LAST-MINUTE Steelers News Before Week 14 Matchup vs. The Ravens: MVS & Adam Thielen STARTING At WR?

LAST-MINUTE Steelers News Before Week 14 Matchup vs. The Ravens: MVS & Adam Thielen STARTING At WR?

Welcome in to Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jax Sperry. We are now less than 24 hours away from the Steelers as week 14 matchup versus the Baltimore Ravens. And this is a big one because it decides who takes sole possession of first place in the AFC North with just four games left to go in this season. Right now, the Pittsburgh Steelers’s best chance of making the postseason this year is if they win the division. So, this divisional matchup against the Arch rivals is as big as they come. We’re going to be going live for this game tomorrow, guys, on the channel for the largest Steelers watch parties anywhere here on YouTube. Right here on Steelers Talk. All starts at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time. Me and Ponzi will be in studio for a full hour pregame show, live playbyplay and analysis during the game itself. And then we’ve got extensive postgame reaction coverage as well. Today, I want to talk about some practice squad elevations for the Pittsburgh Steelers uh that they announced this afternoon. Then I want to talk about an interesting dynamic that is developing in the Steelers wide receiver room this week and why the passing attack for the Steelers this week might look completely different than what it’s looked like all season long with some new additions in that room. And then we’ll talk about an Adam Shfter report uh from earlier today that the Steelers have until March 1st to pick up the 2027 team option on Mike Tomlin’s uh current contract. I’m going to give my take as to what Mike Tomlin and the Steelers need to do for the Steelers to even consider picking up that option at the end of the year. So again, make sure you click that subscribe button if you guys want extensive Steelers coverage uh here on the channel for free. And let’s just dive right into um our topics today starting with some practice squad elevations for the Pittsburgh Steelers as the Steelers elevated Marquez Valdez Scantling a wide receiver of course played multiple years with Aaron Rogers in Green Bay. Speedster, deep threat. Um he is going to be elevated to the game day roster for this week’s game as well as offensive tackle Dylan Cook. He will be the swing tackle tomorrow with Calvin Anderson and Brick Jones both out. Of course, Andrew Pete will get the start at left tackle just like he had last week. So keep that in mind. But I I bring up MVS specifically because I want to talk about a very interesting dynamic that is developing before this football game between the Steelers and Ravens tomorrow, which is that the Steelers’s passing attack might look a lot different tomorrow. All right, Adam Felen, we don’t know yet if he’s going to get a helmet or not. He did travel with the team today. Um, but you know, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to play for sure or that he’s going to start or that he’s going to get a heavy workload. Asante Samuel Jr. traveled to Chicago a couple weeks ago. Obviously did not play in that ball game. So we’ll see if the is ramped up enough to be able to play, but we have seen, you know, this team in the Pittsburgh Steelers ramp guys up in a short time frame. They did it with Kyle Duggar when they traded for him uh closer to the trade deadline. And you know, the Steelers have been interested in Adam Thielen for a very long time. They were interested in him last year at the trade deadline. I think they were probably interested in him even uh when Carolina was shopping him earlier this year. Of course, the Vikings ended up landing him, but I think the Steelers were probably interested in him then as well. Like, this is somebody that they’ve had their eye on for a while. And obviously, these five games, especially these games against Baltimore, are going to determine what happens the rest of the season, if this team can make the postseason. So, if Thelen um you know can theoretically play tomorrow, I think he will play tomorrow and I think that he will play a rather heavy workload. In fact, I think I’m going to I think I’m going to bet an anytime touchdown on Adam on Adam Thielen tomorrow. I think he’s going to have um a decent workload tomorrow, but we’ll see if he even gets a helmet. But we know for sure MVS will be getting a helmet. He was elevated from the practice squad. Uh there’s no real reason to do that unless you plan on playing them. Now, how big is MVS’s role going to be? I guess we’ll see. But, you know, they’re not bringing him up from the practice squad for no reason. All right. I would say the reason why they’re bringing uh him up and the reason why that they brought in Adam Thelen on waiverss this week is because they wanted more size and they wanted more physicality in the Steelers wide receiver room. specifically when running specific downfield concepts like corner routes, sails, uh you know, slants, stuff of that nature where sometimes you got