Kaleb Johnson

[Northern_Blitz]

Bell for a 3 year period was a very good back who ran behind a good OL. He had great vision, a stutter step which he uses to freeze the defense, and hit his top speed quickly.

BUT he was a sully DIVA who flopped in the playoffs.

Joel, not sure if you watched Bell in the playoffs but this is untrue.

He was often hurt in the playoffs.

But when he wasn't, he quite good.

Across a 17 game season, his playoff performances (against good teams) would have led to:

• 282 attempts for 1462 yards (5.2 YPA) 10 TDs 71 1st downs
• 44 receptions for 309 yards and another 3 TDs

[Northern_Blitz]

Wilson was better.. until he wasn't. If you remember I was on here praising the move to Wilson when we were winning games and Wilson was throwing game winning rainbow passes.

But once we played good teams to end the season, Wilson flopped like a fish out of water. 14 sacks the last 4 games. Threw for a high of 217 yards with 2 games under 150 yards. Fumbles and a costly pick 6 vs Baltimore.

So was it a good move to bring in Wilson and get rid of Kenny?

• More than 400 additional total yards
• 10 additional TDs
• increased yards per attempt by about a yard
• I think three more turnovers

And Wilson got one fewer start than Kenny had the year before.

And the schedule was significantly harder than Kenny's last year starting here. If we swapped schedules between the two years, I wouldn't be surprised if we wont the division under Wilson and missed the playoffs under Kenny. Probably a 1st round exit either way because we still weren't good enough to beat Mahomes, Allen, or Lamar in the playoffs. And I don't think playing at home against Lamar and the Rats would have helped us out all that much last season.

[feltdizz]

So was it a good move to bring in Wilson and get rid of Kenny?

• More than 400 additional total yards
• 10 additional TDs
• increased yards per attempt by about a yard
• I think three more turnovers

And Wilson got one fewer start than Kenny had the year before.

And the schedule was significantly harder than Kenny's last year starting here. If we swapped schedules between the two years, I wouldn't be surprised if we wont the division under Wilson and missed the playoffs under Kenny. Probably a 1st round exit either way because we still weren't good enough to beat Mahomes, Allen, or Lamar in the playoffs. And I don't think playing at home against Lamar and the Rats would have helped us out all that much last season.

no.. overall it was not better. I would’ve preferred seeing what Kenny could do with a new OC. At worst we are looking for a QB this year or maybe Kenny turns the corner.

The schedule was harder this year.. and its because of the last 4 games.

in the last 5 games (including the playoff game).. we scored a total of 3 POINTS in the first quarter.

That is terrible.

I won’t put all the blame on Wilson. I think Tomlin handcuffing Wilson vs Cincy in the second meeting was a prime example of what is wrong with our passing offense. Run Run Pass and then finally taking the handcuffs off in the last 2 minutes of the half or waiting until the 4th quarter to go uptempo is terrible football.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Bell for a 3 year period was a very good back who ran behind a good OL. He had great vision, a stutter step which he uses to freeze the defense, and hit his top speed quickly.

BUT he was a sully DIVA who flopped in the playoffs.

Between 2013 and 2017, while Bell was a Steeler, the Steelers played 7 playoff games. Of those 7 games, Bell appeared in 4 of them and was knocked out in the first half of one of those games after apparently playing through a groin injury for weeks.

2016 WC - 29 / 167 / 2 TD
2016 Div - 30 / 170
2016 Conf - 6 / 20 inj
2017 Div - 16 / 67 / 1 TD + Rec 9 / 88 / 1 TD (Jacksonville game where they were down early and had to air it out)

He had 5.2 YPC with two monster games and one solid out of 3 1/2. The problem with Bell in the playoffs wasn't that he flopped in games, the problem is that he wasn't available. It's the least talked about factor of the Killer B era. You go through the season with an elite workhorse back, and then you enter the playoffs with Fitzgerald Toussaint, you are a different team.

[feltdizz]

One more thing about the Wilson move.

I think fans wanted style points and stats vs “bad” teams because they thought it would give us more confidence that we could compete vs good teams.

What we witnessed is style points don’t mean a damn thing.

[feltdizz]

Between 2013 and 2017, while Bell was a Steeler, the Steelers played 7 playoff games. Of those 7 games, Bell appeared in 4 of them and was knocked out in the first half of one of those games after apparently playing through a groin injury for weeks.

