O-line

go ahead defend them. bring back max starks and colon and foster.

i stand by my defense of kelvin beachum as i did early when everyone wanted him cut. he's played the best of the bunch this year.

pouncey, beachum stay. DD got schooled but i'll give him a slight pass this year. he and pouncey better hit the weight room. the rest PUUULLLEEEEEZZZZEE spare me. they suck as bad as i've been saying. why would you want that back?

we better not just let the O-line slide in this draft, because it's not completed yet.

 

I'm not convinced that drafting even more OL will help. There's something else going on. Other rookies step in on other teams and play well. Decastro, considering to be very NFL ready, gets schooled like he came out of a division 3 school. Sure, he was injured and he's a rookie, but these problems don't seem to happen to other teams, at least not as often. The Patriots had a terrible Oline going into this season, but whatever they did, they fixed the problem before the year was even half over.

There's something going on behind the scenes of this team that is preventing good Oline play and it's been going on for 5 years now. How many more years are we going to have to hear about having a bad Oline? When is Tomlin going to fix this mess? We've spent a lot of draft picks on OL, that hasn't even helped a little bit.

I know know if it's practice, coaching, conditioning, etc. Whatever we're doing, isn't working. I'm not convinced that using more picks on OL will help. I think they'll fall into the same black hole that all our current OL are in.

 

I think Starks did okay, but Foster had a bad game, the interior guys really struggled all day with Atkins...

Honestly I think we need a LG if DD is only going to play right.

Ben didn't help the line out though, he held on to the ball way too long numerious times.

 

The Oline is not in that bad of shape. They're young and have not had the time to come together as a group because of injuries. Cohesiveness is a huge part of the success of any offensive line.

Colon is supposed to be a G but continually gets stuck at T or injured. If he can't stay healthy then he'll need replaced. It's a good thing replacing a G is way easier than replacing a T.

Adams should push our yearly rent-a-tackle, Starks, out of Pittsburgh relatively soon. If not next year then in his third season for sure.

DeCastro was supposed to be done for year and here he is playing. That's good news. You can't expect him to jump right in and be our new Alan Faneca, however. That's just unreasonable.

Pouncey is Pouncey.

Foster is pretty good. I don't get the hate.

 

what the hell games are you watching? we are the team in black and gold you know.

max starks sucks. i mean sucks. you better rewatch alot of games, because he is bad. how does a 365lb man let a 290lb guy push him back into the qb on a consistant basis. this isn't the first time either it happens alot. or he just doesn't block anyone. a guy ran free past max and max didn't touch him. not even an attempt to touch him. i'll go one further, max let him run by , knew it and turned to look to the outside where there was nothing but empty space like he will fool them into thinking he was looking for the outside rush. there was nobody out there. he knew that from before the snap. he's gawd aweful. i can't believe anyone is still trying to defend max, or colon or fosters play this year. these guys have no place on this team if we want to get better. i just want to scream when people try and defend these guys play.

 

I tend to agree with some of this. I was very optimistic when they took Adams and DeCastro, but looking back I should have known that rookies contributing immediately on the OLine (like Pouncey) are the exception and not the rule. Even 2 of their best #1 OL picks, Faneca and Leon Searcy, did not do that much their first season. As it is, I think all 3 of the OL they drafted will be around for a while.

 

did you watch the game? how can you even say foster is good? OMG!!!!!

DD i understand. pouncey has had his moments this year, but not always good ones. i contribute that because of our two guards colon and foster for most of his troubles this year. max has no excuse, he's bad,bad,bad. weak, fat and slow. please stop trying to defend these inept players, it makes you look foolish.

 

Foster is a tackle being forced to play out of position because of injuries. At tackle he is quality.

DeCastro has only played in two or three games. His struggles this year are likely on him being a rookie coming off a severe knee injury and playing in a line that has just been destroyed by injuries. It's hard to even gauge him really.

Pouncey is and will most likely continue to be our best lineman. Everyone has a bad game now and then, but his only real flaws seem to be weak ankles.

Are you sure you're actually watching these games and paying attention?

 

Foster has played primarily at the right and left guard positions for us this year.

 

leon searcy was a stud LT for us. faneca was a force for his first 8 seasons. you never heard a word about those two positions when they manned them. i agree i think our rookies from last year will make a difference, but the jobs not done either. gilbert was not 2nd round worthy. beachum,adams,decastro will be the worth the wait, but the vets, besides pouncey have to go.

 

I know. I edited to make my point more clear.

