There's a give and take to all this. Some players can be developed and others can't. No team in the league has found the perfect strategy. But in this salary-capped league, you can't have a top-notch everything.
Tomlin has nothing to prove to me. He takes the team that he has and makes as much or more out of it than any other team in the league.
It really hasn't been "his" team. In that regard, "his" players. A few here and a few there.... but overall, this team was built. He really didn't need to rebuild anything. At this point, the rebuilding needs to start progressing. He can only stretch Cowher and Colberts players so far.
Tomlin: Let's unleash hell and "mop the floor" with the competition.
So, Hines missed a prediction. You should know how it feels, given that you said we'd go 5-11 in 2004, Cowher was going to coach a year after retirement, Ben was going to be cut for a $60M salary dump this offseason, etc... According to YOU, our front office and coaching staff NEVER do ANYTHING right except drafting Ben and then subsequently placing no value in him.
How do they value Ben? I think the facts pretty much show they don't value him at all.
They should have flat out told Goodell in public that WE are handling his suspension, not you.
They also bent over for Goodell because they hardly said anything in public about the way Ben was treated in 2010 by defenses.
Ben needs to tweak his game? NO, you build around him, and VALUE what he does as a player and hold the defense accountable for their 4th quarter garbage.
Um, Colbert is still here and I hardly think that he stopped having input as soon as Tomlin arrived. If anything, he got more control because he wasn't dealing with a veteran SB winning coach. As for Tomlin, this is "his" team as he is the Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Players will come and go from any team and he has made as much of what he has had to work with as any coach in the league would have, IMO.
Cowher had early success with Noll's players too. Works both ways.
The point that I originally tried to make (and apparently made quite poorly) was that Dixon was a 5th round pick. I don't think that anybody seriously expected him to be a starter. He had a bit of upside based on his athleticism, but that was about it. If he was viewed as a potential starter in the league by talent evaluators, he would have been taken before the 5th round.
Crash, please tell me that you are not really finding a way to put a negative spin on a statement of support made by a teammate. It stretches any credibility that you may have. Did you expect Ward to say that Dixon couldn't hit the broadside of a barn and had no place in the league?
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