Kovacevic: A week away from Latrobe, a lot of words on these Steelers

No, the roster's not done.

Now exactly a week away from the Steelers' first formal workday at Saint Vincent College, and with seemingly every spot at least solid on the positional depth chart -- save one, and I'll get to that -- it'd appear that Omar Khan's summer of retooling or reloading or however the execs on South Water Street care to classify it ... it'd appear to be case closed.

No way, I say. 

Oh, I could poke away at a possible shortcoming here or there. Or I could go macro and pine for any number of mega-receivers and build them up as being vital needs as opposed to luxuries. But none of that's necessary when I can simply point toward the Steelers' very un-Steelers-like $15.9 million in remaining cap space, the NFL's 17th-highest such figure, and wonder aloud where that might be allotted.

Here's where it won't be allotted: 2025. Because, although Khan's going to have to pay a quarterback the going rate at some stage of his GMing career, it wouldn't impact him in 2025, when the Steelers' cap space will be -- sit down for this -- $89.6 million, the league's third-highest such figure. That'll buy a whole lotta quarterback, with FuelPerks galore left over. So carrying over any unused cap space from 2024 to 2025, which is allowed in the NFL, doesn't make for much of a plan. Not when the best and brightest on this team's defense are teetering toward the wrong end of the age spectrum.

Khan's going to spend it. And he'll spend it, I believe, on a wide receiver of at least reasonable impact. Doesn't need to be Brandon Aiyuk, who strikes me as unserious in his public pecking with the 49ers while the player and team are known to be only a couple million apart in salary. Doesn't need to be DK Metcalf, who's a pipe-dream scenario at best. Doesn't need to be anyone who arrives with some mindblowing wow factor, honestly. But it's got to be someone capable of filling a No. 1-2 capacity, even if just temporarily.

Look at it this way: George Pickens will be the lone No. 1-2 to take the field in Atlanta for the opener. That's not being mean. That's just reminding that the others would be Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson or anyone else on the current chart, and those are all No. 3-4 types as this is being typed. Maybe they'll build themselves up in Latrobe. I like them both. I like Austin a lot. But not nearly enough is known about either while there's still time to address it.

It's unfathomable to me that Khan and/or Mike Tomlin would be fine not upgrading while, at the same time, carrying all that extra cash around with no cause.

• To that one non-solid spot, I'm referring, of course, to whichever slot corner might replace Cam Sutton through the eight games he'll miss to an NFL suspension for domestic violence. Beanie Bishop, an undrafted free agent out of West Virginia, had an encouraging summer, but that's placing a ton of trust in someone walking into the NFL off the street. More's needed.

• Just going to blurt this out: I hate, hate, hate that the league's investigation of Sutton contributed so much as a sliver of credence to the March 7 scene between him and his girlfriend of seven years and mother of three children, as described in an affidavit from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Florida, published in the Tampa Bay Times: "Sutton picked up the woman and slammed her into a wall, then bit her on the neck, leaving a quarter-sized abrasion that bled. Sutton then grabbed the woman by the face and neck and choked her, causing her to briefly lose consciousness."

I don't care that charges weren't pressed. That's common in such events, often with tragic outcomes. I do care that the NFL's independent investigation found enough evidence within that scenario to suspend a player for half a season. And I definitely care that the Steelers are comfortable boasting of having some of the league's strongest support from women ... 

... while welcoming Sutton back without having spoken barely a syllable to their fans on the subject.

That's not OK. That's got to change.

• I've accepted Tomlin's 'pole position' assessment of Russell Wilson's status as starting quarterback. But that position can't equate to the checkered flag if Justin Fields were to somehow lap him at Saint Vincent. If there's any facet of this team's positional judgment that's fair to call into question, it's at the quarterback position. Tomlin didn't have to deal with that for the better part of two decades, and almost all of his tests since Ben Roethlisberger's retirement -- notably not realizing what he had in Mason Rudolph -- have been graded Fs.

Open eyes. Open minds.

And Wilson carrying himself like the starter, as he does, shouldn't count in the slightest.

• The greatest single challenge in this upcoming camp will be a shared burden between two men, as Arthur Smith and Pat Meyer will have to work together to craft real chemistry and reliability in an offensive line that'll almost certainly carry two rookie starters in Troy Fautanu and Zach Frazier, plus a second-year starter in Broderick Jones lined up on the left full-time for the first time. 

Now weigh into that having not one but two mobile, mostly unpredictable quarterbacks, and the blocking could be more contrived than anything that group dealt with in Kenny Pickett's occasional panic-scrambles to the left. In fact, I'll bet this becomes a top-three issue on the team before camp breaks, but for sure once the exhibitions get going. So many moving parts. So much uncertainty.

• Another issue that'll materialize, only in the positive: Najee Harris, down 10 pounds to add quickness, will hit the edge as never before in the NFL. And I doubt that's a coincidence. No way an athlete with that much pride could've enjoyed watching Jaylen Warren do that repeatedly while he was relegated to thumping through the middle.

• Never to be lost amid even the most rightful fuss over wide receiver is that this remains the Year of Pat Freiermuth. And it'll be a blast. I'm an all-in buyer on this.

• My other all-in buy at this prenatal point is the defense as a whole. And I could put forth a bunch of PFF-sounding data to back that, but I'll instead settle for this elegant Patrick Queen sack from 2023:

And these 10 full minutes, because it feels immoral to show less, of Payton Wilson from college:

Inside linebackers as far as the stopwatch can time them.

You're welcome.

• Sources inform me that T.J. Watt's been refining a new rush technique in which he'll stop an inch or two shy of the quarterback, the better to give himself a chance at DPOY.

• Whatever happened to Cam Heyward being a malcontent?

That was way more amusing than the real Cam.

• My goodness, this franchise makes so much money. No one talks about it, for whatever reason, but it's so true.

The Packers, forever owned by their fans, are required each year to release their finances, and that occurred yesterday, giving the annual glimpse to what all 32 teams experience. In this report, they received $402.3 million in national revenue, which collects all national TV and broadcasting rights, league-wide sponsorships, merchandise sales, other licensing and more. 

Which means, of course, that the Steelers collected $402.3 million before counting a penny from anything related to Acrisure Stadium. Which is ... wild.

• It's also something to keep in mind, by the way, when bemoaning how much the athletes can make. All they're getting is their fair share of a gargantuan pie.

• I'm stoked. Not going to lie.

There's a special level of excitement that accompanies the arrival of football to Pittsburgh. Not to take anything from Sidney Crosby or now Paul Skenes, certainly, but when the mailman bolts into our HQ/shop Downtown barking out, 'HEY, WE GOT DIRTY RED BACK!' because she can literally relay Tyler Matakevich's special teams history here ... yeah, here we (almost) go.

• Thanks for reading!

• And for listening: