Why is the media so stupid?

You mean actually looking into details?? In today's up to the second information world? How dare you suggest a thing.

 

I agree with some of OP points, I have been posting on here the last 3 years saying it was time to get rid of Lebeau.

 

outrageous no, uninformed yes.

 

There's hope and speculation every off season. Tuitt will replace Keisel more than adequately, Moats will replace Worilds and Butler who was one of the highest paid positional coaches will replace DL. The FO took a lot of steps to ensure Butler was retained. I respect DL but the last two years was based more on reputation than anything.

 

I read it and it was full of straw man arguments, non sequiturs and half truths.

 

Exactly. No wanted to tell the emperor he had no clothes, but he didn't. It was a fine ride (LeBeau, Polamalu and company) but all good things come to an end. Had they not given DL the hook, we'd be looking at Troy coming back for another season and more of the same. That would have been train-wreck-ish. Dick would still be applying man love to Troy and we'd have all the same problems of last year.

 

haha.. non sequiturs

 

Blast, do you ever put any burden of responsibility on the coaches? It seems that you always find something else to blame when someone makes a comment critical of a coach. I understand that coaches can't be blamed for everything, but can't it be debated that "lack of talent" is because the coaches have somehow failed to coach up the talent they have at their disposal? I just think the really great coaches have a way of making average talent good and good talent great. Shoot, I might be able to coach the defense if you gave me a team full of blue chip college talent and I didn't have to coach up the marginal players to the next level.

And don't get me wrong, I think LeBeau can be credited with doing that in the past. He's taken mid to low round draft picks like Aaron Smith, Brett Kiesel, James Harrison, Ryan Clark and others and has made dang good football players out of them over the last few years. But I agree with lloyd in that he seems to have lost some of his magic over the years and has become schematically stubborn, refusing to change his once vaunted zone blitz one iota and too enamored with some over the hill talent. I don't mean to be disrespectful in any way, but as people age many times they hold on to the past with a dogged determination refusing to try this new fangled crap that they see no value in. I'm sorry, but NFL OCs figured DL's version of the zone blitz out a few years back. That's why we've seemed to lead the league in big plays allowed over the last few seasons and our defensive ranking continues to fall.

It's a new day for the Steelers defense and I'm optimistic that Butler will be very much his own guy. I'm sure he'll integrate a few thing from DL's defense into his scheme and will eliminate those parts that have gotten old, stale and predictable. And then again he may fall flat on his face and if that happens we'll still be arguing over whether or not his ability as a DC or a lack of talent at his disposal caused his demise.

 

Bottom line for this years installment of the Pittsburgh Steelers is you have a new DC and a whole lot of talent . .. Well maybe talent.. I guess we will see. I am optimistic and hopeful the new coordinator will improve our defense. DL was a great coordinator but it was time for a change. I really do not expect a great deal of changes in the coming year. Perhaps a few years from now we will see significant change but for now I see it being more of the same. Butler was taught by the very best and I really do not see him making huge changes. Lets face it... The days of the dominating Steel Curtain are over. Our offense is either going to get it done and bring us number 7 or it is not going to happen.

 

Have no idea? That is not accurate at all. Do _WE_ specifically know? No. But can we assume the guy can coach and has been side to side with one of the best ever for over a decade so the front office has a good idea of what he will bring?

 

I'm not as optimistic on our talent level.

I did drink to the straw man reference in another post.

 

Come on TTF, drink with me for straw man quotes.

 

I don't know if this was already covered by the thread because I didn't have time to read the whole thing, but I find the following funny.

Last year....the talk was all about how old we were. The D is too old, the team is too old, etc. Ike, Troy, and Keisel seems like a lot of age to let go away.

This year....we lost too many vets to complete. How will we replace all that experience?

The reality. Ike played very little. James played more than he should have, but this year should be a role player. Keisel was a role player. Troy, was a shell of himself and we did play better without him on the field.

Gay - starter
Wallace - backup
Spaeth - backup
Williams - backup
Allen, W. - backup
Gradkowski - backup
Miller - starter
Ben - starter
Suisham - specialist
Warren - specialist
Harrison - backup

Yeah...we have some age again, but we aren't "old' any more.