IF 2013 is record is worse....

colbert isn't sitting there saying no i'm gonna draft who i want either. i'll bet you tomlin has more input of where he wants the team built position wise. every pick is a colaboration of people and of course the final say is art rooney. which lets the GM and coach chime in with scouts and kahn. same as the GM, head coach , scouts and kahn inform art. which has a board to face. so no colbert dosen't have the final say in anything if they think it's the wrong move.

 

You posted a whole pile, but it doesn't change a thing. Upside? We are definitely a team in transition, but we have several key components already in place. On offense we have a solid core at OL and WR. The potential loss of Miller hurts us at TE so I wouldn't be surprised if htey brought in a blocking TE via free agency(aka someone cheap). Delaney Walker would fit the bill, but might be a little to expensive at 1 million in 2012. David Johnson is another cheap option. Or they could draft someone like Michael Willams in the 4th-6th round. He's a solid blocking TE with some upside as a receiver.
At WR we will build around Brown and Sanders. Cotchery is serviceable as possession receiver and Gilreath showed us some potential in limited opportunities. Don't be surprised if they address the WR position early in the draft.

The backfield is a little murky;however, Dwyer and Redman will be back. It's doubtful that either of them will be feature backs,but they will play a vital roll going forward. I'll bet dollars to donuts that a RB will be drafted in 2013, but it won't be Lacy. Drafting running backs early makes zero sense. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but statistically first round running backs really don't do much better than 4th-5th round running backs. It doens't help that the average career of an NFL running back is under 3 years. At HB Will Johnson showed a lot of promise and should only improve.

On defense we should be fairly well set on the line with Kiesel, McClendon, Hood, and Heyward. Hood isn't Aaron Smith by any stretch of the imagination, but he's nowhere near as bad as he's made out to be. He's basically an average defensive end, but we can't have probowl players everywhere. Heyward will be fine. He hasn't been great to this point, but we've seen some good things from him in limited opportunities. His development is also hurt by the lockout in 2011. We should see a solid showing from him in 2013. The Coaches were high on McClendon in 2012 and said so by stating only thing holding him back was from an assignment standpoint. We should see solid if not outstanding contributions from him in 2013.
There is no doubt that losing Spence for 2013(or forever) will completely suck and leaves us thin at ILB. My best guess is Foote will be back if they can get him somewhere around the vet minimum. Woodley is hardly a part time player. People love to label Worilds as a bust, but we've seen some good things from him. It also doesn't help that he missed a tc due to lockout and another to surgery. I don't think anyone will question that Timmons has grown into a solid inside linebacker and should only get better.

In the defensive backfield we need to add some depth/future starters at safety. Apparently the Steelers are pretty high on Golden, but I doubt he's much more than depth. As with many others I expect the Steelers to draft a safety in the early rounds. Keenan Lewis will be our big 2013 free agent splash. He has already stated that it isn't about the money. That will leave us pretty well set at CB for the near future with with Taylor, Lewis,Brown, and C. Allen.

Are there holes? Absolutely, but the sky isn't falling by any means. We've got a solid core to build around and things will improve. If I had to guess we'll probably be a fringe playoff team again in 2013. Of course the front office could hit a homerun in the draft and change things dramatically.

 

All I can say is that you people are SADLY mistaken
if you do not think that Coach Cliche has ALOT of input
into who the OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR is. What football coach would let this happen?
This is funny.

(I wonder if Vince Lombardi is also known as Coach Cliche for all those stupid things he said. "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." What an idiot! Am I right? Huh?)

 

will both rb's be back? how about batch? redman and dwyer will cost a minimum of 2.6 mil. for two rb's that may not fit our new scheme. how much will batch cost? will we keep him?

we will be starting the season on a hope and a prayer.

praying our new linemen can get it done in the run game and pass protection.

we are hoping on foote to save us in the middle.

we are hoping troy or clark stay healthy.

we are hoping we can sign lewis back.

we are hoping woodley comes to camp in shape and lasts all year.

we are hoping someone can take the spot from casey.

we are hoping ben doesn't go down because we don't have a backup.

we have no money. i hope we can make all these minimum signings and one big one for lewis.

we hope we can find some backup linemen to be on the team.

we have holes thats for sure. if we keep having injuries with the same guys we're sunk.

we need some homeruns this year in the draft no doubt.

 

You can believe the sky is falling and I'll have faith in the Steelers' front office.

 

Same could be said about Cower winning with Noll's players. Think about it.
Dawson, Woodson, Llyod, O'donnel, Foster, Anderson, Hodge, Lake, just off the top of my head.

 

Ditto.

That pretty much sums up my thought process while reading that: you can pretty much copy and paste this to every team's message board.

