Steelers players reaction to Todd Haley’s playbook shows how weak Arians playbook was

[hawaiiansteel]

Steelers players reaction to Todd Haley’s playbook shows how weak Arians playbook was

May 11th, 2012



Todd Haley has handed out the Steelers new playbook. From the reaction of the players it is nothing like the playbook Bruce Arians has put out in the past. Ben Roethlisberger compared it to learning “Rosetta Stone”. That is expected when a new coordinator comes in. You get his playbook rather than the one you were using.

There were two comments though that stood out to me with the players talking about the new playbook. One was from Ben Roethlisberger and the other from Emmanuel Sanders.

Roethlisberger when asked about the similarities in the playbook:

“The similarities would be on a shorter list. Off the top of my head, from what I’ve seen so far, there’s a 90 percent change.”

Emmanuel Sanders tweet about the depth of the playbook:

This new playbook is something serious!!!!! Bout to go old-school and make some flashcards.

Both liken the playbook to a completely new world. It makes this playbook seem more in depth and brand new. A playbook from a new coach should be new but not 90% new. If the Steelers had a good playbook before it would be 50-60% new. The overall scheme may change some but the plays even with new terminology should not be that different. It should not be that out of the ordinary. These two guys saying it is tells us even more about Bruce Arians.

Fans have been complaining for years about how predictable Bruce Arians was with the Steelers scheme. We all knew what type of play was coming when the Steelers would line up on offense. So did our opponents. They knew where the ball was going before the ball was even snapped. It showed in our offense. It showed in Roethlisberger’s grimace when he would get hit. We have all of these weapons and yet we can not score points. This makes sense as to why now.

People questioned the offensive line. They questioned Ben Roethlisberger. They questioned the wide receivers. The main question they asked was why does Ben hold on to the ball so long and take hits? Yes the offensive line was inconsistent. Yes Ben likes to be a hero. No the receivers did not get open. Now we understand though that the receivers may have not been able to get open because Arians playbook was so easy to figure out that it took more time for them to get open. If the defense knew what was coming they could roll the coverage to the play. If no one is open Ben had to hold the ball so he got hit more. So even though you can put some blame on the players most of it should go to Arians.

There were so many times when I sat on the couch and said that guy missed his hot read. Ben should have hit him right off the bat. The blitz was coming. Now seeing how much these guys think Haley’s playbook is so in depth it makes me wander if they did miss their hot read or not. Was there even a true hot read? Or, was a bubble screen Arians way of having a hot read?

How easy and how much lack of depth was there in Arians playbook? Roethlisberger is looking for his position coach to not throw to much at him at one time in the new playbook. That is fine this early but the fact that he needs to really take it slow shows how little was actually in Arians playbook. Sanders wanting to get flash cards to learn the plays says even more. Sanders is a film room junkie. While injured he eluded to making his friends angry because he would watch the live game like he was watching film. He is a student of the game. For him to be this taken a back by the playbook says we needed a new playbook.

So while these guys may take some time to get used to the new playbook it will help them in the end. They are going from a predictable offense which seemed to be pretty vanilla to and offense run by Haley that will play to their strengths. They will get better routes. They will read coverages and they will find holes in the defense. That will give them the ability to get open faster. It will make the line look better. It will get the ball out of Roethlisberger’s hands faster so he gets hit less. Thus we will score more points. The pressure can be taken off of the defense a little bit. They can get some rest. It will make the entire team better.

So even if it takes all summer to learn. It seems like Haley’s new playbook is going to be worth it. This offense will be better under Haley.

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[BURGH86STEEL]

For some, predictability has been an issue since Cowher was head coach. People will eventually suggest that Haley's offense is predictable. I suppose Haley's offense was predictable in the SB 40 when Harrison picked off a game changing pass. In any event, I believe all offenses and defenses function with some level of predictability. I don't believe offenses and defenses deviated much from the way they do things on a week to week basis. I believe it's too difficult to deviate much and have the players maintain a level of comfort within the systems they've learned and practice.

Now I don't know what constitutes and NFL play book. It seems that the language may be the most difficult of an aspect of an offense/playbook to learn. I suspect the language of the offense was what Ben and Saunders were referring.

This doesn't suggest anything one way or another about Bruce Arians. Not sure why someone felt the need to take a shot at BA when he's gone??? Fans need to be careful assuming Haley is a coaching god. Making statements to the effect that Haley's going to do this or that before he's had a chance to coach these players makes no sense.

[Djfan]

Burgh,

I think it's just as simple as the fact that BA was so lame that anything different will be better. If Haley can run this O without the announcers saying things like "Ben draws plays in the sand" or "the defense seems to know what is coming" or "Why did they rutm four times in a row?" then Haley is better.

No one is calling him God. Improvement would be enough. That shouldn't be hard.

[Jigawatts]

I think there's certain levels of predictability. It's one thing for an NFL defense to figure out what your doing, but when an idiot fan like me can sit on his couch and call out the plays, COME ON MAN.