2016 WC - 29 / 167 / 2 TD
2016 Div - 30 / 170
2016 Conf - 6 / 20 inj
2017 Div - 16 / 67 / 1 TD + Rec 9 / 88 / 1 TD (Jacksonville game where they were down early and had to air it out)

He had 5.2 YPC with two monster games and one solid out of 3 1/2. The problem with Bell in the playoffs wasn't that he flopped in games, the problem is that he wasn't available. It's the least talked about factor of the Killer B era. You go through the season with an elite workhorse back, and then you enter the playoffs with Fitzgerald Toussaint, you are a different team.

yeah.. pretty sure he broke the record for most yards on the ground in his first 2 playoff games in 2016.

and like you said, we had to throw out the game plan vs JAX.

I guess you can say he flopped vs the Pats since he only played for 3 series.

[Northern_Blitz]

no.. overall it was not better. I would’ve preferred seeing what Kenny could do with a new OC. At worst we are looking for a QB this year or maybe Kenny turns the corner.

The schedule was harder this year.. and its because of the last 4 games.

in the last 5 games (including the playoff game).. we scored a total of 3 POINTS in the first quarter.

That is terrible.

I won’t put all the blame on Wilson. I think Tomlin handcuffing Wilson vs Cincy in the second meeting was a prime example of what is wrong with our passing offense. Run Run Pass and then finally taking the handcuffs off in the last 2 minutes of the half or waiting until the 4th quarter to go uptempo is terrible football.

Thanks for proving my point Felt.

I imagine that whatever happens at RB this year won't satisfy you either. Even if it's objectively better in just about every way.

[Northern_Blitz]

yeah.. pretty sure he broke the record for most yards on the ground in his first 2 playoff games in 2016.

and like you said, we had to throw out the game plan vs JAX.

I guess you can say he flopped vs the Pats since he only played for 3 series.

The projected 17 game season I have above doesnt throw any of that out and he's still at 1700 plus yards (almost 1800) with 13 TDs.

He was often hurt in the playoffs. But when he wasn't he was a monster.

[Northern_Blitz]

yeah.. pretty sure he broke the record for most yards on the ground in his first 2 playoff games in 2016.

and like you said, we had to throw out the game plan vs JAX.

I guess you can say he flopped vs the Pats since he only played for 3 series.

It really is sad that he couldn't stay healthy. He was so elite in playoff games.

Something we've been sorely missing...basically since Bell got hurt in New England. Has there been anyone who's really come in and dominated in a playoff game? The closest is probably Watt with a DTD against KC. And it's not like Watt's been all that visible in other playoff games.

And that KC game didn't matter at all...still got blown out with a DTD. Even Ben said we were just going out there to have fun or whatever.

Ben had a couple of great halves since then. But usually after having terrible first halves, so I don't know how much it should count when you're the one that dug the hole.

[feltdizz]

Thanks for proving my point Felt.

I imagine that whatever happens at RB this year won't satisfy you either. Even if it's objectively better in just about every way.

You provided stats that didn’t improve the QB position when it mattered most in December and January.

I have no problem admitting 400 more yards and 10 more TD’s was a statistical improvement.

You act like we won 3 more games and made it out of the wildcard round.

Like I said previously, before the slide I was ready to declare it a great move that improved the team. I even made a post praising the switch to Fields and Wilson.. then it all fell apart.

I’m not going to praise a move that didn’t improve our chances of winning when it mattered most.

[Northern_Blitz]

You provided stats that didn’t improve the QB position when it mattered most in December and January.

I have no problem admitting 400 more yards and 10 more TD’s was a statistical improvement.

You act like we won 3 more games and made it out of the wildcard round.

Like I said previously, before the slide I was ready to declare it a great move that improved the team. I even made a post praising the switch to Fields and Wilson.. then it all fell apart.

I’m not going to praise a move that didn’t improve our chances of winning when it mattered most.

Yep.

You won't praise us moving off your favorite QB even though he isn't good.

So I think it's reasonable to assume you won't praise us moving off your favorite RB when he's good but not great.

