Terrace Marshall Jr.

[Whatever]

(12-12-2020, 06:51 PM)Bengalstripes9 Wrote: I’m thinking more that if Aj can’t come back, Tate gets his spot. Then it’s easy to fill from there—whether that be with free agents, mid round draft picks, or resigning guys. I was also impressed with Uzo at tight end before he got hurt. Him and Burrow had a good connection. Definitely want him back.

What I’m against is tying all our money up in skill players, then not having enough for the offensive line. The Steelers have done quite well not drafting wide receivers high. It just takes good scouting. They use high picks on defense and it works great.

Drafting offensive lineman and defense will contribute to more wins than drafting a 3rd string wideout high. If you’re blocking can hold up for more than two seconds, it’s much easier to get open—making your receivers better. Better offensive line play also makes for a more effective running attack.

That said, if WR/TE is clearly the best player available in the 2nd round, like Tee was, you take the skill player.

Tate has shown nothing to indicate that he's capable of being a #3.  This was supposed to be his big breakout year and he got exposed.  He's fine as a backup/STs guy, but he is simply not good enough to be a decent #3 option.  Plus, he's been injured in 2 out of 3 pro training camps and ended the last 2 years on IR.

The Steelers have used their last three 2nd round picks on WR's and have taken at least one in the first three rounds in 7 of the last 8 drafts.  It's an expensive position to fill in FA, so they use the draft capitol required to make sure their top tier QB has the weapons he needs.  They don't whistle past the graveyard and trot out a guy like Tate.  

There are too many holes to fix in one off-season on this team.  We need to worry about putting a line in front of Burrow and giving him the weapons he needs before trying to fix the defense.  The only guy on this team that's shown to make the guys around him better is Burrow. Putting guys around him that he can elevate even further is a better immediate return on investment than spending another off-season dumping most of our draft picks and cap dollars into fixing the defense.