Boykins is a panther....

No one was building Boykin up to mythic proportions imo. ALL anyone wanted was the chance for him to see the field to see if the pass defense could be improved. You had the absolute worst corner in the league starting and getting abused on a weekly basis, yet you keep a guy you traded for on the bench. If the staff thought Boykin couldn't play outside fine, take Blake out and put Gay outside and Boykin in the slot.

If you don't think Boykin is better than Gay in the slot, fine, that Blake out and put Cockrell on the outside. Just do something instead of continually starting Blake. Granted they did start to rotate with some regularity towards the end of the season with better results.

It's speculation on Boykin having an attitude problem. If true, should a coaching staff not play a guy on defense when there is a glaring hole in your starting lineup? And what would the attitude problem have been - "play me more grumbling". I'm sure the coaching staff has never been exposed to a player wanting to play more. Boykin played special teams, why didn't the attitude problem discipline carry over there?

All anyone wanted was some changes to the pass defense to see if there could be some improvements. Now fans are accusing others of saying Boykin was Woodson and others are saying Boykin was a cancer. Overblown on both sides - bottomline.

 

Agree with everything you said. This should be the thread of the day. Amen and well said.

 

You must have missed some of the posts on Boykin. He most definitely was made out to be way better than he shown he can be.
I wanted to see some change because Blake was playing like crap. But some people were so fixated on Boykin it was crazy. He went through the same thing in Philly. For whatever reason (may be it's because he's not Goodnuf to do it )teams don't think he's capable of playing on the outside.

 

Pretty sure I read every Boykin thread and participated in most of the game day threads. I thought the majority of comments were - "where's boykin?", "why is Blake still in there?", or similar comments. Must've missed the "boykin is a pro bowler" comments.

Not sure where he was made out to be better than shown in the limited opportunities he had. We never had the chance to see until very late in the season. Everyone gave Mike Mitchell a pass on his first season here, but you can tell Boykin's quality of play on a quarter of the season, OK. Again, fans wanted to see a change.

As for the Philly stuff, I don't go on there forums to see the fans reaction. I remember Chip Kelly saying that they thought Boykin was a slot guy too. (the same guy who jettisoned McCoy, Macklin, and Jackson but whatever). So that's two teams who think Boykin is a slot. Fine put him in the slot. Did someone say he graded better than Gay in the slot by PFF? Put Gay outside or Cockrell outside. The very rigid stance on continuing to play Blake was to the detriment of the pass defense. A change was warranted.

 

There's definitely more to meet the eye.

I'm guessing Colbert and Tomlin were not in agreement about bringing Boykin here for whatever reason. Colbert brought him here via trade. Then they got Cockrell later on after Buffalo released him. I think both GM and Coach were high on Cockrell through the previous draft process. The rest we'll never know.

A lot of good FAs still out there, timing means nothing. Terrance Knighton, Leon Hall, Reggie Nelson, Donald Butler, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Louis Vasquez...

http://www.panthers.com/news/articl...n-Boykin/7b0b372b-c077-4193-a140-dd166787cbb2

Boykin had offers, but wanted Carolina.

Interesting to see he said he is most comfortable in the slot. No mention of playing outside.

 

My suspicion is that Blake will play more, but lower down on the depth chart, and will probably do ok.

Like he did with us before last season, basically.

 

Will we get like a 15th round compensatory pick for him?

 

Just knowing that he'll be in the Hall of Fame someday and he'll go in as a Steeler is enough for me.

 

HOF requires that he gets at least 60% of the vote right? I'm sure they'll keep him under that to avoid having to pitch in for the food at the afterparty.

 

He may have to wait a year. DHB will be eligible.

 

Kinda funny this came up cause on my ride into work today a Steeler fan called into Ross Tucker and asked why the Steelers refused to play Boykin. Ross replied that there was a lot of people asking that and he said the only thing that he could think of was Boykin couldn't grasp the system. And while saying that he pointed out that just because Boykin was covering a guy that might not have been his guy. So like you point out Blast we don't know everything and we can only go by what we see. What we saw was a bad secondary that included Blake, right?

I have pointed out before and linked the article which I am not looking up again but before the Steelers traded for him he was graded out as the 2nd best slot CB only to Harris from Denver. I am not sure what the deal was and don't care, heck if he screw MT or KC's wife I don't care I want our best guys out there.....and last year it was clear to ALL OF US HERE that we didn't get that.

So now both are gone let's move on and hope we get a shut down corner to help us all forget this and improve our secondary.

 

Gay playing bad = Boykin playing.
Blake playing bad doesn't =Boykin playing.

 

A couple months ago someone posted a link to an article stating just that.... I thought the statement was attributed to someone on the inside. Anyway, as NYSF says, it is what it is.... it was what it was... it just plain sucks that we are giving up a pick this year for it!!

 

So was I just seeing things when Gay and Boykin were on the field at the same time? I am pretty sure when Blake wasn't on the field Boykin was, maybe I am wrong I need to look that up any help out there on how to do that without watching the game?

 

I'm no rocket scientist but sure sounds like he feels he wasn't given a fair shake last season. I would tend to lean his way too given Tomlin's well established coaching habits.

 

I'm not going to overinterpret it, but I never get a good sense about players who do this kind of stuff on Twitter. It's not exactly dignified.

 

unfortunately this is the new way, social media is the way things get done anymore.....I am not agreeing with that statement just saying the truth......

 

I guess nobody remembers the Denver divisional game? Wasn't it Boykin that gave up the 30+ yard pass play on 3rd and long after the Touissant fumble? That play changed the momentum and game in my mind. Yes, on paper Boykin sounded like a good option for us, but the word coming from the practice fields was that he just wasn't understanding the defense.... hence no playing time. As bad as Blake was, he had a handful of glamour plays (INTS)