Toughest Off Season for Colbert and Tomlin

[Chadman]

We're in a predicament. We can't pressure the QB. And that's our #1 issue. And we've got a boatload of money in the front 7 and they aren't producing.

Heck, we put 10 men in the box and couldn't get to Tebow.

We need a future stud NT and ILB. NT that can occupy blockers is most important so we can free up our LBs to make plays.

Absolutely spot on. The season had so many reasons as to why it didn't work out, but here's the simple one..

The Steelers lost the TURNOVER battle way too often. They still managed to eeck out wins, but they made it hard on themselves.

How do you get TURNOVERS?

Pressure the QB. The Steelers, for various reasons including injury, age, speed etc, couldn't generate enough pressure on QB's- very few of them really very good QB's too- to force turnovers.

As Hampton slows down, the Steelers need that dominant NT to be added sooner than later. The Steelers could even go in a slightly different direction & attempt to get more of an upfield penetrating type DT like Ngata instead of the space eating types in Hampton & Steed.

An ILB like Kendrell Bell at his peak would be gold.

And a later round DE that can be used simply as a pass rusher wouldn't hurt- you could look for a slightly lighter guy than the usual, kind of like Keisel coming out of college.

That said- the Steelers draft Defense last year- watch them go OL this year.

[focosteeler]

i think part of the reason we didnt get sacks this year is that teams were throwing fairly quick. but also teams could run somewhat more than they could last year.

i think it is unfair to put a lot of blame on mendy for lack of production, he still almost had 1,000 yards. I think we should focus on O-line in the first 3-4 rounds. as well as a tall wideout or maybe a pass catching TE like finley in GB. maybe a late round interior pass rusher

the more i look at who might be available for our 1st round pick the more i am thinking we should trade back to the early 2nd. Try and get a 2013 1st and 1 or 2 more picks for 2012. i really dont want to settle for anyone and depending on who we cut loose we might need some extra picks to get decent backups

[TallyStiller]

Change for change's sake is not the Steeler way. Nor is panic after an early playoff exit, even one as bad as this one. That said, I think the comparison to the 1979 and 80 Steelers is apt... Guys like Joe Greene, Mel Blount, LC Greenwood, Jack Lambert, Jack Ham, et al, were amazing Steelers, but were kept around too long. Either we didn't draft well enough to have replacements available, or we kept them for sentimental reasons, but either way, we spent a decade in the wilderness as a result.

I think Arians stays as long as Ben wants him to. This is Ben's team. I think they go OL + 1 more WR in this draft and acknowledge that fact.

Isn't there a fairly wide belief that Keith Butler is kind of the heir apparent to DLB's job here anyways? He turned down DC interviews in Miami and Arizona last year IIRC. If so, that change won't be as significant as it seems.

As it stands, I see significant transition coming on the roster, with high priced, underperforming vets like Hampton, Farrior, Smitty, Hines, BMac, and Kemo leaving. I think the lessons of 1980 were well enough learned in the ownership box to make sure of that. There's a more recent model of this philosophy still playing this year that beat us twice down there in Baltimore - cut out the guys in decline rather than let their tanks run completely empty while clogging up your roster, let the young draft picks step up and retool on the fly. 11 - 5 and 12 - 4 after cutting Todd Heap, Willis McGahee, et al wasn't too shabby. Says here we do the same.

[Starlifter]

you guys need to accept the reality of the NFL according to Goodell. He doesn't WANT good defense. He is determined to legislate it out of existence. I suspect the superbowl this year will feature 2 of the worst defenses in the NFL. The old adage 'defense wins championships' is no longer true.

the rules say you need 11 guys on the field playing defense. common sense says as long as Roger is running the show - there's no need to waste a lot of resources on them. It won't matter - they are not ALLOWED to succeed.

every dollar wasted on defense is a lost opportunity for offense.

trust me. I hate it. this is not the NFL I grew up with and it's not the type of football I want to see. However, the last couple of years have proven to me that it's the NFL we currently have.

It's time to pay for 11 pro-bowlers on offense. and 10 no names plus troy on defense. 35 points a game average is what it's going to take. we're not there yet.

oh, and fire bruce arians.

that is all...............

[SteelCrazy]

Yea, lets make a whole lot of changes and become the new and improved Cleveland Browns!