It's only OTAs, but here's the report on Kenny in CLE.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1928087274668896513

My guess is this is mostly shock talk bull**** and they're only talking about one day, but Kenny ranked 4th out of 4 QBs at OTAs.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with QB in CLE. Could easily see them keeping only one of Flacco or Kenny, then the two rookies. Especially if Sanders does look like the 2nd best QB through the process. Maybe they try to stash on of their rookie QBs on the practice squad?

You can't really keep 4 QBs on the roster.

[NorthCoast]

Yep.

You won't praise us moving off your favorite QB even though he isn't good.

So I think it's reasonable to assume you won't praise us moving off your favorite RB when he's good but not great.

It's only OTAs, but here's the report on Kenny in CLE.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1928087274668896513

My guess is this is mostly shock talk bull**** and they're only talking about one day, but Kenny ranked 4th out of 4 QBs at OTAs.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with QB in CLE. Could easily see them keeping only one of Flacco or Kenny, then the two rookies. Especially if Sanders does look like the 2nd best QB through the process. Maybe they try to stash on of their rookie QBs on the practice squad?

You can't really keep 4 QBs on the roster.

They were talking about the Browns QB room this morning on FSR. Said there is absolutely no way that 5 QBs will get enough useful snaps in preseason to evaluate anyone. But two can be scratched pretty quickly. I doubt Flaccid has to prove anything and I don't think Watson will play a snap. So that leaves the 3rd round pick, Sanders, and Pickett. One of these 3 is unlikely to see much work either (I remember Rudolph saying the 3rd QB basically holds a clipboard in preseason.)

[feltdizz]

Yep.

You won't praise us moving off your favorite QB even though he isn't good.

So I think it's reasonable to assume you won't praise us moving off your favorite RB when he's good but not great.

It's only OTAs, but here's the report on Kenny in CLE.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1928087274668896513

My guess is this is mostly shock talk bull**** and they're only talking about one day, but Kenny ranked 4th out of 4 QBs at OTAs.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with QB in CLE. Could easily see them keeping only one of Flacco or Kenny, then the two rookies. Especially if Sanders does look like the 2nd best QB through the process. Maybe they try to stash on of their rookie QBs on the practice squad?

You can't really keep 4 QBs on the roster.

If Russell was an improvement he wouldn’t be “on his 3rd team on 3 years” as some like to say on here.

[Northern_Blitz]

If Russell was an improvement he wouldn’t be “on his 3rd team on 3 years” as some like to say on here.

Yep. I don't get how you can't understand that it's possible for Wilson to be much better than Kenny but also not be a good long term answer.

So again...what "performance" improvements would you need to see to think that moving off of Najee was a good idea?

I think your actual answer is "there's nothing that can make me think that not extending Najee was a good idea".

And Pickett isn't even the clearest case with this. Bell is. It doesn't matter to you that he was done. Because you wanted to pay him even more than the huge contract he turned down from us. For what he did in the past despite the fact that the signs of rapid decline were there. Even with the hindsight that he was completely washed when he came back to the NFL, you still somehow believe that he never would have aged if he stayed with us. Getting another 300 or so touches would have made him even better the next season!

[feltdizz]

Yep. I don't get how you can't understand that it's possible for Wilson to be much better than Kenny but also not be a good long term answer.

So again...what "performance" improvements would you need to see to think that moving off of Najee was a good idea?

I think your actual answer is "there's nothing that can make me think that not extending Najee was a good idea".

And Pickett isn't even the clearest case with this. Bell is. It doesn't matter to you that he was done. Because you wanted to pay him even more than the huge contract he turned down from us. For what he did in the past despite the fact that the signs of rapid decline were there. Even with the hindsight that he was completely washed when he came back to the NFL, you still somehow believe that he never would have aged if he stayed with us. Getting another 300 or so touches would have made him even better the next season!

What did Wilson do better than Pickett in December and January? Did he leave our offense better than when he arrived? Did he show us anything in December and January that would give us hope for the future?

When Wilson first started he gave us hope and then he erased all that late in the season.

What I need to see from Johnson is some chain moving, turning negative plays into positive plays. More splash plays. Pass protection and ball protection. Consistency and another gear that Najee doesn’t have. I want to see Najee’s rookie season stats or better.

You talk about Wilson like he was methodically marching us down the field late in the year putting on a clinic. The O was ass in December and January.