DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: Next big surprise?

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: Next big surprise?

[Music] Even setting aside all the pageantry of all that Dublin and Ireland offered over this past weekend, the most uplifting aspect for me covering this team was seeing players and/or facets that were minuses. that suddenly became pluses. Good morning to you. Good Friday morning. I’m Dan Kvachovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Steelers presented by FanDuel. If you’re into hockey andor baseball, I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates in the same place that you found this. The by-week continues for the club. They have four consecutive days off while almost everybody else is going at it, including everybody in the AFC North. And I’m here today to not let go of the good that happened in Ireland. In particular, the good that was bad. Because to me, seeing Keanu Benton making really big plays after not doing anything of the kind through three games and having everybody wonder if he should even be on the field, that’s like found gold. You know, to me, when I see Kenny Gainwell step in at really the last second, replacing Jaylen Warren and pop off the way he did. He was really, really good at a lot of things after having not been that beforehand. Man, that’s a W. My goodness. I don’t know if there’s anybody that jumps up in this category the way Pton Wilson did. He looked like he was losing his job. In fact, it sounded like he was losing his job from some stuff that Terrell Austin had said before the charter flight took off from Pittsburgh. All Wilson ends up doing is leading the game in tackles. And you saw it. So, what I’m going to do today is to come up with the next three things just for fun. They’re not predictions. Don’t take them too seriously. But the next three things that I think would be reasonable to expect for this team to convert from the dark side to the light side in ascending order. Going to start out with the tight ends at the number three spot. You can say what you want about little things that you’ve liked or disliked about the tight end play in general. probably picking mostly on Pat Fri. Jonnu Smith has just not had enough targets. Jonnu Smith has not been utilized downfield. Where Pat’s concerned, I I think, and I say this respectfully, that we’re probably past the point where we’re ready to put Pat, even from a potential standpoint, into being one of the league’s very top tight ends. But we all know because we’ve all seen that he’s a lot better than this. The man’s got seven catches through four games. Now, in fairness, he’s only been targeted 10 times, and he has had an average catch of 9.3 and three of his catches have resulted in first downs. But there’s a reason he hasn’t been targeted much that goes beyond the standard stuff about the offensive line. Although that’s valid, there have been some clear miscommunications. There’s yet to be that bond that’s built between the receiver and the quarterback. And it’s it’s primed. It really is this situation to reverse itself. I say that. And Smith can also do better than his 14 catches because he’s only had 16 targets. We’re also talking about someone who was a yak machine in Miami in 2024. who’s still a yak machine in Pittsburgh with 76 yards after the catch. But there’s got to be more. If that means the two of them need to do their blocking a whole lot better and Arthur Smith isn’t forced to put Spencer Anderson out there in that role, figure it out. Figure it out. There were strong suggestions this week that there’s going to be attempt made to figure it out. Good. Get that done. Number two is the pass defense, which if you’ll recall from Latroe was supposed to be otherworldly. You know, the whole coverage people thing and you’re just going to stick Jaylen Ramsay on somebody and you’re just going to stick Darius Slay on somebody and this is the year that Joey Porter graduates into something special. Almost none of this has occurred yet. Ramsay has created some splash. Ramsay, of course, is now going to be out apparently for a little while with the hamstring injury. So, he’s going to have to be altogether replaced. But even leading into the injury, we had not seen elite coverage from him. And he was handed the most challenging assignments. So when that didn’t work out for the Steelers, it would really hurt. Maybe with Ramsay out, there’ll be more of a conventional approach to the coverage. Maybe they’ll have to get Brandon Eckles more involved. I would imagine Porter will be back from his own injury. Bottom line, as we’re communicating right now, the Steelers have given up an average of 260.5 passing yards per game. That is the fourth worst in the NFL. I do not expect that to remain the case. Number one also has to do with passing, but it’s from the opposite perspective. Aaron Rodgers is getting, I guess you could call it heat from some quarters, mostly from an analytical standpoint because he’s not throwing down field. He’s not stretching out anything and he’s getting rid of the football almost as fast as he touches it. Now, blaming Rogers for that is borderline insane. But whenever you’re evaluating the quarterback position, regardless of your criteria, all you have for the most part is where did he throw it and what was the result. Okay. So, in fairness, the Rogers numbers and the Rogers film don’t lie. He is doing those things. And what’s funny in the game in Ireland, he was actually I noticed getting rid of the ball really, really quickly when he didn’t have to because that’s how the entire game plan had been constructed. Everything was designed to mitigate the Steelers offensive line. And to achieve that, everything was thrown into the figurative sink by Arthur Smith. Nothing was left unturned. Extra linemen. Keep Darnell Washington out there all the time. Get rid of the ball quickly. Run quick slants. Do anything and everything to not have this offensive line matter. Well, that’s all well and good and it got you the W. But one would like to think that over the course of a 17g game season that still has 13 of those to go, somebody could figure out ways to not only have reliable protection for Rogers, but also more options in general, more running the way they did against the Vikings, more play action, more tight end involvement, more deep balls. And when that happens, not if, because it’s a win, you’re going to see the Rogers that any of us, yourselves included possibly, who went out to Latroe this summer, saw with their own eyes, which is that Rogers still has not just the arm strength, but the arm accuracy, the arm talent. We know whenever he does that dipping down to 3/4 motions or side arm even, he has all of that. It’s still there. It just hasn’t yet had the opportunity to be utilized. And when it is, this