Predictions for Steelers' free agent losses

I thought it may be interesting to take the temperature of the MB to see what everyone thinks about the prospects of success or failure by the free agents the Steelers lost in the off-season. I'll get us started:

Mike Wallace - Miami once had a dolphin named Flipper. There's a new Dolphin in town and he'll wind up being known as Flopper. The Fins signed Wallace to be the number one guy. You don't pay a receiver $60+ million to be a number 2 or 3. Simply put, he is not a number one guy. Wallace and his king's ransom of a contract will flop big time in Miami.

James Harrison - Harrison is a 35+ year old linebacker with bad knees and a bad back. Oh sure he does acupuncture every day and all kinds of other stuff to try to slow down the aging process, but James may as well face the inevitability of it. He's old and he's been hurt and he's not the difference maker he was for so many years with the Steelers. He's also a 3-4 linebacker and I think he'll struggle in the 4-3 in Cincy.

Keenan Lewis - He was a very good CB in the Steelers defensive scheme. Will that translate to NO where Keenan will be a little more exposed as they play a style that puts a little more on the shoulders of the DBs? Should be interesting to watch. I think Lewis does okay in NO but I don't think anybody will mistake him for Darrelle Revis. He'll be seviceable but I look for him to get burned a few times as he adjusts to the new defense.

Rashard Mendenhal - This one concerns me a little. BA is very familiar with Mendy and provided his health holds up and his head remains screwed on straight, I think Mendy could have a very productive season in Arizona. He'll be the feature back and with his skill set he should be able to be successful in a BA offense which he's already familiar with. I think this is the one signing where we Steeler fans say after the season that maybe we should have made more of an effort to retain his services. AZ got him for a song too.

Doug Legursky - I think Buffalo is an excellent fit for Big Doug. I predict he'll have a very solid year with the Bills and the blue collar fans up there will take to him well. He's got some versatility but really is a better C than G. Not sure what the Bills have in mind for him but they'd be better served by giving him a shot at the starting center position.

Thoughts? Did I miss anyone?

 

I think that's a fairly accurate assessment with one exception. I don't think Wallace will turn out to be a flop. He will have his share of drops and at times won't play very hard, but he's still absurdly fast which will result in some big plays just as it did here.

 

I agree that he'll make some plays down there. He's too fast not to and an insanely fast receiver is going to make some big plays on occasion. I guess the question that has to be asked is whether or not Wallace will earn the HUGE contract the Fins are paying him. When a guy like that is gobbling up a significant portion of cap space you expect more than just a few big plays from time to time. You expect number one receiver performance and I just don't think Wallace is capable of being THE GUY. I just think that when the Wallace experiment is over in Miami it will be viewed as a flop.

 

how about colon and casey?

 

Speaking of being destined for mediocrity...

I did miss them. Personally, I don't think Colon can stay healthy enough to have much of an impact and I think Big Snack is pretty much finished.

 

Mundy...SMH we all know what he's destined for.

I think JH will be a little surprising this year. He's coming in healthy and you saw what he was able to work up to last year. Still don't know why he waited that long to get his knee taken care of last off-season. Hell he's got more left in the tank than Ray Lewis did. As long as he's not being asked to drop in coverage, he'll be OK.

 

JH was released too.

I thought casey was guarding the newly reopened twinkie factory? not to mention being fitted for the harness to replace big bertha at practice.

 

I don't expect any of them to be in the pro bowl this year. We know BA is probably gonna sling it all over the field this year so that's not gonna do Mendy any favors as far as big stats are concerned. We know JH is a 3-4 guy but maybe he can get a few big hits and sacks in to make everyone THINK he's worthy of a pro bowl spot. I thought Lewis was overrated here and I think he will be average at best in NO as well. I know I'm in the minority on that but I just think he benefitted from Ike going down last year. I always thought Legs was a solid backup and if Pouncey gets hurt we might wind up missing him more than we thought we would but that's purely hypothetical. I still stand by my statement that none of them make the pro bowl.

 

Nope, he signed with the Pack and they assigned him #27.

What?? Not one word about Mike Wallace?

 

OH! LOL! SORRY! Mendy was the only person I disliked as much as Wallace so I had to get one in there on him and my arch nemesis BA. Yeah I DON'T think Wallace will be in the pro bowl and I DO think Miami made a huge mistake in giving him that much money. I wanna see Wallace do bad because he's been down there saying how RT can throw it better than Ben and all that crap. Maybe Wallace wasn't watching SB 43 when Ben threw one of the greatest passes in NFL history. I'm just glad he's gone but in his defense I bet at camp they're not targeting him enough and he might be losing focus. LOL.

 

that would thin out the heard at rb. we may have to see who's on the street after day 1 of rb drills. I can here the rb's now, " please let us do backs on backers instead" LOL

 

But you can bet that Tomlin knows he's there in case the injury bug strikes. (knock on wood) If he don't get signed soon he will be flying over stadiums with a camera attached.

