Let's get to it:
ERIC LONG FROM LOVELAND, OH: You've taught your readers a lot about the games behind the game of football. For example, I don't read mock drafts anymore because it's a waste of time (my wife says to thank you for all the free time I now have during the offseason). Your saying that the Pro Bowl is a popularity contest where up-and-coming players are voted in one year late and old players stay in one year too late (like Justin Tucker being the AFC kicker this year) was really spot-on. Please explain to me how Myles Garrett deserved to win Defensive Player of the Year over T.J. Watt?
ANSWER: Even though the Defensive Player of the Year Award is much more significant than the Pro Bowl, the processes involved in the selection of both is based on a vote, and a vote is intrinsically a popularity contest. Also, I learned long ago that the outcome of every election tells you more about the voters than the candidates. I will leave it up to you and to the other readers of Asked and Answered to decide what the election of Myles Garrett over T.J. Watt reveals about the voters for this Defensive Player of the Year Award. I will stop there, because there was something my mother told me when I was very young – and I too often have ignored as an adult – and that was if you don't have something nice to say, it's better not to say anything at all.
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DUANE HYLAND FROM CLERMONT, FL: When it comes time to vote on T.J. Watt's election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, will those voters hold it against him that he did not win Defensive Player of the Year at least twice more than he has? It seems like he should have won the award over Aaron Donald in 2020 and over Myles Garrett this year, based on actual game statistics.
ANSWER: Jack Ham never was voted Defensive Player of the Year, and Mel Blount, Jack Lambert, and Troy Polamalu each won the award once. All of them are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. My sense is that Hall of Fame voters consider the entirety of a player's career, including whether he was dominant during the era in which he was in the NFL. T.J. Watt has a lot of career remaining before he retires, which means he will have many more opportunities to tell the story that ultimately will be judged by those Hall of Fame voters. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about whether that story will have a happy ending, because it's already well on its way to that kind of conclusion.
AUSTIN JAMISON FROM CHARLOTTE, NC: It's clear the Steelers need to add to the quarterback room. Which veteran quarterback feels like a most likely addition?
ANSWER: Most likely? Mason Rudolph.
RYAN YEDLINSKY FROM LANSING, KS: My friends and I are planning to visit training camp at Saint Vincent College this summer, and I believe you've mentioned in the past that certain players stay in a specific spot after practice to sign autographs? Can you please let us know who normally does that?
ANSWER: I believe you misunderstood what I wrote about autographs at training camp. While there are designated areas for fans to stand to try to get autographs, there are no specific players assigned to those areas on a daily basis. What I have tried to communicate to fans is not to tie getting autographs from specific individuals on specific days to their enjoyment of the experience of being up-close to a group of 90 NFL players competing to earn a spot on a 53-man roster. For fans planning a trip to Saint Vincent College only to get an autograph from a specific player or a specific group of players, I believe most of them will leave disappointed.
EDWARD CABANA FROM NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND: I was listening to the rebroadcasts of the Super Bowls. And in Super Bowl X, it sounded like the game was in the third quarter when there was a run by Dallas running back Robert Newhouse, and he gained enough yardage for a first down. It sounded like it was less than a 1-yard play and the Steelers announcers did not seem to think he got the first down. He said, "If this is called a first down, it'll be a Jesse James call." Was this guy 50 years ahead of his time? What is a Jesse James call?
ANSWER: I'm guessing the voice you heard referring to "a Jesse James call" was color analyst Myron Cope, and that would be his unique way of implying that if the play was ruled a first down, then the Steelers had been robbed. The original Jesse James was the leader of a gang of outlaws in the late 1800s that robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains across the Midwest. The James brothers – Jesse and Frank – were most active as members of their own gang from about 1866 until 1876. Those James brothers not related to tight end Jesse James, whose career with the Steelers spanned 2015-18 and was involved in that infamous non-touchdown catch vs. New England in 2017.
ISRAEL PICKHOLTZ FROM ASHKELON, ISRAEL: What kind of stat accrues to a special teams player who downs a punt at, say, the 5-yard line?
ANSWER: In the situation you describe, the punter is credited with a punt inside the 20-yard line, but there is no corresponding statistic for the player who downed the ball.
GLAUCIO CAFALCHIO FROM TAUBATÉ SP, BRAZIL: The large and fanatic Steelers fan base in Brazil is very excited about the possibility of the Steelers playing in Brazil against the Eagles on Sept. 6, in the very first NFL game in the country. From a Steelers perspective, how do you see it, if it becomes a reality?
ANSWER: It would be a chance for the southern hemisphere chapter of Steelers Nation to support their favorite team.
VICTOR FANKS FROM DANVILLE, IN: How do offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators come up with a playbook? Is it with their previous experience, or just making things up on the fly and then putting it in a book?
ANSWER: A coach doesn't ascend to the role of an NFL offensive or defensive coordinator if he doesn't have a resume that includes schematics. An NFL team isn't going to hire someone for that job who is going to make things up on the fly and then put them in a book.
GLENN SMITH FROM FAYETTEVILLE, NC: I see that a number of teams are over the salary cap. How is that possible when each team is required to be under the cap before the new league year?
ANSWER: What you're seeing at this stage are projections, because the league has not yet informed its teams what the salary cap officially is going to be for the 2024 season because that number hasn't been determined. Also, these projections are taking into account any and all raises that individual players would be getting based on the terms of their contract for the 2024 season. Let's use me as a hypothetical example: Say my salary for the 2023 season was $1 million, and per the terms of my contract, my salary for the 2024 season is to be $2 million. These salary cap projections are assuming that I will still be under contract to the team for the 2024 season and at that $2 million number. But once it comes time for the team to be under the 2024 salary cap number – whatever that number might be – maybe I was cut, or signed to a contract extension that changes my 2024 cap number from $2 million to something that's lower or higher. Currently, Overthecap.com lists the Steelers as being $16.02 million over the 2024 salary cap, and you should view that as nothing more than a rough idea where the team might stand as it gets to work on becoming compliant by the official start of the new league year, which is March 13.
JIM ANDERSON FROM TOLEDO, OH: Why was Canton, Ohio, chosen as the location for the Pro Football Hall of Fame?
ANSWER: This is from profootballhof.com: "The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton, Ohio, for three primary reasons: (1) the American Professional Football Association, later renamed the National Football League, was founded in Canton on Sept. 17, 1920; (2) the Canton Bulldogs were an early pro football power, even before the days of the NFL. They were also the first two-time champion of the NFL, in 1922 and 1923. The great Jim Thorpe, the first big-name athlete to play pro football, played his first pro football with the Bulldogs, starting in 1915; (3) Canton citizens early in the 1960s launched a determined and well-organized campaign to earn the site designation for their city. The National Football League awarded the site for the Hall of Fame to Canton in 1961. Groundbreaking for the original construction took place on Aug. 11, 1962, and the Hall opened its doors for the first time on Sept. 7, 1963. Four expansions were completed over the years (1971, 1978, 1995 and 2012-13) that have resulted in the museum growing from its original 19,000 square feet to today's 118,000-square-foot football facility."
