2019 Steelers by position: WR. Are we better off?

[Mr.wizard]

AGAIN, we won the SB with ARE as the number 2 guy.
Moncrief has seasons that are statistically superior than ANY season ARE had. Heck, ROGERS had a statistically better year than ARE asa NUMBER 3 receiver.

Mocrief is PROVEN better as a receiver than ARE and is undoubtedly a capable number.

The only "unproven" is whether Washington or the Johnson are even better than a proven capable number 2 caliber receiver in Moncrief.

Show me where I said we couldn't win? The title of the thread is "Are we better off", that remains to be seen.

[Northern_Blitz]

AGAIN, we won the SB with ARE as the number 2 guy.
Moncrief has seasons that are statistically superior than ANY season ARE had. Heck, ROGERS had a statistically better year than ARE asa NUMBER 3 receiver.

Mocrief is PROVEN better as a receiver than ARE and is undoubtedly a capable number.

The only "unproven" is whether Washington or the Johnson are even better than a proven capable number 2 caliber receiver in Moncrief.

Cap, give me that D and I'm less worried about our O.

We're a team that will probably need the O to carry us. And we have a bunch of ?s and little too no depth anywhere.

I get that people don't like AB or Bell, but losing them means we'll likely be worse on O this year.

Maybe that's OK if the D gets better or if we have fewer picks and fumbles.

But I think many are deluding themselves thinking that we'll improve because AB was an ass and he left. I think that's possible but unlikely. We'll see when they play the games.

[Oh wow]

AGAIN, we won the SB with ARE as the number 2 guy.
Moncrief has seasons that are statistically superior than ANY season ARE had. Heck, ROGERS had a statistically better year than ARE asa NUMBER 3 receiver.

Mocrief is PROVEN better as a receiver than ARE and is undoubtedly a capable number.

The only "unproven" is whether Washington or the Johnson are even better than a proven capable number 2 caliber receiver in Moncrief.

Lmao. What does ARE have to do with 2019?

You crack me up with these SB comparisons that have zero to do with the upcoming year. We don’t have any of those other players from that SB on our roster besides Ben.

[Oviedo]

Here are the alleged positional competitions:

Wide receiver - Ladies and gents, it's Donte Moncrief at No. 2. Even if James Washington has another great camp, it's Moncrief. He's a vet. Washington is still learning, and he'll receive plenty of playing time anyway. In the slot, I believe the Steelers handed Ryan Switzer the job when they moved his locker over with JuJu Smith-Schuster and Moncrief next to Ben Roethlisberger. The only question is whether they'll keep six, and that will be won - in my opinion - by either Eli Rogers, CFL star Diontae Spencer, or the guy one source said runs the best routes on the team, Trey Griffey. Rookie Diontae Johnson has the No. 5 job locked up. He'll make his move for playing time in-season.

https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh...elf-132903958/

I hope you are right about Switzer, but I think he is on the bubble. I like him but there is going to be a real push for his position from Eli Rogers and Diontae Spencer

[Ernie]

This post is about WR’s. Why are you talking about Connor?

The thread is about WRs.. However, you inserted yourself into a broader discussion that NB and I were having...

Here's NB's quote that I responded to.... "We have lots of hope on O, not much proven talent." This statement certainly leads one to believe that NB was talking about the overall talent on Offense, not just WR.

Then of course you replied..

If you were speaking specifically of the WR's... you should have stated as much.

[Steel Maniac]

I hope you are right about Switzer, but I think he is on the bubble. I like him but there is going to be a real push for his position from Eli Rogers and Diontae Spencer

Hey, I'd rather move Switzer to another team that needs a slot guy then then to cut him. I don't care if it's a 6/7th round pick.

[Northern_Blitz]

The thread is about WRs.. However, you inserted yourself into a broader discussion that NB and I were having...

Here's NB's quote that I responded to.... "We have lots of hope on O, not much proven talent." This statement certainly leads one to believe that NB was talking about the overall talent on Offense, not just WR.

Then of course you replied..

If you were speaking specifically of the WR's... you should have stated as much.

FWIW, I'd like to see at least one more year from Conner so that we know he's not Peyton Hillis. I'd also like to see a season where he doesn't miss significant time with injury (remember how we complained about how Bell was injury prone?).

And while JuJu has been amazing, he'll probably have some period of adjustment going from best WR2 in the league to WR1 on a team without much to strike fear in the hearts of opposing D's with their #2 option (at WR or TE). You can talk about Montcrief's average yards, but in his best season he got about half as many yards as JuJu did last year. DM's a legit NFL receiver, but we've got a big drop off at WR2 vs. the combination of AB and JuJu.

