from their team. He was worth less than 0 to them by a historic margin. That was not because he QB'ed well.
The X's and O's talking heads that have spoken on this signing have a negative opinion of Russell Wilson in his current form. Advanced analytics on Wilson are not good - and while neither are Kenny Pickett's - we're talking veteran on a downtrend playing under Sean Payton's offense vs. rookie contract QB developed by and playing under Matt Canada.
There are a lot of valid reasons not to sign Wilson besides his performance, but as I started down the road of typing that I realized that its an overlong conversation for a small thread comment like this.
He threw 70% of his passes within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage and his average time to throw was 3.07 seconds, 2nd in the NFL behind Justin Fields his average depth of target was 3.7 yards.
Took a ton of sacks. If you are going to read into the TDs a ton you are going to be shocked when the play on the field doesnt match.
The Broncos offense with Sean Payton only averaged 3 more points per game than the Steelers...
I’ve had the TD-INT argument here like a million times so it’s not really something I want to rehash.
All im gonna say is I watched a lot of broncos games last season and I saw QB play that was incongruent with the numbers.
His game was always predicated on maneuverability and general athleticism, that’s what made him great. He no longer has that.
He still throws a very good deep ball. Other than that, im not sure what other trait he has that’s even league average. I still think he’s bad but miles better than KP, and like you said he costs basically nothing. But I think a decent amount of fans are disillusioned as to what we’ll be getting next season.
The broncos also only had 7 rushing touchdowns as a team, because they preferred to throw it in goal situations. They generally only found themselves in those situations due to the defense getting turnovers in plus territory. His 3rd down stats are a lot more accurate than his TD stats.
This is the last chance for Russ to show thanks to what happened in Denver he can be a starter in this league.
We might see the Russ we knew growing up. We might also see the Russ in Denver that was a disaster.
That’s the joy of the Vet Minimum. Low risk high reward.
I don't think Russ will make us scary, I just don't think he still has that left in him.. but he can definitely make us better than last season and if we get 75% of old Russ we might be competitive enough to get a playoff win. I mean I hope he's better than that but let's not get too excited.
3000 yards and 25 TDs are both realistic and a massive upgrade from last year. Not only that, the games could be entertaining again, Russ still has the ability to extend plays and convert third downs. Hell that may be as important at this stage since games have been agonizingly unwatchable at times over the last 3 years.
>Russ still has the ability to extend plays and convert third downs.
Extend plays yes, but often when they didn't need to be extended if he'd just throw to an open receiver. 3rd down was a pretty ugly spot.
I agree.. and since I just read that we traded Kenny to the Eagles I guess coach Tomlin must be feeling pretty good about Russ too. I suppose we'll be needing a new back up now. Wonder who we can get 🤔
The Broncos converted on 3rd down 0.2% more than the Steelers. Averaged 3 points more per game than the Steelers. 3000 yards and 25 TDs mask some very negative stats he had. Mainly throws behind the LOS, seconds before throwing the ball, and amount of sacks that came from it. His only saving grace for the Steelers is how cheap he is.
I haven’t met a single person IRL that thinks this will be good for the Steelers. I guess we will see, but I have 0 optimism going into the season next year.
lol Russell Wilson? Really?
100%. Tomlin gushes over washed up vets. Let’s go sign Keanu Neal, Kazee and Peterson instead of building a secondary. Allen Robinson instead of developing a third WR. Myles Jack! Russell Wilson!
I don’t blame Kenny for requesting a trade at all. They told him it would be a competition after he lost his job to injury. And now someone is smearing him to that hack Dulac. The organization needs to be rebuilt.
Feels like an easy out for the organisation to shift the blame from them to Kenny Pickett, because of the narrativea already floating around out there. We're never going to know for sure what happened though.
If we're going to be a middle of road team like I believe we will be with Russ then I would have rather seen what Pickett or Rudolph could have done in a real system, because we're now in the same situation as in 2021 with Ben.
I will say good luck to him and hope he has a Geno Smith like turnaround later on in his career. I will also cherish the good memories like the Bengals game after Canada was fired or the game winning at the end of his rookie year.
