Join with me kids as we take an time machine back to 2021 except this time we are going to rewrite some team history.
so at the end of 2020 season the steelers finished 12-4. first in the afc north and we lost the clowns 37-48 to the clowns in a pathetic display.
so art rooney 2 comes in and demands that we bring some changes in namely a change to the run game because he, the man with absolutely zero talent compared to the rest of his family, thinks we need to improve. Kevin colbert our long time gm and mike tomlin our long time coach acquiesce.
at the end of the 2020 season:
we had lost:
we let matt feiler who had been an EXCELLENT RT, who we had moved to LG to replace foster walk to the charger.
in this rewrite, we Keep him at RT and boot chuks terrible ass to the curb.
we lost bud dupree to the titans. i’m not changing this. Alex Highsmith is here already.
we lost mike hilton to the bengals. i am absolutely changing this, i dont care how we have to work it, we are keeping hilton on this roster.
we lose ola adeniyi. no biggie.
we lose sean davis. who cares.
we lose james conner. i am changing this. we can ABSOLUTELY afford the contract he got from arizona and this time we are going to get some MUCH needed protection up from to improve the run game.
we had acquired:
bj finney back: finney had been broken by his time in cincy and seattle. while he was better than foster previously he had fallen apart. nothing more than a backup.
joe haeg. solid pickup.
miles killebrew. he’s still here and still meh.
rashaad coward.
kalen ballage.
abdullah anderson. trash would have cancelled that one.
arthur maulet. would have cancelled that one.
trai turner.
sam sloman. would have cancelled that one.
decastro and pouncey also retired.
now in a draft redo, here is the saucy, juicy, important stuff:
round 1: pick 24: Creed Humphrey. C. . i was screaming for this pick, especially with the turmoil on the line. foster, decastro, pouncey, chuks. this was going to be the single best pick. better than any receiver, tight end, running back. plus it gives ben a big giant protector right in front of him that helps protect him way better than kendrick green especially after being just past a year removed from his season ending surgery.
So. automatically after the first pick where are we?
o line has a brand new awesome center, and matt feiler is back to right tackle, where he is awesome versus left guard where he was just average. thats TWO solid pieces of the oline for one. PLUS we already have conner a good running back who we know and help shape the game around.
round 2: pick 55: Pat Friermuth, TE. with the issues we had with ebron and with vance mcdonald and eveything im taking muth still. use him as a blocker, use him as a receiver. still taking him. gives ben a big target.
after 2 picks, we have a center that is going to protect old man ben, the right tackle that ben knows, a big new target for ben. a running back ben is comfortable with.
round 3: pick 87: Baron Browning. ILB. devin bush was a bust. but having some other blood in the room with spillane and schobert could have forced out bums like tegray scales, jamir jones, ug3, marcus allen and prevented buddy johnson getting drafted.
round 4: Pick 128: Chuba Hubbard, RB. People want some rb help for conner? fine. taking hubbard here gives you a rb corp of conner, hubbard, benny snell, trey edmunds, anthony mcfarland. meaning you can cut kalen ballage, mcfarland, and edmunds. plus derek watt is still on the team.
round 4: pick 140: Bobby Brown III, DL. our dline needed some help. henry mondeaux, carlos davis, coward. archibong, alualu, adams, buggs. drafting brown, you can cut mondeaux, davis, archibong, adams is still with the team. alualu kept getting hurt. buggs was meh.
round 5: pick 156: Jamien Sherwood, S. late round safety pick replaces the need to bring in arthur maulet, we can kick justin layne trash ass to the curb, another person that allows us to get rid of marcus allen, we can prevent the drafting of tre norwood.
round 6: pick 216: Osa Odighizuwa, DL. same as bobby brown. strengthen the d line.
round 7: pick 245: Simi Fehoko, WR. to replace james washington or ray ray, or steven sims, or claypool or take your pick.
Round 7: pick 254: Thickus Puntus. he was still there in the mock draft i did. also, still there were kendrick green, quincy roche, tre norwood, for all that matters.
So. After the Draft we now have:
offense
ben, rudy, someone.
Joe Haeg LT, Kevin Dotson LG, Creed Humphrey at C, Trai Turner at RG, Matt Feiler at RT.( bj finney, jc hassenauer, banner)
James Conner at RB1, Chuba Hubbard at RB2. snell/mcfarland/edmunds/ballage rb3
watt fb
Friermuth at TE1, Eric Ebron TE2, Zach Gentry TE3
WR1 Johnson WR2 juju WR3 claypool Wr4 fehoko Wr5 white/sims/miller
defense
chris wormley lde, buggs nt, cam heyward rde, (bobby brown, osa,)
tj watt, alex highsmith
devin bush, joe schobert, (browning, spillane, scales, jones, ug3, allen)
haden, sutton, hilton ( witherspoon)
fitzpatrick, edmunds (sherwood)
boz
harvin
kuntz
fill in the second and thirds backup players as you like but the team would have looked significantly different and would have prevented a significant amount of issues from happening. annnnd center would have been solved for a decade.
Conner wasn’t about the contract, it was about him never playing a full season without missing at least 3 games.
He’s been hurt a lot in Arizona too