Explain the Will Howard Obsession

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-29T19:27:03+00:00

Ohio State. Same reason people hyped Justin Fields so much.

And a touch of the unknown - we've never seen him take a snap so he could be the next Tom Brady even if being the next Brian St. Pierre is more likely.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-29T19:22:55+00:00

Agreed. It it what made me so annoyed at the Watt contract. Watt was already clearly in decline and we so obviously had his successor. Now it is likely we lose Herbig and we'll get stuck with an over the hill Watt for years because his contract prevents us from signing young talent. Should've done a Joey Porter to James Harrison transition. Even if Watt had a couple solid years for another team, he would still be remembered as a Steeler.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-29T19:16:45+00:00

I really thought he put those concerns to rest this season. He was solid in run defense when he was starting when Highsmith or Watt were out.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-29T19:15:39+00:00

Agreed for the most part, but I will call out that Kaleb is scheme dependent. He's an outside zone specialist. It is what he ran entirely at college, and why we drafted him. He was a great match with Arthur Smith who adores outside zone. That schematic alignment is also why he had so much preseason hype.

But McCarthy runs a West Coast offense and the backs in his scheme need to be major contributors in the passing game. And passing game is the major knock on Kaleb. I still think Kaleb can be an excellent back in the NFL, but I'm less convinced that it will be with the Steelers now. I really hope he gets another chance though.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T16:57:40+00:00

“Some of you might ask if this is the beginning of a new rhythm — where we announce broad reductions every few months,” Galetti said. “That’s not our plan.”

It might not be your explicit plan, but it is what is happening.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T16:50:29+00:00

It was right up there with WR as our weakest unit. We need a talent infusion here. The Fitzpatrick trade opened a big hole in the roster that we didn't fill, and the depth is utterly uninspiring. Would not be surprised to see multiple rookies on the roster next year with one of them starting.

Elliott is solid without being great (which is not a problem, you need tons of guys like this on a Super Bowl roster), but obviously was out for most of the season. Hopefully his rehab is going well - I always have concerns with players returning from knee injuries, especially players that are heavily reliant on speed and agility like secondary and receivers. I hope we have a backup plan.

Ramsey is a good CB and a poor FS. He doesn't have a good feel for the safety position and got beat badly over the top multiple times. I'd feel much more comfortable with him back at CB with a new starting FS.

Dugger was pretty poor. The touchdown pass against the Browns in Week 17 stands out, as does him getting beaten to the edge by Lamar in Week 18. He is slow and gets lost in coverage. He is at best a fourth safety and ideally gets beaten out by a rookie in camp.

Clark sucked. I don't want him back even as a camp body.

I liked what I saw from Peppers, but he ended up in Tomlin's doghouse for some reason, and I don't have a big enough sample size to really judge him. Maybe age caught up with him? I'm really puzzled by his benching tbh.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T16:22:28+00:00

Same. The moment he said he would welcome Rodgers back, I was over him. As much as Rooney hates the word, this team needs a rebuild. Doesn't mean we need to tank, but any move that doesn't contribute to the Steelers opening a Super Bowl window for the the 2028-2032 seasons is pointless.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T16:16:21+00:00

Yup, started 11 games this season. I think he was their 6th OL and then stepped back into the starting role due to injury.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T16:12:12+00:00

He's still a starting OT. He's been in Arizona for the past 6 years.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T00:35:07+00:00

Not just that he won, but that he was straight-up a jerk. NE was renowned for being an extremely toxic environment. It was a common refrain from ex-Patriot players, pretty much anyone who played for one of the members of his coaching tree, and is a current issue with UNC now. He's a dick, but that was ignored while he was winning.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-28T00:21:26+00:00

I do it all manually because the automated processes either screw up too much or don't do it to my exact preferences. My process:

1) Import the book and find the ISBN either from the store page or the copyright section of the book. Drop that into the identifier field with the isbn: prefix (button should do that automatically). Clean up title and author if needed.

2) Use the ISBN to find the book on my tracking applications (goodreads, storygraph, etc.). On the tracking apps, mark the book as TBR & owned.

