Let's get to it:
JESÚS SADA FROM MONTERREY, MEXICO: Would you agree that this year's draft for the Steelers could be one similar to that in which they picked Lynn Swann and John Stallworth? Should the Steelers draft two wide receivers in this upcoming draft? How long did it take for Swann and Stallworth to win a Super Bowl after they were drafted?
ANSWER: I believe the Steelers need to add a starting-caliber wide receiver during this offseason, and I see them trying to accomplish that via the draft. But in 1974, the Steelers used that draft to add two starting-caliber wide receivers, and they did just that by picking Lynn Swann in the first round and John Stallworth in the fourth round. Both of them ended up being elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I just don't see the Steelers using two of their draft picks on wide receivers this time around, because there are other areas of their roster that need to be addressed. Swann and Stallworth were drafted in 1974, and at the end of that season the Steelers won Super Bowl IX, their first of four during the decade of the 1970s.
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OCTAVIO MARTÍNEZ FROM MEXICO CITY, MEXICO: Comes to my attention that the Steelers have not officially announced the signing of Justin Fields. Is there is a specific reason, perhaps the kind of trade that took Fields to Pittsburgh, that prevents the Steelers from making the official announcement?
ANSWER: You answered your own question. The reason there has been no "official" photo or announcement of Justin Fields' signing with the Steelers is because he was acquired in a trade with the Chicago Bears. In a trade, the team that acquires the player also acquires that player's contract, and Fields' current contract binds him to his team through the 2024 NFL season, with the fifth-year option available that then would bind him to his team through the 2025 season. Fields was not an unrestricted free agent. The "official" photos of contract signings you saw were of players who had to sign a contract to join the Steelers. Justin Fields did not have to sign a contract to join the Steelers.
JEFF FERNANDEZ FROM STOCKTON, CA: I was excited to see that Justin Fields was acquired in a trade, especially with the price tag attached. Now that excitement has turned into concern. I have not seen any acknowledgement or videos of Mr. Fields in the facility or even publicly addressing the Steelers. Has Mr. Fields been in the building yet?
ANSWER: Two things: It's very possible that it has been the Steelers' decision not to make a huge deal out of the acquisition of Justin Fields, because it's very likely he will be just a backup in 2024; and the other thing to consider is that the offseason program doesn't begin for Steelers players until April 15. Today is April 4. There has been no reason for Fields, or any other players, to be in the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex yet.
TODD GOODING FROM PORTAGE, MI: Could you shed some light on the year (1993) and which players were involved in the in-season negotiations that may have been responsible for bringing us to the current no negotiating policy in-season?
ANSWER: If I was to point to the individuals most responsible for Dan Rooney deciding there would be no more in-season negotiations of player contract extensions, I would give you Donald Evans and Adrian Cooper. In 1992, Bill Cowher's inaugural season as the Steelers' coach, the team finished 11-5, won the AFC Central Division title and were the conference's No. 1 seed in the playoffs. During that season, Evans started all 16 games as a 3-4 defensive end, and he finished fourth on the team (first among defensive linemen) in tackles and tied with Gerald Williams for first among defensive linemen with 3 sacks. Then in 1993, Evans finished with 6.5 sacks, but as the season progressed his displeasure with not getting the kind of contract extension he believed he deserved became an increasing distraction for a team that was 6-3 after a dominating Monday Night Football win over defending AFC Champion Buffalo before losing 4-of-6 and dropping out of the division race. In 1992, Cooper became the team's No. 1 tight end when Eric Green was serving a 4-game in-season suspension for violating the NFL's drug policy, and he finished with 16 catches for 197 yards (12.3 average) and 3 touchdowns that tied for the team lead in that category. In 1993, with Green back on the field, Cooper disappeared from the offense, with just 9 catches and no touchdowns during a period when the only noise he made was complaining about his contract. Dan Rooney's displeasure was evident in the fact that neither Evans nor Cooper was with the team in 1994, and the ban on in-season contract negotiations was put into place.
