Steelers Running GameTo Be Tested in 2008

If Arians is predictable and unimaginative in how he mobilizes the run, then there can be plenty of cause for worry. First down runs right up the gut will be difficult. If there is more passing to set up the run; situations where we have a second and four or three, then we have the tools to be dominant.

Everybody has their eyes on Cleveland. Let me humbly suggest that Baltimore may fly under the radar this year and could be the bigger problem. Even if the rookie doesn’t dazzle early, Troy Smith, by all accounts is shaping up as formidable QB. And we can’t rely on Billick’s bungling of the offense anymore.

Guys, I think the key to an improved running game this year is no Sean Mahan in the starting lineup. DaTruth has been watching film all offseason and Mahan and K. Simmons spent too much time on the ground this past season while their man was pile-driving our $100-mill QB into the turf. Everyone on our line had a down year this past year, including Faneca and M. Smith.

Mendehall and G. Russell at least offer better goal-line options than what we’ve had since the Bus’ retirement. Russell is probably the best short yardage back on the team currently.

And on another topic, I think the next step for Ben to make in his development is learning how to throw the ball away. He made a huge step this past year in not throwing interceptions. He decided to take the sacks instead of throwing it up for grabs. That was progress. Now, he needs to take that next step and learn how to throw the ball away and not take so many sacks.

(SteelerBuddha’s note came up while I was typing). I think it was a combination of both. The OL was generally bad and Ben held the ball too long on a lot of occasions. I believe Hartwig will be a big upgrade over Mahan, but I’m still not feeling that great about K. Simmons being the starter at right guard. He hasn’t shown me anything the past few years to say that he is a quality OL that deserves to be an NFL starter. Maybe him having shoulder surgery so late will be a blessing to the team in disguise in that it forces the team to take a look at other players for that right guard spot while he heals. I’m hoping Colon wins it.

Your thoughts?

Your thoughts?

The team now has 3 very good pass catching backs available, assuming that Mendenhall, Moore, and Russell all make the squad. Steelers have not used their backs a lot on swing passes and short dump offs compared to other teams around the league. Brian Westbrook, Reggie Bush, and Maurice Jones-Drew are among the leading pass receivers on their respective teams. Moore, with the Vikings, played a similar role prior to the arrival of Taylor and Petersen. Mendenhall caught around 35 passes last year in college, similar numbers to Bush and Jones-Drew in their final season. Russell was the pass catching option in the backfield with Maroney in his final college year.

Utilizing their talents would take a lot of pressure off Big Ben, I think. It would slow down the pass rush and allow him to get rid of the ball quicker. I didn’t think the sack total was too outrageous, considering the fact that Roethlisberger passed more than ever before in his career, and his paranoia about having balls intercepted. After the 2006 season where he got picked off a lot, I think Ben decided that he would be more careful about throwing and eat the ball if he had to.

I don’t know that you can have all good things at once, if Ben gets rid of the ball quicker his completion % and intercept ratio are going to suffer (2006), and if he hangs on longer he is going to be sacked more often (2007). Pick your poison, but simply blaming it on the offensive line is naive.

I think the protection breakdowns go a lot farther than Tuman and Kreider not being in the lineup. I’ve recently looked at film from games against the Browns (the 2nd time), the Jaguars (both games), the Jets and the Patriots. Mahan spent more time on the ground than blocking his man. Mahan was particularly exposed against the Jets and the Jaguards.

Colon’s shakiest game was against the Patriots. Vrabel gave him all he wanted and more. The more I’ve looked at the games, the more I realized how bad Mahan and Simmons getting beat made Faneca look bad. Guards are more responsible for inside pressure than the tackles, so if you have a guard and center consistently getting beat, and you run a lot of formations out of an empty set, your QB is going to get pummeled. I think a few changes in personnel in tandem with Ben making a conscious effort to get rid of the ball when nothing is there can drastically cut down on the number of sacks.

This may well be the year we have a worse record (say 9-7) but actually be a better team…and I’d be surprised if any of our 2008 victories will be blow outs…all will be hard fought games. But as we proved in 2005/2006, all we have to do is make the playoffs and anything can happen.

