Watching Sammie Coates and the Pittsburgh Steelers in their first exhibition, I was thinking about Roddy White. No, not that the Steelers should sign the over the hill veteran. I was thinking about a time I rushed too quickly to judgment on a player and cost myself a quality wideout.
It was preseason 2007, and I was in my first dynasty league (still going strong!). In the the first exhibition game, a young Roddy White got open for a touchdown in the corner of the end zone, and the quarterback -- might have been Joey Harrington -- lofted the ball to him. It clanged off his hands for an incompletion. I said to myself, The guy's not going to amount to anything, and i went to my league page and dropped White for, I don't know, somebody who didn't go on to have six straight 1,000-yard seasons.
So, while we have to react quickly to what we see, it can be dangerous to write players off after a rough performance. Coates fumbled twice in the first exhibition and had another strange play where he was open for a downfield pass, Landry Jones threw it to him, and he sort of slid to the turf rather than turn and catch the thing. I have Coates in dynasty right now, and I'm not going to cut him or give him away in a trade. Poor game. He's got a few more exhibitions to get things straightened out.
In this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette chat, writer Ray Fittipaldo talks about all things Steelers. On Coates specifically he concedes that "Ball security is big for Tomlin so he'll have to clean that up over the final three preseason games. Tomlin will hesitate to play him if that continues." So Coates (who to his credit didn't make any excuses in a postgame interview I saw) needs to get that straightened out. But he's got three more exhibitions (or two, since we probably shouldn't count the final one) to do that.
The chat also talks about the LeVeon Bell appeal of his four-game suspension (the writer doesn't expect it to be reduced) and quite a bit about Ladarius Green. He's not sure why Mike Tomlin is talking as if Green is on the PUP list for his ankle rather than concussions, but guesses it's annoyance at news being leaked to the media. Nothing in the chat sounds particularly favorable about Green's chances of being cleared anytime soon, so make sure Jesse James is on a roster if you're in a dynasty league. He probably is.
Fittipaldo says the team's best option for slot receiver as things stand right now is Eli Rogers. Thought this was interesting since Rogers also jumped off the TV screen at me in the game. He's a second-year wideout who was hurt all of last year, and he's tiny, but he looked fast and shifty out there. Tough group of wideouts to crack, but you never know. Considering picking him up in dynasty. Just need to figure out who to drop.
I also agree with Fittipaldo that Landry Jones looked pretty good out there. No, he's not Ben Roethlisberger, but if Roethlisberger were to get hurt, I don't think he'd torpedo the offense.
--Andy Richardson
