On Sports: Steelers near bottom of NFL skill-position rankings; Bengals' Tee Higgins locked in 1-year deal

You’re not the only one unimpressed by the group of “skill position” players on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense.

It being the height of football media’s “list season” (a dead period before training camps open), ESPN’s Bill Barnwell released his annual “Ranking NFL team WR, TE, RB talent for 2024 season,” a published piece listed all 32 teams’ groups of “weapons” for their quarterback and coordinator has to work with.

It might not come as a surprise that the Steelers did not rank highly. They were at No. 26. That’s down significantly from 13th last year and 12th in 2022.

From the rationale on the Steelers’ ranking: “Pin it on Kenny Pickett, Matt Canada, Mitch Trubisky, Mike Tomlin or whomever else you want, but this offense simply wasn’t good enough last season. Its most efficient receiver was Diontae Johnson, who was traded to Carolina. The Steelers’ most consistent playmaker was backup running back Jaylen Warren, who was forced to play behind disappointing first-round pick Najee Harris in the new version of the battles between Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard in Dallas and Austin Ekeler and Melvin Gordon with the Chargers. It took both teams too long to make the change to the more productive back, although Pittsburgh did decline Harris’ fifth-year option after a third middling season.”

The Elliott/Pollard and Gordon/Ekeler situations are such apt parallels to what the Steelers find themselves in at running back that I am annoyed I did not think of them first. Like Harris, Elliott and Gordon were first-round picks. Ekeler joins Warren as an undrafted player; Pollard was a fourth-round pick.

Anyway, Barnwell goes on to praise Pickens but in the process manages to fire a shot at Steelers handpicked new coordinator: “I’m still optimistic about Pickens — even amid the real-life specter of coordinator Arthur Smith deciding to build the offense around Cordarrelle Patterson and MyCole Pruitt — but I’m wondering how he will evolve.

“(I)t sure looks and feels like Pickens-or-bust for the Pittsburgh passing game.”

The Steelers’ AFC North foes all rank higher: The Bengals at No. 11, the Ravens 15th and the Browns No. 20.

One final negative nugget aimed at the Steelers came in the write-up of the Carolina Panthers, who came in at No. 28 but had a more optimistic tone — largely because of a former Steeler: “ Trading cut candidate Donte Jackson for Diontae Johnson was a nifty move, with the former Steelers wideout averaging more than 2.0 yards per route run in a broken offense when healthy a year ago.”

A veteran, Jackson is expected to start at outside cornerback for the Steelers opposite Joey Porter Jr. in 2024.

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To a Tee

Speaking of that Bengals’ ranking, it’s down significantly from No. 2 in 2023 and the top spot the year prior. And it could plummet further by next year in light of that No. 2 WR Tee Higgins appears destined for free agency.

But at least Higgins is playing in 2024. Higgins signed his franchise tag tender last month. Monday, though, was the deadline for the Bengals to rip that up and agree to a multiyear extension for one of the best WR2’s in football. That did not happen, so Higgins will likely be on the market in March.

Higgins will play 2024 on the $21.8 million tag, the second-highest on the Bengals behind quarterback Joe Burrow and 11th-highest among wide receivers in the league (per spotrac.com). Eight receivers, as things stand now, are set to earn more cash than Higgins in 2024.

But with the market for WRs exploding this offseason, it is expected Higgins could cash in at a much higher rate than that in free agency.

The other eight players tagged by their teams this spring all signed extensions, including Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. getting $70 million over three years.

Here’s a reminder that Pickens’ time for an extension with the Steelers comes over this coming offseason.

Century club

We’re not done with ESPN lists.

This one borders on eye-rolling in its clichéd nature and almost-comical breadth of scope: an attempt to rank the top 100 professional athletes of this century.

I suppose the rationale is that the 21st century is one-fourth complete after this year? But think about the subjectivity involved. And of course, ESPN couldn’t leave it at even merely American sports (or sports most Americans are familiar with), so in its initial release of Nos. 76-100 there are several athletes few reading the list had likely even ever heard of (with all due respect to fans of Kohei Uchimura and Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce).

But, hey, this is a slow season for On Sports (or is it First Call?) too. So let’s take a look.

The lone local connection so far comes at No. 96 — Aliquippa native and former Pitt star Darrelle Revis, the longtime NFL cornerback who has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

From the piece: Revis took man-to-man coverage to a new level in 2009 when the Jets’ coaching staff made the unconventional decision to put him on the opponents’ top receiver with no safety help. He was on his own island, so to speak, spawning the “Revis Island” moniker. The result was one of the best cornerback seasons in history.”

The only footnote to glean when considering the inclusion of Pittsburgh’s pro teams is that it would seem unlikely that Troy Polamalu will be on it. A Hall of Fame safety, from a national perspective Polamalu has tended to more often than not seem at his position rank a notch below contemporaries Ed Reed and Charles Woodson.

Those two were the final two athletes on the list: Reed at No. 99 and Woodson 100th. A reasonable case could be made that Polamalu might be ahead of both. But into the top 75? That seems farfetched.

After all — pfft! — Troy is not among the likes of Virat Kohli (No. 97)!