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Everyone wanted to upgrade the DBs in the draft. And for good reason, we can always upgrade the talent. But at the end of the day, are the DBs the reason we couldn't beat NE?
I'd say the guys we have are good enough if they get some time to play together. Burns and Davis are legit starters with their game improving as the season wore on. Mitchell is pretty underrated in Pittsburgh and has improved since he joined the team and got comfortable in our system. There's been a lot of moving parts around him and as the young guys continue to develop, I see the continuity helping Mitchell's play.
Cockrell is a mixed bag. Sometimes he does some good things, but other times he's mediocre. The team using the lowest tender on him tells you what they think of him. But he's a smart kid and no reason he can't be a solid contributor. No one thought very highly of Deshea or Willie Gay in their early days, but both worked their way into solid contributors and I think we'll live with Cockrell on the outside and fans will start to like him more and more as he makes positive contributions and doesn't show himself to be a liability.
Probably the biggest short term concern is Willie Gay getting long in the tooth, but with Sutton and Golson, I think we have some options. Who knows with either, but both guys probably have more upside than Gay ever did.
Beyond the starters, we'll likely see some tough competition for the backup spots. I like the flyer we took on Allen. Couple of the other young guys are still unknowns. Not sure we have much depth at S that makes me comfortable at this point, but we have some young guys throughout our DBs and continuity is probably the most important part of this unit's performance.
Continuity and communication on the backend contributed to the big plays. It's not like we're getting over matched by NE's WRs. We just chose not to cover guys. I think we have more concern covering TEs and RBs out of the backfield. And that's not on the DBs. Some of that is on the LBs.
But most of all, the biggest gap in our Defense is getting pressure on the QB. If we can somehow figure out a way to get pressure with 3-4 guys, all of our concerns about our DBs will magically disappear.
No matter how you slice it, the teams that cause problems for Brady are the teams that can get to Brady with their D front. That's where we need to invest. That's why the Broncos or the Giants in recent years have been able to give NE problems.
So the bigger question I have walking away from the draft is, did we get better at generating pressure with 3-4? I don't know that we did. And if we can't generate pressure without blitzing, you can have Woodsen, Blount, Troy, Shell, Carnell, whomever playing DB and they are going to look mediocre against Tom Brady if he has all the time in the world to make plays.
If we're going to beat NE, it's more about how much Hargrave and Tuitt can improve in the short term. Draft picks aren't going to really help us during Ben's tenure most likely. At this point, we've got to develop who we have on D over time. But our future D is a post Ben era D that we're building. If we want to win now, I think a backup RB and #3 WR and a dynamic TE could be the biggest components to help us over the hump. To have a short term chance vs NE, you have to go all in on trying to get to 40 points/game. As many weapons as we have, Ben seemed to be playing alone in that last game against NE.
I'm just not sure our secondary is the fix. We need a pass rush. We need to cover RBs and TEs better. We need young guys to gain experience playing together so we don't make mental lapses. And we need to be able to put up points and clearly we were missing depth at the skill position on O.
I'd say the guys we have are good enough if they get some time to play together. Burns and Davis are legit starters with their game improving as the season wore on. Mitchell is pretty underrated in Pittsburgh and has improved since he joined the team and got comfortable in our system. There's been a lot of moving parts around him and as the young guys continue to develop, I see the continuity helping Mitchell's play.
Cockrell is a mixed bag. Sometimes he does some good things, but other times he's mediocre. The team using the lowest tender on him tells you what they think of him. But he's a smart kid and no reason he can't be a solid contributor. No one thought very highly of Deshea or Willie Gay in their early days, but both worked their way into solid contributors and I think we'll live with Cockrell on the outside and fans will start to like him more and more as he makes positive contributions and doesn't show himself to be a liability.
Probably the biggest short term concern is Willie Gay getting long in the tooth, but with Sutton and Golson, I think we have some options. Who knows with either, but both guys probably have more upside than Gay ever did.
Beyond the starters, we'll likely see some tough competition for the backup spots. I like the flyer we took on Allen. Couple of the other young guys are still unknowns. Not sure we have much depth at S that makes me comfortable at this point, but we have some young guys throughout our DBs and continuity is probably the most important part of this unit's performance.
Continuity and communication on the backend contributed to the big plays. It's not like we're getting over matched by NE's WRs. We just chose not to cover guys. I think we have more concern covering TEs and RBs out of the backfield. And that's not on the DBs. Some of that is on the LBs.
But most of all, the biggest gap in our Defense is getting pressure on the QB. If we can somehow figure out a way to get pressure with 3-4 guys, all of our concerns about our DBs will magically disappear.
No matter how you slice it, the teams that cause problems for Brady are the teams that can get to Brady with their D front. That's where we need to invest. That's why the Broncos or the Giants in recent years have been able to give NE problems.
So the bigger question I have walking away from the draft is, did we get better at generating pressure with 3-4? I don't know that we did. And if we can't generate pressure without blitzing, you can have Woodsen, Blount, Troy, Shell, Carnell, whomever playing DB and they are going to look mediocre against Tom Brady if he has all the time in the world to make plays.
If we're going to beat NE, it's more about how much Hargrave and Tuitt can improve in the short term. Draft picks aren't going to really help us during Ben's tenure most likely. At this point, we've got to develop who we have on D over time. But our future D is a post Ben era D that we're building. If we want to win now, I think a backup RB and #3 WR and a dynamic TE could be the biggest components to help us over the hump. To have a short term chance vs NE, you have to go all in on trying to get to 40 points/game. As many weapons as we have, Ben seemed to be playing alone in that last game against NE.
I'm just not sure our secondary is the fix. We need a pass rush. We need to cover RBs and TEs better. We need young guys to gain experience playing together so we don't make mental lapses. And we need to be able to put up points and clearly we were missing depth at the skill position on O.
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