Ryan Horvat and John Martin break down what they expect from the Pittsburgh Steelers and their two new quarterbacks this upcoming season
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00:00not gonna touch his props or his MVP market this year,
00:03but could I interest you in Russell Wilson,
00:06comeback player of the year, MVP, touchdown passes,
00:11just to win the starting job?
00:12You could also bet that market,
00:14quarterback to take week one snap.
00:16The problem is, last I saw,
00:17Russ was like minus 350 or something like that.
00:20What do you think about Russ and the Steelers this year,
00:23though, we haven't really hit them yet?
00:25Yeah, I think, I mean, we talked about this
00:28a little bit earlier with Mike DeFabo from The Athletic.
00:33You know, you're hearing really good things
00:35come out of Steelers camp about Russell,
00:36and my guess is he is extremely motivated
00:41to shut Sean Payton up, and really to prove to Sean Payton
00:45that he had Russ all wrong,
00:49and that he was not the problem in Denver.
00:52And so I think, you know,
00:53you take all those things into consideration.
00:56He's organizing, you know, these throw-in sessions
00:59with the receivers on the roster.
01:00I mean, you know, that could have gone one of two ways,
01:03right, Ryan?
01:03I mean, you could have said,
01:04I don't care, I'm just taking the paycheck.
01:06Like, this is the only place
01:07that would have given me a starting job.
01:09Or you could do what Russell Wilson seems to be doing,
01:12which is being all in, and trying to, you know,
01:15take the Steelers back to the playoffs, right,
01:18for, you know, another year.
01:19So, I don't know, I think it's a lot to ask of them
01:24to, for example, win the division.
01:27But, do I think Russ, a motivated Russ,
01:31can do enough, not turn,
01:32I mean, they had Kenny Pickett last season, right?
01:35And, you know, Duck Hodges, and Mason Rudolph,
01:39and you know, it's just, you don't have to be much better,
01:43and they were still in the playoffs.
01:44So, you know, I think they're probably gonna be there
01:48in the mix for the playoffs as a wild card.
01:51And I think that's probably their ceiling.
01:53But, I think, you know, they're decently likely to reach it.
01:59You know what's crazy, too, man, is,
02:01and I agree, like, if you're Russ,
02:02you wanna go out and you wanna shut Sean Payton up.
02:06But, like, if I would've told you,
02:08like, if I would tell the casual fan,
02:10Russ Wilson last year was top 10 in touchdown passes,
02:13which he was, 26 touchdown passes,
02:15and only threw eight picks,
02:16I think people would think that's crazy.
02:18But, like, he wasn't even that bad last year.
02:20The Broncos were just a mess.
02:21But, I'm looking at his numbers,
02:2317 and a half passing touchdowns.
02:26I mean, if he starts every single game,
02:28he's gonna clear that easily.
02:29And it's even money to the over, minus 125 to the under.
02:33So I would only go over.
02:34I mean, again, he threw 26 in Denver last year
02:37without a real number one wide receiver.
02:39Passing yards, 2,700, I'd probably stay away from.
02:42Not gonna bet him to lead the league in yards
02:44or anything like that, looking at any of these markets.
02:46But, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised,
02:49even with that schedule, if Pittsburgh won nine, 10 games.
02:53They've done it with Duck Hodges.
02:54They've done it with Mason Rudolph.
02:56Ben, those last three years, was so bad.
02:59He was like a corpse of himself, man.
03:00He couldn't move in the pocket.
03:02And Russ, man, like, coming off a pretty solid season.
03:06The thing I would worry about, age,
03:10injury, if I was gonna play, like, season-long props
03:12or do anything with the Steelers.
03:13Also, I would assume there's at least gonna be
03:16some packages for Justin Fields.
03:18Because I'm not ready to write Justin Fields
03:19the football player.
03:20I don't feel like, you know,
03:23he's not your classic drop-back quarterback
03:25and never was going to be.
03:26He just got absolutely hosed in Chicago.
03:28Because that offensive line was an XFL offensive line,
03:31let's be honest, brutal.
03:33They fixed it up a little bit now in Chicago,
03:34but that's still the question mark I have
03:36for them going into the season.
03:38Didn't really have another, didn't, I mean,
03:40DJ Moore, I absolutely love.
