Quote Originally Posted by WindyCitySteel View Post
Every year the Steelers spend March and April papering over every perceived hole on the roster with a middling free agent, declaring themselves "need free" entering the draft, where they basically do the same thing - take one guy at every position where the FA was signed. Obviously, guys taken day 3 are more likely to be career special teams and backups even if they made the team, but fans and media alike celebrate "filling a hole!" with a sixth round guard or DT.

Back to the free agents - Let's check PFF grades to see how this year's cheap wallpaper is holding up as the holidays approach.

CB Levi Wallace - 52.8
LB Myles Jack - 56.4
DT Larry Ogunjobi - 65.6
C Mason Cole - 66.5
G James Daniels - 72.3

Daniels and Cole around career average, slight above average to decent, Larry O the same. D starters below the line.

Zero star, impact, transformational players because We're The Pittsburgh Steelers And This Is How We Do Things.

Let's hope Kahn/Weidl usher in a new era of free agency, one that values quality over quantity, because the Steelers have been spinning their tires for years with this approach.
Im ok with these guys and can live with the fact that some guys work out and some don’t in FA and the draft.

But I do have more concerns about general roster/player management over the last several years.

I would have tried to keep Hilton, Hargrave, Juju, and Conner for example. All young guys that are quality players that had reasonably priced contracts.

I would have liked to have kept Bud too but understand he got paid and that contract would have likely been too much.

Maybe dealing Claypool is a positive sign of things to come. But I wasn’t a fan of signing DJ for a big contract and thought that money could have been better used.

I think I’d rather have Pickens and Juju right now. If we kept Conner and found another back to share the load when he got injured from time to time, we wouldn’t have had to go with Najee and could have invested that pick to improve the OL for example.

I still feel a little stunned letting Hilton and Hargrave go. I thought both of those guys were key cogs that helped make our D work. Hargrave was a load up front and Hilton is a unique playmaker and if we had these 2 quality guys still, we could have avoided being forced into making a lot of other moves and picks that didn’t pan out as well as those guys would have imho.

The other big thing that hurt was the Tuitt situation and no one is really to blame there. It’s just a crappy situation where we lost a guy who arguably was one of our most dominant defenders.