Welcome to Joe Starkey’s mailbag, where the Post-Gazette columnist and 93.7 The Fan radio host answers your questions about sports, life, Larry Playfair and everything in between. If you want to ask Joe a question, tweet him at @JoeStarkey1 or email him at jstarkey@post-gazette.com. On to the questions …
Nathan Skinner, @nsk1nner: What is your positional rankings board if you were a GM heading into the Steelers 2025 nfl draft class? Do you find a way to recoup a 2nd round pick?
Starkey: Quarterback, defensive line, cornerback, running back, Dr. Skinner — although if Ashton Jeanty is on the board at No. 21 (and Jaxson Dart is gone), you could talk me into a star running back. Yes, I’m a sucker for punishment.
As stated here previously, the Steelers have many needs but really only one: a franchise quarterback. I happen to believe Jaxson Dart is that guy — and I am not alone. You should know that the Jaxson Dart bandwagon is beginning to fill up.
A front-row seat is already occupied by Steelers great Jack Ham, who told me he believes Dart is “outstanding.” ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky is among the notables who has joined him, saying “I’m a fan of Jaxson Dart” and predicting he will not get out of the first round. Orlovsky said in his tape analysis that Dart gets through his progressions nicely and is deadly accurate down the field.
Ex-Pitt quarterback Pat Bostick, an analyst for 93.7 The Fan, also believes Dart should be the pick for the Steelers at No. 21. Mel Kiper Jr. has Dart going ninth to the Saints. And at least one member of the deep analytics community, John Kosko, believes Dart is a top-15 player in the draft.
There is yet time to climb aboard, Dr. Skinner. Plenty of good seats available.
Dice99, @RamonyTony: joe what number will Rodgers wear if he becomes a Steeler?
Starkey: How about 0, to match the number of playoff wins he will accrue?
Ol Man Poot (via email): Dr. Starkey, it has been said there were problems with Russell Wilson because he changed some plays at the line of scrimmage. Do you think that Tomlin and Canada … er, ah I mean Smith … would have the audacity to tell Aaron Rodgers, one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of this game, and who is known to improvise at the line of scrimmage, that he would not be able to change plays? Considering what we have been hearing lately, would that surprise you? Hey! Maybe that's why Rodgers hasn't signed a contract yet.
Starkey: We’re told the six-hour meeting between the Steelers and Rodgers went swimmingly, Dr. Old, but they haven’t played any games yet. If Mike Tomlin stifled late-stage Ben and Russell Wilson in terms of their freedoms at the line, why wouldn’t he do the same with Rodgers? And why wouldn’t Rodgers fume about that?
Hey, Mike Sullivan loved the idea of Erik Karlsson before they started playing games, too.
If Rodgers signs here, mark my words: There will be issues as to who controls the offense. And if Rodgers doesn’t like what’s happening, we are sure to hear about it on the “Pat McAfee Show.”
“Dorothy and Toto” (via email): Oh great and powerful Dr. Starkey, the wonderful wizard of Yinzburg, Toto and I are trying to get back home so we can help our Steelers get back to the land of the Super Bowls. But we have been told that they cannot get there because they lack brains, they lack heart and they lack courage. Oh great wizard Starkey, can you please tell us how they can get enough brains, heart and courage to get to the land of Super Bowls again?
Starkey: Yes I can, and thank you for the question Dorothy (and Toto).
Courage: Move on from the current coach, even though he is a good coach, because it has gotten old here — and the operation hit bottom in the horrifying playoff loss to the Ravens. A move would be best for both parties. The Steelers have not come close to winning a playoff game in nearly a decade.
Heart: Don’t quit in a playoff game, which is what Kirk Herbstreit accused the Steelers defense of doing in Baltimore. I’m not sure many people disagreed with him, either.
Brains: Update the offense. Find a pass-game whiz — as opposed to Arthur Smith — to develop the next quarterback.
Jake Corcoran, @Jake_Corcoran: Hi Joe. Which QB room would you rather have? Which one wins more games in 2025? Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, or Russell Wilson, Kenny Pickett, Jaxson Dart.
Starkey: I’ll take B for a hundred, Jake, though I'm sure you're aware that Pickett plays in Cleveland. Wilson, by the way, is basically the same as Rodgers at this point in their careers.