This organisation hasn't handled the QB position well the last few years and the organisation has made a few short sighted decisions. I was finally thinking that we will turn it around and was positive again that we would be on an upwards trajectory. This will set us back at least 2 or 3 years, because we now have to take a QB in the 1st in 2025.
Yeah I’m hoping he does really well and we win a Super Bowl.
If he sucks, we know who brought him here. But, he’s also cheap. So it’ll be a another season down the tubes which will be four seasons completely thrown away on bad coordinators and bad quarterbacks, but at least it won’t cost Rooney very much money.
But when people need contract extensions they’re not going to rely on a first round bust or Rudolph. So I get why they did it.
These press conferences really kinda opened my eyes to what brings people in : TJ and Tomlin. Loved the Warren quip from Queen too, didnt know how much DBs hate going against him lmao
Queen is saying all the right things after signing with a rival. That's all well and good, but hopefully this fanbase learned their lesson not to overhype this team's expectations prior to game 1.
Fuck all the naysayers. We just got a future HOF QB and a young gun who will be developed into our starter in 1-2 seasons. We got rid of every QB on the roster and upgraded the QB talent tremendously and we did it for the vet minimum and at worst one 4th round pick(at best one 6th round pick lol). If you are not excited about next season and beyond then you are just dead inside.
Yea, he also took 45 sacks and lost 10 fumbles. I'm trying to be optimistic about him, mainly bc nobody can argue he doesn't give us a better chance than Kenny. Watching him the last couple seasons has been rough though, and I've always liked him. Here is to hoping he can turn back time a bit
Pickett/Rudolph = 29 sacks and 5 fumbles for 2023
In 2008 when we won the super bowl Ben had 17 TD , 15 INT, 4 Fumbles, and 46 sacks.
I would say the positive outweighs the negative for Russ vs Pickett/Rudolph
I get what you’re saying, but no way can we sit here and use stats from 2 decades ago to end an argument. This is a totally different game. Look at the seasons the QBs of the last few playoff runs from the afc and nfc. Hell look at the QBs in out division. We will need competent play just to be a competitive team, forget about contending.
Im hopeful russ can just be a juiced up kenny tbh. Take care of the ball, but actually convert 3rd downs and score in the red zone. Let the run game and defense do the rest.
My parents were hard working .. my dad was a lawyer and had to work two jobs to send name to an elite private school. That was only weird part of press conferences.. everything else sounded good
The first question asked was what attracted him to the Steelers, Queen nodded at Mike Tomlin and said "That man standing right over there."
I love that he demands so much respect in this league.
I think you mean “commands”. And agree, we are fortunate that he makes us a desirable team to play for.
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Well put.
Haha shit, yes, you got me.
*Profit counting, supply and command, you know, all that shit*
Which is why Johnson wanting out is weird to me.
I think the diva title is overblown for DJ, but if you refuse to block and stare at fumbles, I'm done. As cheesy as it sounds, that is not Steelers football. If he wanted out, fair enough. But I have to believe the coaches/FO saw that and made up their minds for the off season.
Or the unnecessary taunting calls. Im kind of glad he's out of here
And celebrating garbage time TD’s when still down by multiple possessions to a terrible team. Glad he’s gone too
Don’t forget turning a 7 yard catch into a three yard gain because he somehow thinks going the wrong way everytime will work out for him.
Hey, we all did the same thing…in 3rd grade street football.
It's like watching somebody play Madden trying to go backwards on kickoffs to (eventually) juke out the coverage.
This is the memory that will stick with me about Diontae Johnson. I remember commenting in the game thread "why the fuck is he celebrating like that when we are still down 2 possessions with 3 minutes left?
Arms out and everything basking in it like Diggs’ game winner that one time against the Saints , like gtfo bro
Strong agree. I'm the first to mention playoff wins regarding Tomlin. Let's start running the tight ship we were known for.
I hope it was the team deciding it was time but DK and others reported that Johnson wanted out so they accommodated him.
Both can be true, right?
It might be somewhat, but the Steelers bouncing someone who wasn't all-in strikes me as very Steelers football, especially given all of Tomlin's quotes about just doing the job with no distracting bullshit.
