Roquan Smith.. play along.

[JustPlainNasty]

Roquan Smith wants a new deal in Chicago. " While Smith is unable to practice due to being on the PUP list, the expectation was he wasn't going to participate given the uncertainty of his contract situation. According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, “Smith has not yet received an offer he would remotely consider, thus he'll wait.”

Hes a good LB, PFF scores him up and down in his 4 years but he can obviously play.. Hes set to make $9+ million this year in his 5th year option year. I know everybody wants to get "top" money and some of these recent ILB signings are a bit high for a position that is often treated like RB's as far as durability and longevity in todays game. Im thinking somewhere around 13.5 million per year would be a very fair deal. He probably is thinking he should get around 18+ because of the deals that Deion Jones and Mosely got that arent quite working out so well for those teams (ATL has been said to be shopping D. Jones and even potentially cutting him at 20 mill per yr https://www.si.com/nfl/falcons/news/atlanta-deion-jones-roster-bubble-cuts-contract-trade-arthur-smith-nfc-south-training-camp ,  next closest is Mosely at 17.5, he proceeded to miss the entire season. There is a big gap between those two and the rest at the position. Most on short term two year kine deals or entering 5th year option years. Edmonds and one other I cant recall. 

Chicago is also at odds apparently with last years 2nd round pick OT Tevin Jenkins. I was very high on Jenkins in regards to what would be available to us in that draft but didnt know the extent of concern around his back injury/issue, which is why he fell into the 2nd round. It has been rumored that they have been shopping him around. 

This probably wont go over well with some but it is highly unlikely that Pittsburgh will pay another WR in the near term after signing Diontae and with the more than obvious ability and emergence of Pickens....it makes sense that the Steelers will not be able to offer Claypool anything near what "the TOP 3 " LOL..WR thinks he should get.. Next years priority should be Highsmith who should have a decent year. 

And Devin Bush (youd be getting Smith.) Lets face it, he was supposed to be "ready to go" this camp and not hearing anything special in his efforts to try to beat out Robert Spillane, sounds like hes neck and neck and thats mostly because still trying to hold out hope for a top 10 pick and he does have more athleticism than Spillane, so basically Spillane is showing better but Bush should be winning out.

So basically saying Claypool & Bush for Smith, Jenkins and maybe a 5th rounder. 

 I know we are talking about two recent high draft picks but basically its a 1 & 2 for a 1 & 2. Id maybe seek for Chicago to add something to it because we'd have to sign Smith to new deal right away and with a lot of questions revolving around Jenkins health etc and lack of playing exposure. 

 

Any interest in making a move, some variation?

Edited August 10, 2022 by JustPlainNasty

[jebrick]

What is the current cap situation?

 

[Dcash4]

I am onboard with the thought, though $13.5M isn't going to cut it when Darious Leonards deal is hanging out there a shade under $20M per. 

These are the kinds of moves that you can make when you have a QB on a rookie deal. As much as I don't really believe in Kenny, I am all for the team going full speed ahead to try to take advantage of his window -- or at the very least try to build a top contenting roster and find the QB later. Claypool has been a guy I had been throwing around as a trade target next off-season (because I wanted them to resign DJ). So no problems there for me with Pickens, DJ, Austin, and even Anthony Miller seeming to be playing well. 

Don't really care for Teven Jenkins back, but also don't hate it. He is only 7 months younger than Chuks and I don't like the health concerns. OT is more the spot I want to see Moore and Chuks fight for one spot and go find the best available vet in FA next year with the rest of the offense taken care of. 

Smith is the best player in the package, but I would be curious of the contact situation and positional value of Chase vs Roquan would help even that one out in terms of value. 

[MOSteelers56]

Also, just an FYI but the player formerly known as Darius Leonard is now Shaquille Leonard. Apparently that’s his middle name and he’s always gone by that, but he was called Darius in college….idk the story, but he wants to be called Shaquille now. 

[JustPlainNasty]

5 hours ago, MOSteelers56 said:

Also, just an FYI but the player formerly known as Darius Leonard is now Shaquille Leonard. Apparently that’s his middle name and he’s always gone by that, but he was called Darius in college….idk the story, but he wants to be called Shaquille now. 

It is confusing when you see it. Not the greatest plan from a marketing mindset, but guessing thats not a concern. 

 

[JustPlainNasty]

12 hours ago, jebrick said:

What is the current cap situation?

