Youth will not be served

[Oviedo]

We never know the composition of the fimal roster until right before opening day, but it appears the front office is opting for the "go with what you know" approach.

It was going to be an uphill battle given the lack of off season OTAs, but resigning Moore and Gay pretty much means that there will be no legitimate competition for rookies to show what they can do in game situations.

Barron Batch and John Clay will lose the most with Moore coming back. Their only hope is unseating Dwyer as the #4 RB which by all accounts Dwyer is helping them do with his poor performances.

Forget Curtis Brown getting a chance to play in the nickle defense. Gay looks to be back to man that position. If it wasn't an challenge for a rookie to ever see the field on our defense it will be impossible for our young DBs and LBs Chris Carter and Mario Harvey.

This is all somewhat disconcerting. Even though the front office has done a great job, sooner or later we are going to "hit the wall" with all these 30+ veterans and we will not have back ups with significant game experience ready to step in. At least we won't have to learn new numbers.

[phillyesq]

Re: Youth will not be served

The Steelers typically don't start rookies. And it isn't because they are opposed to doing so. It's because they don't have to. When a rookie demonstrates that he can play, like Pouncey, he plays. When a rookie needs seasoning, he starts on the bench and eventually works his way in.

I doubt that the picks and udfas get significant snaps early in the season, but I think that is a positive. Coming off the abbreviated offseason, I'd rather rely on veterans who went to a SB last year than rookies with very little time in the offensive or defensive system.

Most consider it a luxury to ease in a current crop of rookies, not an organizational failure.

By the end of the year, depending on how they develop and depending on injuries, some of the rookies will play, as will some of the younger holdovers from last year.

[flippy]

Re: Youth will not be served

It's a nice luxury having a team where young guys don't have to be thrown to the wolves immediately.

Gilbert might be the only guy to get a real look given the needs/uncertainty we have on the OLine.

Heyward's gonna have to work himself into a rotation and may see very limited action. He's just not gonna leapfrog Keisel.

Brown and Allen will get to compete, but I don't see them beating out Gay really. Gay's good. People are unfairly critical of the guy. Sure he's not the greatest, but he can contribute.

The others, I just don't see them as legit starters contributors right away.

I'm more interested in seeing guys like Worldis, Sylvester, Ziggy, Sanders, Brown, Wallace, Pouncey, etc take that next step in their development.

And if you look at our defensive injury issues last year in Troy, Jimmy, and BMac, there's a lot of room for improvement if those guys get healthy.

There's a lot of positives to look forward to and the play of Curtis Brown or Barron Batch is most likely irrelevant to winning a SuperBowl this year.

[chiken]

Re: Youth will not be served

I think (hope) that we will see something from C. Butler and Lewis this year. And if B. Batch makes the team I think he will get A chance (just my gut feeling) with the big boys. He has some ability.

[Slapstick]

Re: Youth will not be served

This offseason was not typical at all...it's difficult to blame the team for resigning players who know the system and contributed to a Super Bowl appearance...

Slightly off-topic, I believe that the lockout was why LeBeau and Arians both re-upped for a year....Tomiln wanted to avoid bringing in new coaches and systems during the lockout period...

Going with veterans may be bad for the rookies, but it is in the team's best interests this year...

[Oviedo]

Re: Youth will not be served

This offseason was not typical at all...it's difficult to blame the team for resigning players who know the system and contributed to a Super Bowl appearance...

Slightly off-topic, I believe that the lockout was why LeBeau and Arians both re-upped for a year....Tomiln wanted to avoid bringing in new coaches and systems during the lockout period...

Going with veterans may be bad for the rookies, but it is in the team's best interests this year...

Don't disagree, but eventually got to get these young guys on the field and see or we will have one of those season where all the vets are gone or their performance slips and the young guys will have to OJT in a bad situation.

[Slapstick]

Re: Youth will not be served

That's true...

This year may not be the best time...

[phillyesq]

Re: Youth will not be served

Slightly off-topic, I believe that the lockout was why LeBeau and Arians both re-upped for a year....Tomiln wanted to avoid bringing in new coaches and systems during the lockout period...

I'd think the SB appearance had something to do with it as well.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: Youth will not be served

Rookies never play!

Maurkice Pouncey didn't make the Pro Bowl!

Manny Sanders didn't catch 28 balls for 376 yards and 2 TD's!

Antonio Brown didn't make two huge, clutch plays in the playoffs!

Stevenson Sylvester did not play in all 16 games (including both playoff games and the Super Bowl) as a special teams demon!

Jason Worilds did not play in 14 regular season games and a playoff game as well!

