What was our problem this year and what we need to do next.

by svenhoek on Dec 13, 2009 4:07 PM EST

To start off with, this season is done. Drink your kool-aid and hold onto your foolish hope if you must, but we are done and need to start looking to next year. These next three games are just injuries waiting to happen, but also training for the young players we need to develop for next year. We need to focus on getting some TALENTED CBs in the draft, and an offensive coordinator that can make a playbook that highlights the talent and skills we have available on offense. I have absolute faith in LeBeau reworking this defense to be competitive again, and I think Kubiak or maybe Grimm (rumors he might be leaving Arizona) could design a good playbook for offense.

Tomlin also needs to settle on a coaching style. He was a hard ass the first year, was a commander the second, and appears to be just a buddy in his third. He needs to hardline these guys and start benching during games to set a point.

I think, after some thought, I know what this years problem was. With 93% of the team from last year intact, a super-bowl fresh on their minds, and the most intimidating defense since the 85' Bears, I think the coaches and players figured, "Lets just do what we did last year, and no one will be able to beat us." Plus a super "easy" schedule for any other team, and I think the team had their collective heads up their collective asses. Teams watched us, especially our defense and Bens ability to scramble, and the coaches took notes.

Until I am proven wrong, I believe next year we are going to see a very VERY angry and focused Steelers team, with a new gameplan and a revamped offense.

I'm going to remain optimistic this off-season for next year, and watch my taping of XLIII about a million times.

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Secondary must be shaken up

Bring back Clark and Gay, and possibly Carter if money allows. Draft a FS or CB high in the draft: Earl Thomas, Joe Haden etc.

Would love to see Arians fired. Offense doesn’t have a set direction in where they’re going. This team was not built to be the Colts.There must be a resurgence in the running game. Draft or signing an decent RB shouldn’t be eliminated, as I think Parker’s gone after this season regrettable as it is.

The Draft I’d like to see:
1. DB or a player named McClain, Bulaga, or Williams (Dan).
2. OL/DL
3. LB/OL
4. RB/DB
5. OL
6. DL/Back up QB
7. Back up QB.

BTSC Obituaries

OldManSteeler, ominously died two days before Superbowl 123 where the Ravens are set to attempt their 7th superbowl win, facing the Detroit Lions on Sunday. He was 86. His last words are believed to be "MALOR CAN SUCK IT!!!". Like friends and family, we can only guess what this could mean.

by Tim Mullhaupt (HSS) on Dec 13, 2009 4:28 PM EST reply actions

meant to add signing a vet DB wouldn't be a bad idea either.

BTSC Obituaries

by Tim Mullhaupt (HSS) on Dec 13, 2009 4:29 PM EST up reply actions

I’d still like to see an ILB at #1, but take the best athlete available at a needed area is the way to go.
I think we could pick up a 3rd QB in free agency. Even Palko is fine.

The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.

by John Stephens on Dec 13, 2009 4:53 PM EST up reply actions

i'll cry if palko ends up as a possible "emergency" situation QB

we’ll need young talented, or old vet. not young & inexperienced and not really talented.

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 5:18 PM EST up reply actions

so he played a whole no downs in a steelers jersey and you think he isn't talented

the reason he got cut was because Charlie apperently healed a lot faster than expected

Players who should be in the Hall of Fame
DIck Lebeau, Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Greg Llyod, Andy Russel and Chris Carter

by WVPiratesfan on Dec 13, 2009 5:32 PM EST up reply actions

i realize i may have hit a sore point with a lot of Pitt fans here

but i’m not one of them (Penn state) so i’d like to think of myself as unbiased from that stand point. and obviously i want anyone who is talented on the team. Palko was talented from a HS standpoint (i grew up in the WPIAL area), and he was talented from a college stand point. no offense, but he’s not from an NFL stand point. he went undrafted out of college & has spent the past 3 years mainly playing on practice squads or in canada. he’s dressed for a total of 6 nfl games during those 3 years and i think he’s run out of practice squad eligibility after this year.

he can be someone to root to maybe make the team next year, but i hope we get someone better

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 5:51 PM EST up reply actions

I'm a WVU fan and he did hurtle Pac-man he also beat out Joe "The Unibrow" Flacco at pitt

Players who should be in the Hall of Fame
DIck Lebeau, Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Greg Llyod, Andy Russel and Chris Carter

by WVPiratesfan on Dec 13, 2009 6:21 PM EST up reply actions

I think you are worrying too much about the emergency QB. A veteran minimum is too much to pay a 3rd string emergency QB. Generally, he only gets time if the 1 and 2 are injured in the same game. If there is a situation where the 1 gets injured or the 2 heading into the next game we can sign someone else as a #2 to fill the spot of that injury and the emergency guy remains the emergency guy.

