One-quarter of the NFL season is in the books and so we are going to dig into where this team is through four games. First up on our assessment in the first turn is our Pittsburgh Steelers stock report. Which guys have improved their stock with the team and which ones are losing ground?
Stock up
LB Bud Dupree-Dupree is working in the last year of his contract and through four games seems to be much more focused and playing with better fundamentals. He already has two sacks and seems poised to have his best season yet.
RB Jaylen Samuels-Despite having zero touches in week three, Samuels is establishing himself as a near-equal counterpart to James Conner. In fact, a case could be made his all-around game is actually better than Conners.
K Chris Boswell-After a miserable 2018 season, Boswell has completely rebounded in 2019. He has yet to miss a kick and looks like he’s put his injury and whatever mental block he was dealing with completely behind him.
QB Mason Rudolph-It was an unenviable position for Rudolph to come in and replace Ben Roethlisberger. But all things considered, Rudolph has done well in two and a half games. We expect him to continue to improve as the season goes on.
Stock down
OT Alejandro Villanueva-Against speed rushers, Villanueva has proven to struggle this season. No one should be terribly surprised about this but it really seems like Villanueva is really missing Mike Munchak a lot.
OT Matt Feiler-Everything I wrote about Villaneuva could apply to Feiler. He’s another guy who seems to have taken a big step back without Munchak to work with him.
All the Steelers tight ends-The tight end position has been a nightmare all season long. Vance McDonald has been injured and underused and the situation became so dire, the Steelers spent a third-round pick on a backup tight end and had to immediately plug him into the starting lineup.
The Steelers coaching staff-In the Steelers three losses the playcalling and scheme have been woeful. Most coaching staffs would kill to have the list of first-round picks on this team but this group continues to underutilize them.
