This is Different

Maybe I’m jumping the gun but two things have me believing that this Steelers team now and in the future could be something really special.

1. Omar Khan/Andy Wiedl

2. Kenny Pickett

Let me explain. As much as I loved Colbert and Big Ben, there just seems to be something different about our Front Office and our QB.

We never had a front office this aggressive and this willing to overturn every rock to find a solution. I believe Cobert was a fantastic in his own right but I believe near the end of his tenure he was making moves that spoke of going through motions. I believe he was tired and ready for retirement. The way that he handled the Offensive line and the MLB’s and the way Khan and Wiedl attacked those areas is quite different.

For the first time in years I feel confident in both our Offensive line and our MLB’s. I feel like Khan is more of a risk taker and he has grown the scouting department and has gotten former Players involved like Merril Hodge and Ike Taylor to bring a fresh perspective and really add buzz and excitement around team building.

This team obviously has room for growth and the Secondary is still a work in progress. The team has always been built on putting pressure on the QB from a defensive perspective and I like that Kahn didn’t stray away from that by adding phenomenal depth pieces in that area but he is also focusing on building our secondary and the MLB’s and run stopping Defensive Lineman.

I think we got something special in Benton in this draft that will only help us in stopping the run at the defensive line level. We still are probably a piece or two away in the secondary from being absolutely dominant provided the health of the front seven holds up in supporting them.

Regarding Pickett. He may not have and may never have Ben’s physical attributes or shear talent. But lesser QB’s gifted physically have proven to be better QB’s over the long haul than Ben. I feel like Pickett brings some elements to the team that Ben never brought. True Leadership, Strong Work Ethic and Accountability and a willingness to work on the Cerebral part of the game to take his game to the next level.

I don’t feel like Ben was able to ever quite lead or certainly hold guys accountable because he himself wasn’t willing to put in the work away from the game or in study. Players see through that. I believe Ben had so much talent that he relied on that too much and it hurt this team in so many ways. I believe his attitude of challenging authority without putting in the work ethic really hurt not only his own development but team unity.

It undermined Tomlin's authority to lead the team and get total buy in from the players. It undermined Tomlin authority to control players like Bell and Brown to certain extent and prevent them from becoming bigger than team and the system. I don’t see that with Pickett. I see Pickett being more like Brady in that aspect and that is huge in allowing Tomlin to be the best coach he can be in leading this team.

This of course is just my observation. What say you ...

 

This is what I said about Colbert this morning...Great GM during his career but he was washed at the end

For Ben,he was just too old at the end and his arm was not the same after his elbows surgery

 

Good observations. Regarding Pickett, he reminds me more of Drew Brees than Tom Brady. But I’ll take either.

 

I agree with you on Ben but as soon as his physical gifts went he was done, which was a testament to his game being more about his physical gifts. Brady was still productive up until the end which shows you his game was more about the cerebral part because he wasn’t that physically gifted.

You ever noticed how every year it seemed we started out sluggish and slow on offense and even in games we would start out slow and Ben would have to make a miraculous 4th qtr come back. He had the most 4th qtr comebacks in the history of the game I believe. That tells you he or we weren’t prepared like we should have been. Only toward the end of the game when we were in no huddle and Ben could play back yard ball or when the play broke down did you see his physical gifts come out. Ben was never a student of the game. Could you imagine if he was?

Moving on to this year though can you imagine if this offense gets out to fast starts? Our defense is built around getting to the QB and creating turnovers in the secondary. Can you imagine this defense playing with a lead week in and week out? Sure we give up alot of passing yards but honestly thats not what top defenses are motivated to stop anymore. The refs have made that impossible so the best thing is to create havoc and create turnovers.

 

Brees for sure. I was just thinking from the perspective that Pickett is such hard worker, student of the game and his desire to be perfect all speak to the same mindset that Brady had.

