Say hello to 1999...again

[lloydroid]

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/pit/1999.htm

If it's not this year, it will be next, unless something is done differently. In 1999 we had lots of defenders, coming off huge contracts, and laying a wet turd that stunk from downtown to Butler. Cowher and company put too much loyalty into former great players who were late 20's or over 30 and it resulted in a 6-10 turd season. Kirkland, Gildon, Scott, Steed, Staat, Oldham, Deewayne Washington, Kordell, et el, just stunk the joint up. But Cowher was insistent his "buddy buddy" players were retained, and, in many cases, got new big deals, since they were such buddies and all. They rewarded him with a 6-10 stink turd season. Football is a business; treat it as one, unless you are an idiot. Be buddies with your college mates. Be professional with your staff (in this case, football players). That doesn't mean you have to be a jerk to the players, but don't mistake being on the same team for being from the same family. Only fools do that when it comes to business. I remember when a country bumpkin told me, "They say don't go into business with friends, well I say that's BS." The same guy promptly went out of business within 2 months of saying that.

If this team doesn't watch it, they are looking at 1999 all over again.

Back then Dan was too old to be running things, and ran it as a grandfather figure. (There is a reason there are not many 80-year-old CEOs out there - it's time to play with grandkids, not run a billion dollar biz.) Maybe now with the more "with it" Art 2, we won't suffer this same fate from being buddies and treating the players as family members. We can only hope so.

[Shawn]

I agree and disagree. We are certainly aging but who are we going to replace aging players with? Who has stepped up? Who starts instead of Foote? Who starts instead of Clark? Who can fill the shoes of Troy? Who can step in for Harrison? We have no answers to any of those questions, and that is why we are not moving on...or getting younger on D.

We have drafted poorly on D lately. I think Heyward will pan out...we may have gotten lucky with Allen...but other than that who have we drafted in the last 3 seasons on D worth a hill o' beans? And there lies the problem.

[SidSmythe]

I agree and disagree. We are certainly aging but who are we going to replace aging players with? Who has stepped up? Who starts instead of Foote? Who starts instead of Clark? Who can fill the shoes of Troy? Who can step in for Harrison? We have no answers to any of those questions, and that is why we are not moving on...or getting younger on D.

We have drafted poorly on D lately. I think Heyward will pan out...we may have gotten lucky with Allen...but other than that who have we drafted in the last 3 seasons on D worth a hill o' beans? And there lies the problem.

Exactly my thoughts.
We've drafted two 1st Rounders at the DL.
Timmons and Woodley are young and were given extensions.
Can anyone really say giving Harrison, Polamalu & Taylor extensions was a mistake at the time.

You can't predict injuries ... with today's technology a guy should be able to play until into their mid 30s at a high level.

[Oviedo]

Back then Dan was too old to be running things, and ran it as a grandfather figure. (There is a reason there are not many 80-year-old CEOs out there - it's time to play with grandkids, not run a billion dollar biz.) Maybe now with the more "with it" Art 2, we won't suffer this same fate from being buddies and treating the players as family members. We can only hope so.

One could, and some have, say the same thing about 75 year old Defensive Coordinators;)

[RuthlessBurgher]

Say hello to 1999 again? Ah...jeez...I was just starting to get used to the idea of the world ending in 2012 due to the Mayan Prophecies, and now I have to worry about the world ending due to Y2K as well?

[Jigawatts]

Say hello to 1999 again? Ah...jeez...I was just starting to get used to the idea of the world ending in 2012 due to the Mayan Prophecies, and now I have to worry about the world ending due to Y2K as well?

INITECH is so busy with the Y2K bug that they'll never notice the deficiencies of our pass rush.

[Lonbull]

great players who were late 20's or over 30 [/I]and it resulted in a 6-10 turd season. Kirkland, Gildon, Scott, Steed, Staat, Oldham, Deewayne Washington, Kordell, et el, just stunk the joint up. But Cowher was insistent his "buddy buddy" players were retained, and, in many cases, got new big deals, since they were such buddies and all.

I completely disagree with this assessment of the 1999 season - in fact your reasoning has no merit what so ever.

First the players you named:

Kirkland only played one more season in Pittsburgh, and he was 28 years old.
Gildon was only 27 years old -- and would go to the Pro Bowl the next three consecutive years.
DeWayne Washington was 27 years old -- and didn't miss much time over the next few years he played in Pittsburgh
Chad Scott was only 25 years old and was in his 3rd season (in a way 2nd season as he had missed 1998)
Steed (30) and Oldham (31) -- 1999 was their last year with the team!
Staat --- this is by far the oddest player you added...he was 23 years old in 1999, he was in only his 2nd season, and he was on the team only one more year.

And finally yes - Kordell Stewart, age 27 -- will people ever stop complaining about Kordell Stewart?? They tried to replace him several times -- they couldn't find anyone better (QB's were very hard to find in the late 90's) but he would still manage to go to the Pro Bowl 2 seasons later.

The 1999 team didn't suffer because of age to their "star" players -- and it didn't suffer because Cowher was too "buddy-buddy" with players (obviously as many of these players didn't stay long after 1999) --- or because Dan was too old --- there were a number of reasons.

