Offseason Moves/Free agent signings

I actually agree with most of this....just not the SS part.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love TJ. However, He is entering his 7th season, missed 7 games in 2022 and time in 2020 and 2021. And he will be 29 during this upcoming season. So someone offered 2 x first rounders + other picks with him going into his age 30 season, I'm heavily considering it and trusting the Steelers front office is better than the examples you used.

 

You forgot one…

Losing Devin Bush A+++++

 

I think we have stopped talking about Matt Canada and how much he and his plans, and play calling contributed toward our lack of success. And he’s still here. That’s a bad plan.

So unless he makes a wild about face he’ll be gone at the end of his season when his contract ends. Then when we are supposed to really looking at a SB IN 24-25 they will be installing a new OC. That should have been this season.

Sorry, I DO NOT hate what they’ve done so far, but I’m far from ecstatic. I really wanted to be ecstatic. With this many rookie contracts at high dollar positions I thought they would have more money to work with and building a better foundation than they have while they are in this window. Once KFP, Harris, Muth and their LT come up then we will be broke. Get stuff done NOW when time is on their side!

 

Retaining Matt Canada

FFFFFF!

 

Kahn making moves, I like it. Got a feeling they like someone and will move UP in the draft! All these Vet 2 yr deals could be because they will only have a few picks this year and next.

 

In let's say the last 28 years where I seriously followed football TJ Watt has been the only player I have seen taken in the 1st rd and saw in the preseason where I was sure this kid was going to be huge. Every other player since 95/96 has been a gamble on what they would turn out to be. In my opinion I'd say maybe Andrew Luck where you knew he'd be good just wasn't sure when. There isn't much I would make untouchable but TJ would be one of those core guys I'd never considered letting go unless it was his skills fell off the cliff and even then I'd let him choose how he leaves.

I'd love to say I'd trust the front office to make the right move and not do like the Browns with Mayfield and Ward but it is still the staff that chose Artie Burns, Terrell Edmunds and moved up for Bush who showed promise but then kinda of fell off the cliff.

 

Did somebody call my name?

 

I'm gonna be honest, that's how a GM gets fired and then becomes an untouchable plague around the league. I could entertain it if we were a 2 win team with TJ... but we were one game away from the playoffs last year and had a rookie QB. You get rid of the best player (possibly in the league) for a bunch of lottery tickets you're fired on the spot. If you're other owners, you look at someone that makes that type of decision as un-hirable for fear that he will cut loose all your high end players for future hopes and dreams.

 

Yeah, I’m not even considering listening to this kind of stuff with TJ for two more years.

 

Yep, got the same feeling in my gut. Thinking we will move up to snag elite tackle.

 

PP has shown his ability to swap the physical attributes for the mental ones. Hearing about using him as a possible safety is even better. Adding a 2x all-pro and 8 time probowler helps that room tremendously!

 

I just hope JJ is whispering into TJ's ears "Take a Break". Tired take a break, injured take a break. Listen to your body and give it time to rest and heal and you will not be like me out of football when your only 33 years old.

 

I think I land somewhere in the middle. They have upgraded the defensive line and inside linebacker, but not safety and cornerback. They are weaker at those two positions now than they were last season. Peterson can still play, but he has declined enough that Sutton is better. If they could only keep one of Kazee and Edmunds, they kept the right one, but they needed to do better with the outside free agent if they were going to let Edmunds get away.

 

Wrong front office. Colbert is gone.

 

i don't think they were trading off one (edmunds for another neal) but more of an addition with two guys. (kazee and neal). we had to use sutton in the slot a lot which he was quite good at. kazee will take that role as a safety. neal will help out with his coverage but stiffen up the run defense as well. peterson will take over the role of where sutton played on the outside. sutton did both for us but was better as the slot corner. we are using two guys to do the same. we really need an upgrade at corner and it should be another multi positional guy that can play slot and outside. much of the reason i would take two in this draft and let peterson, kazee and even wallace teach them. not saying one wouldn't be one of those multifaceted safety/ corner tweeners. don't forget this gives us a chance to do things with minkah as well. more in a troy type role so they never know where he will be. i like what they are doing so far.

 

Its all perspective and expectation. Perhaps you were expecting a lot of starters to be signed out of this free agency. I don’t think that was the Steelers intention at all.

I believe their objective was to sure up a couple of starter spots and build depth. I believe they accomplished that.

