Are the Steelers missing veteran leadership?

Injuries aside, has the loss of Farrior, Ward, and Smith been too much to surmount this year?

These guys, Bettis and Peezy, were the cornerstones of Rings #5 and #6.

I'm trying to explain all the inconsistent play' shooting of ourselves in the foot with penalties and mistakes.

At the beginning of the year most people even myself thought it wouldn't be a big deal, we have young guns to step up in their place, but it seems I may be wrong?

 

Neither was on the team for ring 6

HACK

 

eh. It may not have been worded right...you know what I mean though....

 

I think so, there might be a cpl leaders on def, James, Brett.. but i dont think we have any on offense. , besides BEN

 

I took his statement to mean "these guys (Ward, Farrior, Smith) plus Bettis and Peezy."

 

[h=2]Are the Steelers missing veteran leadership? [/h]Yes, desperately IMO.

 

Im not sure any of the players you just mentioned are true leaders. I was thinking MAYBE Clark?? Other than that, I got nothing.

 

Wasn't trying to rub anyones nose in anything....I get what you are saying now.

HACK

 

I see your point, DS, but don't really see what there is to do about it.

The team has been criticised for years for getting too old - and Farrior et al were losing a step. I know people were upset about Ward going, but it's not like he would be setting the team alight from 5th on the depth chart.

We're missing veteran leadership, but that's because we're in a transition period where the younger players will be stepping up (at some point....!). So we can bang on about how important Farrior Ward and Smith were, but I don't see that there is some alternate universe where they're still playing here and we're somhow doing better because we have guys who are past retirement.

 

To the original question - yes, most definitely. When you have strong player leadership, sometimes it's best for a HC to step aside and let the players lead by example. However, it is times like now when the HC needs to step up and provide leadership rather than just sit idly by and watch debacles like Sunday happen (just 2 weeks after the last debacle).

 

Why Clark? is it because he is the most out spoken on the team, if so you need to include Ike.

 

No I dont. Ike is outspoken about himself not about the team and the lack of effort this team displays. Ike is NOT a team leader, at all. Thats like saying Wallace is a team leader. I was just throwing out Clark as a possibility. I also was maybe thinking Larry Foote for this season. Im just thinking of players who have no problem calling out our team when they dont show up. I thought Foote really did it the best after yesterday's loss.

 

Our leaders now have different approaches then the other veteran guys we used to have it seems like. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but we truly do not have a vocal, locker room leader type of guy. In the past it was guys like Hines, Bus, or Porter who would get guys fired up not only with emotion on the field and the sidelines but also some of the things they'd say to the media. Those guys weren't afraid to show that emotion and be vocal, and in turn, guys looked to them as leaders.

Now, our leader on offense is Ben. I am a huge Ben fan and I think he is a warrior and a leader, but he doesn't lead in the way those other guys did. He's not going to question his team's toughness or heart or desire even if it may need questioned. Maybe that has to do with the fact that he wants his image nowadays to be squeaky clean or maybe it has to do with the fact that he doesn't want to be a bad teammate because of stories from the past of him not being a good guy in the locker room. Maybe he's just not a rah-rah kind of guy by nature. Who knows? Our defensive veterans are also more of the soft-spoken variety these days (Harrison mainly because he's afraid to say anything without getting fined).

These guys aren't bad leaders because of this. But when all of your leaders are like this and there's not even one guy who will seem to step up and make sure every teammate is emotionally entrenched in the game at all points, it's not good. Someone needs to be that guy.

 

Good point. I miss the days of Porter out there going nuts to get the team going.

 

Yes, on defense they miss Farrior's leadership, but as we know and accept.... his playing skills were diminishing.