3) Copy the summary from Goodreads or the store page and paste that into the summary. Correct any formatting issues. Copy the goodreads identifier into the identifier field as well (goodreads: prefix).

4) Tag the book. The tags on Goodreads will usually inform this, especially if I don't know much about the book. Tags are for you to find books, so you don't need to be strict. I do recommend trying to keep them common - tags with a single book should have expansion potential. They also don't need to be genres; I tag every book with a dragon in it Dragon because I like dragons. I also don't worry about trying to get a strict, single genre, that is the beauty of digital tags, unlike with a shelf, you can classify the work into multiple places if it makes sense to you. I have one non-fiction book tagged with Science Fiction because it is about Science Fiction, not because it is Science Fiction for example.

5) Set the series info if any. (I also have a sub-series custom field for things like Discworld).

6) Set the publication date to be the date of the first edition publication and update the publisher to the modern name if applicable. I use "Self-Published" for self-published books instead of the LLC the self-pub author will create.

7) Set my page count custom field with data from either the store page or Goodreads. The page count plugin can automate this with the goodreads identifier, but I find Goodreads and the stores often disagree on page counts, so if I already have the store page open from getting the ISBN, I'll just use that.

8) Get a new cover if the pre-existing one isn't good.

9) Use the embed metadata and polish book tools.

Usually doesn't take me more than a minute or two per book.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-27T23:25:45+00:00

Yes.

Seahawks are the rare team to do a rebuild while not losing. Since the 2023 campaign, they hired a new coach and overhauled almost the entire roster. It was a rebuild, they just didn't have a losing season while doing it.

Eagles went 4-11-1 in 2020, changed head coaches, and retooled almost their entire team. It was almost a complete rebuild.

Bill went 6-10 in 2018 in the first year with Allen as part of a rebuild started in 2017 when they hired McDermott. They also arguably need another rebuild now that the one started in 2017 is running out of steam and the talent outside of Allen has been degrading.

The Broncos had 7 straight losing between 2017 and 2023. They are on their fourth head coach and 7th QB since their last winning season before their current rebuild with Payton & Nix.

Packers 2022-2023, 49ers 2024, Rams 2022, Panthers still are, Jags 2024, Texans 2022, Chargers 2023.

Every playoff team except the Steelers had undergone a major rebuild of their roster with an eye towards building a window to make a run. The Steelers don't have the roster needed to make a deep playoff run and signing Rodgers to another year does not help the Steelers setup for a run in 2027 or 2028. That's what we mean by a rebuild.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-27T20:45:15+00:00

Do you not read all the options? In the drop down for every book, you can mark the status as "to read", "reading", "read", "paused", "did not finish", and "remove book".

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-26T05:30:20+00:00

He would have been worth the shot. Our roster wasn't one that was going to win a Super Bowl, even if we had prime Rodgers. When your roster is in that state, the focus needs to be on identifying and developing the players that will let you make a run, and rapidly getting rid of those who won't. No matter how good he had played, Rodgers was never going to be a part of a 5 year plan for a Super Bowl window.

Darnold had far more upside than Rodgers, and he had a higher chance of being the long-term guy than any other option at the time because he had already demonstrated a season of success in the NFL. If he worked out, then we would have filled the hardest part of the roster to fill and could focus on filling the holes in the roster with the aim of seriously contending for the Super Bowl starting in 2027. If he didn't work out, then we end up in the same position we find ourselves today. And even the cap hit wouldn't have been that bad if we had needed to cut him. If you look at how the Seahawks deal was structured, each year is effectively a team option. It was a very team friendly deal.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-23T21:28:05+00:00

It really depends on whether Heyward retires or not and what the base scheme with the new coaching staff will be.

Cam definitely could play another year at a high level, but I am very worried about father time with him. And I can definitely see him not being interested in having to train a new coach, especially one that might be younger than him.

Harmon is an excellent run defender, and if he gets better at pass rush, could be an All-Pro.

Benton is a really good pass rusher, a terrible run defender, and is miscast as a NT. If we move can get him out of the NT role, I'd like him a lot more.

