Welcome to Brian Batko’s Steelers mailbag. You can submit your questions to Brian directly @BrianBatko on X and bbatko@post-gazette.com.
Brian’s Uncle Mark: Why can every team that wants another receiver be able to trade for one except the Steelers?
Brian: Hi, Uncle Mark. Great to have you for the final mailbag that will speculate on how the Steelers approach the 2024 trade deadline. It’s been a long road to get here, and we’ve lost some friends along the way — Brandon Aiyuk, Davante Adams, DeAndre Hopkins — but the end is near.
Omar Khan can swing a trade for another receiver. He’s just chosen not to — so far. That could change. I might even predict that it will change, based on the interest the Steelers have shown in outside options since the offseason. And I’m no NFL general manager or scout, but here’s how I’d rank realistic rental candidates for the Steelers:
• Darius Slayton. Call me a prisoner of the moment, but he looked plenty productive Monday night and comfortable at Acrisure Stadium. Has always been primarily an outside receiver at 6-foot-1. He’s only 27 and has two 100-yard games in his past four.
• Adam Thielen. Another bigger body to add to the group at 6-foot-2, plenty of experience at age 34 and versatility as an inside or outside receiver. But after turning back the clock with 1,000 yards last season, he only played in three games this year before going on injured reserve with a hamstring issue. Also has a bloated contract and is signed through next season, so the Steelers might have to be assured they could rework that if they trade for him.
• Jakobi Meyers. Only 27 and also has two years left on his deal, so even at 2-6, the Raiders might not want to move him. But he’s 6-foot-2, has put up consistent production over the past four years and has played both in the slot and out wide in his career. He shouldn’t have tried that lateral, though.
• Tyler Boyd. Can be a tone setter as a veteran who’s from Pittsburgh and wants to win. Doesn’t turn 30 until Nov. 15 and signed a cheap one-year deal with the lowly Titans. Mostly a slot receiver despite having the size to line up outside. But if the Steelers weren’t interested in him in free agency, they might not be now either.
• Mike Williams. Big, physical, first-round pedigree and could probably haul in some of those Russell Wilson moon balls. But terrible history of injuries and a bad contract are major reasons for concern.
• Tyquan Thornton. This one’s more of a dart throw than anything given that he’s barely done anything in three years since being a second-round pick in 2022. But he was drafted that high because he’s 6-foot-3, ran a 4.28-second 40-yard dash and had a productive senior year at Baylor. The Patriots aren’t using him much, and he’s still on his rookie deal. Thornton’s teammates Kendrick Bourne and K.J. Osborn reportedly have garnered trade interest, too, but the Steelers might as well keep running out Van Jefferson, Brandon Johnson or Quez Watkins at that point.
Scott G: Watching TJ get double on nearly every play I am left wondering why not move him to the offensive left side even for a play or two per game? I understand this isn’t his preference but this would force other teams to at very least account for this and put their QB and oline to have to figure this out pre snap and maybe cause confusion.
Brian: Ask and ye shall receive, Scott! To be clear, this suggestion came in last Thursday after that week’s mailbag was published. Now I have to wonder if Scott is on the Steelers coaching staff — or at least if he has a direct line to Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin.
As we saw against the Giants, T.J. Watt did indeed flip sides on occasion, including on one of Alex Highsmith’s two sacks. And I’d say it did indeed cause some confusion for the Giants, considering how Watt’s game-changing play happened. Yes, that strip sack came from his usual side, but after the game, Giants coach Brian Daboll admitted quarterback Daniel Jones was supposed to put his tight end in motion to help block Watt and didn’t.
“There was a shift that accompanied the play, and [Jones] was surveying coverage, deciding what he wanted to do, and we didn't get the shift,” Daboll said. “And [the Steelers] were lining up with [Watt] — sometimes they were lining up with him left a little bit more than they have, so we were making sure if we put a chipper there that he didn't line up opposite, so we were shifting to try to get the help where we needed to get the help.”
Yeah, it’s on tape now, so perhaps teams will be more prepared to see that pre-snap. But it’s still a wrinkle that can be helpful. While Highsmith acknowledged Wednesday that there are some physical adjustments that come with rushing from the opposite side, he added it was “effective throwing the offense off, ... so it’s something we’ll continue to work on and get better at.
“Just the moves that we work” — we’ve all seen Highsmith’s spin pay dividends — “from the other side is something we’ve got to work on more,” Highsmith said. “We’re primarily left and right, so it’s a whole different body mechanic, a whole different torque of your body on the other side. We’ve just got to get more reps in practice at that other side.”
Steve in Iowa: I want to start off by thanking you guys immensely for the great podcasts. Now - in honor of the "Marvel: What If?:" series - can you please give us a "what if" scenario of the season so far IF Kenny Pickett didn't throw a temper tantrum this offseason?
Brian: You are welcome immensely, Steve. Although I’m a bit worried about you conjuring up such a timeline.
Nonetheless, I’m here to answer the questions. If Kenny Pickett had not requested a trade and instead stayed to, um, “compete” with Russell Wilson — and everything that happened with Wilson’s calf injury remained the same — he wouldn’t have won the job. But he likely would’ve started those first six games. I’m not convinced they would’ve gone 4-2, as they did with Justin Fields. I’ll say 3-3, with a loss in one of those first three games.
But because of him being a homegrown first-round pick, the conversation would’ve been somewhat different about whether to reinsert Wilson. My sense is it might’ve been a tougher call to bench him than it was Fields, though I don’t think Pickett would’ve been playing any better.
Ed B: Hey Brian. Question for this week's Steelers mailbag. Okay, so is it black and gold or black and yellow? I have to stick with the original, it is always been known as the black and gold until Wiz Kalifa came out with the song 'Black & Yellow' So would you consider this a generational change or what?
Brian: You mean Khalifa, Ed. This topic comes up once or twice a year. And honestly, I go back and forth on it myself.
To my eyes, the Steelers’ color is yellow. What the Saints wear is gold. Obviously, I’m not alone, and Mr. Khalifa felt the same when he wrote those lyrics (which also are about his car, though clearly he wanted the same color scheme as his hometown team).
I know, I know — you can say the Saints wear old gold, what the Steelers wear is traditional gold and “yellow” is something lighter. My grandparents had plenty of black ’n’ gold memorabilia in their house growing up, so I can appreciate that history as much as any 33-year-old. But I also was in college when that Pittsburgh anthem was released, so I go both ways on the whole thing. What I can tell you for sure is most players these days think of the Steelers as the black and yellow, but once they're around long enough to understand the traditions of the franchise, they tend to fall in line with the old school.
“This is the place I wanted to be and to wear the black and gold,” Russell Wilson said at his introductory news conference here. “It’s a true honor. It’s tradition. It’s history. There are six [Lombardi] trophies in there. We gotta go get a seventh.”
First Published: October 31, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: November 1, 2024, 5:19 p.m.