Was it mason or Fitchner???

[Chucktownsteeler]

Look, I have to allegiance to Mason Rudolph other than I hope he does well as the Steelers will do well.

He and Duck got a lot of flack last year for the dink, dank, dunk offense. Maybe they were just running the plays that were called.

If the Steelers had this in mind why:

1.) Didn't we try to sign Tom brady?
2.) Why did we draft the homerun threat in Claypool?

[feltdizz]

We didn’t sign Brady because we have Ben. That’s a silly question.

I agree about the philosophy, I thought it was just because we had Mason nut it appears our O is really trying to extend Ben’s career with this new offense.

Would love to see us open it up once the playoffs start and throw people off.

[Chucktownsteeler]

I'm not so sure it is a silly question, although it was tongue in cheek. Do you realize what Brady could do with this defense and the weapons on offense. It probably never would have happened but he's be licking his chops for sure.

If we leave the core group of young players walk for a QB that no longer has a long ball we will be fighting it out with the Bengals for the cellar.

Look, I love ben and what he has brought to our team but there are time difficult decisions have to be made. I think his arm is gone.

I think if we could keep the core group of our younger players together we could still be competitive.

[Eich]

I'm not sure why anyone would conclude that Ben's arm is gone. He's been off here and there but for the most part, I think he's played very well this season.

The receivers on the other hand? Brady would go medieval on them if they dropped that many balls.

The playcalling has been awful. I'm also hoping that we go into a new mode in the playoffs to throw everyone off.

[Chucktownsteeler]

I'm not sure why anyone would conclude that Ben's arm is gone. He's been off here and there but for the most part, I think he's played very well this season.

The receivers on the other hand? Brady would go medieval on them if they dropped that many balls.

The playcalling has been awful. I'm also hoping that we go into a new mode in the playoffs to throw everyone off.

I just think the preponderance of the evidence of a short passing attack and Ben's inaccuracy on any passes over 10 yards leads me to that conclusion. I was cussing out McFarland until I saw the 2nd angle of the pass. He had no chance to catch it.

Did all the receivers forget how to catch at the same time? Most played in inclement weather in college.

My original point is do we keep Ben for another year, maybe 2 and let the solid core of young players walk?

[Eich]

My original point is do we keep Ben for another year, maybe 2 and let the solid core of young players walk?

Without Ben, we're an 8-8 team at best, until we can find his replacement. It's not Rudolph IMO.

Right now, it's too easy for teams to game plan against us. Our run game is short passes behind or near the LOS and our game plan is for Ben to get rid of it in under 3 seconds. So defenses can just light up tight at the line and dare us to do something different.

[Chucktownsteeler]

Without Ben, we're an 8-8 team at best, until we can find his replacement. It's not Rudolph IMO.

Right now, it's too easy for teams to game plan against us. Our run game is short passes behind or near the LOS and our game plan is for Ben to get rid of it in under 3 seconds. So defenses can just light up tight at the line and dare us to do something different.

If we keep Ben and let the core FAs walk I'm afraid we're somewhere in the area of 4-12 or 5-11. Maybe that's what we need to have a chance to draft his replacement. A losing season or 2. Cleveland is on the rise but they should be. They've been drafting in the top 5 for years now, a few with the overall #1 pick. We may need that.

[feltdizz]

I'm not so sure it is a silly question, although it was tongue in cheek. Do you realize what Brady could do with this defense and the weapons on offense. It probably never would have happened but he's be licking his chops for sure.

If we leave the core group of young players walk for a QB that no longer has a long ball we will be fighting it out with the Bengals for the cellar.

Look, I love ben and what he has brought to our team but there are time difficult decisions have to be made. I think his arm is gone.

I think if we could keep the core group of our younger players together we could still be competitive.

not sure Brady would fare much better since he sucks at the deep ball and short accurate passes are being dropped by our WR’s right now.

The only plus is Brady is a practice whore so I doubt he would miss a whole week of practice.

I still think we are kind of in a holding pattern with Ben while his knee heals up. I expect our O to step it up the closer we get to the playoffs.

I think we are resting up and Conner, Pouncey come back with something to prove and Ben also gets back to work.

[NorthCoast]

I'm not so sure it is a silly question, although it was tongue in cheek. Do you realize what Brady could do with this defense and the weapons on offense. It probably never would have happened but he's be licking his chops for sure.

If we leave the core group of young players walk for a QB that no longer has a long ball we will be fighting it out with the Bengals for the cellar.

Look, I love ben and what he has brought to our team but there are time difficult decisions have to be made. I think his arm is gone.

I think if we could keep the core group of our younger players together we could still be competitive.

CTown, they said the same thing about TB in Tampa. Strong defense, lots of weapons on offense. Look where they're at now. And how do you fit two $30M QBs in the cap (BR's dead cap is $46M). Not realistic and never considered.

[steeler_george]

DK of DK Sports hit on this, did they scrap the idea of Ben deep ball when it was not there in training camp, and ran with what was workig with the dink and dunk.

[Chucktownsteeler]

DK of DK Sports hit on this, did they scrap the idea of Ben deep ball when it was not there in training camp, and ran with what was workig with the dink and dunk.

Now the dink, dank, dunk has been figured out. What's next?

[Northern_Blitz]

I'm not so sure it is a silly question, although it was tongue in cheek. Do you realize what Brady could do with this defense and the weapons on offense. It probably never would have happened but he's be licking his chops for sure.

If we leave the core group of young players walk for a QB that no longer has a long ball we will be fighting it out with the Bengals for the cellar.

Look, I love ben and what he has brought to our team but there are time difficult decisions have to be made. I think his arm is gone.

I think if we could keep the core group of our younger players together we could still be competitive.

I'm not sure it's an either / or decision here. I think we lose some good young-ish players this off season even if we do cut Ben (e.g. Hilton, Dupree, some of the O-Line guys).

If we cut Ben, we need to sign a QB with a cap hit of ~ $1M to have less cap space going to QBs next year than this year.

He has an enormous hit next year (~$41M if he plays and isn't extended and ~ $21M if he's cut I think).

That's why I think we almost have to extend him if we want to be competitive next season (and that still probably comes with a higher cap number at QB next year vs. this year.

We have to pay the piper for the past at some point.

To the OP, I think it could easily be both. I don't think Fitchner is a good OC (except that he doesn't seem to be a control freak who only wants things done his way) and I don't think the MR is a starting caliber QB in the NFL (although I hope to be proven wrong if he's still around when Ben retires).

[feltdizz]

Now the dink, dank, dunk has been figured out. What's next?

dank, dunk, dink???

[The Man of Steel]

Now the dink, dank, dunk has been figured out. What's next?

The Run and Shoot or maybe a triple option attack like the Flexbone offense. I don’t effin know anymore.

[Eich]

dank, dunk, dink???

As long as it's not sink, sank, sunk