JOE CONTRERAS DE EL PASO, TX: When the draft arrives, if a top striker is available and Alabama striker Najee Harris is also available, will you go with the offensive striker? Having had a chance to take JK Dobbins or Clyde Edwards-Helaire last season and how they fared as a rookie, would you choose Harris?
ANSWER: If Najee Harris is available in 24th overall, I will choose him, and that has nothing to do with what happened last year. By the way, the Steelers never had the opportunity to choose Clyde Edwards-Helaire because he was the 32nd overall choice for the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Steelers’ first choice in 2020 was not until the 49th overall choice because of the switch to Minkah Fitzpatrick . Anyway, I believe that Harris makes a difference as a running back, which, in my opinion, makes him better than JK Dobbins, who is a great running back, but, in my opinion, is not the kind of differentiator that Harris can become. I also believed that Steelers needed to use the 2020 NFL Draft to add dynamic offensive weapons to the unit to support Ben Roethlisberger’s return from elbow surgery, and the team did this by choosing wide receiver Chase Claypool. By making a strict list of dynamic offensive newbies from 2020, Claypool would rank higher than Dobbins. But what is also apparent at this point is that the Steelers overestimated James Conner, so they must now correct this mistake and find out that “bell cow” that Conner is not.
BRIAN MORELLA FROM POLAND, OH: I understand that Dwayne Haskins had a hard time with Washington, but he is only 23 years old. If you go back and watch NFL recruiting analysts like Mel Kiper during the period leading up to the 2019 NFL Draft, he compared him to Ben Roethlisberger and, just two years later, people are dismissing him. I don’t believe the Steelers need to write a quarterback this year. Do you believe the Steelers will wait until next year to resolve the quarterback’s situation?
ANSWER: Based on what Steelers President Art Rooney II told me last Thursday, there may be a level of optimism that the team and Ben Roethlisberger will be able to reach an agreement to bring you back to the 2021 season with a lower salary limit. If that happens, the Steelers depth chart in the quarterback will contain Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins. It could be said that the team needs a fourth quarterback for the training ground, but that fourth quarterback need not be a draft choice. A side note: Haskins turns 24 on May 3. Another side note: stop accepting what Mel Kiper says as a gospel.
CHRISTOPHER GIBSON FROM MANALAPAN, NJ: How does medical coverage for NFL players work? For someone like Bud Dupree, is his surgery and knee rehabilitation covered by insurance provided by the team or the league, or does he pay the bill himself?
ANSWER: Without going into too much detail, I can practically assure you that the medical insurance that NFL players obtain is better than the medical insurance that you have at work, and that does not mean a disparaging comment about you or your work. Instead, he intends to explain that the NFL players have a very good health insurance plan and, just to take it a step further, the cost of this is paid by the team and has a salary cap.
AARON BREEZE DE FRESNO, CA: In the February 25 issue of Asked and Answered, you received a question about Casey Hampton regarding a deserving Steelers player who will never be consecrated in the Professional Football Hall of Fame. My mind immediately went to Heath Miller as that player. Do you agree or do you have another player that you think you deserve, but that will never get hit?
ANSWER: You are misinterpreting my answer. I disagreed with the individual who named Casey Hampton as a player who deserves to be elected to the Professional Football Hall of Fame, and I disagree with you about Heath Miller being deserving. Both Hampton and Miller were excellent Steelers who contributed significantly to the team’s success during their careers here, but that doesn’t make them worthy of the Hall of Fame. Please don’t put words in my mouth. I am more than capable of looking foolish without any help.
DON PINE DE ALBUQUERQUE, NM: What do you think about the transition from Terrell Edmunds to the internal linebacker? He seems to play much better in the box than in the cover.
ANSWER: It is not a totally ridiculous suggestion, but I believe that if it were to happen, it would have happened last year in the wake of the cut of Steelers’ ties with Mark Barron. In 2021, the squad is narrower in security than in the internal linebacker. With Devin Bush saying last week, “Rehab is going well. I’m on schedule. I’m feeling stronger every week. I’m trying to prepare myself physically for the next year, especially for camp. I’m just optimistic about things. and do everything I can to become one of the best players next year “, in addition to the emergence of Robert Spillane and the conversion of Marcus Allen from a safe defender to an in-house defender, and Vince Williams, the Steelers have some depth in that.
JESSIE MAYFIELD, FROM AUGUSTA, GA: How much did Vance McDonald’s and Maurkice Pouncey’s pensions and Cam Heyward’s contract restructuring save us in the cover space?