Key problems were -

The loss of Dirt to injury,
Kevin Gilbride coming in as Offensive Coordinator -- and attempting to make Kordell something he wasn't.
Tom Donohue also was "let go" at the end of 1999 as Dir. of Football Operations.
And finally Troy Edwards was a 1st round bust -- he lasted only two more seasons in Pittsburgh --- and then we let him go.

A lack of cold blooded business was not in shortage at this time --- a lack of a star quality QB or a Coordinator who knew how to use Kordell was.

[virgilbosetti]

I completely disagree with this assessment of the 1999 season - in fact your reasoning has no merit what so ever.

First the players you named:

Kirkland only played one more season in Pittsburgh, and he was 28 years old.
Gildon was only 27 years old -- and would go to the Pro Bowl the next three consecutive years.
DeWayne Washington was 27 years old -- and didn't miss much time over the next few years he played in Pittsburgh
Chad Scott was only 25 years old and was in his 3rd season (in a way 2nd season as he had missed 1998)
Steed (30) and Oldham (31) -- 1999 was their last year with the team!
Staat --- this is by far the oddest player you added...he was 23 years old in 1999, he was in only his 2nd season, and he was on the team only one more year.

And finally yes - Kordell Stewart, age 27 -- will people ever stop complaining about Kordell Stewart?? They tried to replace him several times -- they couldn't find anyone better (QB's were very hard to find in the late 90's) but he would still manage to go to the Pro Bowl 2 seasons later.

The 1999 team didn't suffer because of age to their "star" players -- and it didn't suffer because Cowher was too "buddy-buddy" with players (obviously as many of these players didn't stay long after 1999) --- or because Dan was too old --- there were a number of reasons.

Key problems were -

The loss of Dirt to injury,
Kevin Gilbride coming in as Offensive Coordinator -- and attempting to make Kordell something he wasn't.
Tom Donohue also was "let go" at the end of 1999 as Dir. of Football Operations.
And finally Troy Edwards was a 1st round bust -- he lasted only two more seasons in Pittsburgh --- and then we let him go.

A lack of cold blooded business was not in shortage at this time --- a lack of a star quality QB or a Coordinator who knew how to use Kordell was.

Agreed......and I never bought into all the BS about Cowher demanding big money deals for players because they were his "buds". Even the ones that eventually were a little long in the tooth.

[feltdizz]

Huh? I think we have made some decent moves to shore up the D. DL just needs to trust these young guys and turn them loose.

[SidSmythe]

I completely disagree with this assessment of the 1999 season - in fact your reasoning has no merit what so ever.

First the players you named:

Kirkland only played one more season in Pittsburgh, and he was 28 years old.
Gildon was only 27 years old -- and would go to the Pro Bowl the next three consecutive years.
DeWayne Washington was 27 years old -- and didn't miss much time over the next few years he played in Pittsburgh
Chad Scott was only 25 years old and was in his 3rd season (in a way 2nd season as he had missed 1998)
Steed (30) and Oldham (31) -- 1999 was their last year with the team!
Staat --- this is by far the oddest player you added...he was 23 years old in 1999, he was in only his 2nd season, and he was on the team only one more year.

And finally yes - Kordell Stewart, age 27 -- will people ever stop complaining about Kordell Stewart?? They tried to replace him several times -- they couldn't find anyone better (QB's were very hard to find in the late 90's) but he would still manage to go to the Pro Bowl 2 seasons later.

The 1999 team didn't suffer because of age to their "star" players -- and it didn't suffer because Cowher was too "buddy-buddy" with players (obviously as many of these players didn't stay long after 1999) --- or because Dan was too old --- there were a number of reasons.

Key problems were -

The loss of Dirt to injury,
Kevin Gilbride coming in as Offensive Coordinator -- and attempting to make Kordell something he wasn't.
Tom Donohue also was "let go" at the end of 1999 as Dir. of Football Operations.
And finally Troy Edwards was a 1st round bust -- he lasted only two more seasons in Pittsburgh --- and then we let him go.

A lack of cold blooded business was not in shortage at this time --- a lack of a star quality QB or a Coordinator who knew how to use Kordell was.

Wow, the original poster must feel really silly right now!!! :D

[Slapstick]

Also, do you know who the D coordinator was in 1999?

Hint: Not Dick LeBeau

[Shawn]

Huh? I think we have made some decent moves to shore up the D. DL just needs to trust these young guys and turn them loose.

Who? Sylvester, Worilds, Carter? Who are the young guys worth anything that are not currently getting PT?

[focosteeler]

Huh? I think we have made some decent moves to shore up the D. DL just needs to trust these young guys and turn them loose.

:Agree How else will we know how good our youth is if we only see them for 2 or 3 plays a game. Practice can only show coaches so much. I would like to see Sly subbed in for Foote so we can see him get some real PT. With Woodley out I think we will really get a good look at Worlids. I think we draft Safety and possibly a stud ILB (depending on if Sly comes around) in the first 2 rounds this year.

[Mister Pittsburgh]

Any chance Tomlin's draft choices have been made with an eye toward shifting to a 4-3 once DL retires, which should hopefully be after this season? Would Hood, Heyward, McLendon, Ta'amu be better suited as 4-3 DL? Would Timmons, Worilds, Spence, Woodley, Sylvester be better suited for the 4-3?

Not trying to say this is the case....just asking if it could be the case and some of those players would have a better showing in the 4-3 with the responsibilities of the 4-3 vs. the 3-4.