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
Jeremy:\u00a0Yahya Black is a first off the bus guy. Who are your first 5 current guys off the bus to give maximum intimidation to the offense? Who is a historical guy (other than Shade Tree) who might not have been an All Star, but definitely belonged in a first off the bus group?<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0Hey Jeremy. Fun question. Here\u2019s my list. I\u2019m just going to include the whole team to intimidate the offense or opposing defense.<\/p>\n
1. DK Metcalf \u2013 Obviously. Freakiest-built receiver in the NFL.<\/p>\n
2. Cam Heyward \u2013 Hot take but the grey in his beard is intimidating. Says \u201cI\u2019ve been here for a long time and still kicking butt.\u201d And he is. Dude is also 6\u20195, 300 pounds.<\/p>\n
3. Isaac Seumalo \u2013 Guy is all business. Mean mug itself will rattle the opponent.<\/p>\n
4. Darnell Washington.\u00a0That guy plays tight end is how I assume most would react if they didn\u2019t know any better. Because he looks like any offensive tackle.<\/p>\n
5. Jeremiah Moon \u2013 I\u2019ll give a sleeper name similar to your suggestion of Black. Moon came out of Florida at a listed 6046, 247 pounds with 35-inch arms. You can\u2019t build a player better than that. Of course, he\u2019s not lived up to that potential but off the bus, he looks like the guy.<\/p>\n
All-time? If we put aside the stars and obvious choices (Joe Greene, Mel Blount, Greg Lloyd, and the like), I\u2019ll rattle a couple names off:<\/p>\n
1. DT Big Daddy Lipscomb \u2013 A great player in his day and one of the first true athletic \u201cbig men\u201d in NFL history. And the thought of someone asking who that guy is to hear \u201cHis name is Gene but everyone calls him \u2018Big Daddy.’\u201d
2. Levon Kirkland \u2013 This one probably borders on the more obvious pick but you could land a 737 on his shoulder blades. They don\u2019t make \u2019em like Kirkland anymore and that\u2019s a shame.<\/p>\n
Jacoby54:\u00a0Hey Alex! Appreciate all you and the crew do for us starving for information fans! In your opinion, who are the three guys you\u2019re most looking forward to seeing in Training Camp? Rookie or vet. To me, the obvious one is Broderick. What can he do in year 3, what can he do on the left, what can he do with his playing experience? All comes down to this season for him, imo. Next would be Troy F. I think\/hope he can be everything we hoped for and more. He looked great in TC, for the most part, looked solid in his very limited action. Don\u2019t need 5 all stars on the OL but hope he can have a season like Frazier last year. Third is either Roman or JPJ. Can the second year man make a jump after missing the entire season? Or essentially the entire season. Can JPJ put it all together and keep the flags in the refs pockets? Those three are what I\u2019m looking forward to the most! Just curious if yours differed. Thanks!<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0Hey Jacoby, thanks so much!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a great but difficult question to answer. To try and narrow it down to just three. I try to go in with a clean slate on everyone except the stars who you don\u2019t need to pay much attention to because they\u2019re so established. I think you\u2019re right on when it comes to the tackles. If Jones can bounce back. Fautanu in hopefully a full season off his injury. And then I\u2019ll say Roman Wilson for similar reasons.<\/p>\n
To choose a non-young guy, I\u2019ll say Darius Slay and how he looks well into his 30s. Played well last year but want to see what he looks like another year older.<\/p>\n
Stephen Jacobson:\u00a0Hey Alex! Thanks for your work as always. I am curious to see your grade for the Khan\/Weidl front office through 3 drafts and free agency. I believe that its B+ work. Just curious about your thoughts. Thanks<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0I don\u2019t have one, to be honest. Not yet. Still hard to evaluate say, last year\u2019s draft, one year in. Especially with some of the guys hurt. A B+ doesn\u2019t sound bad. I might say B. But I really hadn\u2019t given it a lot of thought. I see the vision thought to go all-in to address the trenches. And I can appreciate that approach. No doubt influenced by Weidl\u2019s background in Baltimore and Philly and even Pittsburgh, where he was an intern in \u201998 when the Steelers drafted Alan Faneca in the first round.<\/p>\n
Kelly ohl:\u00a0Great work Alex\u2026 I have this weird feeling Rodgers is waiting for another opportunity to arise before he signs with the Steelers. I think he knows he has until at least mandatory minicamp, maybe training camp. All the secretive hints are just to string the team along. He\u2019s a smart dude and other than respect for coach T, nothing else excites him about this team. Thoughts? P.s. sorry for bringing this up and I\u2019m ready for it to be over one way or another<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0Who knows. I\u2019ve had the thought of Minnesota jumping back in. Not that I necessarily believe Rodgers is waiting for that or Minnesota has a secret plan but the Vikings basically wanted to evaluate McCarthy in the spring. His health and play. If they feel uneasy about either, could they look at Rodgers? When that chatter came up before, the door seemed closed because most (myself included) figured Rodgers would\u2019ve signed\/decided by now. And\u00a0 yet\u2026here we are. So something I\u2019m keeping an ear out for.<\/p>\n
My belief for why Rodgers hasn\u2019t signed? He doesn\u2019t want to go to OTAs or minicamp. He\u2019s a vet and most would prefer to skip. Not signing allows him to do so without him personally feeling any obligation or requirement to do so.<\/p>\n
Banastre Tarleton:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hi Alex!<\/p>\n
A lot of people have commented about being tired of the Rodgers saga. What are the top five stories you got sick of writing about since you began SD?<\/p>\n
Alex:\u00a0(I misread your question at first but will leave my answer of top five articles below).<\/p>\n
Top five I\u2019m sick of\u2026Aiyuk was definitely one of them for virtually the same reason as Rodgers. Never-ending will-he\/won\u2019t-he where you\/the media just run out of things to say about a week in but have to keep discussing it for months. Boring.<\/p>\n
Other stories I was sick of? Not 100% sure. The Fields\/Wilson debate got tiresome last year but not quite to the same degree. Lots of the \u201cwill they fire\/trade Tomlin\u201d is dumb. Damien Woody even mentioning it today. Why? Dude, it\u2019s May. Pick something else.<\/p>\n
(my original answer of my faves below)<\/p>\n
Oh wow, awesome question. And we\u2019re like you guys. We\u2019d prefer not to write about it and have an answer by now. Especially after the Aiyuk stuff last year.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d have to spend some more thought to give you a best answer and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve forgotten about several stories I really enjoyed writing. I\u2019ve loved getting to write about Steelers\u2019 history. Researching Paul Moss, who scored the first offensive TD in team history, was a lot of fun. Can\u2019t believe I wrote it back in 2017.<\/p>\n
My mock offseasons are always fun. That\u2019s an annual series but I do enjoy the heck out of them. A chance to write more freely and creatively is always welcomed. Similar with my best\/worst case scenario for each rookie class. 2025\u2019s will come soon enough. A couple others to mention.<\/p>\n
My \u201cBig Book of Arthur Smith\u201d I felt was really comprehensive and I got good feedback on. And my breakdown of a Vikings blitz that broke the Steelers\u2019 protection was a fun X\u2019s and O\u2019s article.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll link to each below.<\/p>\n
Paul Moss Article<\/a>
Mock Offseason<\/a>
Best\/Worst Case Scenarios<\/a>
Big Book of Arthur Smith<\/a>
\u201cPurple Rain:\u201d How Minnesota Broke Pittsburgh\u2019s Protection<\/a><\/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-89022","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\/114593358446920909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89022","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=89022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89022\/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=89022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}