Chris Shula's defense struggling again.....

I tried helping him the other day with a long winded post..... he did not care.

Also I am on the fence with Shula or Flores. I like Flores for his blitzing, amoeba defense. and I also like what he did for the dolphins with rotating Tua and fitzpatrick. it was gutsy, but worked. just not good enough.

 

It's ok. You don't want Chris Shula. You're allowed that opinion. No need for anyone else to agree with you. Be comfortable with you.

 

You're right. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. None of us know who the Steelers are going to hire, and we have no idea if that hire is going to work out or not.

We all have preferences, but no matter who they hire I will be watching what they do and rooting like crazy for their success as a head coach. Hiring a head coach isn't the time to announce whether it is a win or not because nobody truly knows until the get into this a year or two.

Topics like this are fun to talk about and nobody should think that there is only one person that can get the job done. Half of the fun for me is seeing what changes will be made schematically and how those schematics will use the players that are already on the roster and what direction they go in the draft that may give some clues to those changes.

I am stoked to see what happens no matter who they hire.

 

Flores has the Vikings defensive guys calling their own plays. I'm going to guess that requires a solid understanding of the fundamentals of the defense. But...we could go with your thing.

 

It's a good thing AR II and Khan are not getting their advice from anyone on this board.

 

Dick LeBeau was a phenomenal defensive coordinator, innovative, smart, his players loved him and the league respected him.


When he was a head coach? Didn’t do to well. Head coach in the NFL is the hardest job in sports after quarterback. Very difficult to do and do well.

 

Ok. Those are different issues than "teaching the basics".

If you want to argue that Flores is not a good/ideal head coach candidate...please do so. But the facts are that Flores has his defensive roster calling their own plays based on offensive alignment and personnel. I would venture a guess that he teaches the basics pretty dang well.

 

I get the feeling any hire is going to be the wrong choice for half the fans and the correct choice for the other half. We will be comparing this coaching hire vs other coaching hires for the rest of my life. I'll be happy as long as we field a team to watch.

 

No, but you spent most of the thread crapping on him and talking about how Flores is so much better and questioning why any Steelers fan would want Shula because his defense sucks… so pretty close to that.

Our division has nothing to do with a Fangio style defense not being a fit. Most people would love it if our defense ended up like the Eagles has been the past few years.

 

Spot on!

 

PolishDave at it again.

 

He is allowed to prefer whoever he wants, but he seemed to be trashing Shula in unfair ways which seems unwarranted and is quite likely to generate some pushback.

 

Exceeds age limit
Unless the Steelers no longer abide by their own standards
3 coaches since 1969
Chances are they won’t hire a 65 yr old

 

That's precisely how it will go down. Regardless who gets hired someone will want to complain about it and agrue.

 

https://stillcurtain.com/chris-shul...o-be-pittsburgh-steelers-next-hc-01kfac3hy3yn

 

29th highest paid defense for the win...

 

Great point. Shula is doing so much more with less that it is ridiculous.

Actually, the Rams are the 31st highest paid defense in the NFL based on the link I found below.

https://nfltraderumors.co/2025-nfl-positional-spending-rankings-defense/

I think it's important for everyone to understand your point.

The Rams spent $69,208,636 which is 31st out of 32 teams.

To put that in perspective, the Steelers are the highest paid defense in the NFL. They spent $178,904,919 this past season.

The Rams are #10 in scoring defense.

The Steelers are #17 in scoring defense.

There may be some that don't want Shula as a head coach because they think he isn't a good DC. They simply don't know what they're talking about.

Just to put this in perspective, the Rams have drafted well the last few years and they have some really good defensive players on rookie deals. However, the point to remember is that Shula is getting a lot out of these inexperienced players and the defense keeps improving. That means that the team is developing the talent and finding ways to use that talent within his defensive scheme.

I don't know about you guys, but imagine how much better the Steelers offense would be if they had $109,000,000 more dollars to spend on the offensive side of the ball.

That's why I find it funny when the offense is continuously crushed by so many fans for years, but they are spending a fortune on the defense without getting great results. It's pretty tough to move the ball and score points when you don't invest in offensive players. Everyone got spoiled with a great quarterback having to carry the load with only a small percentage of the salary cap on offense, but that isn't sustainable when that quarterback retires.

 

Rams gave up 17 points in a playoff game. How is that not good? I don't care if a team had 1400 yards of offense....17 points is 17 points.

Let's not forget he's managing a defense made up of mostly younger players and minimal cost.

 

Also, those yardage totals are in an overtime game.

I think anybody that has been watching the Steelers give up huge amounts of points in playoff games for a while now would be thrilled to see them give up only 17 points in an overtime playoff game.

 

This will absolutely be true unless the team does really well (skewing the hire to be the right choice for most) or really badly (skewing the hire to be the wrong choice for most).

We've been mediocre for nearly a decade and appalling in the playoffs. The next coach has to deal with that baggage that comes along with the job. He can be a hero or he can be booed with chants to get fired. I give him a 3 year window of no chants. By then, we need to field a competitive game in the playoffs or it'll get ugly again.