Daily Links: Bettis Puts Struggles on Steelers Offense, Heyward Talks HOF

Steelers legend and Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis agreed 100% with Colin Cowherd that Mike Tomlin deserves fair criticism for making mistakes and missing on the offensive side of the ball. “Ninety percent of the NFL the strength of your football team is going to be your offense,” Bettis said. “We look at this team and they’ve got the pieces to be special. They’ve got a great tight end, they got two wide receivers, they got a running back, a quarterback. … The question mark is what type of offense are we and it’s been a question mark for the last three years.” 

While he wants to see more points from the offense, Bettis was impressed with what Pickett showcased in Year 1. “I like him because we saw in the last four weeks of the season his development and he started to go out and win football games,” Bettis said. “That’s a hard thing to do in the NFL for a young quarterback to go out on the last drive of the game and drive your team down the field to a winning touchdown or field goal and he did it four times at the end of the year. You got to be special to do that.”

Minus Three Podcast: Cam Heyward thinks he’s bound for Canton. “I do. I think I’m on track. I’m not running away from that. My goal is to one day have a Super Bowl and be able to say I’m in the Hall of Fame,” Heyward told Dave Dameshek.

Pro Football Talk: T.J. Watt believes the sky’s the limit for George Pickens. “George Pickens is one of those guys that’s like, I don’t know if he understands how good he is,” Watt told Peter King at the Super Bowl. “It’s like holy cow — some of the things you see in practice. But it’s also on top of that, it’s the little things. Like finishing plays, running — he can run for days.”

Pat McAfee Show: At this point of his career, T.J. Watt just wants to win a Super Bowl ring. “I wanna do whatever it takes to win and I feel like the time is now for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Watt said on the Pat McAfee Show.

93.7 The Fan: Longtime NFL analyst Greg Cosell also gave high praise to Pickens: “George Pickens has the talent to be a top-five wide receiver in the NFL,” Cosell said.

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber was one of the nine selections to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023. Barber joins strong safety John Lynch from the Buccaneers early 2000s secondary to make the Hall of Fame. Mike Tomlin was Tampa Bay’s defensive backs coach from 2001-2005. The 2002 Buccaneers Super Bowl defense now has four Hall of Famers — Barber, John Lynch, Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp.

Pro Football Talk: Mike Florio has an answer for why Brian Flores withdrew for the Arizona Cardinals head coaching search and accepted the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator position. According to Florio, with the Vikings scrambling to hire a defensive coordinator, if he had waited for a final answer from the Cardinals, he may have been out of luck.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler said on 93.7 The Fan that he doubts the Steelers would keep Mitch Trubisky at his current cap hit. The Steelers would save $8 million in cap space if they released or traded Trubisky.

Pro Football Talk: Former Steelers player, 49ers executive Paul Martha died on Saturday in Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh announced. He was 80. The Steelers selected the University of Pittsburgh product in the first round of the 1964 draft. As a safety, he made 21 interceptions, 10 forced fumbles and nine fumble recoveries in his seven-year career.

Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre sued ex-NFL players and sports talk hosts Shannon Sharpe and Pat McAfee over “defamatory allegations” relating to a $77 million welfare fraud scheme in Mississippi.

Najee Harris was with fellow Alabama legend Joe Namath at the NFL Honors awards show.

Built by Bama ✨

📺: #NFLHonors tonight at 9 PM ET on NBC/NFLN pic.twitter.com/R3soMkBl0v

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) February 10, 2023

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AROUND THE NETWORK

Pittsburgh Sports Now: Damar Hamlin was a surprise guest at the 2022 NFL Honors show in Phoenix on Thursday. Pitt and Aliquippa great Darrell Revis was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Tristan Jarry returned to practice for the Penguins on Thursday.

West Virginia Sports Now: Former WVU quarterback Geno Smith won the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

Nittany Sports Now: Micah Shrewsberry is the right guy, but this Penn State basketball slide has been ugly.

Pittsburgh Baseball Now: David Bednar and Roansy Contreras will represent the Pirates in the World Baseball Classic.