It’s already Week 14, and I have to say, that is so depressing. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Christmas. It’s the best time of year. I spend way too much money on decor for my home, and I love it. But man, when the season is almost over, it always feels like it’s too soon.
Pittsburg, PA
Steelers mailbag: Will Pittsburgh trade for Kyler Murray?
Maybe I also dread this time of year a lot as of late because the Steelers are always in the midst of a collapse, as they are right now. They are 6-6, have lost five of their last seven, and are heading to Baltimore to face the Ravens. Ahead of that, though, let’s dive into this week’s mailbag.
Q: Can we start over? – ChippedHam
A: If by this you mean rebuild, I’d welcome it with open arms. Trade Cam Heyward for a Day Three pick. Trade T.J. Watt for a Day Two pick (no, you aren’t getting anything better than that. Certainly not a first-round pick). Trade Highsmith in a package to move up in the draft for a quarterback. Trade Mike Tomlin to the Giants or Titans. Hire Klint Kubiak. Draft one of the top quarterbacks and definitely start a new era in Pittsburgh.
Q: If you had the #1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft would you select a QB? If so who would it be? If not a QB, who would you select? Who You Got:
- #11 BYU vs #4 Texas Tech
- #3 Georgia vs #9 Alabama
- #2 Indiana vs #1 Ohio State
- Duke vs #17 Virginia – Pittsblitz56
A: Fernando Mendoza is the easy choice. He’s the best quarterback in the Nation. If it can’t be a quarterback, Rueben Bain to put opposite of Herbig after all of the trades I would make. I’ll actually do a piece to show my “Trade Everyone Draft.”
Conference Championship Picks: Texas Tech, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia
Q: Please, please, please, tell me the Steelers won’t go after Kyler Murray. I’ve lived in AZ (huge Pitt fan), my whole life. K1 is too short, too fragile, and not a good QB, 6.5 years have shown this. Please make me be able to sleep at night…lol – Muchodiablo
A: I’d like to say no, but it wouldn’t shock me if they went after him. I’m not a Kyler guy, either. At this point, this is just who he is. For every great game he has, he’ll have three mediocre performances where it looks as if he’s never seen a football. Hard pass from me. Draft a guy and start over.
Q: With a backup LT, can Aaron handle any more hits like he did the past few weeks? Are the Steelers ready to shut him down after the next big hit and just see what they have Rudy? And are you confident the 2026 draft is the year to draft the next Terry/Benjamin or Pickett? – Polamolicules_Dude
A: Andrus Peat actually played solid against the Bills, and the Ravens’ pass rush isn’t great. There’s nothing to see with Rudolph. We know what he is – he’s a backup quarterback. If they wanted to see what they had, they should start Will Howard (they won’t). I’m far from a college football quarterback expert, but Fernando Mendoza looks like he’ll be very good on Sundays. Dante Moore looks good. Ty Simpson could fit what Arthur Smith wants to do and could be something. It’s a fine trio of guys, just completely different from who many expected to be the cream of the crop.
Q: All of your concerns are valid. But just to play devil’s advocate…. the realist in me thinks that next year is where we fully embrace the rebuild. If we were flirting with a top 5 selection this year, maybe there’s a shot at getting your next franchise QB, but the class ain’t looking great. The point is, we won’t be drafting high enough to get our franchise QB this year, so let’s load up on talent to surround that guy with when he gets here in a year or two.
If they take that approach, I’m probably ok with a bridge year of Murray. Probably wouldn’t move the needle overall, but he’s elusive enough that he’d make our offense a degree or two more exciting to watch. Defenses would just have to play a little more honest to respect his escapability… and if we’re gonna suck next year anyway, why not make the offense a modicum more exciting to watch? At least the drives may see the chains move a few times before ending in a turnover as opposed to 750 3&outs per game.
I’m not saying I WANT it… I’m just saying that’s probably a mild upgrade over recent approaches… signing another QB in their late 30s who doesn’t have their legs anymore. – ThePen_IsMightier
A: I just really don’t want to sit through another mediocre season, man. Of course, when training camp rolls around, I’ll be excited and let myself believe it could be different, but deep down, I’ll know it won’t be. The class is fine, in terms of QBs, and the Steelers can trade up. That’s how the Bills got Josh Allen, and it’s how the Chiefs got Patrick Mahomes. Gotta rip the band-aid off and start over. I’d be incredibly excited for a rebuild.
Q: Fender or Gibson? The Rolling Stones or the Beetles? Or is it Beiber or Rodrigo, cough… (sorry, I just vomited in my mouth) Dodge, Ford, or the brand for losers? Scotch or Bourbon? – Les Norton
A: I don’t know who Fender or Gibson are. I think both the Rolling Stones and Beetles stink (I’m 26, to be fair. Both far precede me). If I had to pick a truck, I’d probably pick a Tacoma, but I did get a Bronco for a rental once for the Combine, and I didn’t want to take it back. Plus, I owned a Malibu for a while, and it was a pain, so probably Ford. I’m very basic when it comes to drinks. I like Jameson, so I guess I’m splitting the difference with an Irish Whiskey.
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Pittsburg, PA
Pittsburgh’s air quality considered “unhealthy for everyone” on Friday due to wildfire smoke
The air quality will remain poor today. Officially, the air quality will be in the “very unhealthy” to “hazardous” range.
Friday’s forecast and air quality warnings
How hazardous are things? Wildfire smoke, like what we are dealing with today, really gives you a double whammy when it comes to impacting your health. The first is that you may notice when talking about air quality that we label it with a number, and then we put behind it PM2.5 or maybe 10.