Donald Hilenbrant, @Hildebeest24: Hi, Joe. It’s hard not to notice how chalky the tournament has been the last couple years. In your opinion, is this the product of NIL? And big schools dishing money to steal players from mid-majors? & now, can you ever really put the toothpaste back in the tube? Seems unlikely.
Starkey: First of all, Dr. Hilenbrant, I disagree with “last couple years.” Just last year, for example, you had Yale upset Auburn, Duquesne upset BYU, James Madison beat Wisconsin, Oakland beat Kentucky, 12th-seeded Grand Canyon advance and 11th-seeded NC State go all the way to the Final Four.
I mean, back in 2007 there were no major upsets, either, and everybody did not freak out. Maybe it’s just one of those weird years. Having said that, the tournament has been chalkier over the past decade, and the obvious main reason is the transfer portal.
But I’m with this SI piece, which sought to explain the trend and pointed out the fact that in order to attract bigger schools, a player must first shine at a mid-major, right?
“The inevitable question to ask is why we’re seeing fewer Cinderella teams make deep runs. The popular answer is that it has to do with the transfer portal and NIL filtering talent upward. That makes plenty of sense, but it’s probably too simplistic. There are still plenty of really good players and teams at the mid-major level. On Sunday, the No. 12 Colorado State Rams were mere seconds away from a Sweet 16-berth before they were felled Sunday by a Maryland buzzer beater, and the No. 10 New Mexico Lobos hung tight with the two-seed Michigan State Spartans before collapsing in the final minutes. If either or both of those teams had won, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
Bucco Fever, @piratesszn2025: Will Endy be a solid first baseman?
Starkey: Your guess is as good as mine, Dr. Fever. Near as I can tell, he’s played two games there in the majors and nine games there at Triple-A. It seems odd to me that he’ll be learning on the job and wasn’t put in the mix earlier so he could work on the craft. First base obviously doesn’t compare to catching in terms of defensive demands, but there’s an art to it.
Put it this way: It’s only noticeable when a first baseman isn’t good defensively, and we’ve seen a few of those in Pittsburgh (Josh Bell springs to mind).
J, @Crossland895: Hello Joe. Since the Steelers are operating in a win now mentality, how many more wins does Rodgers realistically get you vs Rudolph? 1 or 2 perhaps? Maybe none at all? Is the juice worth this dramatic squeeze?
Starkey: At most a couple, Dr. 895, but I’d lean toward one or none. What I see is a quarterback who gets rid of the ball like it’s a hot potato, the way Ben did late in his career, is more dink-and-dunk than drive-it-downfield, isn’t as accurate as he once was (he was 30th in completion percentage last season) and has lost much of his mobility. Would he last with Broderick Jones blocking his blind side?
Sure, Rodgers can still stand back there and sling it when he has time. How much time will he have?
Mike Nicastro, @MikedUpSports1: How could Ben Cherington possibly be this bad at his job. Is he trolling?
Starkey: It’s something to behold, isn’t it, Dr. Nicastro? I’m still reeling over the Adam Frazier and Tommy Pham acquisitions. The whole offseason was like a bad dream. We’re five years into this thing, and look at the lineup!
Angerman, @_Angerman: Can MLB ever force Nutting to sell? He knows he has a generational talent that he’s leasing instead of keeping him to forge a new generation of kids who love the Pirates and baseball is infuriating. It is gross negligence of a city trust. I don’t know how he lives with himself.
Starkey: I agree with every syllable you just uttered, Angry One, but I’m not sure MLB can do anything. Maybe force a salary floor into the next CBA, where every team has to spend at least $100 million?
The owners actually tried to push that into the last CBA but combined it with a lower luxury tax threshold, which the players obviously rejected.
This is a disaster.
Dave Fossick, @DFossick91180: Nutting will never sign Skenes, unless he could offer him a percentage of team ownership. Is that legal in MLB?
Starkey: You could have stopped at “Nutting will never sign Skenes,” Dr. Fossick. Paul Skenes might well be worth half-a-billion dollars on the open market. That is like eight years worth of Pirate payrolls.
To your question, it sounds like there could be a loophole where a player could buy a chunk of a team, but it hasn’t happened since Rogers Hornsby — and that didn’t go well.
Thank you for asking.
First Published: March 25, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Updated: March 26, 2025, 1:45 a.m.
