Re Mahomes as a runner - to a certain extent, it's kind of irrelevant whether he's a runner or not. He's not fast for this generation of QB. Which ever way it lands, he's not a reason to get excited about blazingly fast QBs.
I'd also add that a few of those running QBs did it last by being really fast, and more by being pretty fast and very strong. Hurts is the obvious example. So too would Allen be if he made a final (which he can more than do if he stops running into Mahomes).
No one here is going to say that the QB position is not upgradeable. I just think there is a differing in philosophies of what is necessary v. an upgrade. I don't find QB necessary. I think Kenny can do everything we need him to do. Now in the future if there is a serious upgrade and we have a rounded out roster...draft the QB and ditch Kenny. All for that.
I mean that's kind of what I'm saying, at least this offseason. I do not look at the players available and see a meaningful QB.
Despite thinking it is borderline necessary.
I think Fields has likely made developmental strides in becoming a smart and accurate player, which is why the Bears and the national commentariat is even considering keeping him around.
In addition, I do weight athleticism and raw arm strength much higher. We saw the difference in arm talent between Pickett and Rudolph, and Rudolph isn't even elite in arm talent.
I also don't buy into "Steelers can never develop a QB" stuff because that seems to be a backwards justification to continue giving Kenny Pickett a job he has not earned.
Okay, gotcha.
For me the differences between what we saw from Rudolph and Pickett seems Canada based. Pickett was pushing the ball downfield aggressively and accurately in his one non-Canada game.
But yeah, I weigh athleticism about as low as possible for the position. It clearly matters but to me the make or break factor is the brain. I also think that if Fields had made serious strides towards being a smart and accurate player, his stats would look very different. There's a particularly weird and unlovely microstat where he was about the least accurate player from a clean pocket (bar Will Levis) and it wasn't even really close.
Finally re the "Steelers can never develop a QB"...
a) I think that's a pretty fair assessment of their efforts in the last 5 years or so. I'd go so far as to say that the Steelers' record with their drafted QBs since Rudolph is actually frighteningly incompetent.
b) They've got to try and do it anyway. There is no other game in town (bar a very lucky bounce in FA/trade) and in many ways, the quicker Tomlin does it the quicker he either proves the critics here wrong (win) or proves us right and gets fired (win). But I'd rather take good value shots. I haven't dug into Penix/Nix/McCarthy etc.etc. but there could be a guy there I'd feel good about in Rs 2-3. That makes a lot more sense to me than hoping we could put right 3 years of Fields' busted development.
Yeah, shit's bleak man.
I guess we aren't in cap hell though? Assuming ARob/Cole are cut and Heyward restructures, we should be in good shape. No long term contracts on the books besides Watt, Minkah, and Highsmith which expire in '26, 27, and 28.
They're not, but that's partly because they drafted like shit and don't have enough good players to be in cap hell
It's certainly not cap heaven either.
It’s been mentioned before, but KC traded up for Mahomes. They had a late 1st and put together a package to trade up. The problem is, I don’t think there’s a guy like that available this year. I’ve been trying really hard to sell myself on JJ McCarthy, but he’s just NOT it.
My thing with Pickett is I don’t really wanna burn another year on a guy we know isn’t the answer. I don’t feel that way about Fields, but I think it’s reasonable if someone came to that conclusion on him based off his NFL tape so far — the same way I have on Pickett.
If the team had infinite patience, waiting for an opportunity to jump up and grab a guy they really love is the best answer. Uhm. Infinite patience is not an NFL trait. But right now I'm not seeing it with any of the QBs who might be there (although at the same time, if it was easily visible, they wouldn't be there, soo...)
I don't love punting the year on Pickett, even if I think he's better than 80% of the people here. I'm just very skeptical about the alternatives. And if people want to lay out the case why I'm wrong about a guy, that'd be great, but so far it hasn't happened.