 

Well....I think the o-line has played significantly better this year over last--especially in pass protection. The games against SD and Cincy (2nd game) were the worst performances of the year. But overall, the pass protection was much improved. The run blocking was terrible again for the most part (ranked 26th overall and 24th in ypc), but it seemed a little bit better than last year (and I think DD showed promising signs of being a good run blocker).

 

yea, i'm pretty sure foster has mainly played guard for us for the last 3 years. he also played it at UT along with RT. he has played very little RT here and is far from money at that spot. he's not a good guard. you have to be able to move at the guard spot in the NFL. again you make no sense. we take tackles and try to make them guards. namely RT's. we spend the teams picks and money on RT's and RG's the lesser spots on any O-line and expect them to preform as well on the left side. they didn't do it well in college, why would they in the pro's? just bizzare. there's no method to the madness.

 

Ahh, ok

 

at RT? you don't see pressure coming from that side since he's been there. last week was a little, but they kept trying to give him help that he didn't need. the help knocked him off his block almost everytime he had his man under control. the pressure came from the LT and LG sunday not beachums side.

 

As far as Starks goes, I am happy he was with us this year. Max isn't perhaps a premier starting left tackle in the league, but I think he performed better than Adams would have there. I just don't think Adams was ready for left tackle this year.

 

We havent had a stellor Oline in a decade or even longer, we had the worst Oline to ever play in a superbowl when Grimm was here, we drafted a top guard in the 3rd round Urbik then cut him his first year, Urbik goes to the bills and starts, then gets a new contract this year. If Adams and Decastro gets coached up they will be top players at their position for years, but based on prior history our oline is always in a state of flux, untill that changes it is what it is...

 

Finally someone with some sense. Now if you can just change that screen name of yours...

 

pass protection was better bacause of haleys O getting the ball out of bens hands quicker. max also didn't have his gut hanging over his belt early on either.

the run game is far worse than last year. i can't believe you guys are defending this type of play by this line. Left side of the line mostly.

DD's game i understand, and yes he was taken to school and overpowered sunday.

max isn't hurt and foster isn't hurt though. look at the o-line at the line of scrimmage for the story. max starks big ol gut hanging over his belt. colon's big ol gut hanging over his belt. fosters big ol gut hanging over his belt. then look down the line starting at pouncey,DD and beachum. that's what i want to see. these guys will get stronger. pouncey needs to get in the weight room with them.

yes the pass protection was a little better, look at max when he finished rehabbing his knee. there was no gut hanging then. alas, same old max as i said back then, i hoped he stayed that way. well he didn't and fell back into his same old sloppy way of ballooning up all season. as his play declined with every pound he added same as always with him. colon and foster are the same way. fat and slow. as i watch these successful teams this year, i don't see their linemen looking like that. they look like pouncey,DD and beachum.

 

Yes. I had Foster mixed with Gilbert. Gilbert is the T.

In this case, Foster would take over for Willie Colon if he can't beat the injury bug. We better hope he can because he's under contract until 2015 and will make over $5 million a season. May be a restructure candidate this off-season if they need the cap space, which they more than likely will.

 

Looking at our Oline, I think we need to make some position changes, get guys in there who are in their "natural" position as best as possible and move forward. First, I am okay with bringing Foster and/or Legursky and even Starks, but they should be for depth only. I look at our lineup this way....

LT - Adams. He will struggle at times in pass protection next year, but his run blocking will be good.
LG - Colon if he is brought back, but I would like to take a look at Beachum here. Yes it will make us really young, but I am okay with that.
C - Pouncey. He needs to put on some more muscle. I need him to be able to handle NTs on his own to free up the guards for other things.
RG - DeCastro. Same thing here. More muscle will only help him out.
RT - Gilbert. He missed a year of development with the injury, but I think he will be fine over here.

If you bring back Foster, Legursky and Starks for the backup spots, you probably only need one more guy. Personally, I would love to see us look at some vets, maybe dip into the FA field with some lower tier guys for depth along our line.

Lastly, I think losing Kugler may do us some good. He has done a great job of getting performances out of a pieced together line, but I need the technique to improve and THAT I am not happy with. This will be a key hire IMO.

 

your numbers on beachum are way off my friend. colon played RT at 6-3. beachum has more mobility and much longer arms then colon ever will have. wow thats all i can say.

 

This is an offensive line for the future, definitely. If these guys work out half as well as we project them to, as a group they'll be rock-solid for years. We're young at WR, RB, and Oline. TE too if Paulson works out. Whoever replaces Ben at QB will walk into a good situation on offense.