DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: The next two steps

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: The next two steps

[Music] By now, everybody’s heard the cuts. By now, everybody’s looked over established, seemingly so. 53man roster. By now, everybody’s at least beginning to practice how to pronounce Esiu. I think I got it. Good morning to you. Good Wednesday morning. I’m Don Kvachevich. My name’s no picnic either. This is Daily Shot of Steelers. It comes your way bright and early every weekday if you’re into hockey andor baseball. I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates. I hope you’ll check out as well. The final cuts to wrap this up were De Marvin Leal, Dylan Cook, Aku Leota, Robert Woods, Beanie Bishop, Sebastian Castro, Keshan Williams, Dominique Davis, Brandon Johnson, Chuck Clark, James Pierre, Max Sharping, and Trey Surman. And you knew I was going to save an intonation for one of these guys. Pierre, man, that that’s not that Pierre is the answer to anybody’s issues in the secondary, but he’s capable of playing an outside position, and he has been acknowledged from the inside as being really, really good on special teams. But that decision apparently came down to Pierre versus Dante Kent, who is a seventhround rookie who wasn’t even able to participate in training camp or the preseason, but they like him and they like him a lot. So, what’s left? What’s what’s the aftermath here? I’ve been focusing all week not so much on the cuts but on the potential ads because I’ve been told this came from quite the authority on the subject that the Steelers are continuing to look and aggressively so at a couple of positions in particular. One of course is wide receiver that’s never really stopped. Five of those made the team. They’re probably the five that everybody would have expected. DK Medaf, Calvin Austin, Roman Wilson, Scotty Miller, and a healthy Ben Scoranic. I emphasize healthy for Skiranic only because, man, he he banged that ankle up something fierce in joint practice with the Buccaneers over at Aquashure Stadium, but he just bounced right back. Woods, of course, is the the casualty off the end of that depth chart. Woods. Just I’ve said this for a while now on this program and I don’t want to be disrespectful to a guy that had a really nice NFL career, but you could just see all kinds of signs that it wasn’t happening for him. Now, I say that in the same breath that I can say, well, I’ll look at these four and five receivers between Miller and Scoranic and say that there’s room for a receiver to take one of their spots. And given Scoronic’s excellence, and I do mean excellence, on special teams, it would probably be Miller, meaning on the roster. When it comes to the depth chart, it might be somebody who’s a legit number two underneath Medaf. In fact, that ought to be the goal. The website overthecap.com has the Steelers current space at 19.4 4 million and that’s updated to reflect yesterday’s many moves. And I’m here to tell you that 19.4 million is a lot of million. You can get yourself a whole lot of football player for that amount of money. Even if Omar Khan enters the coming season, as his predecessor Kevin Colbert always did with five million or so in stick it in your pocket money, meaning you can utilize it later in the season to address a new need that might arise before the trade deadline. Even so, 14 million is a lot of million. And not that anyone needs to hear this spiel again, but if you’re going to go get a Metaf, if you’re going to go get an Aaron Rogers, if you’re going to go get a John Smith, and you’re going to do all of these things on offense, and you have what you yourself as an organization are acknowledging is a lingering need, and really by virtue of Omar continuing to pursue wide receivers, he’s tacitly acknowledging that. then, you know, go get one. A whole bunch of them came available yesterday. And others who didn’t just pop up on cut lists might have become silently available because teams would now be more willing to trade them. But there’s also this. There’s the second need which is not this is important. The second need as the Steelers see it in terms of priority. Their number one task according to them, and I’m again referencing that way high authority on this, is to add to the depth at offensive tackle. This is nowhere near as sexy as whatever news might develop on the wide receiver front, but it’s number one for them. I was ecstatic to hear this because those of you who’ve been listening to this program for a while will know it’s been my own number one thing, but at the same time, I also kind of not all the way, but partially gave up on the idea because tackles are really, really expensive in football. And once free agency cleared and you got to see the money that was being thrown at them, I mean, $82 million to Dan Moore, it’s easy to just say, “Okay, forget about that one.” Well, you’re still not in a position to add anyone at that scale, but you don’t necessarily need someone at that scale. What you need is a swing tackle, someone who could fill in either on the left or on the right, and if needed, step up and start. be a legitimate threat to start. That player on this roster is Calvin Anderson, who’s 29, so he’s not, you know, super old or anything. He’s had some experience in the NFL, including appearing in 10 games with the Steelers just this past season. He’s capable. Is he enough? Is he the best you can do in that slot when you’re sitting on a whole lot of million? Nope. They’re out there. These guys did get cut at this position. These guys are available more than I thought they’d be. When we come back, J1Q. [Music] This segment of Daily Shot is brought to you by our good friends at Mike’s Beer Bar. They’re located on Federal Street, directly across from PNC Park. Mike has more than 500 beers on tap, including from more than 50 local breweries. Stop in and say hello. Tell Mike we sent you. Mike’s Beer Bar. [Music] Today’s J1Q comes from Dean who says, “I’ve been saying for a while I hope they go for a WR2. Having two WR3s and two WR4s doesn’t add up to a WR2. Hey DK, if the worst were to happen to that room, I don’t even want to say it. And there are no additions. How can Omar Khan be forgiven? I like Khan, but I hope he doesn’t have a blind spot for that position or that he’s falling for some hubris from Arthur Smith, saying he can scheme them open. I know there’s a lot of connecting the WR2 situation now to the one from last year. I can say with certainty that Omar has taken a different approach and made a different priority of it this year than he did in 2024. Now, all of that and five cents don’t get you more than a nickel. You still have to get the player. No one wants to hear how hard you tried. He has not gotten the player. He did go and get himself one heck of a WR1, but you’re right. If, and I’ll just say it, if DK Metaf were to get hurt, there’s nowhere to run or hide. Just as there was nowhere to run or hide when George Pickkins got hurt last season, what you had was a bunch of players running his routes who couldn’t run his routes and who certainly couldn’t offer anywhere near the impact that Pickkins could. I I’ll take this further, not just to be dramatic or whatever, with this current roster, and I really believe this. The Steelers are better equipped to handle an injury at QB1 than they are at WR1. They know who they have at QB2 in Mason Rudolph. They don’t even have at all. As you point out here in a way that I really kind of appreciate, they don’t have a WR2 and they most certainly don’t have a WR1B, which for this specific discussion is what we’re really focusing on. It doesn’t need to be a superstar, but it does need to be someone who is capable of attempting to do the same things that Metaf does, who has a similar, let’s say, frame, similar style, similar history. So, if you’re asking Dean, if it would be a disappointment, I’m looking back at your question here and you say, “How can Khan be forgiven?” It’s a tough one. It’s a tough one because he can lock out and Metaf can start all 17 games and be available for a ton of targets in those and everything just goes smoothly. But that still wouldn’t give him a good grade as it relates to his preparation. The positive here is that he knows this Dean and he wants the same thing that you do. I just think he’s being really, really, really patient in either hoping or planning for the right player to pop up. I appreciate the question. Good one. I appreciate everybody listening to Daily Shot of Steelers. We’ve got a double shot coming your way today at 400 PM Eastern. Hope you’ll tune in for that on our DK Pittsburgh Sports app that you are about to go and download. Hope to see you then. And thanks so much for listening to Daily Shot of Steelers. [Music] [Music]

The next two steps … yeah, even after the alleged finishing of the 53-man roster
#Pittsburgh #Steelers #HereWeGo #NFL

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