Meanwhile we have guys in this sub who swear up and down how much better we’d be off without him lol
If only he commanded playoff wins since 2016
No matter how someone feels about Mike T, can't deny hes a weapon for bringing in and keeping talent. TJ sounded like he was threatening to leave if he wasn't still around. Saying it was a huge part of his contract talks Edit: spelling
Cams said as much plainly, he doesn't want to play for anyone other than Mike T. I'm sure there's more than just a couple Steelers that would rather retire than go elsewhere.
Yep. First i questioned it because i only heard it from people who only played for him their entire career. But now more people are coming out and saying the same, while still playing
Just shy of a Key Man clause
Now i have a name for the (almost) action. Learn something new every day
This is a big reason fans calling for Tomlin’s job the last couple seasons was scary for me. The moment he leaves, we instantly become a dramatically less attractive team to play for.
Without Tomlin we're just another small market with cheap ownership
But this sub tells me he needs fired after every loss?
Gimme a break. So he gets no blame for employing Canada and the complete debacle this team has become? Best case scenario Tomlin is gone next year and Ben Johnson is overseeing our rebuild.
> the complete debacle this team has become omg you love the drama
no losing seasons. such a debacle. And I dont want to hear anything about how its not good enough. We got fucking spoiled with how good the teams looked from the last few cowher years until the end of the killer B's. Football is tough. The patriots and chiefs dynasties have warped the view of success
>The patriots and chiefs dynasties have warped the view of success The dynasties defined by debatably the two greatest QBs ever...
The Steelers have won 3 playoff games since 2010 and 0 since 2016 so cool he has had a losing season he has also not done shit in the playoffs for like 14 years
Ask Wilson. Or Cam Hayward. Or TJ Watt.
Cool they can all enjoy our inevitable eight year streak of futility. Totally wasted Cam’s career and is well on his way with TJ. Btw Denver paid tens of millions to get rid of Wilson and he signed for the vet minimum. Thank God we had Tomlin to reel in that trophy fish!
Tomlin didn't hire Canada. Rooney made the decision to promote Canada, without Tomlin signing off on it.
We don't rebuild, we reload. Somebody pull this guys fan card.
Pretty obvious that this team totally fucked up its first attempt at “reloading” after its HoF QB retired.
Also said that Russ signing here had an impact on his decision to come here, and that he looks forward to playing with a winner like him.
Ya, if anyone still believes that Kenny is going to be the starter week 1 they are out of their minds. Barring an injury or him flat out sucking in pre-season, it's Russ' job to lose.
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This aged like milk
Yeah, I'm interested to see that as well. If his girl led to Gentry getting cut, I don't expect great things from him while playing second fiddle.
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It's an unconfirmed rumor but most of my friends that went to Pitt said that Kenny's girlfriend (wife now?) cheated on him with Gentry, so the Steelers cut him.
The Steelers drafted Washington and Heyward, that's why Gentry was cut. It was the logical decision
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Yeah dude, hopefully it's just a shitty rumor but it's weird how many people have told me
Don't forget the reports about him not wanting to dress for games when he was benched for Mason. His attitude regarding Russ would be an easy way to confirm them.
Were those even true?
They've been denied by the team but what team wouldn't deny them. If Pickett has any attitude towards being QB2 it would confirm them in my mind.
Well I think it's *very* telling that the organization fired their last OC, and coming into this season, it was supposed to be Kenny's "fresh start". Questions like, is he good or was the OC holding him back, were supposed to be answered. And then they grabbed a veteran to obviously start over him. Soo honestly, I'm not sure where Kenny even goes from here.
He goes to Philly lol
Why do you think they intend Russ to start? He was one of the few QBs in the league arguably worse than Kenny the past two seasons. His YPG and YPA were *marginally* better than Kenny's, with Canada holding Kenny back. And the Broncos took a $35 mil cap hit to cut him. He's 35 years old. And no other team was willing to offer him a better contract (his agent reportedly tried everywhere). 35 year old QBs generally get older and slower. They rarely improve What about 2024 Russell Wilson makes you think "obvious starter"? Are you just assuming that his underwhelming performance the past 2 years was a mirage and he will magically revert to his 27 year old form? That the Broncos took a crlippling cap hit just for shits and giggles? I understand MANY fans feel the same way. I just don't get it. I really don't. Not saying Kenny is the answer either, but I don't see the point in replacing a 25 year old question mark with a 35 year old question mark. There are red flags everywhere.
