This Sunday, the Cleveland Browns are at home as they take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 17. To help preview a few topics from the Steelers’ perspective, we reached out to Ryan Parish from Behind the Steel Curtain and exchanged five questions with him.
Chris: “Talk us through Aaron Rodgers’ season — do you think he’s gotten better as the season has gone on? Has he exceeded the expectations of fans? It’s certainly better than the Russell Wilson/Justin Fields situation they worked through last
year.”
Ryan: “I would say it’s less that Rodgers has gotten better and more that two major things have improved in the surround pieces of the offense.
For starters, the Steelers’ young offensive line has improved as the season has gone on. Zach Frazier is being slept on in the conversations about the league’s best centers and has been a stabilizing force and a pro’s pro since he got to Pittsgurgh. Fellow second-year players Troy Fautanu and Mason McCormick look to be long term pieces as well. Even with two starters out, the Steelers have gotten good performances from backups Dylan Cook and Andrus Peat, as well as Spencer Anderson who should get some sort of Sixth Man of the Year for how often the Steelers deploy him as a versatile piece in their favored jumbo packages.
Secondly, Rodgers has figured out which of the Steelers many unheralded skill players he can trust. The field hasn’t completely shrunk for Rodgers, he still has a fairly live arm, but his deep to intermediate accuracy comes and goes a little more often these days. He doesn’t test these areas of the field often, but he’s hit just enough that defenses can’t cheat up to the line of scrimmage. The Steelers receiving corp is certainly not the envy of the league, yet Rodgers and his pass catchers have felt like they’ve started to round into form in recent weeks. If Rodgers is supported with a productive rushing attack, Rodgers is still able to conjur enough magic to pull out close games.”
Chris: “DK Metcalf was by far the Steelers’ leading wide receiver, but now he appears to be suspended due to a situation involving a fan. Which wide receivers are next in line to try filling his role?”
Ryan: “I don’t really forsee any receiver doing what DK does. After Metcalf, running back Kenneth Gainwell has the second most targets. The Steelers have three tight ends with 40+ targets, and starting running back Jaylen Warren also clocks in with 40 targets. Recently they’ve mixed in veterans Marquez Valdez-Scantling and Adam Thielan. We’ll see how these 2 games go.”
Chris: “Statistically, even though the Steelers rank 27th on offense and 28th in defense, they are primed to capture the AFC North. What do you view as the biggest hole still for the Steelers?”
Ryan: “The Steelers look like they’re rounding into form in recent weeks, but they’re still a deeply flawed team. They’ve run the fewest plays in league because the offense has many frequent three-and-outs. If you can stop the Steelers running game, you make them extremely one dimensional, and we’ve already discussed their pass catching group’s short comings.”
Chris: “Since the last time these two teams met, is there one player on Pittsburgh who has really come on to be a better contributor?”
Ryan: “I’ll shout out two defenders:
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr. has played phenomenal all year, especially over the past month.
Meanwhile, rookie Derrick Harmon has shown to the Steelers run defense in his absence. He came back just in time to help stonewall Detroits normally explosive running game.”
Chris: “Myles Garrett is one sack away from breaking the NFL sack record. Pittsburgh did a good job the first time these two teams met in not allowing a sack. Obviously, you don’t want to allow a sack, but do you think that’s a sense of discussion or pride this week among the Steelers players or fans, to not be the team that officially allows the record to be broken?”
Ryan: “Mike Tomlin confirmed that they would be giving a lot of attention to Garrett this week, but only because that’s required when facing a player like Garrett. I don’t think that it’s a spoken thing for the team, but it’s hard to believe it isn’t at least in the back of some player’s minds, especially the Steelers young line. Rodgers gets the ball at one of the quickest rates in league, so I’m hopeful, for the fans sake at least, that Garrett has to wait at least one more week to break the record.”
Thanks again to Ryan for taking the time to answer my questions.