The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.

by John Stephens on Dec 13, 2009 5:46 PM EST up reply actions

i disagree. first, the vet min salary only counts against the cap what a 3rd year player makes. ex) batch was a 10+ year vet making 845K plus 40K signing bonus, yet he only counted against the cap for 460K. plus, thats the common misconception about the salary cap. you have 53 active players and there is a minimum salary, which is 310K for rookies. so batch getting paid 885K only counted against the cap for 150K more than if the steelers signed me to be the team tackling dummy.

2nd, why carry a person on our active roster (not the practice squad) if he’s someone who we dont trust to play this year or the next? if we’re going to do that then we shouldnt even carry 2 qbs. it’ll be palko’s 4th year in the nfl next year. even tommy maddox dressed for a fair number of games his first few years in the nfl and got a lil playing time.

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 6:13 PM EST up reply actions

shouldnt even carry 2 3 qbs

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 6:15 PM EST up reply actions

That is interesting, then why don’t most teams have vets at 3rd string? I don’t think I could name more than two 3rd string QBs in the league.

The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.

by John Stephens on Dec 13, 2009 6:31 PM EST up reply actions

Charlie, Jordan Palmer, Brian St. Pierre and thats it

Players who should be in the Hall of Fame
DIck Lebeau, Pat TIllman, Dwight White, Donnie Shell, L.C. Greenwood, Ray Guy, Steve Tasker, Greg Llyod, Andy Russel and Chris Carter

by WVPiratesfan on Dec 13, 2009 6:50 PM EST up reply actions

add to the list: Dan Orlovsky
Charlie Frye
Mike Vick (he does come with the perk of running the wildcat)
Sage Rosenfels
A.J. Feely

there’s unique situations surrounding pretty much all of these players being on their team & i agree its usually not a good decision to have a vet @ 3rd string. i just think it’d be better to sign an undrafted guy out of college than a person who’s struggled to stay on any nfl team.

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 9:30 PM EST up reply actions

Vick and Charlie were the ones I knew.

The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.

by John Stephens on Dec 14, 2009 9:39 AM EST up reply actions

because it's usually someone younger and with POTENTIAL

i was simply pointing out how your logic of a vet being too expensive is flawed. and that if we want a practice squad caliber person to be our #3, then why not find someone who we can keep on the practice squad and save a roster spot. i’m guessing dixon will probably be our 2nd string next year

how many teams have a person 3+ years removed from college, undrafted, and never made an nfl team for more than 4 games at their 3rd qb spot? there are undrafted rookies that make teams, but they’re usually only a year or 2 removed from college.

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 9:12 PM EST up reply actions

What I don't get

Is how does a player like Garcia not have a job as a back up somewhere?

The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.

by John Stephens on Dec 14, 2009 9:39 AM EST up reply actions

great question that i wonder myself

-maybe it has to do with some of the teams that could sign him feel he won’t fit into their system since he’s more of west coast style guy. i have a feeling thats why the steelers didnt pick him up (or maybe he just wasnt interested).

-i think a lot of teams he would actually have a chance to start with know they’ll never win a championship or come close with him. even if he is better than some of the young guys, why not give those young guys a serious chance and see if they can’t find something special

-the biggest one is i think he wants to have a chance to start and got screwed by signing with the raiders this offseason. if you dont know the story: he thought he could beat out jamarcus in oakland. when the team told him jamarcus is the starter regardless of how much better he is than jarmarcus, garcia asked to be cut. he figured he’d catch on with another team. only it back fired because oakland ended up benching jarmarcus (garcia instead of gradkoswki wouldve been starting). meanwhile all the other teams were already locked in or satisfied with their starters and backups. plus, the only season ending injury qb that i know of is pennington (for comparison, there were at least 3 or 4 last year). maybe he’ll sign back up with oakland with gradwoski out.

by t1mmy10 on Dec 14, 2009 12:05 PM EST up reply actions

Rolando McClain is a very realistic option for us at this point

Drawing a lot of comparison’s to Pat Willis, which is more than fine w/me. Plus he already plays in the 3-4 at Alabama. Why I don’t see this as a top need though is b/c Farrior, though aging, is the play caller on D, on the field, and the 3rd round may hold Micah Johnson as a diamond in the rough. Even so, if Colbert’s picking and McClain is the BPA, then by all means, go get him.

BTSC Obituaries

by Tim Mullhaupt (HSS) on Dec 13, 2009 7:04 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah I have heard a lot about him and Wexell has mentioned him quite often. I should probably do a bitch of research but I have a busy week ahead. I was wondering that same thing about Farrior. Can’t Timmons start learning to be the play caller? He should have a lot of help if he is allowed to have the head phones in his helmet. I just cannot see Farrior being an every down back next year.