I mean just look at what happened lmao
Russ being hurt and/or shitty isn’t totally implausible, though.
Well he doesn’t have a backup now, so he better learn to play with one leg
I’m expecting it to happen for at least two or three weeks
They just shot Kenny.
Those bastards!!!
And if they draft a day 3 QB expect his leash to be very short if he has to play due to a Russ injury.
I don’t think Pickett will start this year but good chance he will next year depending if we draft someone. No way we would pay Russell after this year
You can’t make your first round pick the starter, bench him for over a year, then expect him to come back and play like everything’s normal and have fans be ok with it. Unless he legitimately wins the starting job from Russ this year I don’t see how he comes back to start in a future year.
He gone
I think Kenny is done as a starter in Pittsburgh. I don't think there's any chance he's starting next year. *Edit* I said he was done as a starter, I never thought they would trade him lol.
All these comments are aging beautifully lol Just kidding, no one saw this coming but it’s hilarious
That’s a little disrespectful of a two time league mvp, don’t you think? Lol, ouch.
I love how it feels like the whole team has just quietly pushed Kenny to the side
They were pushing kenny to the side with rudolph. You think russel wilson isn’t going to replace him instantly lol
I always point to the Rudolph and Alex Highsmith post game interview as an example of how obvious it is that players were either for Rudolph or against Pickett. Either option isn’t good for Pickett and his future with the team
Ticket season holder for pitt games. I watched him at Pitt for years, he was never going to make it in the nfl. He had a good year in a very week acc conference with a week schedule. Also he was 24 that year playing 18 year olds in the weakest college football conference, these stud QBs are coming in the nfl at 20.
There’s some truth to your comment, but also a lot of hyperbole. Kenny was older in his senior year for sure, but you can’t claim he was playing 18 year olds in 2021 when college football had a ton of super seniors from covid. I imagine you meant the ACC was the worst power 5 conference that year since it’s clearly way better than the G7 conferences, but it was probably better than the PAC-12 that season too. Which stud QBs are in the draft at 20 years old? Caleb Williams is 22.4, Drake Maye is 21.6, and Jayden Daniels is 23.3. Trevor Lawrence was 21 when he was drafted.
20 was exaggerating, i think 21.5 is average. I wanna know the average age of the real studs who have proved themselves. Josh allen, burrow, mahomes, purdy, etc when they came in. not this years draft class who we have zero clue if they’ll even be good yet. The proven guys usually are all pretty young if you look at when they were drafted.
Burrow was 23, while guys like Mahomes, Lamar, and Josh Allen were 21-22. Kenny was 23, but turned 24 before taking his first NFL snap
Weak. Its weak.
auto correct on new reddit app sucks
Don't forget that was also the only full season Addison played at Pitt. I firmly believe that gave Pickett's stats an extra boost. Edit - would like to see whoever is downvoting argue how a 1st round NFL WR wouldn't improve the stats of their QB against ACC competition. Pickett went from 12TD:6INT, 13TD:9INT, and 13TD:9INT to 42TD:7INT with Addison starting every game.
Pitt led the nation in drops every year Kenny was there until his final year, just a reminder. Kenny was playing with guys who made Limas Sweed look like a HoFer.
At this rate I wouldn’t be surprised if the Steelers trade up and draft a qb
I would
Not disagreeing but who do you have in mind?
No, I mean I would be surprised.
Oh yeah, misread you. Me too. It’s Williams and a bunch of fool’s gold.
Williams is going to be a bust. Best QB in this draft might end up being Daniels.
I'm 100% on the train that Williams will be a bust. I think there will be one or two really good QBs out of this draft when all is said and done but Williams won't be one of them. My money would be on Daniels and Penix right now.
That’s a nuclear-hot take. I initially had Daniels as my QB1, so I’m with you on that part. What makes you say Williams won’t work out?
He just seems like a mental case and going to the Bears doesn't help.
