Cajun's state of the Steelers, you won't like it!

First off I Love my team, I still have hope we'll win out and make the playoffs and may I add I'm not an impulsive reactionary or a chicken little all is lost kind of guy...that being said--------------

1) Art Rooney ll is part of the problem. His statement that -Bruce Arians decided to retire-- raised eyebrows as soon as he took another coaching job. Why did he struggle here but as an interim head coach became coach of the year and his next job in Arizona he's shown be a very capable coach?

2) We will go only as far as a inconsistent QB Big Ben will take us. If he's on we can win. If he's off we won't. There's not another QB in the NFL who one week looks like the NFL MVP and the next a struggling rookie and the next an All-Pro and the next a journeyman. Todd Haley is Not the problem.

3) We have two dynamic offensive weapons in Bell & AB.

4) Colbert needs to go. He has been here 14 yrs and while he has had some success the past several years has shown his ability is either diminishing or his skillset is being hampered by his superiors and coaching staff.

5) Tomlin and his entire coaching staff needs to go with maybe a couple exceptions. To hear Tomlin say he's happy with baby zilla's play is cause for concern. To hear him say he's happy with the rotation in the secondary is cause for concern. To hear they wanted Geathers in FA when Keisel was available, just sad. Not a knock on Geathers, I believe him to be better than zilla but not Keisel or Woods who we let walk. Glad to hear he came in on practice day ready to practice hard but our soft team took exception and fights broke out. They obviously don't practice hard or well enough. I was raised, you play like you've practiced and losing to the saints after a bye week shows how Tomlin controls practice.

5a) His staff- why can't they develop young talent? We were all happy to hear Lake returned as a coach but Curtis Brown's failure. C. Allen's lack of development. What about Shark & Golden? No-one on this team knows how to tackle except Gay. Everyone else including Troy tries to knock you down instead of wrapping up. FUNDAMENTALS!!!!! Our LBers aren't very good either, but they do have potential, with better coaching. Speaking of LBer's, they all with Mr. Joey went out the same night as that poor performance in a loss to the ain'ts partying with 3000$ a bottle of alcohol.

5b) We kept DHB on the 53. We Kept Zilla on the 53. Both offer nothing but we lost Mauro and Williams. Its time for a new coaching staff. I'd only keep Munchak, Haley at this point. Oh yeah, we lost W. Johnson............ We also drafted Dri archer in the 3rd rd when we clearly needed help at CB. B. Breeland was availableand is now having a decent season with the skins.

I want to see us return to the glory years but poor drafting, poor coaching, poor cap managing, poor talent evaluations in FA & the draft and poor player development has us here, a franchise QB, two 8-8 seasons in a row and if we don't do everything right it could be 3.

Cajun-

 

Love it...dead on!

 

I think you hit the nail on the head,

 

Very well said!

 

Good overview of the state of the team. An additional thought:
-How many drafts over the last several years have we as fans just thought the Steelers blew it? I honestly don't remember any that we came away from just shaking our heads wondering what Colbert and Tomlin were doing. In fact, we usually feel pretty good about the team's drafts and the draft analysts normally sing the Steelers' praises about how well they draft and how they really know what they're doing on draft day. They get As and Bs from the likes of Mel Kiper, Jr. And Todd McShay and we come away thinking we've found some gems. And then it comes time to take the recently acquired product from the college level to the NFL level. So...what's the real problem??? I can't buy into the assertion that we've just missed on all of this talent the last several years. My belief is that the players the Steelers have drafted have been talented players, most of them anyway, and were full of NFL potential. But the coaches have not adequately prepared them to have consistent success at the next level. They've had flashes of success, but they have not fully grasped what it means to be a professional in every sense of the word. They have not learned how to prepare like professionals, how to think like professionals, how to play consistently like professionals and THAT is on the coaching staff as directed by the head coach. JMHOFWIW.

 

I can definitely buy into this!

 

Not a lot to add after that. Spot on!

 

I think there's a lot of truth in this. Every year we come away happy with our draft and then 3 years later we wonder what went wrong with all the players we drafted. A playmaker is a playmaker. Those guys are going to produce regardless of the team or coaching around them. The same can't be said for other guys though, such as lineman, DB's and LB'ers not named Luke Kuechly. Those types of players need good coaching and a solid system to play within. I don't believe they're getting that.

 

In regards to #4, yeah Colbert has not been hitting his mark lately? Didn't a couple scouts leave over recent years? I know it has been reported, but no one has ever made a huge deal out of it.

