Welcome back to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers mailbag. As always, we\u2019re here for the next hour to answer whatever is on your mind.<\/p>\n
To your questions!<\/p>\n
Brian Tollini:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hi Alex, hope the birthday was a good one.<\/p>\n
This one is just for fun and a trade hypothetical that certainly isn\u2019t going to happen\u2026.<\/p>\n
Steelers once again need a WR. Colts need an ILB, specifically a coverage ILB.<\/p>\n
Colts offer Adonai Mitchell for Payton Wilson straight up. Yay or nay?<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0Thanks, Brian! It was.<\/p>\n
Ah, interesting thought. I get where your head is at. That\u2019s a tough one. My instinct is no because Mitchell isn\u2019t proven. Even less-so than Wilson and there was a lot of rawness in his game coming out of Texas. But I see the allure of the potential Mitchell has and the possibly greater impact he could give at receiver than Wilson would at inside linebacker, especially when ILB still has Harrison and Holcomb and Bruener.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tough call and in those situations where I\u2019m on the fence, my default is to stand pat and say no. Have to jump with both feet in to get over the hump and say \u2018yes\u2019 to the deal. So I\u2019ll say no but a good question.<\/p>\n
BananasFoster:\u00a0AK- I\u2019m sorry but this waiting for Aaron Rodgers is quite pathetic. It makes the Steelers look desperate and without a plan. If he does spurn them the Steelers will be a laughingstock. I\u2019m sorry I\u2019m ranting but putting your eggs into one basket of narcissist AR is a recipe for disaster. And should be a fireable offense for MT.<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0I get it. It\u2019s a long wait for the guy without and clarity for when there\u2019s a deadline. If Rodgers doesn\u2019t sign, the Steelers are in real trouble. More than they are. But he is the best QB left and Pittsburgh knows they\u2019re boxed into a corner here.<\/p>\n
The upside is it\u2019s a one-year play for not a ton of money. It isn\u2019t a long-term commitment and you can wash your hands clean for 2026. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to bring comfort to you or change your stance but that\u2019s how I\u2019d look at it even if I felt the same way you did.<\/p>\n
Jefferson_St_Joe:\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have 2 questions:
1. Has Steelers Depot ever considered getting a press credential allowing it access to press conferences, practices, locker room etc.?<\/p>\n
2. Do you think the Steelers should be moving more urgently to extend Watt before Parsons?<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0<\/p>\n
1. Yes, we have. It can be difficult to obtain them as an independent site and we have been denied before for certain events. We\u2019re also okay with the model as is and there are benefits (and of course, negatives) to not having a credential. We are fully credentialed for events like the Shrine Bowl, Senior Bowl, and NFL Combine. And of course attend training camp in non-credential fashion. We think we\u2019ve found a good mix of in-person and not events but we\u2019re always re-evaluating.<\/p>\n
2. Yes. They should have been on top of Watt\u2019s new deal as soon as the season ended. Price doesn\u2019t go down if the next guy gets paid. I can see a world where Watt took less than Parsons (say Parsons gets 41 million, Watt takes 40.5 mil) but I think Watt is going to want more than Garrett\u2019s 40 million as a point of pride and principle.<\/p>\n
D.j. Reynolds:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Belated Happy Birthday, Alex!<\/p>\n
Is it just me or do there seem to be far many more commenters on the site pulling for a tank season and cleaning of house with coaches\/Front Office? I\u2019m rather bothered by this line of thinking. Not what you think they\u2019ll do, but what is your opinion on this line of thinking and whether it would lead to being a winning playoff team?<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0Thanks, D.j.! That seems accurate from my unscientific eye ball test. The longer the playoff win drought goes on, the more stuck Pittsburgh feels, the more calls there will be.<\/p>\n
Nah, I\u2019m not there on a \u201ctank\u201d season which teams don\u2019t really intend to do in the NFL. It happens much more organically in football than other sports. Mostly because of teams who just have terrible QBs, it\u2019s hard to win. I can still see Pittsburgh\u2019s overall vision of invest in the trenches 2023-2025 and then go after the QB in 2026 and it\u2019s arguably the right way to do it.<\/p>\n
As for cleaning house, Tomlin\u2019s not getting fired. Not last year, not this year. And they have otherwise overturned a lot of the coaching staff in recent years. I think there were seven coaching changes for 2024. And the roster has been retooled virtually every season.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really all about developing the o-line this year and finding a QB hopefully in next year\u2019s draft. That\u2019s my view and I don\u2019t think tanking or cleaning house is needed for either of those efforts.<\/p>\n
Realityman:\u00a0Alex, do you think the Steelers already know if Rodgers is playing, and if so \u2013 it seems that answer is yes, otherwise wouldn\u2019t they have just shot the thing down publicly? Seems like the deal is done, it\u2019s just that Rodgers wanted to announce it on his timeline and the Steelers said no problem\u2026after all, what do they care. I just don\u2019t see an organization at this scale not knowing one way or another at this point. My guess is it\u2019s agreed to in principal and they are giving Rodgers deference for when and where he wants to show up.<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0I don\u2019t. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s an unofficial agreement in place. Even if there was, it\u2019s not worth much of anything. It\u2019s done when it\u2019s done. When Rodgers signs. I think Pittsburgh believes Rodgers will sign and I think he will, too. But it\u2019s not a 100% \u201cwe know it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Schultz:\u00a0Hey Alex,
Kind of a pointless question, but fun to look out for. With Pickens gone does DK switch back to 14?<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0Good question. I sorta wondered if that\u2019s why Metcalf didn\u2019t take 14 originally. So he wouldn\u2019t have to give Pickens something for it if it was going to be available in a few months. But since his No. 4 is being sold, NFL rules state a player who changes numbers has to buy out the stock of his old jerseys. I\u2019m sure that won\u2019t be cheap. So I\u2019m going to assume he keeps his No. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers mailbag. As always, we\u2019re here for the next hour to answer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[8517,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-71034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-alex-kozora","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114553309472704500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}