to get a little physical uh with it with the DB or with a linebacker or whatever. And you know, Thelen and MVS are bigger guys that are more capable of playing that kind of ball as opposed to the smaller wide receivers in Calvin Austin the third and Roman Wilson. Now, I don’t think Roman and and Calvin are necessarily bad players. I want to make that abundantly clear. Um, you know, Calvin, you know, shifty route runner can has some disgusting routes on film. He’s got better hands than people give him credit for. Uh, but, you know, he’s just so small and so tiny and he just doesn’t he just doesn’t have a lot of functional strength. So, when DBs get their hands on him and they try to be physical, there’s nothing Calvin can really do and he gets shut down. Um, and it really limits his impact on the football game, which is exactly why I think they’re bringing in Adam Thelen because that’s one of the things that he does at a really high level, you know, and theoretically, we’ll we’ll see if Thelen has anything left in the tank here. There’s obviously probably a reason Minnesota uh wasn’t playing Theelen over guys like Jaylen Naylor, for example. Um, you know, there’s probably a reason for that, and that reason is probably that Adam continues, you know, that decline physically now that he’s 35 years old. But just from a pure skill set profile perspective, Thelen, you know, he’s got quick feet. He’s got really savvy route runner and he knows how to set guys up one-on-one. He can be physical in his routes down the field on those corner routes, etc. And he’s theoretically got strong hands. Now the had some drops this year in Minnesota which are uncharacteristic of him but you know just from a pure skill set perspective the is the short and intermediate you know route runner and and separator that this team has really missed this entire season because you don’t have the physicality and the smaller guys in Calvin Austin and Roman do have the speed there but you don’t have the physicality or necessarily the 50/50 ball ability and you know the can theoretically give Aaron Rodgers a safety blanket because that’s exactly what the was uh in Carolina these last two years for Bryce Young. You know, third down, fourth down, you need to get a completion. You know, uh if you’re not going to play Pat Fmouth especially, you need somebody out there um that can sit down in zones is a really smart player, you know, can set guys up with his routes, you know, makes tough catches outside of his frame. And the, you know, for the better part of his career, for most of his career, um you know, he’s been able to do that. So hopefully he can be that type of player for the Pittsburgh Steelers down the stretch here and hopefully it starts tomorrow. But also MVS is is a bigger, you know, speed threat. You know, Calvin and Roman are smaller deep threats um that might be a little bit more shifty. You know, I don’t think they have bad hands for smaller guys, but they just can’t be as physical. The thing about Marquez is that, you know, he doesn’t really run great routes to the short and intermediate levels of the field. He’s more of like a straight line athlete than like a shifty athlete. Uh so he can only run certain kinds of routes on certain kinds of concepts but you know when you run you know a deep corner a deep flag you run you know a a go ball you run a post you know you run a deep cross Marquez Valdis Scaling you know has got the size and the speed combination that you want in a guy running those kinds of routes and you know he could maybe give this team a better you know opportunity to hit on some of these downfield opportunities that they have just not been able to hit to guys like Roman Wilson and Calvin Austin. Now, I would say the quarterback play has honestly played a big part in the fact that the Steelers haven’t been able to throw the ball down the field. Aaron Rodgers just hasn’t really thrown the ball accurately, honestly, all season long, especially deep down the field, 20 plus yards down the field. It’s been kind of a disaster for Aaron Rogers this year to be quite frank with you. He’s been okay to the, you know, 10 plus to to 20 yards air yards, uh, you know, area of the field, uh, specifically when he sees a certain look. but he doesn’t throw it, you know, 10 plus yards down the field all that often. And, you know, when he goes beyond 20 plus air yards, that’s really when the accuracy really falls off for Aaron Rogers. So, hopefully Rogers, you know, feels a little bit more comfortable with a guy like Thelen, a bigger slot kind of guy. Um, you know, who’s got quick feet, he’s got good hands, he’s got, um, you know, tons of experience running routes, knows how to set guys up, he’s got great footwork, good physicality. like hopefully that type of receiver can open some things up underneath and in the intermediate which could hopefully get some safety attention off of DK Metaf in these really weighty downs when we would love to get the ball to DK Metaf right so I think the best way to describe DK guys is that he’s a 1A receiver I don’t think he’s