Brand J

5’11” 205lbs and runs a 4.8 forty. Yikes.

Wins and losses in the preseason don’t matter, nor does the final score. But how the team arrives at that final score does carry some weight. Like Dion Dawkins type of weight. It was sobering seeing him get beat multiple times by a 4th round rookie. He just didn’t look good. Also sobering seeing our first round pick from last year - who was a healthy scratch at times - showing no real improvement and unable to unseat a couple of late round picks. MLB also looks like a dumpster fire. Preseason doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but on an individual level you would like to see your starters play well before coming out, rather than reinforce the concerns many had coming into the game.

Andy Isabella is this year’s Tavon Austin.

Key sentence, HappyDays: “I suspect you’d think…” I’m saying if Josh was a quicker decision maker, ala on the level of a Tom Brady, the amount of times he’s pressured would be greatly reduced, thereby giving the illusion the OL is a top pass blocking unit. It’s not a ridiculous concept or thing to say.

Slip of Pitt alums, you both knew who I meant.

And that is okay.

Doyle served in that role. The reason I’d like it to be a blocking TE rather than OT, because there’s still the threat of a pass. Lee Smith wasn’t targeted too often, but the defense would still have to respect him as a receiving threat more than they would an OT.

The Steelers starters whooped our Starters because of fluke plays. At least that’s what someone here told me 😅

Dane Jackson was clinically dead on the field. Not sure that has happened before in an NFL game, so I don’t see stoppages like that one becoming the norm.

I’m starting to think you don’t understand how sports work. The Steelers starters whipped our starters. Period. Whatever the reason for that, that was the case. Get over it and stop trying to explain it away, McD and the players certainly aren’t.

We haven’t seen Bernard, but at this point Dorian is looking like the second best LB on the team, albeit playing against lesser competition. If Bernard shows no better than what Dodson has been doing, start force feeding Dorian and take your lumps.

He would’ve been in trouble if someone said, “but Brandon, you could’ve drafted Justin Jefferson with your 22nd pick, or even drafted George Pickens after trading down. Not to mention you passed on both DK Metcalf and AJ Brown in the second round.”

I think about the game against the Chiefs last year and how it would’ve went if we didn’t have Von. The Bills lose that game. He’s a HoF pass rusher still playing at a very high level (or at least was), so I voted Von.

I wish more would admit when he plays below the standard we’d like to see, but it’s always everyone else’s fault. Dorsey, the OL, his WRs, Britt, Hailey, etc. Josh still makes mistakes that leave you scratching your head. With that said, he’s also the best QB we’ve had maybe ever, but I feel like he could still take his game to another level. Physically he’s the most gifted QB in the league, but his awareness and knowledge of where to go with the ball just aren’t always there. This morning I read on YouTube that Josh was the best QB in the league if only he could get some protection. Aside from glaring performances like the one Saffold had against the Bengals, I suspect you’d think we had a top pass blocking OL if Josh had the processing ability of a Tom Brady. He said he’s completely dialed in on football and even McD said he noticed a change coming into camp. We’ll see if that was just lip service shortly when the real bullets start flying.

And therein lies the problem with Dion. If you’re not some sort of athletic specimen at LT you have to work even harder and maximize what you do do well. He wasn’t always a bad body player, go back and look at his build during his early years. His body - specifically his midsection - has just gotten worse as time goes on and I don’t have faith he’ll suddenly hire a nutritionist and personal trainer to become the best version he could possibly be. I can’t call him an above average LT anymore. At this point he’s average, trending towards replacement level. He was out there losing reps not against TJ Watt, but 4th round rookie Nick Herbig.

Even though he’s shown promise, I’m all for moving on from Quentin Morris and finding the nastiest blocking TE you can after cuts. Kincaid is our best receiving TE, Knox is a mixture of a blocker and receiver. We need a specialist for that 3rd TE spot and Morris isn’t reliable enough to be receiving TE only.

Ironically less playing time can also lead to more injuries once they start playing. They’re going to happen when they happen, can’t live in fear of them.

Starters against starters, 1s vs 1s, I call the Steelers 2 TDs superior execution. You know exactly what I’m referencing. The same plays you called “flukes.”

I know the injury concerns, but it’s football. Can happen at any time, even in practice. Playing less minimizes that risk, true, but you get what you get on the field if that’s the approach… and then the injury risk can climb once again through fatigue when they are on the field.

Pat Mahomes thought the Bengals were better than Buffalo too. And then they went out and proved it - at least in that one game. But I do think the Bills, Bengals, and Chiefs are targets for all other AFC teams. Maybe less so this year because the hype isn’t as strong as last year.

Looks like Dawkins got away with one, otherwise he was beat (again) too. You can see #51, 4th round rookie Nick Herbig, get jerked back right after his spin.

Give them a drive or two to atone for what happened tonight. I don’t like going into the Jets game with that sort of sloppiness the last time they took the field.

Because he left the pocket early. Nothing had a chance to develop and no one broke open when he left.

I mean, you can’t just take away their TDs. Would the Steelers have scored a 3rd if their starters remained in the game? Who knows, but they were clearly winning. You call it two fluke plays, I call it superior execution. Oh yeah, not arguing against Dawkins and Brown, both were terrible. But there was one play in particular on the opening drive, the 3rd down I believe, where he did have time and decided to roll out to his right anyway, which brought the rush in his face and took away half the field. The result was a throw that landed nowhere really.