Larry Webster looks tentative in drills.
Larry Webster looks tentative in drills.
Even if Bill Belichick was getting an atomic wedgie, his face would look exactly the same.
Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.
I understand, but because you don't have to convert them to a new psoition they get on the field sooner and you can evaluate and make an informed decision for the next draft/FA period. Our problem is exactly what we have seen with Lewis and maybe Worilds...we get a one year sample size to make a huge financial decision. Not much room for error and if we miss or lose one to free agency we have to go into another 2-3 year cycle of converting the next new addition.
My point has always been that the margin for error and flexibility is greater with the 4-3 than the 3-4 because you don't have to project and speculate whether players can convert from DE to OLB or DT to DE, etc, you let them play the positions you evaluate and draft them based upon.
I have always argued it really hurts the front 7 and even the most zealous opponent of what I have said the past few years has to acknowledge what I have argued has come to past...it is to hard and too risky to replenish the talent base for what LeBeau wants to do.
"My team, may they always be right, but right or wrong...MY TEAM!"
I disagree to a certain extent. The biggest thing keeping Lewis off the field until his last year was Keenan Lewis. He had shown ability and was poised to take the next step a couple of times. When that time came, his immaturity always crept in. He was projected to become a starter after McFadden and Gay left. He was getting beaten in a pre-season game and responded with bad penalties and punching out a stadium fixture. He hit the doghouse that day and did not re-appear until 2012. It was not a "system too difficult for young kids to learn" situation.
Worilds was kept off the field primarily by two (at the time) studs in front of him. He was behind a DMVP on one side, and a player earning a $50M contract on the other. There was no way that he was getting onto the field before they cleared the way. Then, when one spot finally opened, it was his bad side. If it was for the brittleness that has become Lamar Woodley the last few years, we wouldn't have seen much of anything out of the guy last year. He would have remained a 3-4 ROLB bust. Again, a case of having too much in front of him, which has been a hallmark of the Steeler Ds for many years until recently.
Even if Bill Belichick was getting an atomic wedgie, his face would look exactly the same.
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