Scout’s Eye with Matt Williamson: Who should stay?

In this episode, Matt Williamson talks about the Steelers’ unrestricted free agents.

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Hello everyone I am Matt Williamson follow me on X Twitter whatever you want to call it Williamson NFL and I think you guys are aware that I write a article per week for the website and I easily could have written today’s article basically saying everyone thanks

Of world’s falling but I wanted to get ahead a little bit of the off season and that’s not to say the season is totally shot but I want to be some of the first out there to start talking about specific players their future here and I probably won’t revisit it until you the

Steelers are eliminated or the season’s over but I did want to talk about every player on the roster and that’s what I wrote about that is going to be an unrestricted free agent not guys that you can cut for cap reasons there’s a lot of that they have a lot of space

That they can open they can get rid of a lot of not so great players but I want wanted to discuss the ufas and that’s what I wrote about um a lot of you guys are chiming in as usual most of it’s positive which I appreciate you know

Just talking it through what you need to do so where did we start here okay now there’s a couple guys that are basically noncon inconsequential there’s Chapel Russell and Anthony McFarland are restricted free agents I just want to let people know that this exists I don’t really catch care what happens to either

McFarland can’t get on the field you can pick either up very cheap as a restricted deal whatever ryell when Ren and Dylan cook are exclusive rights free agents we’re basically ignoring all these guys but I know they like cook he had a good camp he’ll be back in some

Capacity so just wanted to get those dudes out of the way so I’m going to go position by position well first of all let me bring something up example Pro Football Focus right now has their top 50 free agents to be eight of them will get franchis another eight will get resigned they

Won’t hit the market anyway we’re not going to talk about those guys now either that’s an offseason conversation but any of these lists you see right now of the top free agents to be you’re not going to see any Steelers on it which I think is a good thing I think you could

Joke the other way around boy it wouldn’t it be nice if the whole team was under stricted free agents and you could start over because they stink so bad blah blah blah blah blah I guess but the fact that no no one of consequence none of the no Steelers are

On these top free agents to be list for National purposes I think is a good thing Mason Rudolph is the only quarterback there really isn’t a running back or tight end of note miles boyin is really the only wide receiver really no offensive lineman montrais Adams and Arman watts

Are both up on the dline I think you guys know I’m very fond of what they’ve done here this year Marcus Golden’s another guy I like he’s the only Edge Defender and Quan Alexander is the only off-the-ball linebacker in the secondary you got miles kbu Levi Wallace James

Pierre Chandon Sullivan and Elijah Riley with expiring contracts I think you could all listening could sleep at night without any of them coming back you know but I do want to break it down a little further than that I don’t even know how to comment on Rudolph we’ll revisit this

Next week maybe weeks to come he’s scheduled to start this week but picket is going to practice don’t rule that out completely I think the real reason Rudolph is starting is basically he’s not miss Mitch trabis trabis was horrendous in this past game horrendous and along those lines it’s

Become very clear to Tomlin all of us anybody really that’s paying attention obviously Tomlin from week nine last year they’re by whenever things started to go well and picket era that when the quarterback turns the ball over they don’t beat anybody when he doesn’t they’re in games and they can be highly

Competitive well Rudolph fits that mold much much much more than trabis trabis is a guy you can get out from I don’t think he’ll be back so can you bring Rudolph back on a similar deal assuming plays this week you’ll learn a little bit more about him but not much I

Mean and that goes for other teams as well that might want to sign him they don’t know any more than now than they did when they didn’t won him last off season so he’s sort of a standalone you know worry about him later frankly if he leaves great if he

Doesn’t great you know somebody else is going to be here besides picket I have no doubt about that all right and then one other category they’re not all the same position but boyin kbu Pierre they’re special teamers I mean really and nothing more you know Kell Bru’s gotten thrust into safety Pierre

Played a little corner boyin goes out there for five to eight snaps a game but they’re here for special teams you really don’t even want them on offense and defense in a perfect world you build a roster if these guys are back where they never see the field