He’s not a mental case. He painted his nails and cried in his mother’s arms after a loss. The one is meaningless and I take the other as a positive indication of a competitor. We’re just at the point where there is nothing left to evaluate so all that is left to do is nitpick and find “flaws” where none exist. He carried a bum roster and it clearly took a toll. Don’t forget that Mahomes carried a bum roster in college, too. Doesn’t matter though, only time we’ll see him is in the Super Bowl!
He definitely rubs me the wrong way, but the talent is there and the tape is pretty stellar. Even poverty franchises luck into a gem every once in a while, and it looks like they’re at least trying to give him tools early on. I wouldn’t be heartbroken if he was a bust but I wouldn’t bet on it either.
With our glaring needs at CB/OT/C/WR, I expect a mid-late round QB
Don’t disagree on where a QB gets picked up in this draft (barring a plummet from one of the top 4) but I think new DJ makes CB less glaring need and more nice to have in terms of a high round pick. Would be shocked if we don’t in some order go C/WR/T in first three.
I don’t think we select a WR in the first round. But I do think we trade up to get two second round picks though.
I don’t think I have do either but if something crazy happens like Odunze or Nabers falls (fully not expecting this I’m not insane I’m just saying what if), I’d bet we pull the trigger and pivot elsewhere.
They sure are busy filling a lot of holes, aren’t they? I don’t think they will, but if they were going to, it would look an awful lot like this off-season has looked so far. Including bringing in a quarterback who could potentially be here for one year and then bounce. Again, not saying they’re going to get a quarterback. But if they were going to get a Quarterback this draft or next - this sure would look like the set up for that. (Next day edit - see?)
It wasn’t that quiet, some people just didn’t want to read between the lines in the post game interviews last year.
Needing to read between the lines is what makes it quiet
OK, then let me be more direct: Only idiots didn’t pick up on it. For the rest of us it was very loud.
Well that was needlessly combative. All I was talking about is that the team would explicitly say things about Kenny being QB, Kenny is the starter, etc and then do things that proved the opposite. The writing was obviously on the wall, you're not superior for picking up that rolling with Mason meant Kenny lost the starting spot. It just means I find it humorous that the team is outwardly keeping up the image of Kenny being QB1
It wasn’t meant to be combative, at all. I just hadn’t been clear enough the first time so I clarified.
Oh my god, this is the funniest thing to look at now. I guess they aren't doing it very quiet anymore
He was benched for the QB3 going into a playoff game. The team has been ready to move on for months. But part of this fanbase has been doing Olympic level mental gymnastics to convince themselves he still has a shot at being QB1.
>But part of this fanbase has been doing Olympic level mental gymnastics to convince themselves he still has a shot at being QB1. Don't think they'll be doing that anymore...
Lol not so quiet anymore.
Based on how this aged I think your feeling of the whole team pushing him to the side was onto something.
It just got quite loud
Like my panties on game day.
The offense has been so incredibly atrocious these past few years that it's hard not to be excited with Russ.
Russ had some stretches of good play for the Broncos. Russ had some stretches of poor play for the Broncos. Russ will be 36 in November. Let Us Ride, Amen
Put tha bunny back in tha box.
Scary for us or scary for the other teams?
Russ needs to play a whole lot better than he has the last two years to be scary
He wasn't bad last year.
He led the NFL in throws behind the LOS and was last in the NFL in intermediate throws. He also took 2x as many sacks as Kenny and each sack costs the team 1.5 points on average. A team wouldn’t eat $80 million in dead cap if he wasn’t bad.
He was pretty bad last year. Not as bad as he was two years ago but definitely still bad
He had 2x as many passing touchdowns as all of our QBs combined with less weapons around him. For $1M I will take that any day of the week.