03:42But before that, like, Mooney was his number one
03:43wide receiver in Cole Kmet.
03:45And the Getzey offense just didn't make sense
03:48for Justin Fields.
03:49Justin Fields needs to be running like,
03:51like the Greg Roman type offense, dude.
03:53Quarterback power, you know,
03:55put him in the best position to succeed.
03:57So I wouldn't be shocked if Arthur Smith
03:59had some packages for him.
04:01I just, that's the other concern I have
04:03for everybody involved in the offense in Pittsburgh,
04:06is which Arthur Smith are we getting?
04:08Are we getting the Arthur Smith from Tennessee
04:11that was a really solid coordinator
04:14that got a heightened coaching gig?
04:16Or are we getting the guy that wouldn't give the ball
04:17to B. John Robinson, didn't know how to use Kyle Pitts?
04:20You know, that's what concerns me a little bit
04:22doing anything with the Steelers.
04:24Yeah, no, I think that's fair.
04:26I think we're going to get the Tennessee Titans
04:30iteration of Arthur Smith.
04:33My guess is, you know, as the head coach,
04:37you know, you never know how guys are gonna react, right,
04:40when they get the head coaching job.
04:43And some guys really wear and feel that pressure,
04:47and others don't.
04:48Obviously, when you're, you know,
04:50just an offensive coordinator,
04:52you're gonna probably feel a lot less,
04:54because it's not you that has to go in there
04:56and answer questions after losses.
04:58That's gonna be on Mike Tomlin.
05:01So I think you are gonna see a lot more, you know,
05:03freedom in terms of, you know,
05:05using the best pieces in that offense from Arthur Smith.
05:08And yeah, I mean, I think it's silly.
05:11It's silly not to utilize Justin Fields.
05:14I mean, he's got too much ability, you know,
05:17to just sit there and let him rot on the bench.
05:19You know, that makes no sense.
05:22Yeah, you know what's crazy about Russ too, man,
05:24is like, I don't know though,
05:27because I'm looking at it,
05:28I mean, he's still a pretty effective runner.
05:30He had an 80.3 rushing grade,
05:32even though he's 35 years old.
05:34So I mean, you don't really have to change
05:35the packages too much,
05:37but I would like to see Justin Fields
05:39get out in the field a little bit
05:41and just see some packages for him,
05:43see what we could get from Arthur Smith
05:45and see if he could go do some creative stuff
05:48like he did back in the day.
05:50That would be nice.
05:51But I don't really wanna do anything
05:53with Russell Wilson props, Justin Fields props,
05:55or anything with Pittsburgh this season.
05:57I did play the Rover last year,
05:59but it's just like, you look at that schedule,
06:00they also play the toughest schedule in the league.
06:02So that doesn't help them at all.
06:05And you gotta worry about it.
06:06It's gonna be,
06:09I was gonna say, it's gonna be very close
06:11to, obviously you see it right there,
06:12it's gonna be probably eight or nine, right?
06:18It's probably gonna be,
06:19you're gonna be sweating that one
06:21all the way out to week 17.
06:27They're a low ceiling, high floor football team to me.
06:33Again, they got to the playoffs last year
06:36with really, really subpar quarterback play
06:38from Pickett and Mason Rudolph.
06:40It doesn't take much, but they benefited.
06:43No Burrow there, obviously,
06:46in the back half of the season.
06:49Obviously, again, no Deshaun Watson either.
06:52They benefited from some things last year.
06:54So you're not gonna get that luck this year,
06:57but the quarterback play should be better.
06:59So the Steelers are a team
07:00that I'm definitely not doing anything with preseason.
07:05Again, because you're talking about thin margins
07:08and Mike Tomlin voodoo that has been reliable
07:13over the last 15, 16 years, however long it's been.
07:17But it's not something I wanna try to guess about
07:21in July and August.
07:23No, minus 210 not to make the playoffs,
07:25plus 164 to make the playoffs.
07:28Even I would need a better price.
07:29I need two to one odds to bet them
07:30to make the playoffs with that schedule.
07:32The other thing is the defense.
07:34TJ Watts stays healthy, they're top 10.
07:36When he gets hurt, they fall outside the top 15.
07:39It's crazy, that's how important he is
07:40on that side of the ball.
07:42He could win defense player of the year any year.
07:45But yeah.