Should Dick Lebeau pass the baton?

Those are/were some big shoes to fill!

 

I have a man crush on 92 as well and as much as we know he cares for Lebeau ,he still went to Cincy to play. As always it comes down to money whether he comes back or not. I agree with the D getting younger part. It's just time ,nothing lasts forever.

Chances are very slim at best that we could ever put a group like that together again. Not only talent wise but the synergy they seemed to have playing together. If we are going to give Lebeau a lifetime contract until that happens again,he will be Yoda before he decides to call it quits.

 

well if we would have drafted eric reed instead of jj and cj mosley instead of shazier , we would already have the new troy and the new farrior , tuitt and heiward could be our next aron smith and kiesel .. foote and clark should be repleaceable without big problems .. we would need only the new harrison .. bottom line we need to draft better

 

I'm kind of looking at this from a different direction. Nobody knows more about running a defense than DL. If he had quality players, he would know what to do with them. With what he has now he has to play not to get best badly. But at his age, can he still relate with a 21 year old coming out of college? Joe Pa knew more about football than most people, but in the end, the kids just didn't relate with an old guy.

 

I voted yes, I am tired of his style of play.
Also takes to long in his system to get our defensive players productive. It seems like they lose their instincts under him or his system.

 

The Steelers should do to LeBeau what Dallas did to Monte Kiffin, give him some lame title like senior assistant and replace him as DC. Dallas defense improved once the old ineffective Kiffin stopped calling the defense, LeBeau scheme is predictable and doesn't produce enough pressure time to move on. Even if LeBeau doesn't have the same talent as he used to, you can still be more aggressive and creative on defense.

 

I voted yes to Dick stepping down. But then again the more I think about it if Butler is his successor which I assume he would be since they probably have groomed him in the last 10 years to be DLs replacement then we can expect to see pretty much the same scheme. So the larger question becomes do we want to see a new DL coach which is not Butler and offers a new approach to the defense which is being run now

 

I hope if it is Butler that he wants to put his own stamp on the defense and not just continue to run the same tired schemes of DL.

 

DL can coach my D as long as he likes....PERIOD!!! Exclamation point!!!

 

That's good, Myron, because he may be looking for a job if about 3 out of 4 of your fellow board members have anything to say about it. You run a 3-4?

 

What other D would I run? DUH!!!!

 

I thought you might be an old school 4-3 kind of guy, lol.

 

I think DL is in a catch 22. we wanted more production in the pass rush from the DE's, ok, we got that. cam and tuitt are not quite as stout against the run as the old guard, but we are asking them to do more rushing the passer. there is some give and take there. so of course they are not the same as the guys before in keeping linemen off the OLB'ers because we want them doing other things.

the OLB'ers need to be strong enough to fight their own way off of blocks more and be stouter against the run than in past years, while still being able to rush the passer in a league where passing is a premium. it's quite the juggling act to get more from one and not give up something else.

we needed to get faster on defense and we have, now it's time to get stronger too. that is still a work in progress for some of these younger players. it will come. it's not the scheme but the scheme trying to change in subtle ways for the better and it's just not there player wise yet.

 

Not me Jack.....Give me a 6ft 350lb NT a couple 6-3 DTs who keep the tackles busy. Some speed at OLB to get to the QB. My inside guys stop the run.Love the 3-4!!!

 

I'm all 3-4 as well. If it can stifle qbs like Peyton Manning then I like it.

 

Assuming Butler is offered the position and he takes it I can assure you we wont see many changes to the overall defensive scheme for a few years.. Personally I would not want to see a
a drastic change. I think it's more prudent to make adjustments over a few years then dramatically..

 

Agreed. I just think it's too early in this defensive rebuild, and rebuild it is, to give up on the designer that has a proven track record.

Change can be good and inevitable but be careful what we wish for, we may get it. Then...

 

Give a decent coach really good players he is going to look good. The question is what can a coach do with some pretty good players and some others that are just ok? To me the really good coaches make the sum greater than the parts. We have been on a steady decline for the last few years. We have ALL been complaining about the lack of pressure,the cushions,the lack of creativity and the failure to get off the field on 3rd downs. All these deficiencies have been the norm under Lebeaus watch for the past few seasons.

There is always going to be some kind of weakness in the personnel. The ability to devise a scheme to help cover up that weakness is the reason we even have coaches. If we could roll out 11 pro bowlers on D every game I could coach them. We need to get more out of our players no matter what the skill level whether it be by scheme or better preparation both on and off the field. I'm just tired of being able to complain about the same flaws in our D over and over again. First it's our secondary is weak,then it's our ILBs, then our OLBs. Its always going to be something. I've seen plenty of teams be more aggressive and more successful with no names(well until they play us) because there coaches put them in position to be successful. We aren't the only ones that have complained about the predictability of our D there have been current and former players as well. Where there is smoke there is fire.

If I honestly felt that Lebeau would be able to adjust to the players that we have and not have our players have to adjust to his system then by all means stay as long as you want. We can't sit back and wait and pray that our drafts work out and we are able to get guys that are a perfect fit for his system. Sometimes you have to make chicken salad out of chicken ****. I don't care who coaches the team as long as our performance improves. Right now it is below the line for what we expect as Steeler fans. If it is possible for a second forget he is D. Lebeau and his name is L. Debeau are you satisfied with our Ds performance the last few seasons? If it was any other coach we would be calling for his head and offering to drive him to the airport. He is 77 he isn't going to coach forever and he doesn't seem willing to change up what he is doing ,at least on a consistent basis. He may have a couple of games a year when he turns up the aggressiveness only to leave us scratching our heads wondering why we ever stop.

I just think his scheme is out dated,it doesn't work in today's game. The stop the run first philosophy doesn't work anymore when everyone is throwing the football ,especially against our soft coverage that is by his design. Stop the run on 1st and 2nd and force a 3rd and long and bring pressure,tackle the catch doesn't work when you are giving away 5yd completions like Ike drops INTs. I love and respect coach for everything he has done and meant to this team and us fans but that doesn't guarantee him a lifetime contract. It is more important to me to see our D improve and reach the heights we have grown accustomed to and expect. If he can turn it around so be it ,but changes need to be made. I can't take another year of watching all the same things that have been driving US crazy for the last few. I especially don't want to be typing the same long winded opinion at this time next year....

 

not too many coaches that I know of in the NFL can take a bunch of just OK players and make a championship team out of them. that's what we are after. lots of guys can have good defenses, we expect a lot more. you also have to consider what divisions they play against and schedules that year. that makes some guys seem better than they actually are. or worse then they actually are. remember we nearly had 4 teams from our division making the playoffs. a couple of games here and there and the browns would have been in. coaching can only take it so far. you still can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

 

But I thought we has some pretty nice "silk purses" in JJ, Shazier and Shamarko. And let's just call it like it is. Those guys are struggling to assimilate into "the system".

 

I agree we should move on. But another funny thing is that he sent blitzes all out in some games and reverted back to his cautious self in others. When we played the Colts we were hitting Luck like I've never seen before but in other games we would play a very soft zone.