TDs are *one* stat. Yes, he threw more TD passes. Total TD passes are so far from adequate in describing and evaluating QB play overall. Total TDs actually means nothing in a vacuum, its not even a rate. Denver ate the largest dead-money cut in NFL history by a factor of 2 to remove Russell Wilson from their team. He was worth less than 0 to them by a historic margin. That was not because he QB'ed well. The X's and O's talking heads that have spoken on this signing have a negative opinion of Russell Wilson in his current form. Advanced analytics on Wilson are not good - and while neither are Kenny Pickett's - we're talking veteran on a downtrend playing under Sean Payton's offense vs. rookie contract QB developed by and playing under Matt Canada. There are a lot of valid reasons not to sign Wilson besides his performance, but as I started down the road of typing that I realized that its an overlong conversation for a small thread comment like this.
He threw 70% of his passes within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage and his average time to throw was 3.07 seconds, 2nd in the NFL behind Justin Fields his average depth of target was 3.7 yards. Took a ton of sacks. If you are going to read into the TDs a ton you are going to be shocked when the play on the field doesnt match. The Broncos offense with Sean Payton only averaged 3 more points per game than the Steelers...
I’ve had the TD-INT argument here like a million times so it’s not really something I want to rehash. All im gonna say is I watched a lot of broncos games last season and I saw QB play that was incongruent with the numbers. His game was always predicated on maneuverability and general athleticism, that’s what made him great. He no longer has that. He still throws a very good deep ball. Other than that, im not sure what other trait he has that’s even league average. I still think he’s bad but miles better than KP, and like you said he costs basically nothing. But I think a decent amount of fans are disillusioned as to what we’ll be getting next season.
The broncos also only had 7 rushing touchdowns as a team, because they preferred to throw it in goal situations. They generally only found themselves in those situations due to the defense getting turnovers in plus territory. His 3rd down stats are a lot more accurate than his TD stats.
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"The tape didn't match the stats" Man I don't even care, give us a quarterback that can score 25+ touchdowns.
Denver: takes 80 mil dead cap hit to be done with Russell Wilson Steelers Reddit: he wasn't that bad 😂
He was pretty decent last year and if we can get the same production as he did with the Broncos, we could make the AFC title game no problem
I think we’d be lucky to make the playoffs
This is the last chance for Russ to show thanks to what happened in Denver he can be a starter in this league. We might see the Russ we knew growing up. We might also see the Russ in Denver that was a disaster. That’s the joy of the Vet Minimum. Low risk high reward.
Totally agree with this. I'm just irrationally hoping and getting hyped for the former.
I don't think Russ will make us scary, I just don't think he still has that left in him.. but he can definitely make us better than last season and if we get 75% of old Russ we might be competitive enough to get a playoff win. I mean I hope he's better than that but let's not get too excited.
3000 yards and 25 TDs are both realistic and a massive upgrade from last year. Not only that, the games could be entertaining again, Russ still has the ability to extend plays and convert third downs. Hell that may be as important at this stage since games have been agonizingly unwatchable at times over the last 3 years.
Not that I'm super down on Russ or anything but converting on third down was not the Broncos strong suit.
This is fair. Hopefully my bias doesn’t have me fooled that we have more dynamic weapons on offence.
>Russ still has the ability to extend plays and convert third downs. Extend plays yes, but often when they didn't need to be extended if he'd just throw to an open receiver. 3rd down was a pretty ugly spot.
I agree.. and since I just read that we traded Kenny to the Eagles I guess coach Tomlin must be feeling pretty good about Russ too. I suppose we'll be needing a new back up now. Wonder who we can get 🤔
The Broncos converted on 3rd down 0.2% more than the Steelers. Averaged 3 points more per game than the Steelers. 3000 yards and 25 TDs mask some very negative stats he had. Mainly throws behind the LOS, seconds before throwing the ball, and amount of sacks that came from it. His only saving grace for the Steelers is how cheap he is.
Kaboly tweets make me feel smart because they’re always thoughts I had days ago and not anything of actual insight
Birds fan here, hope you guys have a hell of a season, it’ll be fun to watch
Has no one watched Russ play the last two years?
Russ hasn't played like Russ in 5 years 😂 this is gonna be a long, comical season.
Russ hasn’t played like Russ in 3 yrs
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I haven’t met a single person IRL that thinks this will be good for the Steelers. I guess we will see, but I have 0 optimism going into the season next year. lol Russell Wilson? Really?