Someone nailed it when they said we only need to make some minor tweeks. That, along with some decent depth and we'll be set. However, I do agree with one thing and that is to get rid of Arians. LeBeau did screw up but it was a collective screw up because thats the way TOMLIN wanted to run the D against Denver. Crowd the line and go man with no over the top help. Arians on the other hand has no imagination and ran the same O against Denver as he did against Baltimore in our 1st game.

We were hurt really bad and had no depth, especially on the D-Line. Heyward showed some flashes but for the most part played just as bad as Ziggy and McLendon. Getting rid of our 1st string Defensive line is not the way we need to go.

I agree with everything I just said.

[tiproast]

That said- the Steelers draft Defense last year- watch them go OL this year.

Last year's draft class was really good for QB and OL, with some good WRs and DL as well.

I'm no expert, but this year's draft doesn't seem to be as deep to me. And with Matt Barkley and Landry Jones returning to school, and Matt Flynn a free agent, there will be more teams picking big bodies in the first round instead of QBs.

Another reason it's not a good year to be trying to stock up on offensive linemen is this: every team will have figured out that protecting their QB so that he can throw for a ton of years is a good path to success. Expect to see lots of TEs drafted early, too.

Just my $0.02.

[SanAntonioSteelerFan]

It's not even football, it's just common sense.

If you've allocated a huge amount of resources to acquire a strategic asset, the only reasonable secondary strategy is one that makes sure enough of your other resources are allocated in support of that asset, to allow it to succeed. Thus is achievement of the organization's goals most effectively realized.

Doing otherwise is foolish.

Organization: Steelers. Goal: Superbowl. Resources: $$. And, duh, strategic asset: Ben.

Ben is the man. The only right thing to do is put things in place to help him succeed. FIRST step, at a MINIMUM, we need to protect him in the pocket. Many of us PREDICTED that the SB run this year would end early because of O-line associated injury to Ben. Is it so crazy to say, OK, THAT didn't work out ... let's see what happens when our franchise QB has more than a 3rd string O-line? How many of our O-line players this year would even have PLAYED on one of the other playoff teams squads, much less STARTED?

And it needs to be quick ... what are the Vegas odds that Ben doesn't last next season due to injury? The season after that? I'm thinking doing this through the draft might not even be enough, in terms of Ben's shelf life. Can we go out and buy him an O-line? Not the Steeler way to develop a team with high $$ free agents? I'd propose it just might be. Where does it say the Steeler way HAS to be "controlling the game on the ground", or "suffocating defense", or any of the other things we've become so comfortable saying? The Steeler way, after all and bottom line, is only one thing - winning. Sometimes nostalgic attachment to specific strategies we've used to achieve that in the past can be counterproductive.

As Starlifter said (best post I've read in a while!) - forget throwing $$ at defense ... under Goodell's legal defense-oriented long term plan for rules changes, football scores will approach basketball's, and defenses will inevitably become laughably irrelevant. Heck, we don't even have to wait to see that happen - THIS year's 31st and 32nd ranked defenses in the NFL aren't doing too badly ...

Oh, and I agree with everything I say!

Signed,

SASF (Send Ariens to San Francisco)

[Oviedo]

you guys need to accept the reality of the NFL according to Goodell. He doesn't WANT good defense. He is determined to legislate it out of existence. I suspect the superbowl this year will feature 2 of the worst defenses in the NFL. The old adage 'defense wins championships' is no longer true.

the rules say you need 11 guys on the field playing defense. common sense says as long as Roger is running the show - there's no need to waste a lot of resources on them. It won't matter - they are not ALLOWED to succeed.

every dollar wasted on defense is a lost opportunity for offense.

trust me. I hate it. this is not the NFL I grew up with and it's not the type of football I want to see. However, the last couple of years have proven to me that it's the NFL we currently have.

It's time to pay for 11 pro-bowlers on offense. and 10 no names plus troy on defense. 35 points a game average is what it's going to take. we're not there yet.

oh, and fire bruce arians.

that is all...............

Excellent post, however as I have said in other threads we have given LeBeau all the resources and tied up a significant percentage of the salary cap on the defensive side of the ball. The result this season were less sacks of the opposing QB and fewer takeaways. It leaves us trying to protect our most important player with a bargain basement OL.

We need to forget about Steeler tradition and use resources on what will get us to another Super Bowl...a healthy Ben.