CHRIS LIPPART FROM ST. ROBERT, MO: I just saw where Brock Purdy almost doubled his salary with incentives. My question: Is that figured into last year's salary cap or this year's salary cap?
ANSWER: San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy was paid $870,000 in salary in 2023 as part of the contract he signed as a rookie, and he received an additional $739,795 as part of the NFL's Performance-Based Pay program. Beginning with the 2002 Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NFL and the NFLPA instituted a program that created a fund to supplement the salaries of players earning a smaller contract who earned significant playing time on the field. Steelers left tackle Dan Moore Jr. also was a player who received a nice check ($740,319) as part of the Performance-Based Pay program that was in addition to his contracted salary of $940,000 for the 2023 season. Funds distributed through the Performance-Based Pay program do not count on a team's salary cap.
CHUCK MILLER FROM GREEN ISLAND, NY: I recently read that the Steelers participated in a 1960s game called the Playoff Bowl, which at the time determined the NFL's third-place team. What can you tell me about the Steelers' appearance in the Playoff Bowl?
ANSWER: The game that commonly became known as the Playoff Bowl was invented by Commissioner Bert Bell as a way to fund the players' pension fund. The game originally was called the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, and it debuted in January 1961. It was held at the Orange Bowl in Miami. Players on the winning team were paid in the neighborhood of $1,200 apiece. The first Playoff Bowl was played on Jan. 7, 1961, it matched Cleveland from the Eastern Conference vs. Detroit from the Western Conference, and it generated $40,000 for the players' retirement fund, largely because of the $75,000 that CBS paid to televise the game. And the fact the Playoff Bowl was scheduled for a week or two after the NFL Championship Game made it clear it was more of an exhibition than a typical playoff game.
The Steelers lone appearance in the Playoff Bowl came at the end of the 1962 season, and they qualified as a 9-5 team that finished second in the Eastern Conference to the New York Giants. In the game, the Steelers lost, 17-10, to the Detroit Lions, who finished second in the Western Conference to Green Bay, which won the NFL Championship with a 16-7 victory over the Giants.
During the 1960s, Vince Lombardi's Packers won 3 NFL Championships and the first two Super Bowls, and it's not surprising that he was not a fan of the Playoff Bowl, especially in the years his team qualified for the game. When Lombardi's Packers lost the Playoff Bowl, 24-17, at the end of the 1963 season, he was quoted as calling it the "Leftover Bowl" and "a hinky-dinky football game, held in a hinky-dinky town, played by hinky-dinky players."
He later called it "a game for losers played by losers."
But according to a story in The Washington Post, the exhibition that was the Playoff Bowl "became one of television's top sports draws. Nearly 18 million homes tuned in to the January 1964 contest that matched Cleveland vs. Green Bay, outpacing that year's NFL Thanksgiving Day game and Game 2 of baseball's World Series."
Anyone interested in seeing highlights from the Steelers' appearance in the Playoff Bowl can go to YouTube.com and enter 1962 Playoff Bowl in the search box.
ALEX AUKSCUNAS FROM FORT EDWARD, NY: Dale Lolley recently posted that the Steelers had players make 4 pre-draft visits. Two of those four players were from Pitt, and so he said they don't count against the 30 pre-draft visits allowed to each team. What makes the visit of a college player "local?" Can a team visit with as many players as they want from that college or colleges?
ANSWER: The NFL designates which colleges are considered "local" to each franchise for the purposes of pre-draft visits, and it should not be surprising that geography is a significant factor in those designations. There is not a limit on how many "local" visits are allowed during the pre-draft process, but it also should be remembered that teams don't have an unlimited amount of time to spend on this process. There has to be a purpose to every visit.
JOE RIHN FROM PITTSBURGH, PA: If the Steelers decide to move up in the draft for a quarterback, do you see them trading Justin Fields plus picks to draft one? Or just trade picks?
ANSWER: The Steelers are not going to trade Justin Fields to move up in the upcoming draft to select a quarterback. That's just not going to happen. And neither is the team going to be interested in spending draft capital looking to add a quarterback who is not much more than a fourth arm for training camp, because the depth chart there already contains three veterans with NFL regular season starting experience.
