Mar 16, 2026
NFLThe NotebookPittsburghChicagoBaltimoreLas VegasMinneapolisNew Orleans
McCarthy's roster additions say everything about the offense he wants to run. The quarterback question is still open. And Indiana just signed a stadium bill that changed the conversation in Springfield.
Week two of free agency opened Monday without the quarterback question in Pittsburgh being answered, and I want to spend this morning talking about why that unanswered question is the most interesting story in the league right now. Here is what Pittsburgh has done in the first week and a half of the new league year: they traded for Michael Pittman Jr. from Indianapolis and signed him to a three-year, $59 million contract. They signed Rico Dowdle, who rushed for 1,076 yards in Carolina last season, as their primary back. They re-signed Cameron Heyward on a two-year extension. They brought in Jamel Dean from Tampa Bay for the secondary. Pittman, notably, played under Mike McCarthy in Dallas.
Continue reading →Mar 16, 2026
NFLFrom the TrenchesPittsburgh
The tape on Pittman is about anticipation, not athleticism. The tape on Dowdle is about patience and contact balance. Put them together and the offense has a very specific shape.
Pittsburgh added three players this week and the football conversation has been almost entirely about Aaron Rodgers. I understand why. But I want to have the other conversation — the one about what Michael Pittman Jr. and Rico Dowdle actually do on a football field, and what their presence tells you about what Mike McCarthy intends to run. Pull the Indianapolis film from the last two seasons and watch Pittman on routes at 10 to 14 yards. He is not a field-stretcher. He has never been a field-stretcher. What he is — and what the tape shows consistently across four seasons — is a receiver who wins the contested catch at the second level, who holds position on curls against off coverage, and who delivers after the catch in tight spaces. He is 6-4, 223 pounds, and he runs through would-be tacklers at the second level consistently enough that it registers as a pattern, not an outlier. The yards after contact numbers are real and they are the result of how he runs routes, not just how big he is.
Continue reading →Mar 16, 2026
NFLFirst & TenNew OrleansPittsburghBaltimoreLas VegasAtlanta
The kid from Jennings, Louisiana signed with New Orleans on Friday. Georgia opens spring practice tomorrow. Pittsburgh's quarterback question is coming. Ten things to watch this week.
Travis Etienne is home. I want to say that again, because I think some people read that transaction line on Friday afternoon and moved on to the next item. Travis Etienne — the kid from Jennings, Louisiana, who drove two hours to Baton Rouge to play college football, who became one of the best running backs in the country, who got drafted by Jacksonville and played five years in Florida — signed with the New Orleans Saints and is going home.
Continue reading →Mar 16, 2026
NFLPittsburgh
A possession receiver, a downhill back, a retained defensive anchor. The quarterback question remains open. The roster additions are not ambiguous about what they're waiting for.
The picture of what Mike McCarthy intends to build in Pittsburgh has taken shape over the first week and a half of free agency, with a collection of acquisitions that function as a philosophical statement about how the organization's new head coach intends to play the game. Pittsburgh acquired wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. from Indianapolis in a trade and signed him to a three-year, $59 million contract. Pittman played under McCarthy in Dallas and represents a specific receiver profile: 6-4, physically dominant at the second level, effective on intermediate timing routes when the quarterback delivers on schedule. The Steelers also signed running back Rico Dowdle, who rushed for 1,076 yards in Carolina last season, and brought in cornerback Jamel Dean from Tampa Bay. Defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, 35, was retained on a two-year, $32.25 million extension with $16.25 million fully guaranteed.
Continue reading →Mar 11, 2026
NFLBaltimorePittsburghCincinnatiCleveland
The division's combined window commitment was the largest in recent history. Four organizations, four philosophies, all reaching their conclusions in the same eighteen hours.
The AFC North emerged as the most active division in the final twenty-four hours of the negotiating window, with all four organizations reporting agreements that combined represent the largest single-day divisional commitment in the window's recent history. Baltimore's additions concentrated on the secondary. The Ravens added two cornerbacks in the window's final hours, addressing what their coaching staff had identified as the defensive unit's primary exposure point last season. Baltimore's organizational approach has consistently been to address diagnosed weaknesses through the first wave of free agency rather than paying the premium that the draft demands when need is transparent. The additions are consistent with that pattern.
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