 

How quickly people forget LoL

 

I remember when the 4 or 5 top QB picks going into the 2023 draft were better than Pickett and we should trade up to get one

 

While I agree that, by the end, Colbert's drafting and decision making have been lackluster, to say he wasn't aggressive overall is not true. Since 2017, Colbert has made it a point to trade either during the closing stages of the Preseason or even in the case of the 2020 Season, at the Trade Deadline in Avery Williamson. Hell, one can even go back to 2019 when they traded up for Devin Bush Jr. Mind you and, as we all know now, that trade didn't work out as planned. However, the fact that Colbert elected to go into the Top Ten via a trade shows everyone just how aggressive he was. Within that same 2019 Class, the trade that sent Antonio Brown to the Raiders would then go on to become Diontae Johnson. Go back a season earlier in the 2018 Class and Colbert traded up for Mason Rudolph.


Again, the trades mentioned above have not worked out minus one (Diontae has been a Pro Bowler and deserves to be credited in doing so). What is notable is the desire for Colbert to go out of his way and nab those players. Colbert did the best he could with the waning time that he had left to max out as much of Big Ben as possible (more on Big Ben later) but the results of much of these trades sadly force some of us to forget how much of a savant Colbert was during his time here. If there is still one hold over practice I don't like that Kahn seems to have picked up on is the lack of money being given to UDFA's. If some of these players have clear showings of promise, Pittsburgh needs to increase the amount of money given to these players. The days of $40K at most is simply no longer going to cut it. One final aspect before I transition to Big Ben is that, among all the draft day gaffe's the Steelers ever had, Kevin Colbert is responsible for arguably the biggest one in the past generation in Kendrick Green. I have said it many times and will do so again here; the Steelers Organization failed Kendrick Green more than Kendrick Green failed them. Green had zero business playing that position and, if he did, he should have sat a year; something I banked on after he was drafted. That didn't happen; Green being the Fanbase's new whipping boy as a result.



Now, regarding Big Ben?! Phew boy.... quite a bit to dive into that one. That said though, to make a very... and I mean very long ass story short?! Big Ben had God Given Talent but a lack of work ethic and desire to better himself. Big Ben's talent will never be questioned among the All Time Greats in NFL History. His lack of attention to detail, study habits, preparation, work ethic and self discipline all leave a helluva lot to be desired. For that matter, what Big Ben lacked is of historical significance for the league. Every Top 10 QBs ever that one sees on the Internet, what is the one common denominator?! Desire.



From Brady to Montana, Peyton Manning to Johnny Unitas and even Dan Marino, these four are often accredited with having some of the greatest study habits, self discipline, work ethic and desire the game has ever seen; doubly so in Brady's case (though his rings will always have an asterisk next to him as far as I am concerned). Hell, as @Blast Furnace often mentions, Dan Marino today would RIP this league into another existence... except there is just one problem with Blast's thinking; Patrick Mahomes is the best example of what happens when you have God Given Talent to match with a tireless desire to improve no matter how good his performance is. Long story short?!



While Big Ben and Colbert collectively could have done so much more, it doesn't help when one (Colbert) did all he could while the other (Big Ben) only did just enough to get by. Pickett and Kahn are the opposite; doubly so in Pickett's case. He will never match up to the likes of Trevor Lawrence, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert or even Josh Allen when it comes to Overall QB Talent. However, if there is one aspect that will assist Pickett is his never ending desire to improve with the mentality to match his endless work ethic. As the old quote goes;


"Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn't Work Hard."



Give Colbert his due. He sure did make mistakes by the end and he clearly was ready to move on. However, two Super Bowls out of three, three HOF Players with potentially three or more on the roster currently within only one losing season in over a generation is something at 75% of both NFL Teams and NFL Fanbases would take in a heartbeat; if not sell all they had for. As far as I am concerned, Kevin Colbert is a Top 5 GM of All Time; he being ranked number 4 for me. I just hope that Omar Kahn and Andy Weidl can continue that level of sustained excellence; adding more Lombardi's to the Trophy Case of course!!

 

In fairness to Colbert he was thrown some curve balls. You can’t plan for what happened too Shazier and Decastro and we were up against the salary cap due to the whole Covid situation and employing a franchise QB. My point in the aggression part with regards to Khan is the way he scouted players and found ones that were scheme appropriate for us. I feel like at least in the last few years Colbert wasn’t as efficient in this area as we became accustomed too. Myles Jack to me was a lazy signing. Bigger name free agent on the downside of his career. The MLB’s we picked up this year I feel like we did more due diligence on.