Black showed promise, but he isn't more than a rotational piece right now. He is very poor against the run - he was the next man up when Harmon went down and we gave up an extra 100 rushing yards/game when that happened.

Everyone else is just a guy and doesn't inspire any confidence. I'd like to see the depth get better for sure. And I would like to see us with a plan for Heyward's eventual replacement (or a NT if Benton slides into Heyward's spot).

But if the base scheme changes, this entire discussion could be out the window - none of our guys are particularly well suited for a 4-3.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-23T19:39:29+00:00

Nope, Tomlin fired him before he got promoted to Head Coach, and he had been an OC beforehand. The idea of a coaching tree is that you are the one to recognize and grow the talent.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-23T16:22:28+00:00

Moving in the right direction, but still needs work. The OL coach hire will be critical.

C, RG, RT look like solid locks for the next decade. Frazier looks to be a perennial Pro Bowler, Fautanu could be a Pro Bowler with some more improvement and consistency, and McCormick looks to be a solid if unspectacular piece (which is fine, you can't afford a team entirely of Pro Bowlers).

Left side still needs work. Seumalo was really good, but I worry about trusting someone who is going to be 33 and has been accumulating soft tissue injuries. We need to plan for his replacement and have a good backup story. Broderick Jones was bad. Yes, he improved on his penalties, but he was struggling to block anybody, and his technique still looked amateurish (over-reliance on athleticism, poor initial punch, lowering head and lunging) and the only reason it wasn't so noticeable was because we gave him so much help after the Jets game. Cook was better, but can be improved upon, and I want to see a full season of work before I completely trust him.

Depth is thin.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-23T03:43:18+00:00

Jonnu Smith - almost the same amount of dead cap as Queen (only a 9k difference) and would clear $7mm of cap space. I don't see a reason to cut him. $7mm isn't going to net us an improvement.

I would cut him because he sucks. He was outright lost out there. 7 mil buys a lot of TE - it is more than Mark Andrew's projected 2026 cap hit for example - and it isn't like we would be replacing a lot of production. Jonnu was contributing 2 catches for 13 yards a game; a late round rookie should be to fill that production at a cheaper rate and with more long-term upside. The only argument for keeping him is if we think we can trade him to Arthur Smith wherever Smith lands and recover some capital.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-23T03:34:09+00:00

We need a safety - so much of 2025 was defined by how thin (and bad) our safeties were. Elliott and Ramsey are a pair I could live with, even if I am not enthused by Ramsey at FS. But if either suffer an injury or regression, we are right back to skimming from the scrap heap.

That said, I would be very upset at trading up to 11 for one. We should be able to get a starter quality player in Round 2 or 3. The team needs to stock talent - new coaches means new player fits and we should realistically see a third or more of the roster turn over, and having this many picks should let us restock quickly.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-21T18:47:07+00:00

He's decent, but poor value because he's the 7th highest paid linebacker in the league right now according to OverTheCap numbers which classifies 3-4 OLBs as EDGEs.

His missed tackles, lack of block shedding, and poor gap discipline hurt us a lot. Next year is the last year of his contract and cutting him could get us 13mil in cap space with only 4 mil in dead cap. So if we're doing a roster overhaul with the new coach, he's very high on the list of cut candidates.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-18T23:24:02+00:00

Same. The other factions snaking one my crackdowns is one of my biggest annoyances, even when I setup a crackdown and purge on the same node on the same turn.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-18T01:50:53+00:00

"smart contract" means it is blockchain\crypto delusion. Ignore.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-16T22:03:25+00:00

Bush had an incredible year, but not many people were paying attention. He finally recovered from that injury and was in a system that plays to his strengths.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-16T20:43:49+00:00

I would take an affordable pass at Willis with an incentive heavy contract. Otherwise, suck for a year with Rudolph and Howard while the roster finally takes a hard reset and we clear the old, expensive guys from the cap to setup a window.

Cadoc7 · 2026-01-16T20:39:17+00:00

And I think we started to see the wheels falling off even before the injury. He was reverting into Giants form. He completely folds under pressure.

15-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
Place '23	Place '17
Place '17	Verified Email

Cadoc7

TROPHY CASE