Steelers Will Not Franchise tag Dupree

Bud was no freak pass rusher, reminded me of Willie Gault or Manute Bol.

 

I'd be interesting to dig up old posts three years ago to see the disdain toward Bud Dupree.

Interesting fact, Bud Dupree was moved from right to left side OLB so he could rush the pass from the blind side. The Steelers did this to make him more productive as a passrusher and it worked.

So is he as elite as many claim he is?

Bud is pretty good at run defense and zone coverage as well. So he has that going for him. Someone is going to pay him. This i have no doubt of.

Despite the beliefs of many on here it seems I do believe Highsmith showed enough to help fill the void of losing Dupree, which imo is inevitable.

This team needs to figure out how to rebuild the oline, retain a remnant of the secondary, and run the football. Financial and draft resources need to go there, but don't draft a corner because they haven't shown they can do that since like Ike Taylor

 

The Steelers as an organization really believe that players deserve
to be able to explore FA to see what is out there. They offer their players that
opportunity. Very rare if ever that you see Steelers franchise tag their players for 2 years.

 

Well it only took him till his 5th year to reach double digits. 5th year. I'm sure you will be following his progress elsewhere.

To say that Highsmith won't get double digit sacks well, he has 3 more seasons till a 5th, so...

Plus he only played in 5 regular season games, one playoff game as a starter.

Had 2 sacks. 6 QB hits. 5 tackles for loss, 30 solo tackles, one interception. Not to shabby.

 

Yea the freak athlete who didnt do nothing untill year 4/5... there was a time when everyone on here thought Dupree, sucked now that he had a good year, some on here think no one can replace him ... lol

 

"stats"

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/bud-dupree/9455

https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/alex-highsmith/43507

 

Bud got double-digit sacks once in 6 seasons. 39.5 total, at least half unblocked I'd guess.

 

I am not a Dupree disciple or feel he is a goat etc., but I read some info on Bud lately that kind of put him in a better perspective when comparing him to Spillane, at least for me. Others here probably already know this. I read Dupree was a 3 point DL in college and didn't have to do pass coverage where Spillane had a big advantage as having LB experience in college. So that may be why Spillane is picking up 3-4 responsibilities more rapidly than Bud did, May be. Not sure if this excuses taking so long to master the position, after switching sides, but it does put his early production woes into a slightly different light for me. He still had poor ROI as a 1st pick for 3.5 years but at least I think I know what may have been going on a little better. Doesn't matter at this point anyway.

 

Dupree was a freak athlete. That was part of why he was so highly regarded in the draft.

 

Only one was leveon

 

I knew it wasn't too many. That is not there way.

 

Steelers generally don't give guys high guarantees. That's part of it too

 

Watt should be the priority. Watt will soon be the face of franchise.

 

they couldnt franchise him if they wanted to with our cap room.

 

He kind of already is, the face of the franchise anyway

 

U mean the 4 games he didn't play, kind of.a tall order to have a rookie step in and everything remains the same

 

Also no one knows how well Dupree will play comi

It matters because no one knows how well Dupree will play after surgery. Or for that matter after he gets t that $$. I would rather let him walk and be disappointed than sign him and be disappointed.. from every thing I read coaches are thinking that highsmith will take a huge step this season..

 

Highsmith is off to a better start than Dupree, that's for sure. I see no reason to think he can't achieve double-digit sacks long before Dupree ever did. Highsmith might not be the 'freak athlete' Dupree is, but he is a 'freak athlete', and he doesn't take plays off like Dupree has since day one.

 

I'm not pushing this either way, but(some people seem 2 forget)Highsmith had Watt on the otherside , while Dupree at his start had ....Jones....and others not worth mentioning opposite him.
If you don't think that matters well.... I don't know what 2 say.

 

Both of your points are valid. Yes, we lost production with Spillane in there which is to expected. Its like Duck replacing Ben and saying our offensive production went down. It is a valid point that a rookie went in and production went down and its obvious why. We'll miss Bud and Spillane absolutely has shoes that could be too big to fill, but I'm optimistic.