It has been awhile since I have written of our favorite football team, so, as the team is wrapping up their voluntary/mandatory OTA's this week, let's take a look at how things are shaping up with the Steelers 61 days before the start of training camp in Latrobe, 74 days before the first exhibition game, and 104 days before the Opening Game of the season.
Let us begin by talking about the Draft that took place a little over a month ago. To refresh your memories, here are the players selected by GM Omar Kahn and HC Mike Tomlin.
- Troy Fautanu, OT, Washington
- Zach Frazier, C, WVU
- Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan
- Payton Wilson, LB, North Carolina St
- Mason McCormick, G, South Dakota St
- Logan Lee, DE Iowa
- Ryan Watts, DB, Texas
With their first three picks, the Steelers addressed two of what every "expert" agreed were their primary pre-draft needs, offensive line and wide receiver. Add last year's Number 1 pick Broderick Jones to Fautanu and Frazier, and you have the makings of an O-line that could be a strength for years to come, and Roman Wilson has been drawing raves in OTA's, for whatever that is worth, so he could be the guy to team up with George Pickens that will make us all forget the Swann and Stallworth Era. As for the other four guys, who knows, and I am certainly not going to try to evaluate how good they are, how great they might become, or where they will fit in with the Steelers going forward. I am always mindful of what long ago Steelers defensive lineman Ben Magee once told my Dad in a lunch counter encounter in downtown Pittsburgh many, many years ago: "You don't know nothin' about these guys 'til you get them in training camp."
About the only thing resembling actual news coming out of OTA's was the fact the Team Captain, DL, and Walter Payton Man of the Year Cam Hayward didn't show up for them. Apparently, Cam is looking for a contract extension, not a restructuring, as he is about the enter his 14th NFL season at the age of 35.
Hayward has been nothing but a very good and even great player ever since he arrived. He is a bonafide team leader, and a solid member of the Pittsburgh and southwest Pennsylvania community. Perhaps no Steeler since Franco Harris or Joe Greene has been as universally beloved amongst the Steelers Nation fan base than Hayward, and even at his advanced football age, there is no reason to believe that he still can't be a strong contributor to Steelers in 2024. However, let's be clear about one thing: the Steelers once cut Franco Harris over contractual issues. FRANCO HARRIS!! They are not a team that will blink when it comes to a contract negotiation such as this. Cam has said that he would consider playing elsewhere if he doesn't get what he wants, and that would be too bad. Let's hope that it doesn't come to that.
Then there are the quarterbacks.
Of course, everyone is excited about the new duo of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Who will be the Steelers starting QB come September? In THIS COLUMN today in the Post-Gazette, Paul Ziese makes that we shouldn't be kidding ourselves about any "competition". Wilson will be the man unless and until he can't be due to injury. I won't restate it here, but read the column. Fields is a reclamation project, although that may be too strong a label to put on it. He will sit behind and learn under Wilson, and then the team will make a decision come 2025 as to whether or not he is "the future.'
On personal note, Linda and I took a week's vacation to St. Petersburg Beach in Florida. during that time at various points I wore either a Steelers golf shirt of Steelers quarter-zip, and when I did, I learned that the concept of a "Steelers Nation" is a very real thing. Hotel desk personal, bellhops, bartenders, and other vacationers never ceased to comment on what I was wearing and say things like "I can't believe that they got Russell Wilson AND Justin Fields for practically nothing." A little kid at the pool, about ten years old, said to me "Do you like George Pickens?" When I said that I did, he said "So do I because we're from Georgia." And these were people who weren't natives of the Pittsburgh area or traveling from there on vacation. These were people from all over the country. It really surprised me, but perhaps it should't have.
One final comment on the Draft. Drafting an offensive lineman Number one certainly isn't a sexy pick, and who knows if Fautanu will work out, but as I mentioned on Facebook on draft night, the last time the Steelers used their first pick to draft a Polynesian guy named "Troy", things worked out pretty well for them.
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