While I’m giving myself a vacation from delivering NCAA Tournament picks, I can’t help but notice that Purdue lands in a very healthy motivational spot. Last year, they became only the second team in NCAA Basketball Tournament history to lose an opening game against a team seeded 16th. The key players in that upset loss are back this year.
Just from where I’m sitting, Purdue and Connecticut appear likely foes in the title game on April 8.
Now back to the National Football League, where this best reality show in the world has sent us into the 2024 campaign with a flurry of interesting developments. The bold moves promise to affect which team emerges from the season with the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
A year ago, I thought the Steelers had found their quarterback of the future. Rookie Kenny Pickett, the first quarterback chosen in the first round by Pittsburgh since they selected Ben Roethlisberger with the tenth overall selection in 2004, appeared on the precipice of being a solid franchise quarterback. Pickett flourished in the second half of his first season to keep Mike Tomlin’s career record of all winning seasons, now a record 17, intact. He seemed to have both the skillset and that intangible element that adds a winning attitude to the equation.
Today, one year later, Pickett is penciled in as the backup in Philadelphia. The Eagles acquired him from the Steelers while Tomlin added two new quarterbacks to work with in Pittsburgh. The Steelers acquired Russell Wilson from the Denver Broncos and Justin Fields from the Chicago Bears.
It is not the first attempt by the Steelers to milk some of the talent the Bears expected when they made a quarterback their first round draft choice. Seven years ago, it was Mitch Trubisky who they selected eight picks in front of the Kansas City Chiefs choosing Patrick Mahomes in 2017. Trubisky failed in Chicago and was dismal in relief of an injured Pickett last season during his only year in Pittsburgh.
Fields was also a first round quarterback stab that missed in Chicago. While the Steelers had no success with Trubisky, they hope to revive the fortunes of the Bears 2021 first round pick.
Whenever the Steelers do something, it has to be first evaluated from the history of the Pittsburgh organization most often making the right decisions. If the tandem of Russell Wilson and Justin Fields evolves into a partnership that first has Wilson running the bulk of the action on the field, while sharing the quarterback duties with Fields, this could be a dynamic year for the quarterbacks in Pittsburgh. If their relationship develops, as Tomlin might hope, the duo will evolve into the younger Fields getting the majority of the Broncos offensive snaps in seasons to come.
On the negative side, this season could add further evidence that Wilson is done as a top flight quarterback. A third straight losing season would add credence to that assessment. If Wilson is washed up, Fields would probably be inserted as the starter in the second half of this season. If he fails in that role, the Steelers will still be needing to look elsewhere to fill their quarterback slot with franchise talent.
Tomlin’s first choice will be to have Wilson rekindle the kind of play that had him burst on the NFL scene as a Seattle Seahawks third round draft pick out of Wisconsin in 2012. His play during his initial preseason had Wilson beat out highly paid recently acquired quarterback Matt Flynn. In his first three NFL campaigns, Wilson led Seattle to a pair of Super Bowls and a Super Bowl victory.
His brilliance was absent when he was jettisoned to Denver two years ago. Even the addition of a seasoned head coach following the disastrous campaign directed by fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett, failed to revitalized Wilson’s game in Denver. Hackett’s replacement, Sean Payton, was considered a top quarterback coach but his relationship with Wilson didn’t reverse Wilson’s downward spiral.
The results for Russell in 2023 were no better than it had been during his first year-long egg in the Mile High City. This season, Payton stays in Denver, but the quarterback he was initially hired to rehabilitate, is in Pittsburgh. Based on results, Steelers fans will either embrace the Steelers success and hail Wilson or unleash their savage instincts during another dismal campaign for the newly acquired Steelers signal-caller..
As for my basketball observation, the only team, other than last year’s Purdue squad, to open the tournament as a top seed and not make the second round, was the Virginia Cavaliers in 2018. In what would have to be considered a year-long motivational spike carrying that stigma, the Cavaliers bounced from losing to a 16th seed to winning it all in 2019.
This year, Purdue has bounced from that stunning loss to a season that earned them a number one seed in this year’s tournament. They have dominated Grambling State and Utah State in the opening weekend with double-digit wins and point spread covers. Now they face a talented Gonzaga squad, who have a pair of victories while playing out of the fifth seed in the Midwest Region.
Appears to me that Purdue is in a really good spot to cover the 5½ point line Friday in Detroit.