WR talent isn't the most important thing for a team (ask Cap). And in the best case, we'd have been able to free up cap space when we lost one of the best WRs in the league and use that cap space to get better on D. But that's not what happened.

We still might be a team that challenges for the SB. But for that to happen, we need a lot of our gambles this off season to go right (e.g. Nelson, development of year 2 guys [particularly Edmunds & Washington], draft picks [particularly Bush and Johnson], no significant injuries [Ben and JuJu in particular]).

You always need luck to win a SB, I just think we need a bit more than usual. I also think we get a rough first 6 weeks for a team that's going to have to depend on contributions from young guys to be successful.

I'll be pretty excited if we head into the bye at 0.500 or above.

[Ernie]

No question we need the "Stars to line up" if we are going to win a SB. As you have suggested, lots of factors come into play (young prospects panning out, injuries, etc etc)...
especially when you have 31 other teams with comparable talent..

In terms of Moncrief, lets see what happens when we have someone other than Blake Bortles throwing to him. I expect a very solid year out of him (especially if JUJU starts pulling double coverage).

[Oh wow]

The thread is about WRs.. However, you inserted yourself into a broader discussion that NB and I were having...

Here's NB's quote that I responded to.... "We have lots of hope on O, not much proven talent." This statement certainly leads one to believe that NB was talking about the overall talent on Offense, not just WR.

Then of course you replied..

If you were speaking specifically of the WR's... you should have stated as much.

I hear you but I spoke on the players I was specifically talking about. Didn’t know I had to be any more specific than what I wrote.

I never brought up Connor as a positive or negative.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Hey, I'd rather move Switzer to another team that needs a slot guy then then to cut him. I don't care if it's a 6/7th round pick.

Ben and Switzer seem to have built somewhat of a rapport with each other last season, so I think that Eli Rogers would be one that we would ultimately move if CFL import Diontae Spencer earns himself a roster spot (if we felt another team would poach Spencer if he was exposed to the practice squad).

Rumors have it that Rogers earned the nickname "Little AB" over the last few seasons, and if we are moving on from the ultra-productive actual AB in an effort to alter the overall team culture, why would we want to keep around a much less productive "Little AB" who may share some of those similar diva-type personality traits?

Rogers has yet to play a full 16 game schedule, and due to these injury limitations, his production over the last 2 seasons combined (30 catches for 228 yards and 1 TD) is less than what Ryan Switzer got here just last season as a late addition to our roster who was learning the offense on the fly (36 catches for 253 yards and 1 TD). Hell, James Washington even 217 yards receiving and 1 TD last year in what is widely panned as a "disappointing" rookie campaign.

Other teams may see Eli's impressive NFL debut season of 48 catches for 594 yards and 3 TD in 2016 and would be willing to part with a late-round pick next year. Hell, maybe even Oakland would want to add a little AB to their actual AB and we could do a trade of Artie Burns and Eli Rogers for Karl Joseph and a late round pick.

If we traded Rogers, we'd have Juju, Moncrief, Washington, Switzer, and two Diontaes.

[Northern_Blitz]

No question we need the "Stars to line up" if we are going to win a SB. As you have suggested, lots of factors come into play (young prospects panning out, injuries, etc etc)...
especially when you have 31 other teams with comparable talent..

In terms of Moncrief, lets see what happens when we have someone other than Blake Bortles throwing to him. I expect a very solid year out of him (especially if JUJU starts pulling double coverage).

I hope you're right about Moncrief. He had had some bad QB play (and some time with Luck too).

I think I said this before, but it does seem like we have three gambles going on at WR (Moncrief, Washington, Johnson). It's nice to have more lotto tickets because we don't need them all to hit.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Jeremy Fowler
ESPN Staff Writer

Free agent addition Donte Moncrief has added ‘unbelievable professionalism' to Steelers receiver room, OC Randy Fichtner said.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Jeremy Fowler
ESPN Staff Writer

Before his team broke for the summer, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin used his media sessions to set a tone for training camp as a true barometer for his team's makeup. Asked about young standouts such as Diontae Johnson, Tomlin pointed out how everyone's seen "really impressive guys out here that disappear in Latrobe, particularly at (wide receiver)." Tomlin later said chemistry and culture can't be judged without adversity. "When you're in a training camp-like setting, and it's highly competitive and physically and mentally challenging, that will be the first real adversity this team sees," he said.

[Ernie]

I hear you but I spoke on the players I was specifically talking about. Didn’t know I had to be any more specific than what I wrote.

I never brought up Connor as a positive or negative.

you started your post by making reference to Vance McDonald. Just sayin.. if you want to participate in our discussion.. thats fine.. i had a right to ask you about conner.. since you mentioned a TE..and since our discussion was broader than WR.

[Ernie]

You said "We have Juju, Vance..and a bunch of unknowns".... that why i asked