 

How about Bree's character but Brady's rings

 

I think the idea that "Ben didn't work hard" is overstated simply because he didn't work hard on his body. He very obviously worked hard on his game because his career was a giant curve of improvement. He went from the "high end game manager" early in his career that he had great success with, to being a driving force of why the Steelers were good later in his career. His highest yards per game were when he was 27, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36. You don't do that without significant improvement. Heck, even after his elbow surgery at age 37, he went out at age 38 and 39 and threw for 7,500 yards, 55 TD's/20 INT's and went 21-10. He also went from the backyard football style that got him hit and improved his quick reads and RPO game to make it a staple of his progression. You can't say the guy didn't work hard on his game... results show he absolutely did (otherwise he would have been the same guy he was when he was younger, and he clearly wasn't). He just didn't take care of his body like Brady and others. Some of that was by design (he was a big guy with a thick lower body that was hard to bring down), and some of it was because he didn't want to.

As for Colbert, I don' think he went through the motions. He missed a bit more at the end than usual, but he also traded a first round pick for Fitzpatrick (something the Steelers don't generally do), traded up in the draft at different stages, traded picks for players at position groups we lacked players at, etc. He had a great run and I'm glad that Khan is looking like the real deal. But to say he went through the motions just because some of what he did didn't work isn't necessarily correct.

 

Colbert was actually working with about $30 million less in cap space because of the qb position

 

Let's not forget about Tuitt either. For a team to lose two premier players unexpectedly like Shazier and Tuitt is devastating. Decastro having injury issues and then suddenly being gone was also difficult.

Shazier was literally on a path to become a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and Tuitt was considered a star and part of the best DT tandem in the NFL when he decided to retire after missing an entire season mourning his brother's violent death.

You don't just replace players of their caliber, in their prime, no longer being able to play and leaving a huge hole in the roster. People are banging on Colbert now, but he was an elite GM for a long time and consistently found high-level talent for this team. We would be lucky to have another GM to be anywhere near as successful as Colbert.

 

Yeah,this is impossible to be a top 5 caliber QB for about 15 years and be lazy at the same time...This is impossible in the NFL

 

To be clear on Colbert, it's only in the last few years that I think he was average at best...But I also agree the Steelers have had bad luck like Shazier and Tuitt who did not help at all

 

I knew we had something in Pickett when he said that as a kid in the huddle, the receivers were crying for the ball and he said "I'm going to throw it to whoever gives us the best chance to win".

Sky's the limit with Kenny. We just have to keep stacking pieces on both sides of the ball.

 

Having to replace those caliber of players while paying top-end salary cap space to your QB contract and picking like 18+ in every draft round is basically an impossible task. And Colbert almost pulled it off.

I am all aboard and hugely positive about the opening salvos of the Khan/Weidl regime....but to view Colbert's tenure as anything but a massive success as a GM is just hard for me to figure out. Like they both can be incredible and one does not have to detract from the other.

The end of Colbert's tenure may look "bad" in comparison to the opening of Khan/Weidl from an initial glance --but they were doing totally different things. Colbert was trying to put together FA and draft classes for one last ride and K/W was actually charged with a rebuild. One is easier than the other.

 

Didn't know You hung out with Ben at his home. Tell us more.

 

This is the stuff I'm talking about when I say how easily everyone forgets. So many people on here are acting like the guy with a new girl , and they just started having sex...."It's never been this good before"....LoL Yeah right.

 

Stopped reading after this line and fully agree with whatever followed.

 

Jason Worilds also retired suddenly at peak of his career.

 

It is truth to an extent. Kenny is a football junkie, a live and breath kind of guy. Ben wasn't. But you can't get to the level he got without being at least somewhat hard working. He wouldn't have improved so much throughout his career if he had been a "show up and go through the motions" kind of guy. Ben was talented, but he wasn't Randy Moss talented (and he played a position that you can't just get by on physical gifts alone). He wasn't the most hard working of course, but he had to have at least been average in that regard.

On a side note: I am glad Kenny seems to be the first kind of guy. Makes me feel good about getting every ounce of ability out of him during his career.