 

I personally hope all our f.a. losses do well so we can get some good comp. picks, but the reality probably won't match the hope.

mike Wallace: still a 1 trick pony, who will more than likely get 1,100 yds., but his overall production and impact won't be anything near what the dolphins paid for.

rashard mendenhall: still has the talent, but despite the cardinal's decent draft, are still fielding a below ave. o-line.... the inside looks like it may be strong after the draft, but he won't get anything to the outside.

keenan lewis: will probably do the best out of our f.a. losses.....the saints are converting to a 3-4 defense, and don't look to have all the horses up front that they need quite yet, but lewis was successful, as was our entire secondary under the same scenario, with no help from the pass rush

doug legursky: if he's placed at c, than he'll have an opportunity to succeed. otherwise, he'll be a liability.

willie colon: although he was released, and not a f.a. I do believe he'll bring some much needed nastiness to the jets o-line.... that is until week 7, when he gets hurt and is out for the season.

james Harrison: another that was shown the door rather than walk out on his own...... marvin lewis is not dumb, and knows that Harrison is in an unfamiliar defense... look for the bengals to install a package that more suits Harrison's skills when he's on the field........ he'll be fairly productive, but his best days are clearly behind him.

casey Hampton: he'll mentor bj raji for now, but look for him to buy stock in fat burger and open his own chain in the near future........ I wish him well.

 

IMO Wallace will have a huge year! Drops or not Miami will let RT throw it deep a few times a game, and if the Fins can get a running game going at all Wallace will put up huge numbers...Lewis is one I wanted to stay. The guy shined last year, and really looked like he has Pro Bowler written on his back. Saints payed him some serious cash to help their back field, and once again I think he does. There was a stat about Lewis in man coverage last year, and how effective he was, and I gotta think barring injury he has an excellent season. Harrison will be in. 4-3 and will be a spell LB so he won't play 3 downs, but what he will do is get serious pressure on the QB because the Bengals have other guys on the D line to double, and nobody is gonna keep JH from the QB going one on one! Mendy will do well if Palmer can be consistent. Spreading the ball around will open the field, and Mendy could find success if that happens. Success as in 1000 yards and 10 TDs? I'm going 900 and 8...

 

Good idea for a thread.

I know you don't like Wallace and think he's overpaid (as do we all), but overpaid doesn't mean not good enough. You keep saying he's not a #1 and is really a #2 or #3, based on his attributes other than speed. But Wallace already has been a successful #1. Now, I'm not predicting he'll have tons of success in Miami, and certainly not $12M per year success, but that's because I have no faith in Miami. Their QB is a huge question mark, as is the rest of their team. Mike has had big success before, and it's really hard to argue that he was a product of a system. He had no OL, a QB that struggles with all deep passes, one nutso OC and one OC that didn't let him go deep. What success he had, he earned. And he could have had more. If he was in a system more friendly to his attributes, like maybe Baltimore or Green Bay or New Orleans or New England, I could easily see 1,500 yards and 10 TDs a year.

I'm also a little higher on Harrison and Lewis than you are. JH might be a square peg there, and he may be a year older, but he'll be healthier than he's been for us lately. In my opinion that's what has been hurting his production more than age. Of course, if he gets hurt again I'll just shut up.

I agree about Mendenhall, except I think that's a good thing. All the better for a comp pick, and we don't have a 3rd rounder next year. I hope he can stay healthy. He should be the guy there. Sucks for him though, he'll once again have a poor OL.

He's the one guy that, if we were really looking at on-field ability, we were just downright stupid not to re-sign him. Especially for that kind of money. He's way ahead of Dwyer and Redman, even when they're in shape. I like Bell, but wouldn't it have been nice to not worry about RB in the draft and take one of those other sweet players available at #48? Arthur Brown, Jamar Taylor, maybe trade up for Minter or Te'o or someone... The sad thing is, it sounds like they did the right thing, because Mendenhall was that disliked by Tomlin. I wish he'd fit in better, because then he'd have seen more field last year and would be running behind a revamped OL this year.

I think Legursky will be the same Legursky in Buffalo that he was here. Okay in a pinch, but I'd really rather not play him.

 

Backs on Backers, Big Bertha and Snack and Jack disagreeing on Mike Wallace. Yep, training camp has officially begun!!!

 

I agree with most of what I am seeing. I would have to say that if I were a betting man I would bet that Mendy and Wallace both have pretty decent years. Like Snack said, for Mendy it depends on his line and for Wallace it depends on his QB. JH, I think you will see splashes of him but he wont be as great as he once was.

 

I think lewis will help NO a lot.

Wallace will be better then what Miami had.

JH went all those practices here trying not to hit ben, now, at least twice a year he will. he's more flexible them most on here give him credit for.

mendy will be healthy and do well. he did well with a bad line here his whole career. he will help them knowing the offense.

colon may even be half decent for the jets and he may be better at RG for them than anywhere else. I think that's his best spot. maybe only spot.

mundy may have needed a change of scenery. it may do him well as a backup. probably nothing spectacular here though.

legs is what he is. a center.

I hope they do well and give us picks.

 

I totally missed Mendy on the OP's list. We seem to forget in just under 3 full seasons he ran for 3500 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 4.2 yards per carry on a team with crap for an o-line. Mendy would have been a monster for us if they could have put together a decent o-line. If the Cards get their o-line situation sorted out Mendy will do very well.

 

Lewis will excel.

Wallace will show he is NOT worth that contract.

Harrison will show up, although his best days are behind him.

Mendenhall will be much of the same. Good for a few good games.

Legs is the little engine that could, might get a chance to start. It's Buffalo.

The only one that will be missed as far as i'm concerned is Keenan Lewis.

 

yeah, but he fumbled the ball in the superbowl, lol

 

Harrison isn't that flexible and I think he will struggle next year and then retire. The thing that made him so deadly was that we he would come around the corner he was getting to a 42 degree angle last year even when healthy he wasnt getting below 60.