Four games into the Pittsburgh Steelers 2016 season, there have been a considerable amount of surprises, disappointments, and everything in-between. In fact, our NFL picks that were all over the board, are about as busted as a bad March Madness bracket!

In this edition of Duel Opinions, the SCU team came together to discuss those happenings, and which they considered to be the best, or worst, at the quarter poll.

Joe

My biggest surprise is B.J. Finney. The Steelers gave him a huge raise in December; literally unheard of for a practice squad player.

That made us all wonder: what do the coaches know that we don’t?

Well, we found out when Ramon Foster went down, as Finney not only stepped in, but arguably played as well as, or better, than the guy in front of him. For me, that’s about as surprising as it gets: a practice squad player who jumps in on an offensive line that played every snap up until that point, together, for the season.

My biggest disappointment was the Philadelphia game.

I’ve grown accustomed to the Steelers building us up, to only let us down in a road game, but I really felt the defense would’ve been far better than it had been through week 3. Luckily, the Chiefs game washed away most of the bad taste left in my mouth from that miserable performance.

Zac

My biggest surprise thus far is the amount of snaps Artie Burns has already seen. Burns was thought of to be a “sit and learn” project by many, but he has been seeing more playing time as each week goes by. He has had his share of mistakes, like missing tackles for instance, but he is showing clear improvement with each performance as well.

I like what I’m seeing out of the young man. He’s seems to be swimming in the proverbial pool that Butler and Tomlin tossed him in.

My biggest disappointment would have to be the injury bug rearing it’s ugly head again. Guys have stepped up, but we have already seen a decent amount of starters exit the lineup. Most notably Ryan Shazier, Eli Rogers, and Ramon Foster.

Finney is doing real well for Foster, and Dangerfield looked solid last game, but unfortunately, we have still had a lot of injuries early.

Eric

My biggest surprise is Sammie Coates. He made a lot of noise in camp but didn’t seem to do much in the preseason.

I honestly expected Darrius Heyward-Bey to out-snap him.

Out of the gate Coates has played a lot of snaps and played well. This week he even led the team in receptions. Coates is playing much better than I expected and I can’t wait to see how he continues to develop.

My biggest disappointment has been the pass rush. Yes it improved this week versus the Chiefs, but up until then the Steelers had a league-low sack total of 1.

It seemed like a mix of reasons: Butler not sending enough blitzes, Steelers lack of outside linebacker talent, and Cam Heyward being injured. Getting to the quarterback is a vital component for a championship team.

Hopefully the Steelers performance versus the Chiefs is in indication of the direction this defense is headed.

Brian

Biggest Surprise – Jesse James and B.J. Finney.

With regards to James, it’s not that he’s been catching balls, and touchdowns – I would have expected that, rather, it’s that he’s been less of a liability in run/blocking situations than I expected. Yes, they have protected him, and Johnson/Grimble in some situations, but James has played the majority of the offensive snaps, and there have only been a few times you noticed a failure in blocking.

Finney is just a feel good story all-around: from practice squad player to running out the tunnel last Sunday for his first start, he’s out-performing All-Pro’s like David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey (at least according to the weird voodoo sorcerers at Pro Football Focus).

Both have been pleasant surprises.

Biggest Disappointment – The injuries.

We’ve been lucky so far that we’ve been able to manage without guys like Shazier and Foster (and I’ll throw Ladarius Green and Bud Dupree in that mix too). Losing Dupree has really hurt us on the edge, and who knows what a downfield threat like Green would add to the offense.

Add guys like Marcus Gilbert into that mix, and we are starting to really build up a big injury deficit.

All I can say is that I hope we get it out of our system now, and we can find a way to stay relatively healthy down the back stretch.

Terry

Biggest surprise: Sammie Coates and how he has jumped hoops from end of 2015 to replace the suspended Bryant. (His long average on yardage is impressive.)

I’m also surprised at how Le’Veon Bell is answering any questions thrown at him by the media, and not ducking the tough substance questions.

My biggest disappointment? The fans. After one bad game in Philly, they’re ready to bench everyone.

I’m going to add Pouncey to this list: even though he’s back healthy, he’s had a number of bad snaps to Ben, where Ben has had to improvise or recover. He’s showing some rust after returning from injury.

The release of RB Daryl Richardson over Fitzgerald Toussant both surprised and disappointed me. The Steelers did resign Richardown to the practice squad, but I feel he has more value based on his preseason performance than Fitz does.