The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.

by John Stephens on Dec 13, 2009 7:09 PM EST up reply actions

I think there are some things we can do in the draft and may even be able to pick up a top flight DB whether it be a safety or a CB, although it would be nice to get McCain. I think one of the keys though is we actually have to be active in the FA market. This does not mean going after the highest dollar guys. If we can bring in some nice solid members to our defensive backfield than we will be ok. It would also be nice to bring in a couple of OL for depth and to push the starters. I don’t know if we have but we should get Palko signed to the PS, I think he has more upside at QB than Dixon does. These are all things that probably should have been done this year but they were to happy with themselves after winning the SB. I think there will be some tough choices to make on some long time Fav’s that are obviously passed their prime.

by DarinS on Dec 13, 2009 5:01 PM EST reply actions

about the FA thing

I think the saints are a good example of this. mckenzie, sharper, that old ravens cb… I don’t think any of them broke the bank and I wouldn’t mind having any one of the three in our secondary.

by klompus on Dec 13, 2009 5:30 PM EST up reply actions

exactly

We don’t need to break the bank, get some solid vets that can play and not fall down while our younger players develop. NE has been masterful at using this ideation and are far and away the best at bringing in talent at the least expense and gathering extra draft picks by being active in trading. They may be down a little this year but hard to argue with the thought process. What the saints did was brilliant.

by DarinS on Dec 13, 2009 6:42 PM EST up reply actions

i really dont want Grimm as an OC

let me start out by saying i loved Grimm when he was here. i think he’s a GREAT oline coach & assistant head coach. he probably would be very good as a higher up on a team involved with team & player management, practice, strategy, etc. but i really question his play calling ability along with his play designing ability.

since 2004, i think he’s gone for a fair number of HC or even OC jobs and has yet to get one. for ex: when he left pittsburgh with Weiz and went to cardinals in early ‘08, Weiz didnt pick him as the OC (which you’d think he would if he was a legit HC candidate). Weiz picked haley. you might figure that Weiz just ID’ed a great available OC and kept involved Grimm. basically a situation where haley was better than Grimm but Grimm was still good. so when haley left, Grimm gets the OC job, right? nope. Grimm became co-offensive coordinator (only in charge of the run) along with their wide receiver coach (who was only in charge of the pass), while Weiz did the play calling. and that WR coach has only been WR assistant for 2 years. he was the quality control officer for the steelers for 4 years & one year in buffalo, but spent a couple years coaching at robert morris university & nfl europe after the first few years before being the WR coach of the cards.

unless that WR coach is some shining star on the rise, Grimm is isnt good with play calling. i would love to have him back as an assistant HC & line coach again tho.

by t1mmy10 on Dec 13, 2009 5:43 PM EST reply actions

still in the hunt

While not walking the plank yet on this one,but not holding my breath either!! A few ideas; our defense is predicated on forcing quick exchanges and turnovers, without arguably the best defensive player in the league, our defense goes from great to still pretty good. The thing is that Troy makes our defense go; he makes our linebackers better by allowing them freedom,whereas without him it shows Farriors’ glaring shortcomings, Timmons inexperience,Clarks’ stonehands,etc.,etc.,etc.,Offensively I really feel like its’ more Arians then anything, he simply doesnt get what the Steelers strengths are or he doesnt want to buy into it.Now obviously I dont want the team to give up yet,but depending on how we finish the draft is going to be very interesting because we do have several questionmarks on the roster; Hampton,Taylor,FWP.I would love to see us be able to keep Willie and Mendy, I still dont understand why Arians hasnt put a package in with both in the backfield?? There are some excellent d lineman in this upcoming draft and perhaps a little shopping on the marketAs far as dbs go consider this;how scary would our defensive backfield look with Troy and the Mays kid at free safety back there Pretty damn scary.Offensively I simply feel like we move on without Arians.

by wmd3 on Dec 13, 2009 7:28 PM EST reply actions

I agree, the worst thing that the Steeler brain trust did this year

was trying to win by playing essentially the same cards as last season. By now, it’s obvious that every team in the league has caught up with what we’re doing. This actually started in the SB win against the Cardinals, a team that had a poor defense and a mediocre record during the regular season.

We had Arizona on the ropes in the first half but couldn’t put them away and we almost blew it. What happened this year is just a continuation of how we ended last season, but with even worse performance on both sides of the ball.

by Billy52 on Dec 13, 2009 11:56 PM EST reply actions

The problems this year start with the basics, Tackling, blocking, staying in lanes on coverage, catching the ball (both sides of the ball), following assignments, etc. In addition we need a OC who has his head somewhere the sun shines.

Drafting a DB in the first round when we do not know what we have in Lewis and Burnett may not make sense. If Casey leaves, we need to replace him. We need a dominant OT and OG. We need a ILB, Farrior can not cover backs any more. Ultimately we need a replacement for Troy as he can’t stay healthy for many more years the way he plays. We also need a real FB, a 5-10 265 blocking back who can move a DT and get to the second level and blow out the ILB all on the same play.

But drafting will not help if the players do not get back to basics and the OC calls a better game.

by Steeler Nation VA on Dec 14, 2009 11:21 AM EST reply actions