offense is going to look very different. And it’s going to surprise some people probably more than it should. When we come back, J1Q Luxembourg Garbet Kelly and George is a personal injury law firm in Western Pennsylvania that represents injured people in automobile accidents, workers compensation cases, and medical malpractice claims. The attorneys at Luxembourg Garbage Kelly and George pride themselves in doing what they say they’re going to do. It’s important to them that when they make you a promise, they keep that promise. And this law firm has been keeping promises for over 80 years. Luxembourg Garbet Kelly and George has been AV rated. That’s the highest rating a law firm can receive for legal ability and ethics. And the lawyers at the firm have been designated super lawyers. That’s a real thing for over 15 years. Rare combination there. Luxembourg, Garvet, Kelly, and George has offices in Cranberry, Newcastle, Beaver Falls, Butler, and Elwood City. Learn more about them at lgk.com or by calling 888842-5454. Again, that’s 8888425454. Football season’s finally here. Time to check out the latest odds, futures, and win totals on the FanDuel sports book. Think the Steelers are headed to the Super Bowl? Lock in your bets today. Whatever your game, FanDuel Sportsbook delivers the latest lines, futures, and specials so you can join in on all the action. Hey guys, if you’re planning to see a Steelers game, use the Game Time app to get your tickets. You can snag new ticket deals before anyone if you set it into your app alerts. The app is easy to use. No surprise fees at checkout. You can see your seat view before buying and you’re getting legit tickets delivered on time. If you’re not much of a planner, you can get lastminute deals on tickets right up to the start of the event. Lowest price guaranteed or game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Download the Game Time app and enter the code DK Steelers into your app profile to get $20 off your first purchase. [Music] Today’s J1 Q comes from Levi out in Colorado. Says, “Good morning, DK. Should the Steelers look at trading Pat Frymouth at some point? As a disclaimer to this question, I love Brian Muth and if the salary cap wasn’t a thing, I’d say keep him. However, I think Darnell Washington is the guy that the Steelers can’t afford to lose. Pat’s contract goes through 2028. It’s the ninth most expensive tight end contract in the NFL. Washington’s contract only goes through next year’s. I’d love to get a deal done with him and teams can only invest so much in the tight end position. catches everything that comes his way. Best blocking tight end I’ve ever seen. He isn’t a deep ball guy, but his other skills are harder to find at the position. You know, Levi, there’s a tendency to say anytime somebody is either down on their luck or even hurt, it’s time to trade them. I’ heard some of that related to Frier. I’ve heard a lot of it of late related to Alex Heismith. And you can multiply that many times over whenever there’s somebody visibly taking their place who looks like they could be better. To me, the Frier Mouth’s status moved into expendable range the moment John Smith was acquired. I don’t say that because I see Pat as being expendable. I think he’s a really good football player. I’m saying that because of the circumstances surrounding him with the Steelers. But I’ll tell you the part of what you offered up there that I really like is the idea of committing to Washington. And I mean really committing to Washington. Obviously, it’s not something that you do mid-season. Actually, none of this stuff that we’re talking about here is is mid-season cuz none of it’s necessary. If and when the Steelers, for example, were to make an acquisition for a second wide receiver, if let’s say Calvin Austin’s injury looks like it would be a lot longer term, and I don’t think it is, by the way. You don’t need to trade Pat to make that happen. You’re giving up a draft pick, period. You also don’t need to do anything as it relates to the salary cap, which you raised there. Maybe you were referencing the future or the far-flung future, but for right now, the Steelers are still sitting on around 20 million of cap space. So, everyone who’s currently in the fold is very much affordable. But the thing I like the most in this scenario, and I’m not avoiding your question here, I’ve never heard anybody inside the organization discuss a trade that would send a Frier Muth or anybody out from the tight end room. The part that I like is that all through this summer, the offensive focus, by that I mean Arthur Smith principally, has remained on getting the most out of Darnell. Even when Jonnu comes along, a guy who’s now followed Arthur to three different NFL franchises. Even then, Art didn’t let Darnell fall off of his radar at all. That very same week, Darnell was still being utilized in the same formations, the same goal line patterns, the same route running. And not just as a blocker. Aaron Rogers, for what it’s worth, has spoken and followed through on a lot of the same things. But beyond that, look, I don’t want to take this and extrapolate it beyond reason, but Darnell is always going to have intensive value to you if for no other reason that I don’t know, the tight end thing doesn’t work out. I think he’d be a tremendous left tackle. Now, I talked with him about that. you might recall is I shared it on this program in the preseason after the game in Jacksonville to be specific and he said, “You know, that’s something that I would consider later in my career. It’s it’s not there right now.” But that wasn’t a no. That wasn’t a oh no, you’re never going to get me to make that move. So, what comes of this from the contractual standpoint? What comes to this from who would end up getting more easily and productively assimilated into this offense between Frier and Smith, what would come of Smith’s future and whether or not he’d still be around. I put all of that right now below Washington on the list. Sounds to me, Levi, like you’re in sync with that. I appreciate hearing from you. I appreciate everyone who listens to Daily Shot of Steelers. We’ll have a double shot of Steelers at 400 p.m. Eastern today. And if you’re interested in supporting what it is that we do here, the best way comes with benefits for you as well, go download our app, the DK Pittsburgh Sports app. Has all of our news, all of our reporting, and of course, all of our videos and podcasts as well. That’s free if you want to get the premium version. and I’d really prefer you use the premium version cuz it’s way way way better. Email me [email protected] and I’ll get back to you the same day with a discount offer that you’re not going to say no to. Thanks again everybody.

What might be the next big surprise on the horizon?

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