Compared to last year they appear to have improved ILB and OL both at starter and depth. TE and DL is basically a wash compared to last year. Cb and Safety may be slightly worse but it appears that will be addressed in the draft. We had a lot of holes to fill and I believe they did a relatively good job without breaking the bank to accomplish this. They got a ton of guys with a lot of playing experience and high pedigree. Much of the success of this FA will be based on how well Peterson fills in for Sutton. The Holcomb, Ogunjobi, Seumalo and Kazee signings were all great pickups that add solid starters at those positions.

I would give this FA a B with the potential for it to move to a B+ if Peterson performs solidly. Had we retained Sutton instead of Peterson this would have been an A FA in my book.

I will say if they can utilize Peterson and Neal correctly and add pieces around those guys in the draft this could really be a great free agency. I know Tomlin has liked both of those guys for a long time. I assume they have skill sets that Tomlin feels can be utilized to improve the defense. In todays NFL everything is about matchups and and situations. It isn’t like these guys are going to play the whole game at a specific position. It just isn’t like that anymore. I think with Neal you are going to get just about as much as what you got out of Edmunds. Neal may not be as fast as Edmunds but he plays just as fast if not faster and he is a lot more instinctual. IT will be interesting to see how they utilize him.

 

You clearly based your grades on name recognition. No one can possibly determine the value of these guys until we see them within our system. Some of these guys may be more conducive to our system and perform better than they did for their previous team. Some of the big name high pedigree players never pan out when they go to a new team. I am so happy the Steelers did not waste money on ILB Tremaine Edmunds. He had one good year in Buffalo. There is a reason why they let him walk. Free Agency is won finding bargains that fit your system. We went the rout of pedigree shopping at ILB last year with Jack and that didn’t pan out. I am way more excited about the two ILB’s we signed this year who seem to have much hungrier attitude for the position and what we have tradtiaonly desired for that position over the years versus what Busch and Jack brought to it last year.

I love the temperament and attitudes the Steelers have added this year - Seumalo, Herbig, Peterson, Holcomb, Neal are all hyper aggressive, hard nosed, alpha male types who work hard and are cerebral. Talk about setting a standard and a tone. We have missing that for quite some time on the offensive line and on the defense. It will be good to get back to imposing our will on other teams and physically dominating them just like we used to in the early to mid 2000’s. We got away from this mind set in the Triple B days and it never gained us much success in the playoffs.

The other point your missing in all of this is the teams who are successful late in the season and throughout the playoffs are the healthy ones or the ones with decent depth. The Steelers were completely devoid of depth that last few seasons. This FA was all about adding depth so we can sustain and withstand later in the year. The blue chip talent will come in the draft. Khan and Weidel have done a fantastic job with team building so far this offseason.

A smart team only shops for blue chip talent in FA when they are a top tier team on the brink of the Super Bowl and they have limited time within their window and they have an obvious hole in one area or a team who is clearly rebuilding and they have a ton of cap space. I don’t even necessarily agree with the latter here. At any rate the Steelers don’t fit in either of these categories in my mind.

 

Tomlin and Rooney are still in the room.

 

worst coach on the staff and yet they keep him. I just don't get it

 

If he was going to be played at safety that would mean that we have Fitz, Kayzee, and now Peterson playing the same position??? Because none of those guys should be playing strong safety.

 

I think they're going to try him there on a rotation in certain coverages. You have to be able to process fast to be able to pull that stuff off and he's got the experience and pedigree to do it.

 

Our new ss had more missed tackles the last two seasons, equally ineffective in coverage… so yeah we got worse

 

I don’t know if people are reading my statements through a lens of what they think I am saying or I’m not making myself clear no matter how much I tried.

I don’t think they should have or could have signed a slew of of “blue chip” free agents. That would be impossible. But I would have liked one somewhere and possibly a 2nd impressive grab if possible.

It’s not impossible and it’s not only for teams who are knocking at the door. Think James Farrior. The Steelers were not expected to be in a real Super Bowl window with Maddox at the helm, it was only once Ben started his rookie season. But they went and got Farrior a couple years before anyway.

Every team has the same number of players who can dress and most have similar draft depth with slightly different variations of depth at different positions. If we had bad options at depth then that’s the front offices fault for who they chose to construct with.

As far as the killer B era, we did have great lines on both sides of the ball. It was our defensive backfield that got us killed and the loss of a dynamic player in Shazier plus some bad edge rushing picks.