Choose your weapon: Colon or Foster?

[Oviedo]

Colons been out the last 3 years so hard to say.
Foster has been here the last 3 years and our OL still sucked.
What does that say?

That Foster is what he is--a solid back up player and spot starter but not a top line starter on any good OL in the NFL.

[fezziwig]

That Foster is what he is--a solid back up player and spot starter but not a top line starter on any good OL in the NFL.

true stuff Oviedo


The Steelers have been running the program with glorified backups for a long time if you ask me. Starks is good, Pouncey is good and the rest are backups or just decent at best. I do believe that Haley has helped with these young guys, backup guys with his play calling. Having said that, even with Haleys play calling there comes a time when you need to be good and man up and Foster hasn't been able, Legursky isn't suited at guard, Colon is useless but, he does manage to have about 4 decent plays a season. Beachum was decent given his small time in there, Gilbert seems to be the next Colon in the making and Adams I believe will be one of those players that we keep believing he'll be better next season.

I have no faith in our o-line but I will say, if Haley remains I see him and his qick passing, or small ball making things better for the offense and allowing these guys to gain confidence and keep the defenses from charging at will as they did when Arians was here running our o-line and Ben into the ground.

[Oviedo]

true stuff Oviedo


The Steelers have been running the program with glorified backups for a long time if you ask me. Starks is good, Pouncey is good and the rest are backups or just decent at best. I do believe that Haley has helped with these young guys, backup guys with his play calling. Having said that, even with Haleys play calling there comes a time when you need to be good and man up and Foster hasn't been able, Legursky isn't suited at guard, Colon is useless but, he does manage to have about 4 decent plays a season. Beachum was decent given his small time in there, Gilbert seems to be the next Colon in the making and Adams I believe will be one of those players that we keep believing he'll be better next season.

I have no faith in our o-line but I will say, if Haley remains I see him and his qick passing, or small ball making things better for the offense and allowing these guys to gain confidence and keep the defenses from charging at will as they did when Arians was here running our o-line and Ben into the ground.

Unfortunately we still need to add better talent to the OL. It starts with retaining Starks which is a 50/50 probability at best. We have to bring in a coach who can develop DeCastro, Adams and Gilbert specifically with technique improvements. I think Tunch Ilkin could do the job if he wants it because he was a tremendous technician.

As much as we have many needs, if Chace Warmack is available in Round 1 then I would pick him. It wouldn't solve all our OL problems but it would solidify the interior line of DeCastro-Pouncey-Warmack for the next 5-7 years. That would be a major building block in place to move forward from.

I know many will have their heads spin in place taking OL in Round 1 but until we fix the OL and gain offensive consistency we will never win another championship. Our defense can't win games anymore without the offense running at full speed. The defense is too inadequete at sacking the QB and forcing turnovers.

[papillon]

Unfortunately we still need to add better talent to the OL. It starts with retaining Starks which is a 50/50 probability at best. We have to bring in a coach who can develop DeCastro, Adams and Gilbert specifically with technique improvements. I think Tunch Ilkin could do the job if he wants it because he was a tremendous technician.

As much as we have many needs, if Chace Warmack is available in Round 1 then I would pick him. It wouldn't solve all our OL problems but it would solidify the interior line of DeCastro-Pouncey-Warmack for the next 5-7 years. That would be a major building block in place to move forward from.

I know many will have their heads spin in place taking OL in Round 1 but until we fix the OL and gain offensive consistency we will never win another championship. Our defense can't win games anymore without the offense running at full speed. The defense is too inadequete at sacking the QB and forcing turnovers.

Here's the issue with this line of thinking and taking Warmack. If your interior line is DeCastro-Pouncey-Warmack and lets assume the entire line is Adams-DeCastro-Pouncey-Warmack-Gilbert you already have 4 of the 5 on the roster. Do we really need to spend a first round pick on a top notch guard for the line to be successful? If you have 4 out of 5 players (2 first round picks and 2 second round picks) in place you should be good to go on the line, Foster isn't so horrible that he would cause that group to fail, IMHO.

Pappy

[pfelix73]

I would like to think both of them will be back. Colon alone because of the cap hit, and Foster because he can compete with Colon at LG. Foster is a bit younger, so having a younger LG would be a good thing. I would imagine he will test the FA market. Maybe he won't find what he's looking for and come back.

As far as what someone above said about Foster and Adams playing well together on the right side- yea true, (except for some of the pass blocking Adams was trying to do) but you also have to keep in mind that Colon was pulling alot of times to the right and getting the RB some yardage.

[steelz09]

I'd keep Foster over Colon. Hopefully, the Steelers FO can make that happen.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

I see everyone fawning all over starks and I admit he is our best option at LT, but he is nowhere near an elite level and wouldn't start for over half of the teams in the NFL. But we don't hear the same outcry over his play.

why is that? Shouldn't every player be held to the same standard since we seem to need "elite" players at every position on the OL?

[Oviedo]

I see everyone fawning all over starks and I admit he is our best option at LT, but he is nowhere near an elite level and wouldn't start for over half of the teams in the NFL. But we don't hear the same outcry over his play.

why is that? Shouldn't every player be held to the same standard since we seem to need "elite" players at every position on the OL?

Because even though he isn't "elite" he was the best OL we had this season playing the hardest position on the OL.

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Because even though he isn't "elite" he was the best OL we had this season playing the hardest position on the OL.

so its a double standard for you when it comes to starks. We need probowlers at all the interior OL positions but we can accept mediocrity at the hardest position on the OL.

Got it.

[Oviedo]

so its a double standard for you when it comes to starks. We need probowlers at all the interior OL positions but we can accept mediocrity at the hardest position on the OL.

Got it.

No Starks was not mediocre. He was actually pretty good. The definition of mediocre would be both our Guards and our Right Tackle. I don't have the stats but I don't recall a whole lot of sacks being given up by Starks even though he usually faced the opponents best pass rusher week in and week out.

I do remeber lots of inside pressure as the interior of our OL got pushed back into the QB and got no push in short yardage situations.

So there is no double standard. Starks was better than whoever we had at RT and he was better all season long than Foster and Colon even if you don't want to admit it.