like a true number one because like in my opinion like a true number one can get doubleteamed and still beat a double team okay like Jamar Chase can do that Justin Jefferson can do that. You know, Jackson Smith and Jigba can do that. You know, there’s the top guys in the league can do that kind of stuff. But with DK, I’m not sure if he’s the type of guy that if he gets bracketed, you know, you’re throwing it up to him, you know, no matter what, or that he’s going to win on a route no matter what. I think DK is the kind of guy where if you’ve got a really good Robin, you know, on the other side of him, somebody that, you know, can can take the attention from the safeties um on the other sideline there, he can get open. a lot. And you know, if you put one-on-one coverage on DK Metaf, there’s a lot of things that he can do. If you play zone coverage against the Pittsburgh Steelers, you know, there’s a lot of stuff DK can do. But unfortunately, the Steelers are seeing a lot of man coverage and they’re seeing a lot of double coverage on DK and they haven’t really been able to get the ball downfield to any of their other weapons. So, you know, hopefully Adam Thelen and MVS can help maybe unlock that because, you know, I don’t think Theelen and MVS are necessarily going to come in here and just take the jobs of Roman Wilson and Calvin Austin III. Don’t think that’s necessarily going to be the case. I think that, you know, specific guys are going to be in on certain concepts and they’re going to have specific roles within those concepts and, you know, uh, they’re going to be interchanged based on what concept they’re running, right? They’re going to be it’s going to be more of a true rotation where DK, of course, he’s the one making the money. He’s going to be out there for pretty much every single play. And of course, they’re going to continue to run, you know, their heavy personnel, their multiple tight end looks. They still like their tight ends, but when they do go to those 11 personnel, when they do spread things out a little bit, they’re going to have specific concepts and they’re going to have specific guys that they want in certain roles on those concepts. So, I think that, you know, depending on which concepts they do bring out is going to, you know, kind of determine who’s out there more. You know, on certain concepts, Roman’s going to play more and Calvin. On other concepts, you’re going to want some more physicality. You’re going to want Thelen and MVS out there along with DK. So, um it’s going to be really interesting to see what the dynamic looks like in this wide receiver room tomorrow. A whether Theelen even plays. We’ll see if he’s ramped up enough. But, uh you know, no matter what, you’re going to have a different element injected into this rotation. and Marquez Valdez scaling. And I’m really intrigued and really juiced to see what that looks like and to see if that, you know, sparks Aaron Rodgers a little bit, man. Um, and hopefully he can get back to playing some good football because in the first seven weeks of the season, the first six games, he was playing like borderline top 10 level football. We know it’s in there, but you know, later in the season, you know, can he really get that back? That’s going to be a big X factor to whether or not the Steelers can a win the division and b win a playoff game. Um, so it’s going to be interesting to see what the Steelers do in the passing game tomorrow. But now, um, shifting gears here to Mike Tomlin, we did get a report from Adam Shfter from ESPN today saying that Mike Tomlin has a club option, a team option in 2027 on his current contract. So, uh, this off season, uh, by March 1st, the Pittsburgh Steelers make it need to make a decision on that, uh, whether to pick that up and to lock him in for the 2027 season or to decline it and pretty much make him a lame duck head coach where he’s going into a season where this is his final season under contract and he’s really fighting for a contract next year. Now, um, you know, there’s there’s multiple interesting storylines when it comes to this report. Okay, I first of all, let’s talk about what this team needs to do for the Steelers to feel good about picking up that option. In my opinion, in my opinion, Mike Tomlin and the Steelers need to win at least one playoff game, too. That’s where the discussion starts. All right, if you don’t make the playoffs, if you don’t win a playoff game, you know, that’s a long time going without a playoff win. And that’s a lot of years in a row where you’ve brought in veteran players to try and alleviate the problem and to try and get this team over the hump, and it hasn’t worked. So, if you are not winning a playoff game this year, um, you know, you you don’t pick up the option. Now, I think it’d be kind of hard not to, if you do win a playoff game, because obviously that means that the Steelers would be turning around their season if they end up make winning a playoff game this year. So, if Tomlin is able to find a way to do that, then that’s when the discussion begins for me for, you