I also agree, Baltimore will be better than expected…making our schedule even tougher.

I think our OL can be better than most think…but we have very little room for error…injuries and guys (Simmons, Colon, Starks, Kemo) not playing to their ability will be bad news. Hopefully, the OL can play at a higher level collectively than their individual talents.

Even if the OL performs at a high level, imo, we need to use the next couple of drafts to bring in some good, young lineman…

I think most of the relevant issues have been exposed. Let me see if I can sum up and add my two cents.

Mahan. The consensus seems to be that he’s got to go. And I agree.

Simmons. I’m not sure if Simmons’ bad play, as well as Faneca’s was part of a cascade effect from the bad play of Mahan. Wolfpack made this point in previous thread, or…

New line schemes and calls. We forget that inspite of what seemed like a smooth transition from one administration to the next, there were some significant changes in how things were done. By his own admission, the O-line coach confessed that there were some rough patches due to an approach that was quite different than what the players were used to under Grimm.

Colon/Starks. I like Colon. But with that being said I saw nothing from him this year that would cause me to think that he was better than Starks. What I am inclined to think is that being younger and hungrier he may have absorbed the new system quicker than a seasoned, championship caliber veteran who might have wondered why a system was being changed that wasn’t broke. I guess I’m also giving the benefit of the doubt to the FO. Their contractual treatment of Starks (and Simmons) would indicate a particularly poor sense of judgement given what the prevailing views here seem to be. For now I’ m of the position that they’re right and the rest of you guys are wrong. I will offer apologies all around if I’m wrong.

Ben. I do agree that Ben probably believed he had something to prove. And hopefully after a Pro Bowl season that’s behind him now. No need to swing for the fences all the time. Now with his reputation validated by the fans, his peers and the FO in the form of a top of the line salary, his focus will be on the teams legacy. He can now afford the luxury of throwing the ball away as Datruth noted, or dumping it off to his backs and put advancing the ball into their hands. He would benefit from help from Arians in terms of giving him the right plays and options, a variety of packages that will allow him to utilize the full range of talent available to him.

The sack per pass attempt numbers convinced you that our line is in trouble?! That’s stunning to me, because they don’t even begin to explain our problems. Ben escaped so many sacks – the Football Outsiders numbers about how he plays better after being hit are really stunning.

And everybody wishing that Ben would dump it off doesn’t seem to realize how badly our line played last year. Yeah, other quarterbacks adjust to blitzes and can find the man alone. But it isn’t a question of blitzes – Ben is constantly pressured by a three or four man rush. It’s a little harder to dump something off with 7 men in coverage and a pass rush. I think Jacksonville blitzed twice during the regular season game.

But we should be happy because our terrible line is young? I’m not 30 yet either, maybe the Steelers should pick me up. I’m pretty good at watching football games on my back.

I’m all for optimism, and I hope that something magical happens with our line. But the team and the fanbase doesn’t have near the same generosity with other positions. It seems like this thread has been as critical as Ben as the line. Let me remind you – the front office was right to make Ben the highest paid player on the team. I don’t think anybody thinks the front office was right to make Starks second.

What’s really crazy to me is that our worst performing unit – the offensive line – has people talking about trust, development and hope for improvement. Our best performing unit – the secondary – has had two non-injured players benched the last two seasons, people talking about drafting a corner if the young corner that has looked amazing in limited play doesn’t unseat our solid starting corner, and people misremembering how dominant our pass defense was last year after Ryan Clark got hurt and before a stupid comment and a game against an amazing pass offense.

Hey guys, check out this article on Jason Capizzi, a guy I’ve liked since day one. If he has a good camp, I don’t see how this team can cut him. Here it is:

NFL game slowing down for Capizzi
By Jim Wexell, For the Herald-Standard
05/28/2008
Updated 05/28/2008 12:25:44 AM EDT
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PITTSBURGH – Last summer was a joyride for Jason Capizzi. He was the super sleeper out of IUP, the hometown longshot who captured imaginations as a post-draft steal, a 6-9 offensive tackle with great feet.
Word had it that Kevin Colbert was talking him up big behind closed doors.

