The Steelers Signed Eric Ebron And I Don't Know How To Feel About It
Eric Ebron is your newest Pittsburgh Steeler. He's coming to town on a 2-year, $12 million deal according to NFL Network's Ian Rappoport.
The second wave of free agency is always big for the Steelers.
Rarely do they make big splashes early on. Kind of part of the "Steelers Way" even though Kevin Colbert has been more willing to make trades as of late.
But I'm torn on the news of Ebron. Mostly because I was up close and personal for his last two years with the Colts in Indianapolis.
2018 Ebron was the top-10 pick matchup problem that he was pegged to be coming out of the draft. He thrived with Andrew Luck and was putting up six what felt like every other time he touched it.
2019 Ebron (and for the sake of the argument the rest of his career with Detroit) was nothing but frustration about the potential of a guy like this and why he can't hang on to the damn ball.
He faded heavily in 2019 not only on the field, but off of it, too. It's been reported that Andrew Luck was not too fond of Ebron's work ethic before he retired, and Chris Ballard basically said to read between the lines about how Ebron's 2019 season ended.
To sum it up, they felt like he quit on them after making the decision to get surgery on his ankles and cut his own season short.
Change of scenery can be nice. Hell, the Steelers did that successfully with one of the Colts wide receivers last year when Deon Cain got picked up in November.
Dude couldn't touch the field for the Colts yet he comes to Pittsburgh and is making contested 20+ yard catches and drawing pass interference penalties.
Hopefully it'll be the same with Ebron. He does provide the middle of the field / redzone matchup problem. Like I said it was proven in 2018. Dude was a touchdown machine. And lord knows the Steelers did everything in their power NOT to score in the redzone last year after having the best redzone offense in the league in 2018.
Yes, I do realize Duck Hodges and Mason Rudolph were the quarterbacks which obviously fucks all of that up.
But even then whenever it was thrown his way, no matter how wide open he was, you were always holding your breath a bit.
In short, this signing is simple - pair Ebron up with Big Ben and hope it sparks the 2018 version of himself to have a real impact on this offense, or he fades into "just a guy" all over again Limas Sweed style.
Pray to God it's the former.