Let's get to it:
EDITOR'S NOTE: All 16 games during Week 18 of the 2023 regular season currently are listed as TBD, and it's expected the NFL will notify teams of the date and time of their Week 18 game following the conclusion of the Week 17 schedule. On Week 17, there is no Monday night game, and so the announcement on the Week 18 schedule should come no later than the conclusion of Green Bay at Minnesota, which is scheduled for an 8:20 p.m. kickoff on Sunday, Dec. 31. On Week 18, there will be two games played on Saturday, Jan. 6 – one at 4:30 p.m. and the other at 8:15 p.m. – and then on Sunday, there will be some games scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff, others scheduled for a 4:25 p.m. kickoff, and the regular season finale will be scheduled for an 8:20 p.m. kickoff
JASON PRASTER FROM SAN ANTONIO, TX: Let's say T.J. Watt finishes the season leading the league in sacks and wins the Defensive Player of the Year Award again. Are there any incentives within his current contract that allow him to be paid extra money for winning such an award or even being voted All-Pro or to the Pro Bowl?
ANSWER: On Sept. 9, 2021, T.J. Watt signed a 4-year, $112 million contract that included a $35.6 million signing bonus and total guaranteed money of $80 million. In 2023, Watt's base salary is $20 million. When a team and a player come to an agreement on that kind of a contract, it's because the player is among the elite at his position throughout the entire league. You think he should be paid extra for performance? T.J. Watt expects to perform to those levels you list in your submission. There are no performance bonuses in Watt's contract, as reported by Spotrac.com.
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KEITH MILLER FROM CANTON, NC: It appears that game plans are done during the week leading up to a game. Do the Steelers have anyone who does any preparation before that? Seems to me that a full-time coach spending 40 hours a week looking at future opponents would have a preliminary game plan in place.
ANSWER: Sounds plausible in theory, but the reality is that things change, and sometimes change dramatically, from week to week in the NFL. For example, let's pretend the Bengals had dedicated a full-time coach spending 40 hours a week to prepare for the team's upcoming game against the Steelers on Dec. 23. If said employee had been working on this future game plan even a couple weeks in advance, his work would've included a plan on how Cincinnati's offense was going to attack a secondary that had Minkah Fitzpatrick and Damontae as the starting safeties. That plan also would've have dealt with defending a Steelers offense quarterbacked by Mitch Trubisky. But then six days before the game, Kazee gets ejected and then suspended for the rest of the regular season because of a hit on a Colts receiver, Fitzpatrick injures a knee on the next play, and Trubisky gets pulled for performance and replaced by Mason Rudolph. How valuable would that "advance game plan" be at that point?
RYAN PELLEGRINO FROM ACWORTH, GA: Question about the drop-kick extra point. I have watched a few games this year, where the team's placekicker got injured and the coach would just attempt a 2-point conversion. Is it still possible to use the punter for a drop-kick extra point?
ANSWER: It not against the rules, but I think it's unrealistic to believe that every team's punter is capable of executing a drop-kick from the 23-yard line for an extra point. It's much more likely a team could put its offense on the field and run a play from the 2-yard line that could get the ball into the end zone.
AUSTIN KEENER FROM AKRON, OH: Is there any update regarding Cole Holcomb? I have not found any official details of his injury and given how severe it appeared to be, is it possible that we do not see him on the field next season?
ANSWER: Because Cole Holcomb is on the injured reserve list, the Steelers are not required by the NFL to provide injury updates. A prognosis at this stage of the process is often inaccurate, and since there is no "right to know" it serves no purpose to issue one except to satisfy the public's curiosity. "Next season" in terms of on-field football activity doesn't begin until OTAs, which usually begin in late May. Maybe some indication of whether the Steelers are counting on Holcomb for the 2024 season will be indicated by how the team treats the inside linebacker position in the draft.
RON PROLEIKA FROM CHARLOTTE, NC: I was thinking you might get some comments from people sharing first-hand experiences of NFL fans rushing the field based on the question submitted by Rich Hetrik of Chicago for the Dec. 28 Asked and Answered, and so here's mine:
Our family moved from Pennsylvania to the Tampa Bay area in 1976 and became season ticket holders for the new NFL franchise. We went to every miserable home game during their 0-26 start. The Buccaneers finally broke that streak by beating the Saints on the road, and I was fortunate enough to be at the very last game of the 1977 season where they finally won a home game. The St. Louis Cardinals fell to the Bucs, and the fans rushed the field like the Bucs had just won the Super Bowl. The goalposts were torn down and carried around the field. It was quite a memorable experience for a 12-year-old boy. I can't recall ever seeing anything like that anywhere else other than the Immaculate Reception and in college football.
ANSWER: The way those early Buccaneers played in their first couple of NFL seasons, maybe the fans actually thought they were watching a college game.
TOM SNEDEKER FROM ARLINGTON, VA: After reading the Dec. 28 Asked and Answered, I thought you might find something interesting related to the question about storming the field. I was at the Steelers-Jets game at Shea Stadium on Dec 10, 1983. This was Terry Bradshaw's final game with the Steelers, because he reinjured his elbow and couldn't play in the regular season finale in Cleveland or in the Divisional Round Game two weeks later against the Raiders in Los Angeles. While we crushed the Jets, 34-7, it also happened to be the final Jets game at Shea Stadium, because they were moving to Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands the next season. As the game ended, the crowd stormed the field and proceeded to tear down both goalposts, rip up most of the sod, and those who were able to jump up and down hard enough on the seat bottoms, cracked them off and tried to take them home as souvenirs. Two of us were there with my friend's dad, and while he would not let us go on the field, we stayed and watched the spectacle. It was wild.
ANSWER: I remember Tunch Ilkin, who started at left tackle vs. the Jets, telling stories about how there was a makeshift jail under the stands at Shea Stadium where police were holding many of the vandals. Wild indeed.