I also heard recently that Bruce Arians and something to do with a lot of the Wide Receivers he hit on? Particularly Antonio Brown.
I'm just wondering with Bruce gone, that starts to change?

It also seems to me that we are picking up a lot of guys who are projects, when what we need are guys who can step in quickly. I'm sure there is a lot to this, but just a thought.

 

I wonder is some of our success at picking wideouts has to do with the fact that Tomlin played that position himself.

 

Todd Haley is a problem! He actually defended Bens play against the Saints saying Bell dropped 2 key passes and Bryant dropped passes and Heath dropped two passes etc. etc. Coach Tomlin is calling out Ben to play better and you got Haley making excuses for Ben (which I'm shocked) and I haven't been impressed with the play calling the last three games either. Haley late for a game on 1 occasion, the Blount incident, God knows what else. He should go with tomlin and flaccid dick if the Steelers don't make the playoffs.

 

Wow, a great thread Cajun! I would have "canned" the entire coaching staff once the airplane reached cruise altitude leaving Denver after being Tebowed! Embarrassed on national TV by daring him to throw; well he did!! I am on your side to keep the two coaches you mention, but toss the rest out like dirty bathwater! No fire in their bellies, and idiotic play calling - I give you the bubble screen for one, and not letting the backup RB get some shots at running the ball against the Saints! No NOT Archer!

 

Even tho Ben had a bad game.... what Haley said was true. Alot of pass that hit the receiver in the hands where dropped. One of the drops would have been an early TD.

 

The only problem in the whole piece is at the very beginning... Cowher told the f.o. to hire outside the organization, there fire shutting the door on Ariens, why Art would say that when he Bruce was still going to work is odd.

 

Very well done/said Cajun, the truth hurts.My feelings exactly.

 

To answer your Question BFT, KC is extremely
successful at evaluating WR talent. Its the OL and CB position you better worry about.
But you must ask yourself how much influence does MT have in selecting players?
Wasn't it Bill Parcels, that said if I am cooking the dinner, I want to buy some of the groceries??????????

 

You might have a point but very few of the players that haven't workout out went to other teams and had success. I entire 2008-2009 drafts are out the league or not starting. I think its evaluation of talent. I think our scouting department is below average and Colbert or Tomlin or both think they can take a player and fit him in a round hole.

 

Hard to argue with you Cajun and there is a lot more to add but you did build a solid foundation of doubt.

 

Speaking of LBer's, they all with Mr. Joey went out the same night as that poor performance in a loss to the ain'ts partying with 3000$ a bottle of alcohol.
-quote from Cajun

I saw that on James Harrison's FB page. What was that all about? Porter and Harrison were acting like idiots and I was thinking that it's nice that they're upset about the loss.

 

There's not not enough players with that fire to win. Not saying that they don't like to win but they don't have that fire in them to do whatever it takes to win after an ugly loss. It's like a loss doesn't bother them, doesn't make them mad as hell. It's shows in their practice, it shows in their game prep and it shows on the field on game day. It's time for a shake-up in Steelers land.

 

Totally agree with your assessment especially the #5's. Tomlin and Co have been exposed as a flash in the pan starting with team Cowher left behind and slowly eroded into what you see today, Tomlin football at is best with no chance of improvement under the current regime. Tomlin get to much credit for wins but escapes the scrutiny for losses. I remember the Noll glory days and can only wish top see them return. Great post Cajun.

 

These are pretty much my thoughts as well. Don't mind a difference of opinion, perfectly fine discussion. Not much to add. People take what is said to the media to heart too much. They don't come out and say what is in their playbook for a reason. Sure seems like there used to be a whole lot more FBAI posts back then than their are people now who want to admit it.

As for the LB's going out after a loss, maybe they needed some bonding time. A way to find some chemistry. Remember that hurricane in Miami in 2004, think about what the Steelers did after that.

 

Good evaluation. This team has to make some tough choices after this season.

Tomlin is going to stay. For better or worse.

But LeBeau needs to ride off. The old guard will go with him. LeBeau's scheme is not conducive to get young players on the field. This Defense is going to get younger next season. This Defense is a shell of what it used to be. Great defense was a Steelers staple.

If no changes are made, the result will be the same. If they let Tomlin go, which I believe they won't, I would like to see a clean house, including Colbert. Whoever brought in that piece of Garbage Cam Thomas should be shown the door. Poor drafting and poor decisions. Not a good mix...