[feltdizz]

It doesn't make much sense to praise the new OC before we actually see this O in action.

What's really cool is being able to watch BA in Indy with Luck to see if he really is predictable.

[BURGH86STEEL]

Burgh,

I think it's just as simple as the fact that BA was so lame that anything different will be better. If Haley can run this O without the announcers saying things like "Ben draws plays in the sand" or "the defense seems to know what is coming" or "Why did they rutm four times in a row?" then Haley is better.

No one is calling him God. Improvement would be enough. That shouldn't be hard.

It's possible that the offense will be worse in some aspects.

I believe there will be times that Ben will continue to play sandlot football and attempt to extend plays under Haley. Ben's penchant for holding onto the ball so long at times is a big why reason he's had to extend plays throughout his career. Outside of scoring, not sure how much better the offense can improve. For the increase in scoring to happen, Ben will need to pass for more TD's. Ben throwing for 30+ TD's seems to be a difficult proposition regardless of the OC. Time will tell if Haley can get Ben to become a more consistent QB.

[Flasteel]

This sounds a little odd to me. One of the things I thought BA did well was pare down the offensive playbook with the help of Roethlisberger. If I remember correctly, the playbook when Arians took over, was a huge mish-mash of plays and terminology from the past several OC's. They supposedly "cleaned" everything up and kept many of the plays Roethlisberger was comfortable with. I'm not sure if they stripped it down to the bone or just eliminated too many plays and formations that Haley relies on, but this type of huge change seems like something you would normally want to avoid doing.

I agree with the sentiment that more and different does not necessarily equal better.

I also agree with DJ, that improvement shouldn't be too difficult either.

[Djfan]

It's possible that the offense will be worse in some aspects.

I believe there will be times that Ben will continue to play sandlot football and attempt to extend plays under Haley. Ben's penchant for holding onto the ball so long at times is a big why reason he's had to extend plays throughout his career. Outside of scoring, not sure how much better the offense can improve. For the increase in scoring to happen, Ben will need to pass for more TD's. Ben throwing for 30+ TD's seems to be a difficult proposition regardless of the OC. Time will tell if Haley can get Ben to become a more consistent QB.

Fair response. I agree with much of it, but I want to add that Ben held onto the ball too long for another common reason - The play calling was bad and he had to make something out of nothing.

The offense can improve by having a line that can open homes and protect the QB, along with having plays that exploit the weakness of the defense. BA seemed to never care about that. You could call his first play of every game the Tuesday before. Even these little changes would be good.

[D Rock]

This sounds a little odd to me. One of the things I thought BA did well was pare down the offensive playbook with the help of Roethlisberger. If I remember correctly, the playbook when Arians took over, was a huge mish-mash of plays and terminology from the past several OC's. They supposedly "cleaned" everything up and kept many of the plays Roethlisberger was comfortable with. I'm not sure if they stripped it down to the bone or just eliminated too many plays and formations that Haley relies on, but this type of huge change seems like something you would normally want to avoid doing.

I agree with the sentiment that more and different does not necessarily equal better.

I also agree with DJ, that improvement shouldn't be too difficult either.

Didn't the team also hire from within for all of those successive OCs? I'd say that was the real problem with the playbook was that it was always modified and never just redone.

What do you do when you want your home to look a bit different but you have bad wiring and plumbing? Just change the colors of the walls? Nope...you rip it all down and start fresh and do it right and the way you want it.

[Flasteel]

Didn't the team also hire from within for all of those successive OCs? I'd say that was the real problem with the playbook was that it was always modified and never just redone.

Kind of reminds me of the problems involved with inbreeding.

[birtikidis]

I guesss removing all those bubble screens changed more than half the play book. Who'd a known

[SteelCrazy]

Arians was/is predictable. It wont change in Indy. So far, Haley hasnt accomplished anything in Pitt and he is simply unknown until game 1 is over. After hearing all the talk from players about how hard it is I expect a lot of confusion and little success in game 1. GO DEFENSE!

[Oviedo]

Arians was/is predictable. It wont change in Indy. So far, Haley hasnt accomplished anything in Pitt and he is simply unknown until game 1 is over. After hearing all the talk from players about how hard it is I expect a lot of confusion and little success in game 1. GO DEFENSE!

Not sure it will even be before the end of game one that we will read what a idiot Haley is. How he is a terrible OC. How the offense sucks.

[Flasteel]

Not sure it will even be before the end of game one that we will read what a idiot Haley is. How he is a terrible OC. How the offense sucks.

Yes Ovi, just as we can all expect a rant about LeBeau and the decline of the Steelers' defense from you. There will always be malcontents.

[Snatch98]

Arians was/is predictable. It wont change in Indy. So far, Haley hasnt accomplished anything in Pitt and he is simply unknown until game 1 is over. After hearing all the talk from players about how hard it is I expect a lot of confusion and little success in game 1. GO DEFENSE!

They'll have a full offseason to absorb the playbook. They're paid millions of dollars to UNDERSTAND the playbook and it's ridiculous to assume there is going to be "a lot of confusion".