Steelers judged to have NFL’s 6th-worst roster

[RuthlessBurgher]

For fun, I attempt to use their scale and give the team my own ranking. I made comments for the players whose rankings I changed (not all were homer increases...I also downgraded a few as well):

QB Ben Roethlisberger Elite (Ben's HoF caliber...he means more to this team than Geno Atkins or Joe Thomas)
RB Le’Veon Bell Good (they must have looked at stats without realizing his missed the earlier portion of the season)
TE Heath Miller Good (they must have looked at stats without realizing his missed the earlier portion of the season)
TE Matt Spaeth Below average
WR Antonio Brown High quality
WR Lance Moore Good
WR Markus Wheaton Below average *so far, due to inexperience, I'll keep him here, but I expect him to be much better at this point next year*
LT Kelvin Beachum Average
LG Ramon Foster Average (he consistent, but not dominant in any area, therefore, I'll go average rather than good)
C Maurkice Pouncey High quality (when healthy, he's a top notch center)
RG David DeCastro Good
RT Marcus Gilbert Below average (Dude's not downright awful anymore, but I'd still say he's below average)

The Steelers defense’s ratings:

LE Cam Thomas Below average (he lost his starting NT job in San Diego, and now we are trying him out at a different position. Since I expect a rookie 2nd rounder to beat him out this year, I think I should drop him down to below average until I see otherwise).
NT Steve McLendon Average
RE Cam Heyward Good
OLB Jason Worilds Average (he still hasn't perform consistently enough over time for me to call him Good yet)
ILB Ryan Shazier Rookie
ILB Lawrence Timmons High quality (he's been our best player on defense for a while now)
OLB Jarvis Jones Below average *so far, due to inexperience, I'll keep him here, but I expect him to be much better at this point next year*
CB Cortez Allen Average
CB Ike Taylor Average (he had a down year by his standards, but I can't justify calling Cortez and Gay average and Ike below average, considering what each of them are asked to do...even though Ike stopped following #1 WR's around)
CB William Gay Average
SS Troy Polamalu High quality
FS Mike Mitchell Good (in Oakland, he may have been average or even below, but he was an entirely different player in Carolina, and reports out of OTA's so far seem to indicate that we are getting the Carolina Mitchell, not the Oakland Mitchell)

[hawaiiansteel]

Dale Lolley @dlolleyor:

I am hearing that the #Steelers have an interest in Brandon Flowers. Team is about 6 million under the salary cap
18 Jun 2014

[URL]https://twitter.com/dlolleyor[/URL]

[K Train]

Of course they are interested, everyone is...he wont be a steeler though

Id argue they would have a top 5 defense with him though

[phillyesq]

The big flaw in the PFF ranking of roster strength is that it doesn't seem to weight the QB heavily enough. You may have a strong all around roster, but if you don't have a QB, it simply doesn't matter.

The Steelers had a lot of holes last year and still have a lot of holes, but having Ben means they should always be at least competitive.