Oh wait...all those things did happen. Sorry...I forgot.

[Oviedo]

Re: Youth will not be served

Rookies never play!

Maurkice Pouncey didn't make the Pro Bowl!

Manny Sanders didn't catch 28 balls for 376 yards and 2 TD's!

Antonio Brown didn't make two huge, clutch plays in the playoffs!

Stevenson Sylvester did not play in all 16 games (including both playoff games and the Super Bowl) as a special teams demon!

Jason Worilds did not play in 14 regular season games and a playoff game as well!

Oh wait...all those things did happen. Sorry...I forgot.

We do a good job of integrating rookies on the offensive side of the ball. My concern is on the defensive side of the ball where we have our weakest unit...the secondary.

[flippy]

Re: Youth will not be served

You could make the case our weakest unit is the DLine. We never get pressure with 3-4 guys.

We've always got to blitz or create confusion to create pressure.

Bring the pressure and the DBs will look much better.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Re: Youth will not be served

You could make the case our weakest unit is the DLine. We never get pressure with 3-4 guys.

We've always got to blitz or create confusion to create pressure.

Bring the pressure and the DBs will look much better.

On what planet would Hood-Hampton-Keisel ever be considered a weak unit? You could even trot out the 2nd team of Smith-Hoke-Heyward instead, and you'd still have an unusually strong 3-4 d-line.

[flippy]

Re: Youth will not be served

You could make the case our weakest unit is the DLine. We never get pressure with 3-4 guys.

We've always got to blitz or create confusion to create pressure.

Bring the pressure and the DBs will look much better.

On what planet would Hood-Hampton-Keisel ever be considered a weak unit? You could even trot out the 2nd team of Smith-Hoke-Heyward instead, and you'd still have an unusually strong 3-4 d-line.

They're the best when it comes to 3-4 lines. All great players. But when there's a lot of receivers on the field and we go with a 4 man line, we don't get a lot of pressure with 3 or 4 guys like a lot of other lines do. And I'd consider Harrison/Woodley as an extension of the 4 man line.

To get pressure, we often have to send Farrior or Timmons up the middle plus Troy, Timmons, Gay, etc off the edge.

And that opens up the potential for passing plays if we can't get pressure with 6 guys.

We get a lot of sacks, but we don't get consistent pressure without blitzing and that the biggest issue for the D.

When QBs get loads of time, that's when our DBs look bad. And I think our DBs get a bad rep for the system they play in.

[Oviedo]

Re: Youth will not be served

You could make the case our weakest unit is the DLine. We never get pressure with 3-4 guys.

We've always got to blitz or create confusion to create pressure.

Bring the pressure and the DBs will look much better.

On what planet would Hood-Hampton-Keisel ever be considered a weak unit? You could even trot out the 2nd team of Smith-Hoke-Heyward instead, and you'd still have an unusually strong 3-4 d-line.

They're the best when it comes to 3-4 lines. All great players. But when there's a lot of receivers on the field and we go with a 4 man line, we don't get a lot of pressure with 3 or 4 guys like a lot of other lines do. And I'd consider Harrison/Woodley as an extension of the 4 man line.

To get pressure, we often have to send Farrior or Timmons up the middle plus Troy, Timmons, Gay, etc off the edge.

And that opens up the potential for passing plays if we can't get pressure with 6 guys.

We get a lot of sacks, but we don't get consistent pressure without blitzing and that the biggest issue for the D.

When QBs get loads of time, that's when our DBs look bad. And I think our DBs get a bad rep for the system they play in.

The 3-4 is designed for the LBs to create the QB pressure. You are not suppose to get sacks from the DL. The DLs primary role is controlling the LOS and making the opponents run game null and void. Any sacks you get from the DL is icing on the cake.

The amount of QB pressure that Kiesel does get is a credit to how good a player he really is. Same for what Aaron Smith use to be able to do.

[feltdizz]

Re: Youth will not be served

Hood gets after it too....

The O has no problem inserting rookies...

The D? Well... not so much. If GB and other teams can throw in rookies and cover our championship WR's why the heck do our CB's look lost 2 to 3 years in?

I know the D as a whole is effective but I would like to see more youngsters getting a few reps in our backfield.

I don't know who wrote it but I read on here where Ike was almost a casualty because he couldn't grasp the system. If this is true then it goes to show why we keep resigning average vets.

It was just one game but you see a guy break on the ball, drop it and never see him again...the response is "where is he now?" or "who picked him up?"

Well isn't that part of the problem? Sometimes it feels like we break our CB's down like boot camp and rebuild them into average CB's.