know, picking up that 2027 club option for Mike Tomlin. But I think, you know, as we sit here today, I think we can all agree that, you know, the most likely scenario is that the Steelers will not win a playoff game this season. And if that happens, I just don’t see any way that you can, you know, accept, you know, this this club option. And that would mean Mike Tomlin would would be a lame duck head coach for 2026. Now, there’s two ways to look at that. All right. Number one, Tomlin feels insulted and he wants to be traded away and he doesn’t want to coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers without the club, you know, you know, picking up that 2027 option. That’s very possible. And if that’s the case, the two sides may agree to part ways and they may agree to find a trade partner for Mike Tomlin that he feels uh good about, which in my opinion would probably be the New York Giants. Okay? And there’s a lot of possibilities that we’ve talked about on the channel with that. You could do a first round pick swap, move up to take a quarterback, either Dante Moore or Fernando Mendoza at the top of the draft. Honestly, it’s looking like Tai Simpson right now. I mean, watching the SSC championship game, not sure you want to pick him that high. Um, so maybe Mendoza or more if you have a top two draft pick. Um, that’s certainly a possibility, but another possibility is Tomlin, you know, accepts the challenge of a lame duck, you know, 2026 season. um you know which would be you know pretty much two decades here in Pittsburgh at that point in his 20th season and you know it would be Mike it would be Cam Hayward’s final season here in Pittsburgh as well. Uh Cam has said that this is going to be his final contract of his career and of course he just has one year left. So you know it would be the last year of Cam Hayward. It’ be the last year of Mike Tomlin and you know what you could kind of frame it as is this is going to be Tomlin and Hayward’s last push. All right, they’re going to try and do it this year. Another veteran quarterback. I know, you know, fans don’t want that, but you know, you have to at least acknowledge it as a possibility at this point. Um, where they essentially say to Tomlin, you got you got this one last chance, one last season on your contract to, you know, get in not only into the playoffs, but to win in the playoffs. Show us that we should give you another contract in the 2027 off season. And I could see either one of those uh you know scenarios playing out for the Steelers head coach. So, you know, I really think that the pressure is on Mike Tomlin right now because I don’t because I think if they don’t win a playoff game this year, the Steelers are not going to be accepting that 2027 club option or at least I hope they don’t. If the Steelers don’t win a playoff game this year and then um it’s going to be interesting to see if that option does not get picked up, what does Mike Tomlin decide to do? Is he okay with being a lame duck head coach uh 20 years into his tenure uh as the longest tenured uh head coach in professional sports or uh would he rather be traded away if that’s going to be the case? It’s going to be a really interesting off season, guys. It’s going to be a really interesting end to this season as well. Make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already because we have you guys covered with the very latest when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers on this channel. There’s a reason why we have over 105,000 subscribers here on the channel. We’re the only individually run Steelers news program anywhere here on YouTube with over 100,000 subscribers. And tomorrow, my goal is to get to 107,000 subscribers here on the channel. So, if you haven’t already, make sure you guys click that subscribe button. Join us for our live watch party tomorrow for Steelers versus Ravens. It all starts at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time where, of course, we got an hour pregame, then we got live playbyplay and analysis, and then we’ve got extensive postgame coverage. The complete game day experience for Steelers fans can be found right here on Steelers Talks. Make sure you guys click that subscribe button and until tomorrow, guys.

Pittsburgh Steelers news less than 24 hours away from Pittsburgh’s crucial Week 14 showdown with the arch rival Baltimore Ravens surrounds the Steelers elevating wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling from the practice squad this week, meaning he will make his official Steelers debut tomorrow afternoon after multiple weeks on the practice squad. On tonight’s edition of Steelers Talk by Chat Sports, host Jack Sperry comes to you from his home to discuss the interesting dynamic for the Steelers wide receiver room this week with MVS being elevated and Adam Thielen likely to dress tomorrow as well to go along with already established receiving options like DK Metcalf, Roman Wilson, Calvin Austin III, Jonnu Smith, Darnell Washington, and Pat Freiermuth.

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