 

i sure hope it goes that smoothe strummer, but i have my doubts this year. not to mention at some point you have to pay the piper for these restructures. we may have to cut timmons and DD and pouncey and brown next to make room.

and dick i do remember your thread about doom and gloom about a month ago. something about we are over the cap with only 28 or so players under contract. now you see it all rosey? i'll hope this draft does well for us. we should see soon who we need to replace. could be this week.

 

Haha! Just cuz I post something, it doesn't mean that's my opinion Sometimes I just like to stir the pot to read the different arguments. Kinda like First-and-Ten or Around the Horn where they have to choose a side and argue it. There is no right answer to a lot of these debates. Sometimes I just like to play devil's advocate. Especially when it's an unpopular opinion. It's a message board. It's boring when everybody embraces the same viewpoint.

I don't post "doom and gloom." I'm more optimistic than pessimistic. I'm the guy who just posted I think we can win it all next year (in spite of the 8-8 and under 10-win predictions in the same thread). I'm a realist. We do have cap issues. But I don't remember posting anything like that.

 

I predicted 9-7 at best for the 2012 season and wouldn't be surprised if we're right there again in 2013. See my comment above about being a fringe playoff team. It's all but guaranteed if Haley pulls another square peg in a round hole offense in 2013. Running Redman east-west and asking our speedster receivers to break tackles like megatron was beyond idiotic on his part. For the love of GOD they're smaller fast guys get the ball to them in stride!

Why in the world would they cut DD when he's under contract for 3 more years with a club option for a 4th? He's a very good offensive lineman that's yet to peak and costs less than 2million per year. Cut Pouncey? You'll never hear me claim he's anythng more than an average center, but he's still under contract through 2015 and very reasonably at that.(anyone that doubts that statement needs to watch Mike Webster or Dermonti Dawson play. Pouncey was good as a rookie, but hasn't progressed nearly enough) My bet is they will extend Ben in 2014 and lessen his cap number in the process. Kiesel and Clark cost almost 10million against the cap and they'll be gone after 2013. Assuming Willie Colon get's cut his 5million dead money charge will be gone as well. We also have about another 30 million coming off the books in 2014 with Taylor,Heath, and Troy P. We still have holes;however, we will have a lot of money coming off the books as well with a solid foundation to build upon. It's good to be a Steeler fan!

 

Couldn't agree more with this post.

Yes, we're a fringe playoff team but . . . I'll take it. We just need to stay healthy, grab some momentum going into the playoffs, and we can win it all.

Haley sucks. Not sure why so many people were excited about him coming in. As far as I could tell after reading the posts on here, people were just excited that he was an abrasive 'richard' that wasn't going to get along with anyone. Awesome. He's done NOTHING in his past to suggest he's anything special. Heck, quite the opposite. His resume blows. With the exception of Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald coming together at the right time, he's been awful.

Who is DD? David DeCastro? Talking about cutting him doesn't even make sense. Somebody mentioned that?

Couldn't agree more about Pouncey. I think he played poorly last season. Notice we didn't miss a beat in XLV when Legursky took over at center . . . He is feeding off of his reputation from his rookie season. Perennial Pro Bowler because of one strong rookie year on a team with a history at the position.

 

It's hard to say. Normally, the 'that's not how the Steelers operate' thing would apply to the head coach but Art II seems to be a different breed when we factor in the Arians 'retirement' and his more vocal approach. I think he is going to be less patient than Art I or Dan.

 

you guys like to read things into these posts alot. i was saying with the way we keep pushing money to the future we may have to make some tough decisions down the line of cutting players. DD and pouncey were for instance names. my God get a grip. these restructures don't just go away. you have to pay at some point and it very well could cost somebody there job, that we don't want to part with.

 

Obviously it doesn't just go away. That's one of the reasons Ben will get extended next year. It makes his cap hit more palatable. And of course it will cost people their jobs, it's a freaking business. It would have cost Hampton a job in 2012, but he chose to take a paycut(thanks for that). It's going to cost the 35 year old Harrison a job this year. Woodley is 29 now(I think) in 2-3 years someone will be pushing him for playing time and he'll be gone.

The front office knows what they're doing. THey kept a championship caliber team together in order to try and win a few more Superbowls. Maybe you don't get it, but winning championships isn't easy. Almost 50% of the teams in the league have never done so. In fact it's possible that we may never see the Steelers host another Lombardi in our lifetime. The Steelers saw their window and took their best shot at it and I'm happy they did. If the price of winning in 2008 and a real shot another in 2010 was Woodley or Timmons losing their jobs I'm more than happy with their decisions.

 

The only thing different is coach Lombardi knew what he was talking about
and his men would run through brick walls for him. Not Quite the same with old
coach cliche. Now Dick lebeau they might.

 

Haley has the off season to determine how to get more points out of the offense. If we can't get more points, we will be in the same boat as this past year.

 

We have a small window with Ben now six years at best. That will go really fast so we had better start thinking of a better winning formulation.

 

The offense has the offseason to determine how to get more points too.