PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan)- Despite the insanity that surrounded Antonio Brown over the last few months he was a Pittsburgh Steeler, there's no denying that his 104 receptions for 1,297 yards and 15 touchdowns from 2018 is almost impossible to replace singularly.
"Jaylen Samuels has been really impressive catching the ball. Every day he's making a really nice acrobatic catch in the end zone for a touchdown. We reported last week that they've used Jaylen Samuels and James Conner in the backfield at the same time. Yesterday we saw five wides (wide receivers) with no tight ends on the field.
So, it's clear they're trying to draw up different ways to make up for the production of Antonio Brown. I think there's the potential there for a really strong stable of running backs. With Jaylen Samuels and his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, Benny Snell coming in and being a potential hammer and then James Conner being able to do both."
Ray also gave an update on the inside linebacker spot, one of the few positions in which a battle between players is going on and will continue to throughout OTA's and training camp in Latrobe.
Related
"They drafted [Devin Bush] for a reason. They brought him in there to be a difference maker. I think they believe he can do that in year one so now the question is, 'Is Mark Barron going to start alongside him? Or are they just going to use Mark Barron in that Morgan Burnett role as your dime linebacker?'
He wouldn't be a three-down player but he would be getting still 60% of the snaps. It might be a different role than what he envisioned when he signed here but there was no way for Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin to know on March 10th whether they were going to get Devin Bush on April 25th.
He might have to have his ego massaged a little bit, they might have to find a little bit of a different role for him but I think Mark Barron is still going to play a lot for this defense."
And what about that relationship between Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph?
"Mason is a quiet guy. He keeps his head down. He doesn't really let us in on what that relationship is like, Ben really hasn't talked about it at length.
It's not Ben's job to get him ready to be the next starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think Ben helps all of these guys out wherever he can. I think Mason is going to sink or swim based on his own ability. From what I've seen just in the little bit of OTA's, he does look like he has more command of the offense.
He was in there yesterday strictly with the second team. I wouldn't read into that, I think they're just giving different guys some different opportunities. To me, the backup quarterback position is going to be one of the top 5 or 7 storylines going into 2019 once we get up to Latrobe."