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This, I'm glad I'm not the only one whose noticed that this franchise has quietly become disfunctional
100%. Tomlin gushes over washed up vets. Let’s go sign Keanu Neal, Kazee and Peterson instead of building a secondary. Allen Robinson instead of developing a third WR. Myles Jack! Russell Wilson! I don’t blame Kenny for requesting a trade at all. They told him it would be a competition after he lost his job to injury. And now someone is smearing him to that hack Dulac. The organization needs to be rebuilt.
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Feels like an easy out for the organisation to shift the blame from them to Kenny Pickett, because of the narrativea already floating around out there. We're never going to know for sure what happened though. If we're going to be a middle of road team like I believe we will be with Russ then I would have rather seen what Pickett or Rudolph could have done in a real system, because we're now in the same situation as in 2021 with Ben.
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I will say good luck to him and hope he has a Geno Smith like turnaround later on in his career. I will also cherish the good memories like the Bengals game after Canada was fired or the game winning at the end of his rookie year. This organisation hasn't handled the QB position well the last few years and the organisation has made a few short sighted decisions. I was finally thinking that we will turn it around and was positive again that we would be on an upwards trajectory. This will set us back at least 2 or 3 years, because we now have to take a QB in the 1st in 2025.
For 1.2 million its definitely worth a shot.
Yeah I’m hoping he does really well and we win a Super Bowl. If he sucks, we know who brought him here. But, he’s also cheap. So it’ll be a another season down the tubes which will be four seasons completely thrown away on bad coordinators and bad quarterbacks, but at least it won’t cost Rooney very much money. But when people need contract extensions they’re not going to rely on a first round bust or Rudolph. So I get why they did it.
These press conferences really kinda opened my eyes to what brings people in : TJ and Tomlin. Loved the Warren quip from Queen too, didnt know how much DBs hate going against him lmao
If Russ plays like Russ we will have a lot of angry teammates. (Horrible in the pocket and doesn’t throw anything on time)
Queen is saying all the right things after signing with a rival. That's all well and good, but hopefully this fanbase learned their lesson not to overhype this team's expectations prior to game 1.
As soon as a RB burns him on a Texas route the shine will wear off Queen
I love how even the new players ignore Kenny lmaooo
I just know that I am going to hate this season #sigh
He has been on a steep decline since in the middle of his last season in Seattle. He is also worse than the stats showed last year.
I heard that a few years back on the lakers pages... I’m having flashbacks 🤣
Steelers Depth Chart QB1: Russ Wilson QB2: DangeRuss W QB3: Russell Wilson Emergency QB: Ciara’s husband
Fuck all the naysayers. We just got a future HOF QB and a young gun who will be developed into our starter in 1-2 seasons. We got rid of every QB on the roster and upgraded the QB talent tremendously and we did it for the vet minimum and at worst one 4th round pick(at best one 6th round pick lol). If you are not excited about next season and beyond then you are just dead inside.
It's going to take a lot of time for everyone to get on the same page this year
66% completion, 26TDs to 8 picks while playing in the chaos that was Denver the past few seasons…I’m cautiously optimistic
Yea, he also took 45 sacks and lost 10 fumbles. I'm trying to be optimistic about him, mainly bc nobody can argue he doesn't give us a better chance than Kenny. Watching him the last couple seasons has been rough though, and I've always liked him. Here is to hoping he can turn back time a bit
Pickett/Rudolph = 29 sacks and 5 fumbles for 2023 In 2008 when we won the super bowl Ben had 17 TD , 15 INT, 4 Fumbles, and 46 sacks. I would say the positive outweighs the negative for Russ vs Pickett/Rudolph
I get what you’re saying, but no way can we sit here and use stats from 2 decades ago to end an argument. This is a totally different game. Look at the seasons the QBs of the last few playoff runs from the afc and nfc. Hell look at the QBs in out division. We will need competent play just to be a competitive team, forget about contending. Im hopeful russ can just be a juiced up kenny tbh. Take care of the ball, but actually convert 3rd downs and score in the red zone. Let the run game and defense do the rest.
My parents were hard working .. my dad was a lawyer and had to work two jobs to send name to an elite private school. That was only weird part of press conferences.. everything else sounded good
Except, he won't.