However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

[brothervad]

of the 11 players on Defense only 2 starters are Tomlin guys (Woodley and Timmons). The rest are Cowher's.

he has been gone since 2006...regardless of how this season turns out...things will change next year especially on the Defensive side of the ball.


This season may turn out to be disappointing but I have to tip my cap to this group on Defense. They were a great group and when they played in their prime...no one was better.

I actually cringe to think Hines Ward in another uniform trying to get his record, but at this pace he isn't gonna make it this year. And I think the Steelers will be forced to do the once unimaginable.

brothervad

[Jigawatts]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

I hate to sound like I'm writing off this young season, but the way things are going it looks
like the core players that gave us such a great run over the past few years have already
faded into the twilight.

Ward, Farrior, Smith, thank you.

Hampton, Harrison,

We still have Ben, a nice crop of young receivers, and if this offensive line ever gets it
together we have a great offense, minus Arians of course.

Defensively, there will be holes to fill. But is it possible for any defense to dominate anymore?

I really hope I can look back on this post a few months from now and laugh about how
stupid it was.

[SteelStallion]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

I agree. I do think it's an end of an era both long term and short term. Long term we've had a 20 year run where players were lost to retirement or free agency and there was an abundance of young players ready to step up and that pipeline seems to have waned. Short term is obvious with too many has-been players with large contracts at the same time. This is a nonplayoff year. The question is whether it's for more than one year.

I also think the organization bears some responsibility for this, especially Tomlin, Lebeau and Colbert. They don't seem to respect age or speed. They seem to be emotionally attached to Cowher's old vets and seem to have lost their objectivity. The drafting has been spotty and the free agency victories have been few. They seem reluctant to let young players start or play and they develop young players slowly. They've given generous contracts to older players and now they're stuck. The fans certainly saw this coming but were hesitant to criticize because of the SB appearances. I'm more optimistic about the D if they'll only let their young players play and develop, in other words starting not watching. The O-line is a disaster and there are no options for this year.

The silver lining is higher draft picks that'll help speed up the process if they play their cards right. Remember we got Ben after a down year. And the timing is good with the rookie salary cap.

[brothervad]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

I know it's easy to flame on certain folks in the Steeler hiearchy and we all have our choices.

I know mine is Colbert.

For the very simple reason...you have a franchise QB and sure he holds onto the ball too long.

I wonder what his numbers would be like if he had a line where he could wait all day every now and then like a Brady.

I provided a list a while back where I looked over the drafts since Ben has been onboard.

How many pro-bowlers do you see in the list? remember every bust at OL begets another year requiring a pick to be spent on the OL.

In fact, it isn't until the past 2 seasons that they have picked OL in the first two rounds. Now it can be a function of where they were selecting and value, but that means you got to do a better job in finding talent at the lower rounds. And he just hasn't been doing that.


You can do the same thing for DL. Look I haven't compared other teams so this may be a bit unfair, but it sure seems like the front office has done a piss poor job at securing the lines.

I just think you try to keep your franchise from taking a beating. Ben is going into his 30's. He can't continue to take the beating he is taking and be as effective in his mid-30's.

I lay a lot of that blame on Colbert.

2004
3 75 Max Starks T Florida
6 177 Bo Lacy T Arkansas
6 197 Drew Caylor C Stanford

2005
3 93 Trai Essex T Northwestern
6 204 Chris Kemoeatu G Utah

2006
3 131 Willie Colon T Hofstra
6 201 Marvin Philip C California

2007
5 156 Cameron Stephenson G Rutgers

2008
4 130 Tony Hills T Texas

2009
3 79 Kraig Urbik T Wisconsin
7 226 A.Q. Shipley C Penn State

2010
1 18 Maurkice Pouncey C Florida
5 151 Chris Scott T Tennessee

2011
Rd 2, Pick 31 (63) Gilbert, Marcus OL
Rd 6, Pick 31 (196) Williams, Keith OL

[feltdizz]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

a lot of the time Brady gets is due to his quick check downs and fast paced offense...

if Ben throws the hot route and the WR's turn around and freaking look for the ball... and Ben throws the check downs to RB's quickly and accurately you will see Ben get more time.

We will never have a Pats type OL but the style of play has a lot to do with the time Brady gets. We can't even blitz and get to him fast enough and it's not because the blitz is being picked up.

Take what the D gives and snap the ball before the play cock is at 1 second and watch the OL improve.

[steelblood]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

I know it's easy to flame on certain folks in the Steeler hiearchy and we all have our choices.

I know mine is Colbert.

For the very simple reason...you have a franchise QB and sure he holds onto the ball too long.

I wonder what his numbers would be like if he had a line where he could wait all day every now and then like a Brady.

I provided a list a while back where I looked over the drafts since Ben has been onboard.

How many pro-bowlers do you see in the list? remember every bust at OL begets another year requiring a pick to be spent on the OL.

