Just My 2 Cents For What its Worth

I will preface my comments by saying that its only pre-season and I know that the time to try new things, work in new plays, players etc, etc. Overall I believe the offensive will be strong and the defense will get stronger. What I'm looking for is better red zone effectiveness on offense and the ability to shut down or be effective in one area on defense (either be top 10 in run or pass defense which would be an improvement from the last years.

Offense:
We absolutely need another RB and at this point I wouldn't care who it is (even Ray Rice).
Josh Harris is god awful in picking up blitzes and he will get your QB killed

Dri Archer is not a viable option, he's too light, too small and he plays small. He does appear to accelerate through holes or cut the way other RB's his size do. I don't see much elusiveness at all and he's another liability on blitz pickup because of his size. I know he's only in his 2nd year but I just don't see it. I don't believe he runs like a guy who's fighting for his job and I have a problem with that.

Trust me AB will be the Kick Returner on opening day!

God forbid we lose Cody on that line cause thereafter we're screwed!

or Decastro for that matter

Our Wide Receiver group is scary. Hope Martavis does not turn into Plax (you know what I mean)

Don't know why we drafted Jesse James we already have 2 plodding Tight Ends who are good in that area, I wouldve liked a more athletic TE

Are we gonna find some usage for Will Johnson this year?

It's a wrap for Gradkowski!

I like Tyler Murphy, I like his height, I like his versatility

Defense:

Oh Brother where to begin!!!

I'm just going to come out and say it, Jarvis Jones is a BUST! I know its preseason but again I don't see it. He's a backup at best. A backup who does not excel in ANY particular area. He's not great against the run and he's not a good pass rusher (limited strength and slow first step). He in my opinion is the weakest link. The Steelers need a pass rusher and JJ is not it. Again I hope I'm wrong but I don't see it in him......consistently! Bud Dupree will take his spot once he gets comfortable out there and gets stronger.

Antwon Blake is the other weak link, hopefully that changes

Opposing teams with big offensive lines and/or teams that use 2 to 3 tight ends are going to give us problems, our DB's are tiny and we STILL dont have a dominant NT. I know we're showing more 4-3 but i'm not sure if we have the personnel just yet

Hope Tuitt is not out long cause he's a difference maker on that side

Same thing with Timmons and his turf toe, different defense without him

There are teams more physical than us......that bothers me!

Its starting to piss me off a little that Mitchell and the shark are rarely on the field together. Need to be on the field together if they're going to ever get better on the back end

Mitchell's injuries concern me.

Misdirection and crossing routes are again going to kill us

btw we have little to no quality depth at the Defensive End position, need to stay healthy there

Speaking of consistency Danny Smith's and his Special Teams........

The kicker / punter story line is the most interesting of the preseason thus far

 

Did you see D. Williams? Looked like a great #2 RB to me.

 

1. It hurts having Bell suspended. Harris isn't really any good, but should be able to back up Williams for two games before going back to the PS. Archer is more of a specialty player, will never be a full time RB or WR. Needs to excel at returns.

2. O line depth in general is awfully weak.

3. Yes. We easily have the best WR group in the NFL in my opinion. Martavis needs to stay on the field, because he could be a stud.

4. Agree. I never liked the pick of James. His ceiling is Spaeth IMO.

5. No usage for W. Johnson, and he shouldn't be getting any. Between our WR's, Bell, and Heath we have so many more options better than him to get the ball to. He shouldn't be taking any touches from any of them.

6. Yeah. Vick showed well

7. I also like Murphy. He might stand a chance at the 53 with Bryant suspended. Will be a PS for sure either way.

8. Jarvis isn't a bust. He's a solid run defender who is a limited pass rusher. He's not on par with the traditional steelers pass rushers, but it doesn't make him a terrible player. He's far from our biggest problem on D.

9. Blake should be replaced shortly by Boykin.

10. Love Tuitt, he should be fine. I hope to see more McCullers this year as well. Agree on Timmons tho... The impact of his absence would only be paralleled by the absence of Heyward.

11. Mitchell's injuries concern me too. Shamarko's level of play concerns me as well. Our safeties are atrocious. With a healthy Mitchell, shark should see the bench with Allen playing in his stead. If he plays this way in the season, he will find himself out of a starting job very quickly. We really should've used our first round pick at safety this year instead of Dupree, but I digress lol

12. Either punter would be fine. Let's just score TD's instead

 

i'd probably go with darby and ventrone and cut every other safety we have.

i'd consider going with heath, spaeth, willj, and nix.

martavis please get your head straight.

foster is still slow.

corbin bryant can go on that list we always talk about of just who have we cut that's done anything since we cut them.

we have problems.

 

We do have problems, but other teams do too. Ravens and packers D looking bad as well. It's preseason, having TOOIT, Mike glass and Allen not playing hurts, and shamarko is killing us. More games, Boykin over Blake, safety flip, tuitt and Timmons back we will go from putrid to sub par. With our booming punter and offense, that's all we need.

 

At least the roster cuts are easy to call this week.

The far more difficult task is deciding who to keep.

 

So, I started a thread several months ago asking if Butler was a short timer. My optimistic thought was that if he turned this defense around he would be sought after as a head coach. Sadly, my two cents seems to be that this defense is going to stink and that Butler maybe a short timer because they are terrible.

 

Eh, I'll wait until mid-season to get a proper assessment. Last week, the defense was showing some different fronts and formations. This week, they seemed to be showing less of that, and setting up the defense in a vanilla look and reacting to what the offense threw at them.

It was still utterly disappointing, and there remain glaring holes, but I think we have to give Butler a chance to do his thing. He's promised to bring in the kinds of changes that people have been crying out for (apart from the cushion - man, that seems to have just got bigger), but it will take a while for the pieces to fall into place.

 

Here's my 2 cents Mike Mitchell is a china doll, you can't help the club in the tub Will Allen has no business starting at safety. Another thing to remember some starters are missing on defense, and Butler is running a vanilla defense in preseason I expect them to blitz more once the season starts. They seem to have a problem covering TEs, I have no idea who is going to cover Gronk in the season opener they will probably have to use a safety and LB.

 

Will they be able to tackle? Or is that just part of the preseason scheme?

 

Guys are hurt and they are experimenting. Our defense will be bad but shouldn't be record setting bad. Work in progress. Forget playoffs lets just think to stay healthy first. One game at a time, players need to step up.

 

We have lots to do on defense if we are going to make the playoffs.
( Tuitt, JJ, Shazier, Shamarko, Mitchell.)

Our OL is really not that good and will be exposed quite often.

The Rooney's will not put up with much more embarresment.