And then Capizzi got cut.

Dream over.

Until now.

While he’s not the fresh name reporters love to discuss, he is drawing raves from behind closed doors. “He’ll amaze you,” said one source with the team.

But this time, this year, Capizzi isn’t getting worked up by the buzz.

“Just trying to get better, man,” was his response yesterday after the sixth Steelers OTA workout.

Capizzi has only been through four of the workouts. He was in a walking boot for a month because of a stress fracture in his foot. But he was in uniform to start last week and has been working at left tackle with the second team. He’s still feeling some pain, and won’t heed the training staff’s caution that he stop for a break, because: “I’ve got to make this team,” he said.

Capizzi was asked about what happened last year.

“I thought I had the team made,” he said. “But nothing’s ever guaranteed in this sport. So, I went out and did my thing. I went out and went against different competition: different schemes, different fronts, different kinds of players. And I think I got better from it.

“I’m glad to be back now, very glad. It’s nice coming in here, like last year at this time I was definitely afraid of going against James Harrison and this year the game has just slowed down a lot.”

Capizzi spent time last year on the practice squads of the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs wanted to keep him through the offseason and into this year’s training camp, but the Steelers plucked him off the Chiefs’ practice squad and put Capizzi on their roster for the playoff game after Max Starks got hurt. The Chiefs weren’t pleased.

“They were mad,” Capizzi said. “I actually had my final meeting with Kansas City before I came home for the offseason. But before I left Kansas City to come home I got a call from my agent saying Pittsburgh was picking me up for the playoffs, before I was even on the plane. So it was a nice plane ride home.”

Why were the Chiefs mad?

“My agent told me they were pretty upset, but I was kind of upset with Kansas City. You lost the last nine games of the year and they’re getting their proverbial butts kicked and I thought I was better than some of them and felt they should’ve brought me up off the practice squad. And I knew they had 45 draft picks this year and I knew they were going to bring in every guy known to man, so I didn’t know what my future was like and I kind of knew things better here.”

He’s a new man, a hardened-but-wiser man, a man with a plan.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m trying to gain not just my coaches’ respect by playing the game, I’m also trying to gain my teammates’ respect, that they can trust me being out there and they know I’m going to be able to get the job done and help them win games and win a Super Bowl.”

The key?

“Everything’s just slowed down,” he said.

Capizzi weighs 330 pounds, about five pounds heavier than the Steelers want him to be in training camp. Will he approach this training camp any differently than his first camp?

“No,” he said. “I’m going to do everything I did last year – work hard. I’m going to be obviously a little better at what I’m doing out there. I won’t be as nervous out there. I’m going to do whatever I can.”

Does he feel more status, more respect from his teammates as he enters his second camp?

“Yeah, a little bit,” he said. “I’m trying to gain it every day.”

I don’t like the lingering pain in his foot, but he still has a couple of months for it to heal. I know we have a bunch of tackles, but you don’t cut LT’s with great feet like Capizzi when you have an offensive line like ours. Especially a LT who can also play the right side that you can pay a bargain basement price to for the next 3 years.

Your thoughts?

Cgolden, what’s up? I don’t put much stock in OTA’s either. It’s really just a time for player’s to learn the plays and schemes. One thing I do take notice of is the physical condition that a player is in, whether they bulked up or lost weight. For example, G. Russell put on 10 lbs. of muscle to get up to 225 lbs and Stapleton is now up to 315 lbs and wants to play the season at 310 lbs. I do pay attention to stuff like that.

About Capizzi, I liked him this past year and believe that he should be further along this training camp than he was this past year. The second time around is always better, right? (or so the song goes).

Capizzi has great feet and moves pretty well for his size. On a team desperate for good, young lineman, he fits the bill, and at a cheap cost as well. That extra year will mean he’ll be able to play the right as well as the left this year, which is important for the swing tackle on this squad.

It seems like this team has quite a few tackles now. We’ll have to see how everything shakes out with roster spots. I think they’ll only keep 9 lineman this year, as they did this past year. It’d be a surprise if they kept 10.

Your thoughts?

I definitely agree about seeing some different schemes this year.