Steeler Team Rankings

It is his post

 

Some of these are debatable, but the Jags, Texans, Bears, and Vikings, I would say no on talent. Packers, Ravens, and Lions are on the fringe.

 

What about Watt, Minkah and Queen? Im not talking production. I’m talking talent and pedigree.

 

I agree. It's the common denominator.

 

Maybe the
Ravens, Texans, Lions, Vikings and 49ers. I don’t see it with the other teams as a whole for the defense. ON pedigree and talent we have Heyward and Watt on the line. We have Queen at ILB and Minkah at Safety. You can throw Porter jr. in for his potential. All three levels of our defense have Pro Bowlers and 1st round talent.

 

Yes, this is a true statement. Every level. Outside of those 3-4 players is where your point drops off.


Even in our own division. All things equal, everyone is healthy and playing. Our defense will struggle against the Ravens and the Bengals offense. Our offense struggles against all 3 defenses. It is a matter of talent level.
We did not stop the Chiefs or Eagles when we played them.


You can make your point in every thread, whether you start them or not, whether the topic fits the narrative or not. We do need improved coaching. BUT, the talent level is below where it needs to be. It just is.

 

And maybe Watt and Minkah aren't as talented as they used to be.

 

They don't have a Pro Bowl player at ILB, and Minkah made it on reputation only.

 

They are all debatable. The starting 11 on any NFL team are usually pretty comparable from a talent standpoint. It's the level of talent backing those guys up that make a huge difference.

 

Again your proving my point. Queen was a pro bowler with Baltimore so he is pro bowl level talent. Minkah has been a consistent pro bowler on reputation only this year. My point is they under performed. That to me is a reflection of the scheme and coaching not their talent.

 

Watt was on pace to be DPOY until he got injured and teams really ramped up to take him away. Minkah was not utilized correctly and he tried to play hero ball in the last half to get involved.

 

Or Queen had played behind two big DT in Baltimore, he also played alongside another Pro Bowler in RoQuan Smith.

 

There is alot to unpack here.

Our defense did fine against the Ravens and bengals in the earlier games. In fact many pundits raved about how we played Lamar well and seemed to know how to defend him. i thought Tomlin always played well against our division rivals. It was the rest of the teams I questioned him against.

Our offense is another question. It seemed to struggle against the majority of the NFL teams with the exception of a small stretch. I absolutely agree with you that our talent level is below par on offense. A franchise QB covers alot talent and coaching deficiencies, unfortunately we don’t have that luxury. I firmly believe if you build up the team right and coach it right you can still be a damn good team and at least win a couple of playoff games with a Wilson or Fields at QB. I think Fields could be alot like Jaylen Hurtz if we put the right team around him.

We are slightly deficient at CB and DT outside of Heyward and JPJ on defense but we are loaded at edge and ILB and Safety. We have more talent than 99% of the teams in the NFL on defense I believe but lets say we are at a talent level of better than 80% of the teams. Our defense still played woefully below that talent level the last month of the season including the playoff game.

The Ravens were struggling on defense the first half of the season and they had more roster turnover than we did and they made adjustments mid season and turned their defense around. We did the exact opposite. In fact we continued to play guys lie Cam Sutton who was atrocious and a liability to the defense. We didn’t utilize Minkah right. We rarely blitzed, or stunted or figured out how to use Herbig more, or disguised blitzes. It was vanilla defense. You can say we lack talent but teams like KC can not match for talent on a per player basis but they do a heck of alot more than we do on defense. Tomlin plays in fears , he talks a good line about not blinking etc. but his game plans are the exact opposite.

On offense yes we need talent but when you have invested like we have in the offensive line and the run game ... I would expect better results. I can understand our performance in the passing game to the extent we need another WR and the line has to pass protect better and we are limited by our QB’s, but from a talent perspective you can not blame the run game on lack of talent. That is a coaching and schematic issue. When Olineman leave and get better (Dotson) and Lineman come in and get worse (Seamalu and Jones) thats a pretty good indication its not the talent that is a problem. When you continually have problems with WR’s underperforming or essentially giving up on plays that is just as much on the coaches and scheme as it is the player. They obviously don’t believe in the game plan or how they are being utilized. I highly doubt Pickens would pout or give up on a play if he were playing for Andy Ried.

 

Now were getting somewhere. I have always said my biggest problem with our Defense is the way we utilize our Defensive line and the top of Defensive lineman that we like to employ. Heyward is an exception but the other DT position could stand to be bigger and instead of asking these guys to gap penetrate why don’t we ask them to maintain two gaps and multiple blockers? There job should be to keep the ILB’s clean and push the pocket so it is shallow so our edge players can get to the QB quicker and so that our ILB’s can come down hill untouched and stop the run.

Instead we have smallish DT’s who are penetrating gaps and the linebackers as a result are getting eaten up by blockers. Our ILB’s are smallish and quick designed for pass coverage and we are asking them to take on blockers. It is just a fundamentally broken scheme. Queen is no bigger than Minkah when you see them standing side by side. He may have ten pounds on Minkah but not a whole lot more. Even in pass coverage they seem very hesitant and late to the ball. I see inferior defenses doing more than we do.

 

I don't think you realize who plays on that KC defense. They are loaded.