TE DEPTH/Solutions

**steeler_george** · 07-31-2019, 04:32 AM

Hey yinz! Long time too post i think since FA... !

As most you know I been down on out TE ever since Heath retired, but Vanimal prove me wrong last year and is growing on me more and more.

With JJ now gone, I was thinking that we should of gotten a stud TE to line up with Vance, but that has not happened. ( fingers cross he stays healthy) Who takes those snaps?

Maybe our OC might have other plans to over come another playmaker at TE as an H-Back.... JAYLEN SAMUELS. Maybe they start play more 2 RB sets, and have him spread wide, in the slot, in motion, or out of the backfield. As we all last year, he is a player and only going to get better.

Just like in the past we always used a 3rd tackle lined up as TE, in on our jumbo or shall I say our running downs. So that trend will continue.

Gimbel should e adequate if it wasn't for his fumble we would be excited about his receiving skills, he always had one or two grabs a season that was impressive. I am not saying he is going to be a star. Gentry should be JJ as a rookie.

Add in the depth this year at WR, could we be playing more 4-5 sets like how we did towards the end of last year

Here is to next year drafting a stud TE.

**Iron City Inc.** · 07-31-2019, 09:27 AM

Our top dog Vance is good however we all know his reliability question. Grimble is athletic but he's a average blocker at best. You want your second te to be a physical blocker and he is not. Gentry is more receiver then TE though I will say he has shown some ability to wall off at camp. Rader hasn't shown much so far at camp. He isn't a great blocker either n his ability as a receiver has not stood out. CSW has improved but he doesn't move his feet well enough in pass pro. Wood is not a physical blocker n his cuts are not sharp in his route running though he has shown decent hands.
So all our TE's have some limitations however after VM Grimble n Gentry have the most upside imho but it's early.

**Steel Maniac** · 07-31-2019, 09:56 AM

Originally Posted by steeler_george

Hey yinz! Long time too post i think since FA... !

As most you know I been down on out TE ever since Heath retired, but Vanimal prove me wrong last year and is growing on me more and more.

With JJ now gone, I was thinking that we should of gotten a stud TE to line up with Vance, but that has not happened. ( fingers cross he stays healthy) Who takes those snaps?

Maybe our OC might have other plans to over come another playmaker at TE as an H-Back.... JAYLEN SAMUELS. Maybe they start play more 2 RB sets, and have him spread wide, in the slot, in motion, or out of the backfield. As we all last year, he is a player and only going to get better.

Just like in the past we always used a 3rd tackle lined up as TE, in on our jumbo or shall I say our running downs. So that trend will continue.

Gimbel should e adequate if it wasn't for his fumble we would be excited about his receiving skills, he always had one or two grabs a season that was impressive. I am not saying he is going to be a star. Gentry should be JJ as a rookie.

Add in the depth this year at WR, could we be playing more 4-5 sets like how we did towards the end of last year

Here is to next year drafting a stud TE.

Who are the top TE's in college for next year's draft anyway? I don't feel like researching it. Be nice to take a good TE in the 2nd or 3rd round I guess.

**hawaiiansteel** · 07-31-2019, 03:27 PM

McDonald Prepares For Larger Role In Steelers Offense

After a career year, the Steelers tight end will likely have a bigger workload

by SHELBY CASSESSE
JULY 31, 2019

LATROBE (93.7 The Fan) - Though 2017 was Vance McDonald's first year with the Steelers, he seemed to emerge as a household name in Pittsburgh during Week Three of the 2018 season.

With the Steelers down 7-0 in the first quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Ben Roethlisberger hit a wide open McDonald about ten yards downfield. As McDonald ran toward the sideline, he was met by Buccaneers safety Chris Conte. As Conte went to make the tackle, he was met with a violent stiff-arm from McDonald and wound up on the ground. McDonald went the rest of the way untouched for a 75 yard touchdown.

McDonald started every game for the Steelers following the stiff-arm, accumulating 50 receptions for 610 yards and four touchdowns. He began to overshadow Steelers tight end Jesse James, who ended his fourth season in Pittsburgh with 30 receptions for 423 yards and two touchdowns, then signed with Detroit in free agency.

With McDonald seemingly the obvious choice for the Steelers top tight end this season and Antonio Brown now in Oakland, McDonald is using training camp to prepare for a heavier workload.

"If you look at it number-wise, like you take away the amount of targets that AB had, they have to go somewhere," McDonald said Wednesday. "It just really depends on how Randy's (Fichtner) gonna want to call the game. I think naturally, like yeah, some of them will probably end up landing on our plates, and so we'll make the most of those opportunities going forward."

Entering his third season with the Steelers, McDonald is only in his second training camp at Saint Vincent College. He was traded to the Steelers in late August before the 2017 season, missing all of training camp.

"Even last year, I think about having to deal with the fact that I didn't have any idea what would happen in a Steelers training camp, and where I was supposed to go," McDonald said. "It's so nice to be able to come into this year and know what to expect, and so I can focus completely on developing and building on last year."

With another year of experience comes an increased leadership role, which McDonald feels he's gained coming into the new season.

"I think that it takes that certain, I don't know, amount of time before a guy is kind of looked at [by] other people just as sort of that safe, reliable source of information," he said. "I've become that a little bit to some guys, and I appreciate it because I know what it's like to sort of be overwhelmed, to be young. So yeah, I embrace that role."

McDonald and Xavier Grimble will likely get the bulk of the work at tight end this season. Grimble caught six passes last season for 86 yards. He fumbled what would have been his lone touchdown of the season in Week 11 against Denver in an infamous play at the goal-line.

https://937thefan.radio.com/articles...eelers-offense

**SidSmythe** · 07-31-2019, 09:35 PM

All I know is if McDonald ever goes down this offense will be hurting.....it would have to go 4 WR as its base

**hawaiiansteel** · 07-31-2019, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by Steel Maniac

Who are the top TE's in college for next year's draft anyway? I don't feel like researching it. Be nice to take a good TE in the 2nd or 3rd round I guess.

Albert Okwuegbunam Missouri
Colby Parkinson Stanford
Grant Calcaterra Oklahoma
Jared Pinkney Vanderbilt
Brycen Hopkins Purdue

**Steel Maniac** · 07-31-2019, 11:08 PM

Originally Posted by hawaiiansteel

Albert Okwuegbunam Missouri
Colby Parkinson Stanford
Grant Calcaterra Oklahoma
Jared Pinkney Vanderbilt
Brycen Hopkins Purdue

Thanks....

**Iron City Inc.** · 08-01-2019, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by SidSmythe

All I know is if McDonald ever goes down this offense will be hurting.....it would have to go 4 WR as its base

Vance is the guy as our other TE's don't have his skill set. We wouldn't be as good but the 4 wide we might go to which puts say rookie Johnson on the field n so far he hasn't looked like a rookie so we would not be as good but not dead in the water either.