 

According to Spotrac currently they have about 8 million in space. Which is a lot more than used to this time of year. Not exactly sure how all that works when trading away guys but Bush counts for about 6 million (3 salary and about 3 signing bonus) so I'd assume he count as 3  and Claypool is 1.8 ( 1.2 salary and about 0.6 bonus) so I guess in total moving those guys would free up 4.2 million. Roquans current deal is totally salary so hed be 9.3745 but if you sign him to new deal than just break it up with signing bonus and push it out over next couple of years when you have more room. Jenkins is 1.9 (1.05 million salary and .85 bonus). 

To answer about Jenkins its a risk on his health Id agree, concern would also seem to be where his head is at in it all together. He was a nasty dawg though at Ok State, something I think this Oline could use more of. I keep hearing the interior  oline is a concern but if you are counting on Joe Haeg as your #3 going in and some practice squad guys I have a lot more concerns about the OT depth than the interior. Hell Id be ok putting Jenkins on IR and stowing him away if we can be a future possibility. They drafted that kid from LSU a few years ago, Jerald Hawkins, and he was nowhere near ready to play his rookie year when he came out early, I didn't like his style at all tbh he was soft, and he ended up never being ready. Chicago is rumored to want to move Jenkins, and we could take it on as part of the deal. It's not that big of a risk.

[jebrick]

Trading a player makes the team trading him eat the guarantied money.  So Bush would count as 3 and  Claypool as 1.2.

 

All that said, Tomlin's son knows Bush or Bush is someone's godson and he is not going to get traded.  Just not happening.  If they do pull it off, Khan should get immediate enshrinement in the HOF.  

[warfelg]

I don’t understand this random hate and push to unload Claypool. 
 

One thing I’ve noticed looking at Canada’s past is we need 4 WRs. There’s going to be so much movement that they need to rotate them out. Hence the positional flexibility that’s come up so much. 
 

Additionally DJ pulled a hip flexor after coming back and hasn’t been practicing. It’s going to be an all season thing because hip flexors take a long time to properly heal. I would not give up Claypool while that is going on. 

[Dcash4]

I don't hate Claypool, but after they extended DJ it put a clock on his time as a Steeler. So if my choices are 2 years of a #3 receiver (expecting Pickens to be top 2 in targets) or a top of the league ILB for 5 years, it's not a hard choice. 

[jebrick]

Claypool needs the Steelers to update the passing playbook from 2016.

[warfelg]

7 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

extended DJ it put a clock on his time as a Steeler.

Barely. They basically agreed to take him next year. If you look at DJs contract that’s all they did. 

[CKSteeler]

Smith has not been a top level play maker at ILB. He's better than what the team has, but it's probably not worth the cost in trade and cap. It's going to be claypool and picks to make it happen. The good thing is the Steelers do have an excess at the position that the Bears need the most.

Team also is not interested in giving up on Bush yet, not completely. And this trade would be doing that.

So, go with what you have this year and try to find a legit playmaker in the middle of the defense when Bush fails (he will fail unless he has had a complete 180 degree turnaround in his desire to play the sport from last year). It would help if Tomlin stopped looking for freak athletes in the mold of Shazier and instead focused on a guy who is just, you know, a good football player.

[Raidersfan1]

Madden made a few great points:

1) End Game.

2) Claypool is actually good in the slot from a matchup standpoint. 4.4 6'4 on his one trick is dangerous

 

I'm thinking more along the lines of Cle Ferrell for Devin Bush. You see Cle is a hybrid front player. That's his problem. He's neither fast enough for EDGE nor strong enough for end. He's a tweener. But as the rotational player in a EDGE - NT - DT front for TJ Watt he will actually scoop up the pro-rated version of 8-10 sacks production depending on snaps because of the blitzing linebackers bc of his dip and dive type movement skills (3 cone). Ability to run around bodies, etc...

I would grow ILBs before buying them. Not much bang for the buck. Opportunity cost standard top 10-20 positional at half the cost.

Or you could just call him your best OLB behind Watt and Highsmith.

$4m bucks. Plus, I always cut Wormley and Rudolph, so it's a free transaction when you let Bush walk anyway 

 

NT - Alualu, Adams

DE - Ogunjobi, Leal

DT - Heyward, Milk

Edited August 12, 2022 by Raidersfan1

[Ozzy]

Steelers should seriously target Jack Campbell in the draft, dude is a super star ILB, idea size and they should move on from Devin Bush if he has another down year and or gets hurt again.  Jack Campbell could be an amazing Pittsburgh Steeler.  

[MOSteelers56]

6 minutes ago, Ozzy said:

Steelers should seriously target Jack Campbell in the draft, dude is a super star ILB, idea size and they should move on from Devin Bush if he has another down year and or gets hurt again.  Jack Campbell could be an amazing Pittsburgh Steeler.  

He’s definitely a super sized ILB. 6’5 is crazy.