The 2.5 is important because it is talking about the size of the particles that we are describing as parts per million. The unit for 2.5 is microns. 1 micron is the same as 0.00003937 inches or 0.001 mm. So 2.5 microns is around a fourth the width of a single wool fiber or around 1/7th the width of a human hair. It’s tiny and grating.
It’s small enough to get deep into your lungs but hard enough to irritate, like very fine sandpaper. For those with respiratory issues already in place, this increased irritation causes shortness of breath and frequent coughing spells. Not good.
The good news is that our air quality will rapidly improve overnight, with us returning to more normal air quality on Saturday morning. The bad news is that another plume of smoke is expected to roll in on Sunday, but that plume is not expected to be as bad as this current one.
Getting to today’s forecast, it is going to be hot with highs in the mid-80s today. There will be a haze sitting over the city all day long. I have noon temperatures near 80 degrees with light winds of around 5 mph.
Kennywood and Sandcastle close due to air quality
Both Kennywood and Sandcastle announced on Friday morning that the parks will be closed due to the air quality alert issued by the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection.
According to both parks, patrons who purchased tickets for July 17 will be valid on one operating day throughout the rest of the season.
A Westmoreland County family wants to warn others after they said they found a large void beneath the garage in their house built by Ryan Homes.
“More than anything, we just want folks to know that there is potential that other homes could be built like this and just to be aware,” said homeowner Nicole Holderfield.
Beneath their seemingly normal front-facing two-car garage in the Altman Farms neighborhood in North Huntingdon is a lot of dead space that the Holderfield family just found out about. They said having a secret room is not as cool as it sounds when you realize the structural integrity of the 30-year-old home is at risk.
“I hate to say shocking, but it’s not something that we really wanted to be the first one on the street to find out,” Holderfield said.
Holderfield said there are leftover cinder blocks and even a Lowe’s bucket down there.
“You can actually stand all the way down here on this side, a lot of backfill, and then we did see it was weatherproofed on some of the walls,” Holderfield said.
This all started because Holderfield wanted to fix the growing number of large cracks popping up across her garage floor.
“We were starting the cosmetic fix, and our contractor was here. And with a sledgehammer, he wanted to see what he was working with, so he simply pounded down the sledgehammer,” Holderfield said.
The large void directly underneath the garage is not accessible from their finished basement. Only one wall appears to be weatherproofed, so the family believes moisture rusted away the single support column and the steel rebar attempting to carry the weight of the entire two-car garage.
“A couple different companies did stop by, and they were in awe of what they found. Even the North Huntingdon inspector came out, took a look, and it was not something he was familiar with seeing,” said Holderfield.
That inspector encouraged the family to hire a structural engineer. They did, and received a report that concluded the issue was the result of “poor workmanship and faulty construction,” Holderfield said.
The family’s homeowner’s insurance denied the claim, saying defects from faulty construction are excluded from coverage.
“Knowing that we were parking our cars in here up until we found this problem — we have children and animals, and knowing that a catastrophe could come, I think that’s our biggest concern,” Holderfield said.
That’s why the family called the builder, Ryan Homes, and alerted all of their neighbors with similar builds and floorplans.
“They really just took a look and took pictures. When we did speak to the one gentleman at Ryan Homes, he said this was 30 years ago, there were different laws back then,” Holderfield said.
KDKA Investigates reached out to Ryan Homes for comment to ask if building these dead spaces is still its practice. And if so, should other homeowners who live in Ryan Homes inspect further?
Ryan Homes said they do not comment on news stories.
In an update on Thursday, the Holderfields told KDKA Ryan Homes reached out and said it’s willing to work with them on this, share the cost of the fix, and manage the project to ensure it is fixed as they would expect.
The family feels that’s a valid attempt to make it right.
KDKA Investigates talked to a Cranberry homeowner who also lives in a Ryan Home built around the same time. She sent photos showing the wet tire marks where her car drove over and broke through the concrete last year. When the garage floor failed, she said it revealed a 9-foot void. She said it took four triaxle trucks of fill and $20,000 to fix.
Holderfield says that makes her wonder who else could find this.
“I would love people to be held accountable, but I also understand the laws and that we could potentially be out of the warranty period is what they say. I do wish we could have them stand behind their work or help us get this fixed,” Holderfield said.
More than anything, the Holderfield family says it wants people to know there is potential that other homes could be built like this and to be aware.
Two people were arrested earlier this week following a drug bust in Downtown Pittsburgh, police said.
Pittsburgh Police said Wednesday that Kyree Hairston-Mitchell, 24, and Mya Bryant, 23, were each arrested Monday following a drug bust at a residence along Stanwix Street along with the search of two vehicles.
Police said that detectives from the bureau’s Violence Prevention Unit arrested both individuals after executing warrants and searching the home and the vehicles where they discovered a large amount of drugs, cash, and a gun.
According to police, detectives recovered $12,000 in cash, heroin, marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs, and a handgun.
Hairston-Mitchell and Bryant are each facing numerous drug-related felony charges, according to court records.
Court documents show that Hairston-Mitchell is being held in the Allegheny County Jail after being unable to post $25,000 bail. Bryant was arraigned and released on nonmonetary bond, court records show.
Both individuals are set to face a preliminary hearing later this month.
Police said that a passenger in one of the vehicles involved in the arrests was taken into custody on a warrant out of Ohio.
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