Except for special teams easier said than done over the course of the year but the these guys are the third fourth and fifth in on the team right now in special teams counts and they would be higher if any of them were on like field goal protection like hering’s ahead of

Them because he’s on field goal protection uh boyin and Pierre also are not on field goal block um but basically these are four of your core punt punt return kickoff kick off return guys if you want to bring them back great um I think they’re all especially kbu and

Boyin are very good at special teams I don’t pretend to watch Special Teams tape but if if they’re making the same kind of money fine but think of them only as special teamers and good ones so again they’re kind of in their own little category as well quick break and

Then we’ll break some of this more down here immediately [Applause] After okay so I also lumped Adams watts and golden together cuz I think they’re all good I mean if you could have them back basically doing what they’re doing now okay um just base salary none of those guys made more than 2.5 million this this season and I think they’ve all

Been worth that you know as rotational guys I don’t know what Ogen joby’s future is but if you could bring back these three or golden and one of the D tackles you could basically and again I never turn my nose up at a d linan this

Is not characteristic for me to say in the team building world but you could probably go into the offseason saying we’re good at running back tight end all across the defensive front and we can concentrate everything elsewhere be nice just to check that box where I don’t need to get Cam hayward’s

Replacement or whatever you know so I would be very interested in retaining Adams watts and golden but in about the neighborhood they’re making now maybe a slight uptick or you know little more two-year deal that you give them a little bit of money up front or whatever

But basically the same type of deal because I think they’ve been valuable I think they’ve all been success stories that you brought in from other teams depth pieces maybe herbig goes past golden next year maybe Lea or louer milk goes ahead of one of the D linemen but

In the meantime they’re fine I mean they’re depth dudes that have been valuable for this team Alexander Quan is similar to Adams watts and golden but you got him super late in the process and there’s always linebackers of his ilk late in the process he’s a hard one to comment on because you’d

Love someone that runs around the field like he does and again just run it back with Hulk and Roberts and kind of do what I was talking about with the defensive line and just say front seven is fine I know some of you probably want them to go get Jack Lambert or Kendra

Bell but I can live with a healthy Trio of Roberts W Alexander or someone very similar that isn’t super expensive CU you’re going to need your resources for Big Ticket items maybe a quarterback you know corner I mean tackle I mean expensive stuff so what I don’t know

Though is Alexander in terms of passing physicals I think that hurt him this past off season he’s injured again he does have a pretty extensive it’s a rough word um injury history so that’s always really difficult for to comment on but they’ll know better than anybody I mean they’re dealing with his injury

As we speak last thing and we’ve kind of talked about this all those dudes in the secondary I mentioned could go with the I mean killer Brew if you keep them for special teams only great maybe Pierre as well but Wallace adios Sullivan adios and what I said here is in fact

Minka and Porter are the foundation of the secondary going forward and maybe the team can catch lightning in a bottle with a talented youngster like Darius rush or Cory Trice but other than that the back end of the defense needs a total overhaul I mean Minka and Porter

Great you’re thrilled with them rushi and Trice they’re intriguing you don’t know that much about them I know people are like wow Trice will be the opp the corner opposite Porter he was a seventh round pick and he’s injured you know what you get out of those two is gravy

You bring them to Camp you get excited about them but you don’t count on those guys I mean what they give you is a bonus prize so really all those other dudes in the secondary to me adios I’m not even interested in bringing you back on a very team-friendly deal you can go

I mean I’d love to play against you to be very honest with you I mean so that’s where we’re at frankly that’s pretty promising they have a fair amount of cap space now kind of middle of the pack they have the ability to make much more

Which is great you know you move on from some dudes trabis I mentioned some others um and the guys that are upcoming it’s there’s nobody like high Smith like boy I have to bring him back so that’s a good move I mean and the guys you do

Bring back you can at your your terms which you love so I thought that’d be fun we’ll dig into games going forward here the rest of the week take Care