ANSWER: Not enough to be active at the free agency or to be able to make a competitive offer to try to keep Bud Dupree.
DON McCANON DE JACKSONVILLE, FL: Let’s say Justin Fields or Mac Jones falls in the 24th overall choice. Could there be a chance that the Steelers would recruit one of them?
ANSWER: The only world in which Justin Fields falls to 24th position in the first round is imaginary, and Mac Jones is this year’s version of AJ McCarron. In other words, your future in the NFL is more likely to be a backup.
TREVOR OWENS DE RENO, NV: If you were general manager Kevin Colbert, would you consider bringing back Jesse James to replace Vance McDonald assuming he is cut by the Lions?
ANSWER: Jesse James was not the No. 1 tight end in his first stint with the Steelers, and the Lions found that he was nothing more than a complementary piece after they threw a lot of money at him to hire him as an unrestricted free agent. If Lions decided to cut James instead of paying him $ 4.29 million base salary in 2021 and charging his maximum number of $ 6.43 million, there would be nothing inherently wrong with the Steelers hiring him. But the contract would have to reflect what James really is as a player and what role he would be able to play. My impression for some time now is that a group of Steelers fans just cannot understand the reality that Jesse James is not Heath Miller.
JOE DANIELS DE DENVER, CO: Are we going to leave Bud Dupree and Juju Smith-Schuster? I think these are incredible talents that we need on the team. We are in a situation of a bad salary cap, but if we restructure Ben’s contract and maybe cut Steven Nelson or Vince Williams, we will have money to hire these young players.
ANSWER: The Steelers are absolutely not going to “let go” Bud Dupree and JuJu Smith-Schuster. What will happen is that Dupree and Smith-Schuster will leave of their own accord, according to the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for more profitable offers with other teams. As is your right. There is no realistic scenario in which things do not end this way.
CASEY McDONALD DE HOUSTON, TX: Am I the only one who believes that Ben Roethlisberger is getting a lot of blame for how the season ended? I understand that he is at the end of his career, but if the Steelers had some sort of racing game, I think the season ends differently.
ANSWER: I don’t disagree with your general assessment, but I made it clear when that happened and I will reiterate it here: in the loss of the Wild Card Round to the Browns, Ben Roethlisberger’s three interceptions in the first half contributed significantly to a deficit that reached 35 -7 in the first half and essentially extinguished any realistic chances the Steelers had of winning that game.
MEMET SRATT OF NEW YORK, NY: Is it worth the Steelers to explore a tradeoff for the Tennessee Titans’ offensive attack, Isaiah Wilson? Clearly, he is a huge risk, but what if the Titans were stuck and made a choice in the third or fourth round?
ANSWER: There have been reports that the Titans are buying the 1.80 m tall, 350 pound player that they made the 29th overall choice in the 2020 NFL Draft, and the belief is that the team will have to be willing to settle for a choice on the third day, if you decide it is necessary to dismiss a guy who was chosen on the first shift less than a year ago. But I also believe that it is necessary to expand the reason why “clearly (Wilson) is a huge risk”.
The following is a detailed account of 247 Sports of Wilson’s Issues:
“The former University of Georgia star was a dominant offensive striker in the SEC during his tenure between the hedges, but the transition to the NFL was problematic. Wilson spent most of his debut season off the field, appearing in a game during the 2020 Campaign – three offensive attacks against the Indianapolis Colts on November 29.
“In July 2020, Wilson was placed on the Reserve / COVID-19 team list. Shortly thereafter, he attended an off-campus party at Tennessee State University, where he allegedly jumped off a second-story balcony in an attempt to escape the He was then assigned to the reserve list a second time in September.
“A week after being put on the list for the second time, he was arrested for DUI. A few months later, in December, Wilson was suspended by the team before the Week 13 game. After being activated from the reserve / suspension list, he was put on the non-football / reserve illness list two days later, as general manager Jon Robinson said he was dealing with some personal problems. ”
JULIE GALEA FROM TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA: I just read that the Texans launched the Nick Martin center. Should Steelers try to catch him?
ANSWER: As with almost all questions about hiring Steelers players during the off-season, the main issue will be the cost, because the team has no space under the salary cap. Nick Martin entered the NFL as a run-off choice, and then the Texans hired him for a $ 33 million contract extension for three years in 2019. The move to cut him saved Houston $ 8.75 million in his salary cap. Based on the type of money Martin was earning and the fact that he will only be 28 in late April, I don’t know if the asking price would be in the Steelers’ price range. It might be worth a call to Martin’s agent, but I would be shocked if something went right.