In fact, it isn't until the past 2 seasons that they have picked OL in the first two rounds. Now it can be a function of where they were selecting and value, but that means you got to do a better job in finding talent at the lower rounds. And he just hasn't been doing that.


You can do the same thing for DL. Look I haven't compared other teams so this may be a bit unfair, but it sure seems like the front office has done a piss poor job at securing the lines.

I just think you try to keep your franchise from taking a beating. Ben is going into his 30's. He can't continue to take the beating he is taking and be as effective in his mid-30's.

I lay a lot of that blame on Colbert.

2004
3 75 Max Starks T Florida
6 177 Bo Lacy T Arkansas
6 197 Drew Caylor C Stanford

2005
3 93 Trai Essex T Northwestern
6 204 Chris Kemoeatu G Utah

2006
3 131 Willie Colon T Hofstra
6 201 Marvin Philip C California

2007
5 156 Cameron Stephenson G Rutgers

2008
4 130 Tony Hills T Texas

2009
3 79 Kraig Urbik T Wisconsin
7 226 A.Q. Shipley C Penn State

2010
1 18 Maurkice Pouncey C Florida
5 151 Chris Scott T Tennessee

2011
Rd 2, Pick 31 (63) Gilbert, Marcus OL
Rd 6, Pick 31 (196) Williams, Keith OL

To be fair, you must add in the signing Hartwig, UDFAs like Stapleton, signing Flozell last season, etc.

It also looks like all of Colbert oline picks in the first three rounds turned into competent starters (albeit Urbik is doing it in Buffalo and Gilbert is more of a projection). It isn't Colbert's fault that our coaching staff couldn't make it work with Urbik.

Again, I'm not saying that this list is good work, but it is hardly an unmitigated disaster especially considering that he usually picks later in each round.

He hasn't been great. But, this list isn't exactly a disaster either.

[SteelTorch]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

I know it's easy to flame on certain folks in the Steeler hiearchy and we all have our choices.

I know mine is Colbert.

For the very simple reason...you have a franchise QB and sure he holds onto the ball too long.

I wonder what his numbers would be like if he had a line where he could wait all day every now and then like a Brady.

I provided a list a while back where I looked over the drafts since Ben has been onboard.

How many pro-bowlers do you see in the list? remember every bust at OL begets another year requiring a pick to be spent on the OL.

In fact, it isn't until the past 2 seasons that they have picked OL in the first two rounds. Now it can be a function of where they were selecting and value, but that means you got to do a better job in finding talent at the lower rounds. And he just hasn't been doing that.


You can do the same thing for DL. Look I haven't compared other teams so this may be a bit unfair, but it sure seems like the front office has done a piss poor job at securing the lines.

I just think you try to keep your franchise from taking a beating. Ben is going into his 30's. He can't continue to take the beating he is taking and be as effective in his mid-30's.

I lay a lot of that blame on Colbert.

2004
3 75 Max Starks T Florida
6 177 Bo Lacy T Arkansas
6 197 Drew Caylor C Stanford

2005
3 93 Trai Essex T Northwestern
6 204 Chris Kemoeatu G Utah

2006
3 131 Willie Colon T Hofstra
6 201 Marvin Philip C California

2007
5 156 Cameron Stephenson G Rutgers

2008
4 130 Tony Hills T Texas

2009
3 79 Kraig Urbik T Wisconsin
7 226 A.Q. Shipley C Penn State

2010
1 18 Maurkice Pouncey C Florida
5 151 Chris Scott T Tennessee

2011
Rd 2, Pick 31 (63) Gilbert, Marcus OL
Rd 6, Pick 31 (196) Williams, Keith OL

Great post. And like I've said, the FO may not have ignored the O-line outright, but it seems they thought they could build a great line from mediocre players on the team and in the draft. Well, look how that turned out. When they saw how bad the line was in 2007, they should have been tenacious about fixing things. Instead, all their efforts were half-baked. Now the line is looking among the worst it's been in years.

[NW Steeler]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

Our Drafting of Olinemen in recent years has been abysmal. One bonafide talent - Pouncey. That's it. Now they just cut another recent draft pick to bring back Starks. Ugh.

[Sonny]

Re: However this season turns out...it is the end of an era

This could be the end, but we have replacements ready to step in all over.

If we get our line fixed, the Pittsburgh Steelers will bounce back and bounce back fast.

Ben, Mendy/Redman, young fast receivers with an all-pro mixed in, top notch TE

That is just on offense.

On defense Heyward, Ziggy, Hampton on the D-line. It is time to start looking for a new NT though.

Our linebackers...we're the Steelers. This will always be a strength.

Secondary, we have won SBs with Ike and Troy leading the way, we can win more.


We're not going anywhere fellas. This may be just a year of "reloading" and getting rid of some of the "dead weight".

Fix the O-Line and everything will be fine.




Oh, and, we do need to adjust to the new "passing league" thing. It just isn't as important to run and stop the run, so...make sure our QB has protection and big time receivers to throw to and on defense either get to the QB or focus more on cover corners and a big time free safety to stop the pass.