Originally Posted by
papillon
Unlike a lot of fans I do not believe the sky is falling. The Steelers have started the process of rebuilding (getting younger) this past season with the departure of a few old reliable Steelers and inserted draft picks that have been developing. Injuries aside, at different points in the season each unit was the bright spot of the team with the exception of the special teams. The offense was not overwhelming teams the first half of the year, however, Ben was playing MVP style football and winning the TOP battle. The defense was struggling to get off the field in critical situations early in the season. The second half of the season the defense found its footing and played inspired football and as Troy and James actually got healthy takeaways became the norm the final two games (it was good to see). The offense struggled down the stretch while the defense was playing very good football.
The special teams were atrocious all year and consistently put the offense or defense in bad situations and for a unit that is on the field for only 10-15 plays per game the play of the special teams should be unacceptable to the Steelers' brain trust. There has got to be a way to have a special teams unit that is actually special. Suisham is excluding from this take on the special teams as he was the lone consistent bright spot.
My take...
Ben is a great quarterback (unconvential, but great) and should still have 5-6 years of great football left in him.
Troy is still one of the best SS in the game when healthy
James is still a force that needs to be accounted for every play when healthy
Dick Lebeau is still one of the best DCs in the league
Mike Tomlin is still a good coach, but struggled this year with some in game decisions
Todd Haley knows how to coach an offense
The salary cap is going to force a change in player personnel for the Steelers
Moving forward...
As much as I would like to say that the Steelers need to stay healthy moving forward this simply isn't possible in the NFL. Every team will get banged up over the course of a season. It was unfortunate for the Steelers that their 3 main players missed significant time with injuries this year, Ben (3 games), James (3 or 4 games) and Troy (9 games), two defensive MVPs and an elite quarterback. I don't believe that any of the playoff teams had their quarterback miss any games except for RGIII (1 game). I wonder what the playoff field would like like if any of the teams that didn't get a bye week would have had their quarterback miss 3 games?
Special teams has to get fixed, this unit was so far below the line that over the course of this past year I am certain that they were responsible for at a bare minimum 1 loss and probably a lot more. This has to be fixed and for my money this is the one place that a coach can really make a difference. Playing special teams is more about heart, the will to succeed and taking pride in your job than any other position on the team. You do not have to be a great football player to play special teams and be successful. You have to want to do the job and take ownership of the job and that's it. This has got to be fixed.
Personnel is going to be huge this off season. The deaths of James and Troy are greatly exaggerated in my opinion. The final quarter of the year James was getting leverage and his legs looked strong again and Troy was all over the field making plays to which we have become accustomed. I don't know how they keep them, but they need to find a way to keep them. Obviously, the cap situation is dire and this off season will complete the overhaul (or as much of an overhaul as the Steelers will ever do). There will still be a few other long time vets to be let go in the future, but I think this off season will see the largest turnover in some old favorites, unfortunately.
The running back committeee needs to have one of the committee stand up and take the job. I hope Mendenhall stays he has the most complete package of NFL skills for a running back on the team. The others have specific skills that can be utilized, but I don't believe any of them can be the main back in the offense.
The coaches aren't idiots, the front office is steady (thankfully) and the players are on par with many of this years playoff teams. The future is bright; Timmons was very good all year, Lewis and Ike make a formidable duo of corners (C. Allen makes a third), Miller had a great season (save for the ACL late), the offensive line showed flashes of brilliance, but never at the same time (probably due to the fact that the makeup of the line changed almost weekly) and the WRs will be good with or without Mike Wallace. Ben has shown that he can lose a good #1 WR and help the team be successful, he's lost Burress and Holmes in the past and Wallace isn't any better than either of them when they left. Save for two stinking plays at the worst possible time Ben had a very good year as well, completion percentage was high, TD to INT ratio was excellent, and very few fumbles and I wouldn't expect anything less moving forward.
As of right now, James is healthy, Troy is healthy, Ben is healthy (and should be 100% by training camp), Woodley is healthy, Timmons is healthy, A. Brown is healthy, DeCastro is healthy, Pouncey is healthy, Clark is healthy, and hopefully, the offensive linemen get healthy by training camp. The Steelers should be going into camp very healthy and ready to compete for the AFCN title and the playoffs.
Pappy
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