Should Dick Lebeau pass the baton?

Just trying to take the temperature of the board regarding Dick LeBeau. Do you think it's time for DL to finally retire and pass the baton to someone else or should DL be allowed to remain the Steeler DC for life if he so chooses? What do you think and why?

 

Not sure if I would ask for him to call it but he is going to be forced to go back to the lab and reinvent everything he has established to this point just based on personnel. Just don't have the experience going forward to run the defense the way he wants. So like everyone else he has to adjust.

 

Please exercise your constitutional right and civic duty and VOTE.

I got the poll up after you posted.

 

Yes and no, .. Yes because if he don't retire soon, i'm afraid he will pass away during a season, and that would be devastating to the team, and fans..... No because i believe he is a great Def coach, and right now we really don't have the players to make his scheme work. So

 

...and last year for that matter.

 

... and do you really expect a huge upgrade for next year, in order to demand results?

 

Yes he needs to pass the baton, besides almost no pressure up front and terrible secondary the past ~5 years, the thing that irks me the most is 3rd and LONG (this mainly has to do with playing 15+ yards away from a receiver instead of bump and run). They never get off the field unless the QB (like Dalton) makes a terrible throw or a receiver drops it.

 

As far as I'm aware, the two strongest arguments against LeBeau are on his scheme:

• His scheme is out of date to today's NFL offensive schemes and officiating rules
• The Scheme's learning curve doesn't allow an immediate impact for draft picks

And while most people assume that changing DC will mean a change of scheme, it doesn't necessarily turn into short-term results, while it requires different personnel in some positions, and that takes time and money (free agents, draft picks).

 

I believe if we weren't so strapped for cash we could get some "proven commodities" in FA on defense and maybe even the 0 line and we could be SB contenders instantly. The problem is that we've paid too much for people and that is really costing us. If Troy wants to stay he should take a paycut just as Ike did. I think Ben deserves a big payday but, as a fan, I would honestly love for him to take a more bargain price to try and spread that money around to the weaker elements of the team. That's easy for me to say though. I know we like to "build through the draft" and all that but our picks haven't been working out as much as they used to and while we have a franchise qb in a qb driven league it might be the most prudent thing to do to abandon that for the present to try and make one last run at it. Although we may very well have some true up and coming studs but it's certainly not looking like we've found the "next" Troy or Woodson or Harrison or even Woodley for that matter. We might have found the "next" Franco and Bettis and maybe the "next" Stallworth and Ward but on the defensive side we've got some major concerns that I don't know if a single draft is gonna be able to fix.

 

do you guys think if we had a different DC we could do all the things we need to upgrade these players for a successful defense? is that all we need? are our players good enough that a change at the top would be the difference? the new guy will be coaching the same players.

 

No. I've said it's more a personnel issue and that's what I believe. It's POSSIBLE that someone could come in and make them look instantly better but that's rarely the case. Marinelli seems to have turned the Dallas d around and Harbaugh turned the 9ers d around but I really don't think those are frequent cases. It would be like saying the next guy to coach the Jets is gonna have a phenomenal offense next year. They don't have the personnel to be phenomenal. That's my opinion anyway.

 

Great point

 

i think yes because we need a lot of fresh dbs that should see the field quickly and gain experience lebeau is afraid to do it but is the only way to find better players .. playing cam thomas instead of mauro is an aberration , since one is already know (s.diego and steelers camp) as not nfl material , we need to risk we don't need mediocrity . they seems they are already happy they won a division , and save they are asses

 

This team misses its playmakers. And none of the players from which a huge impact was expected, performed. And I'm calling Worilds, Jarvis Jones, Mike Mitchell and Cortez Allen.
Several of them underperformed, from the scheme point of view: you need your OLBs to be able to win one-on-one matchups, while your DBs must be able to create turnovers. Can some cap guru tell us what % of our salary cap went on these four guys, plus Woodley (who accounted for almost 8 million this year to the Steelers). This goes to the FO and to the Coaching Staff too.

Also, defensive playcalling has lacked of creativity the last several seasons, particularly with the exotic blitzes packages (which were shown on consecutive weeks this Season against HOU, IND, BAL, but missed the rest of the way).

There's no easy solution to our Defensive situation, while it requires a change of scheme (which has an implicit change of personnel in several positions) or an upgrade grabbing impactful free agents (which we know won't happen). Otherwise, if we're going to maintain this scheme and DL is still the DC, players drafted in 2015 will most probably see meaningful playing time and have positive impact sometime in 2016.

 

I think the team should move on from LeBeau, however, I don't see it happening unless he chooses to step down. They can fire him outright, the players love him and I don't think it would go over well. They also can make him "retire" like they did with Ariana as they ended up looking silly after that whole fiasco. I feel like it is going to be his choice.

 

Nah! I'm pushin' 60 and he definitely looks older than me! So speak for yourself!

 

I like DL being there. I voted for him to stay but with that some things need to definitely change.

I believe that there has been something going on in the locker room, with coaches and FO. If any of you remember Coach T calling DL an old white guy (during the whole "players coach" thing), it is a moment that (for someone with such a gift for talking -like Coach T) shows some dissension in the ranks.

I'm not tying to get into whether Tomlin took the players coach thing racistly, or that Coach T is racist or any thing like that.

My point is for someone as gifted as Coach T to make such an ignorant statement means:
#1- He wasn't thinking
#2- He has been hiding some disdain
#3- Someone has pushed DL. and Tomlin together (and the 2 just aren't seeing eye to eye).

I don't think its fair to say either of them is better or worse, they both have their ways (and they work).

We all know Coach LeBaeu's system takes time to learn- Does that mean that our new players are dumb? No, just that it is complicated.

We aren't asking DL to "dumb it down" anymore than we are asking the players to step it up.

In all, I hope you understand what I am trying to say is-
Something more is going on--and it needs to be dealt with.

Not by just getting rid of DL.

 

Damn good point.

 

It's time...

The Defense is going to be even younger next year. This does not bode well with LeBeau's teachings and scheme. Players need to get on the field sooner. Coach them up. The scheme is outdated. I appreciate all he has done, but fresh ideas with a simplified scheme I believe needs to be implemented. Butler I fear will be a carbon copy but he has stayed to take over. I would give him the nod and hope he could inject some new ideas.