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Fans should be happy, 11-5 is by no means a bad season, just injuries and poor play calling cut the season shorter than most would have liked. Players like TJ Watt and Minkah reminded the league that they are elite, both named first team all pro, and players like Mike Hilton and Chase Claypool burst onto the scene and showed that they will be meaningful contributors as long as they are in the black and gold.
Free Agents:
I would try to get Juju back if I were the Steelers, as he won’t make too big of a dent in our payroll and he has expressed that he wants to remain a Steeler.
I would be sad to see James Conner go, as he is my favorite Steeler, and his story is so incredible, but I would understand why we would let him walk. He simply can’t stay on the field long enough for us to rely on him as our feature back.
Vance Macdonald just announced his retirement, he was a really solid player during his time here as not only a blocker but also as the TE2 behind Ebron. I’ll never forget his stiff arm against Tampa, hope retirement treats him well.
Unless we could get him for cheap, I would not resign Villanueva. While he is one of my favorite players, he is already 33, and you can tell he is losing a step.
Defense:
If we can’t get Bud for a reasonable price he might have to go. With his injury though, teams may not be willing to spend top dollar for him, and he is already 28, which is honestly shocking considering it feels like yesterday that he was the rookie out of Kentucky. If we can get him back for 15m or less, I would absolutely do it.
Mike Hilton is absolutely the most underrated player on the Steelers, and I would be shocked if we didn’t compete to re-sign him. Losing him would be a big blow to our secondary, and I really hope we manage to get him back.
I would love to resign Robert Spillane, and we should be able to get him for a reasonable price. An ILB core of him, Bush, and Williams would be great in helping us lock down the middle of the field.
More on Juju
It’s pretty obvious at this point that there is a certain stigma that has been spread around the league regarding Juju at this point that he is not focused on football, that all he cares about is making tik toks and streaming fortnite. But as someone that has watched him play since he came into the league as a mid-round draft pick with something to prove, and has even gotten to speak to him before, I don’t think this label is accurate at all. Juju is as focused on football as he is any of the other endeavours he has taken up. I feel like Juju has become a target for more traditional football fans, “old heads” if you will, that don’t really understand what he is doing and assume that he does it at the expense of his performance.
What people really don’t understand is that most kids nowadays act and do a lot of the same things he does. He just happens to be the first professional athlete to show off this type of behavior. I think most people would be surprised to find that Juju is one of the most popular players in the NFL, and possibly all of pro sports, among kids. They look at him as one of them, he acts and does all of the same things that they do, only with a national audience. However, Juju has stepped out of line before. His dancing on the logos of his opponents before games was not only childish, but it was unsportsmanlike, and frankly disrespectful to the game. He should not have done these things, and its actions
Looking ahead:
Signing former Washington Football Team 1st Round Draft Pick Dwayne Haskins signals the start of preparing for life without Big Ben.
The Steelers are looking fairly promising going into 2021. We should be able to maintain almost our entire team, barring an unexpected retirement from Roethlisberger.
