2018 Memorial Day Weekend: Steelers Friday Night Five Questions

Happy Friday to yinz and welcome to Memorial Day Weekend 2018.

The Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up their first three OTA practices of 2018 on Thursday and on the surface, no players suffered serious injuries this past week as far as I can tell. There were also a few interesting tidbits and interviews that surfaced over the course of the week and many of those we’ve already posted about on the site. Next week the team will have three more practices and I’m sure those will produce a few more talking points for us all.

The new NFL anthem policy seemingly took a step in the wrong direction this past week based on the overall reactions from the NFLPA and several players. This led to me having a fairly lengthy and open discussion on Twitter with Steelers guard Ramon Foster and I was thankful for that. If you missed that, it should be hard to find on Twitter.

In case you are wondering, my trip to Washington D.C. last week with my wife was very enjoyable even though it did rain most of the time we were there. I think we walked around 25 miles during the four full days we were there and we would have walked more had it not rained so much. We took in a lot of the sights and ate at a few interesting places. I would like to go back in the future to hit a few things we didn’t have time to see. We also closed out are trip by being driven to the Baltimore airport by the site’s very own David Orochena (@subBurgher) after first having lunch with him in Washington D.C. at a restaurant very near the ballpark. That saved us from having to go to Union Station and taking a train.

I’ve had two more doctor appointments since I returned to Las Vegas from my mini vacation and believe I have two more still on the books. I’m really tiring of these trips but they’re unfortunately very-much needed right now.

As usual, I have five questions for yinz to answer on this Friday evening, the last one of May 2018, and I hope several have time to do just that in the comments below.

Have a great and safe holiday weekend and please do not drink and drive.

Peace and love, peace and love!

1 – Had Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier remained healthy last season, would having him on defense against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the playoffs changed the outcome of the game, in your opinion?

2 – True or false: Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt will each log more than 20% of their total defensive snaps played in 2018 on an opposite side.

3 – How much better, if any, is the current 2018 Steelers roster than the one that opened the 2017 regular season?

4 – Tell me what you think about the tweet below when it comes to the NBA’a anthem policy reportedly being more rigid than the NFL’s:

Steve Kerr eviscerates the NFL for stepping on the free speech of players. Certainly his prerogative. But it’s worth noting that the NBA’s anthem policy is even more rigid. pic.twitter.com/luGctvm5DT

— Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) May 25, 2018

5 – True or false: More than one of these second-year players listed below who were drafted last year by the Steelers will fail to make the 53-man roster this year:

Keion Adams
Brian Allen
James Conner
Joshua Dobbs

Recap of 2018 Pre-OTA’s Weekend: Steelers Depot Friday Night Questions

Question 1 – We must assume Jaylen Samuels makes the 53-man roster at some point this season AND he gets on the field of play to answer this question with anything but goose eggs as Jaybird did. The answers on where he would line-up had wide variance ranging from 0-100% at running back; 0-75% at wide receiver and that he would play 0-92.37% of special team snaps. If opposing defensive coordinators have the same varied opinions, that is good for the Steelers as he will be hard to prepare for when he is on the field. Our average responses were 52.3% at running back; 34.4% at wide receiver (does not add up to 100% since folks thought he might also get snaps as a Tight end or H-Back). We also said he would play 53.1% of special team snaps. The special teams answers may be different depending on how it is calculated – a percentage of total special team snaps for the entire season or only the percentage for the games he was active. Last season, Anthony Chickillo had the highest percentage of special team snaps at 71.72%.

Question 2 – Only 20% of respondents believe Antonio Brown will break his career record of 136 receptions in a season in the future. A larger number, 40%, but still a minority of respondents believe that AB will break his career record of 1,834 receiving yards in a season. Most believe AB still has the skills but with so many other weapons he just may not have as many opportunities. If he were to break either it would be after Le’Veon Bell leaves the team since he is such a receiving threat out of the backfield in several folk’s view.

Question 3 – Cam Sutton is considered an asset to the Steelers by our respondents. Commenters expect him to compete with Artie Burns for a starting position at cornerback. If not the outright starter; Sutton will be the primary back-up with a number seeing him as the heir-apparent to Joe Haden. Others want to see Sutton returning punts in addition to contributing to the secondary.

Question 4 – Here is how Steelers Depot respondents rank the under 25 Steelers who were on the roster last year (first is median ranking/second is average ranking): JuJu Smith-Schuster (2/1.7); TJ Watt (2/1.91); Mike Hilton (3.5/3.68); Sean Davis (4/4.23); Artie Burns (5/4.86); Jessie James (6/5.64); Cam Sutton (7/6.18); James Conner (8/8.27); Brian Allen (9/9.09); Jerald Hawkins (10/9.73); Joshua Dobbs 11/10.68).  It was awfully close between JuJu & TJ in first place votes – 11 to 10 with two outliers who expect Jessie James & Sean Davis to have huge years.

Question 5 – WOW! A lot of suggestions for a new anthem song if Renegade is ever replaced. Here is every song mentioned along with their nominators. Hope I got the correct artists and did not miss any songs. Each will be featured in future Perspective of an Average Steelers Fan articles until the full list is exhausted. It might take a year!