Consistent Offensive Line Strategy Eludes Steelers - But Does It Matter?

Blah blah blah this it about the offensive line that took them to 3 of the last 6 super bowls who cares what they do right now as long as they hold their own like the past has and they have the staff for it.

I honestly don’t think its that they ignore the O-line exactly. The fact of the matter is that our FO drafts for the long term and they tend to do this especially on defense. We’ve seen a lot of depth picks aimed at replacing an aging D.

However our OL is fairly young and the idea there is to see if the talent progresses.

One could make almost the same argument about our secondary. The fact is our defense revolves around the front 7, our offense revolves around the QB and WRs now. The O line, much like the secondary, is not the top priority of the unit.

The Oline became a liability in 2006. They were destroyed by strong defensive fronts and crushed in at least 4 games I remember. Baltimore twice, Jacksonville and SD. It has never been fixed since and its been 5 years. Even when we won it in 2008, Philly and Tennessee crushed them. Luckily we didn’t play those guys in the post season.
   The reason the Steelers continue to win is the defense and Rothlisberger’s ability to escape pressure and buy time. The running game is very inconsistent and 3rd and short shows just how piss poor the line has been.
     Colbert’s record shows he does well with the 1st pick. But really how hard is that. Some of them were no brainers. Most of the picks were guys ranked at the top of the board by just about everybody. Roth and Miller fell in our laps. Most have been need picks yet he’s disciplined enough not to reach unlike most GMs.
  Well you only get so many #1 picks. The problem has been the inability to draft well in the mid rounds and later in the trenches. Of the roughly 30 OL and DL picks since he started only the top round picks have been good. He’s had maybe 5 others that were decent. In fact overall he’s only had a 3 or 4 drafts where he got more then 2 or 3 players worth keeping.
  So not only does Colbert/Staff not have an eye for non-obvious but he’s made some bad decision evaluating the guys we have or others. I attribute this to panic because he can’t draft the guys. From my understanding he offered close to what the stupid Jets gave over the hill Faneca. Faneca was gone in two years. Then the biggest blunder of his tenure he gave Simmons not only a new contract, but pretty hefty one. Simmons was the worse lineman on the team and the fact that undrafted FA’s replaced him with no drop off proves it. He grabbed Mahan off a TB team that had been struggling at the Oline for years. Why would TB let a guy go when their own line sux? Starks was overpaid. Kemoeatu is overpaid. Overpaying guys is the worst thing a GM can do. We are now at the cap limit.
  We have a franchise QB approaching age 30. My priority as a GM would be to protect that QB. Whether by pass blocking or a good running game which generally needs a good line. Instead we continue to over draft at our deepest position LB. We bring in Burress when we have more WRs then we know what to do with and supposedly we’re a running team. We continue to keep players past their prime when we have better guys at that position. Hood and Sylvester can step for Farrior and Smith at this point and time and play better. That will free up money to keep future players that we don’t have to replace in the draft and then draft oline.
   Do we need the Hogs or the Dallas Oline of the nineties. No. But what we got now is a problem. And the secondary is a problem. This Oline will get Roth dinged up or killed against good defensive lines. Our secondary will be shredded by the elite passing teams. So despite our superiority as the skill positions and the front 7 of the defense we will have a hard time winning a SB until these units improve. And this excuse about him taking to much time is BS by the coaches. I watch our line completely whiff at pass blocking consistently. Other then center they completely suck at pass blocking. And if Roth becomes immobile then its over. You can take that to the bank. Ask our other top ranked defenses and running games how many SBs they won since Bradshaw up to Roth.

The design of the offense, the coaching of Sean Kugler and the guy we have under center all combine to diminish the need for an outstanding O-line. Another good example was Denver from about 5-8 years ago. They had an undersized line with no real stars but their scheme allowed them to open some pretty good holes and keep their QBs mostly upright.

When you have lesser talent, you are constantly looking for upgrades regardless of the position. Bill Cowher had himself a pretty dadgum god line, particularly on the interior, with Hartings and Faneca. Add in Jerome Bettis and our running game was a bruising inside scheme. Now, we have smaller runners and, despite the presence of Pouncey, a less-talented unit, now we have to find a way to work with that.

Sure, we had chances to draft O-linement, including possibly trading up to get Mike Pouncey this year, or any number of guys since Tomlin’s first draft, but think of the necessary talent that has been added in those drafts, particularly in the first three rounds: Timmons, Woodley, Mendenhall, Hood, Wallace, Pouncey, Worilds, Sanders, Heyward, Gilbert and Curtis Brown (we can all agree that we really blew a few choices, like Limas Sweed and Bruce Davis, but that’s on Colbert as much as it is Tomlin). That’s five current starters (almost a quarter of the entire starting lineup), four nearly guaranteed future starters (Hood, Sanders, Heyward and Gilbert) and two guys with high starting potential (Brown and Worilds). That’s talent I don’t think I would have traded for anything else that was available at the time in hindsight.

Mike Tomlin has already achieved the same Super Bowl record as Cowher in less than a third of the amount of time. Yes, he was given a better base to work with than Cowher had when he first arrived, but I can name you some coaches who have squandered excellent talent: Marvin Lewis, Wade Philips (several times), Mora, Jr….the list goes on. It’s what you do with what you’ve got that matters, because you can’t have studs at every position. I like what we have right now and I think this year looks to be one of the best offensive units this team has produced since the 70s.

But I agree that our current linemen, excluding Pouncey, need to be watching their backs, because the next guy who can do the same thing for less really IS right around the corner. But to compare the approaches of Tomlin and Cowher may not be entirely fair.

Great read though! Just wanted to share my thoughts.

Yes you can get a diamond in the rough and pick up a star in the 4th round or later. Look at Willie Colon, Aaron Smith, Bret Keisel, but sometimes you need to make a solid pick in the early rounds to win the battle of the trenches. The misses have been too many to count in recent years.

In the last 3 years we have done that with Ziggy, Pouncey, Heyward, and Gilbert. Trai was a reach in the 3rd round and I have been proven right. He is an adequate backup. But a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick should be starters, not backups.

We made it to 3 Super Bowls with smoke and mirrors. 2 inspite of a terrible OL coach and 1 with a rising star.

When you look at our OL for 2011 and beyond, I have to smile. We have a great OL coach (Kugler), a future perenial all-pro center (Pouncey), a well above average to great RT (Colon) , a LT who shows promise as a rookie (Gilbert). But the guard positions are week. Kemo is servicable, but has mjor knee issues that will limit him in the future and a placeholder at RG. We will need to draft a guard early next year as either the replacement at either right or left guard depending on which is a bigger issue. At hat point we will have one of the best OL in the league to go with some high octane weapons and an awsome defense.

Big Snack said if he was 2 or 3 inches taller, he’d be in the Pro Bowl. I was at that first Ravens-Steelers game when he started at RG and he held his own that game and the OL as a whole played pretty well. I think this line has the potential to be a lot better than the previous couple of years with Colon, Pouncey in his 2nd year and Legursky. It’s definitely a higher IQ line with Pouncey and Legursky both starting. Plus Ben has more weapons this year than he’s ever had at his disposal. Should be fun.

How did he shrink to 6’1’’? I’m with Tomlin. If the guy can get it done, then he can get it done. He’s an upgrade at RG to me.