The Steelers will stick with the 3/4 defense

Art Rooney met with the media and he answered the question that fans have been asking about it's official no 4/3. He also said the secondary is a priority this offseason, really Art you just now realize your secondary sucks.

 

i think since troy and taylor are done they see now a priority ..

 

This is fairly obvious as Butler pretty much said this much...a 3-4...however they might align in a 4-3 depending on the situation. Nothing new here.

 

I was hoping for the new 3-3-3-2 alignment.

 

As bad as our secondary has been I would actually be in favor of a 1-10 alignment.

 

LOL! No. I just couldn't resist. Has he actually said that???

 

OR....

The 8-6-7-5-3-0-9!

 

Lol.

This won't mean as much for those who don't follow soccer, but one year a team in the Premier League fielded a 9-1 formation - 9 defenders, 1 guy the other end of the field chasing anything they kicked towards him.

They still lost 10-0, though, as I recall.

 

No I did not. lol . I am in favor of more DL and less LB'S .The big dime with 5 DL with hands in dirt and 2 safety types as LB'S with 4 CB'S that can guard all types of WR'S .

 

I will be surprised if we ever live to see a day when our d isn't predominantly based on LBs.

 

jenny, jenny.

 

Oh we will see it or we will be left behind . QB'S and OC'S are just to smart against the 3-4 Zone blitz .WR'S are just to good to give huge cushions . Other Teams are running 3-4's but with more man principle and Hybrid type LB'S .

The perfect D against great Teams is man to man getting pressure with less people. Not really about fooling people , but whipping the man in front of you.

 

it can be done PWP. the ravens do it pretty well. having the coverage on the backside also helps though. the old standard of safeties has changed more from a thumper type to a coverage type. faster LB'ers with coverage skills is the new norm too, but pressure from the front 5 means a lot. shrinking the pocket quickly makes it tough on qb's, but if receivers are not going against tight coverage it allows the ball to come out quickly. if the db's playing a lax defense can't lay the boom as before you better have tight coverage even by the safeties.

I love Timmons but if you had say a shazier and Jordan hicks as your inside backers (both pretty good in coverage) and a guy like Anthony harris and shamarko (which are able to man up too) then you would have something. add a guy like skrine as a corner and we would see a whole lot more sacks and bad throws. now the run defense may suffer a little, but the turnovers would increase.

 

I have always agreed with that. I just see more talent on the DL than I do on the back end. Of course both areas need to be improved .

IMO our DL are better than some think and our CB'S are not as good as some think .

All I am saying is you will never know what kind of pressure those front guys can get until you have solid consistent play on the back end. I haven't seen that from this group in a long time .

 

When is the last time the Steelers got a coverage sack ? 1985 or so it seems .

 

Pretty much same thing I am saying . Faster LB'S lock down CB'S and ball hawks at FS . Not the traditional Zone Blitz .

 

Then we are not so far apart on this subject . I think we need more Power on those edges. Take out the OLB'S in certain packages and insert Bigger Stronger DL .A 5 man front with real Men .

Over Power the OL with 5 and send the 6th. guy LB/SS type on Blitzes from loops and stunts behind those big 5 . I think we have the DL on the roster to do this already if we can lock up outside and stop the quick throw . That's the reason I want to go so heavy on the back end.

I do see your point if we want to continue the old 3-4 type ways ,we need OLB'S in a bad way .

 

the corners we ended up with are what they are, nickel and dime corners. we have made them starters. they actually held up better than I first thought they would but I still see the safety spot as the biggest hindrance to them.

we need 1 number 1 corner and two coverage safeties, then I think we can get by with a guy like gay and blake and McCain as our other corners.
adding faster cover lb'ers (like shazier) will help the likes of JJ and if it's worilds to do what they do best, rush the passer. even the use of Timmons to do what he does best, blitz the qb up the gut. trouble is we seem weak at both spots, but coverage would help our front more than the front helping our average backend.

 

I'm not sure that I am a fan of the shift towards smaller, faster "hybrid" LBs like Shazier and Spence. I think the safties should be doing what our ILBs are doing, covering the middle and TEs. Occasional LB coverage is needed of course, but I feel that these smaller LBs aren't powerful enough to get through blockers and pressure the QB. Harrison was our best at it this season (his play amplified Worilds, not the other way around), and he is a stocky pass rusher and run stopper, not a pass protector.

I think the shift towards LBs that can pass protect better is a direct result in a lack of safety talent. Polamalu can't cover anymore and Mitchell is quite rancid in all aspects of his game. There should be no reason that Will Allen was the best safety on the team this year, just like there is no reason why Harrison should be the best LB pass rusher, or Keisel being the top or second best DL until he got hurt. Talent is the issue on D now, and I hope we see many new faces this year. Tear it down and build it back up. Let the offense carry the load for a few seasons.

Begin by:

-Drafting/Signing two CBs that can start day 1.

-Moving William Gay to starting FS (this won't happen but should)

-Find a real SS (Thomas has so little experience and couldn't beat our ancient Will Allen. He is not the answer here)

-Reload on OLB pass rushers. Keep Harrison for one more year as depth and a teacher.

-Add DL depth. The starters are fine for now, but we need rotational depth. Clip Cam Thomas immediately.

-See if there is trade value for one of our ILBs, if not then we can keep them.


That is a lot of moves that they should make, but they can do it this year sicne they don't have to touch the offense outside fo finding a backup RB and maybe TE. I think the TE can wait until next year though. Everyone seems to be so determined that the team draft a new TE high, but honestly I would rather see Bell/Brown/Bryant/Wheaton catching the passes and Heath of course. We don't need another pass catching TE right now and definitely not a high round blocker. Also, not every high round TE will be a Gronkowski. Ebron of the Lions last year was drafted 6th and..........................did nothing.

 

By the way they have been drafting lately in the secondary I can't tell if they know how to address the position. You don't draft a scatback Archer in the 3rd when you have obvious needs in the secondary.