Brandon Boykin???

Why is he not playing? We gave a 5th rd draft pick for him, at the end of the season he's a free agent and he's not playing. He's proven he can play in this league. We are getting beat up on passing defense.

To those who liked the trade how do you feel now? Was it a good trade or a wasted one?

Cajun

 

I think it comes down to Boykin struggles on the outside and is not better than Gay is in the slot when we go nickel.

 

I still think Tomlin is trying to preserve a 4th round draft pick.

 

I was happy when they traded for him. Unfortunately it hasn't panned out. Still early in the season.

 

he's not good enough

 

It got to be because of the snap count thing with the difference being a 4th or 5th rounder.
Either that or he isn't good enough to crack the line up.

 

What was the % of snaps set at? I think he should be good to go now if indeed they were trying to preserve a 4th round pick (stupid call imo)

 

We have the 20th ranked pass defense !!!!! He was ranked by PFF as the NFL's 2nd best slot CB. We traded a conditional 4th rd pick for him.

In his limited snaps in Game 2 he had a PDef in the endzone....

I refuse to believe he isnt good enough

Cajun

 

60%

Cajun

 

He also gave up a TD I believe the next play.

 

So has Every DB in our secondary

Cajun

 

Yeah I know but he has yet to show he can play outside. He didn't do it in Philly and hasn't here and gay is good in the slot. There's no way if he could help this defense would they keep him off the field due to a draft pick. He hasn't logged a defensive snap in 2 of the 5 games and 4 in another one. I'm actually interested in seeing what happens when Allen comes back. That will say a lot. If Boykim doesn't get a helmet then he is really struggling with something. Phillies system is really different then ours and who knows maybe he isn't good in zone coverage

 

I would guess they haven't liked what they've seen so far. If they thought he was good, he's be playing. The speed with which Cockrill leapfrogged him on the depth chart as soon as he got here was very telling.

 

I think he might have got on the bad side of one of the Coaches. Maybe late for a meeting ? Something.

 

You can refuse to believe it, but maybe that's the way it is. Cockrell has apparently passed him on the depth chart, and can play outside. I'm assuming Boykin's role as a nickel only type of player makes it even tougher for him to see the field.

I was a huge fan of the trade at the time, but right now it doesn't look like a good trade for us.

 

Making a Coach mad is a big issue . Late once probably wouldn't get you benched , but a few times probably would. Or one I am smarter than you type thing can get a player benched unless he is a Star ..

 

They like Cockrell better, if Cortez can't get healthy then Boykin will get some playing time.

 

The problem in this situation (and one that needs to be addressed, imo) is with our talent evaluation and braintrust responsible for putting pen to paper. I believe Boykin's playing time is a result of his performance in practice rather than as some higher calculus of snap counts geared to circumvent having to yield a 4th round pick to Philly. But if that's the case, who was on the scout team that lobbied for the trade that got him? With a young, strong leg in Jacksonville pushing a veteran Scobee who had been having accuracy issues the past couple of seasos, who decided it was a good idea to give up a pick for the latter? With a former 4th round QB selection still sitting on the roster three years into learning the system (alongside a S the team had to trade a pick to hop back and draft later that same round) who decided we had to sign a 35 year old a couple of weeks before the season began to man the ship in case Ben went down?

No one bats 1.000 in these decisions, but for a team that builds the greater bulk of its teams through the draft this FO has become alarmingly inefficient.

 

I get that the Scobee move was a total flop. The Boykin trade looked good at first but isn't quite what it seemed at the time. Could easily end up a flop too. Giving Cortez Allen 5mil a year doesn't look good either... But I think our FO has proven to be very efficient, and incredibly good at what they do.

We have a good team, and every starter but 3 on the team was drafted by the Steelers. We have multiple impact players that were drafted in the 4th round or later, including an all pro WR and a quality starting LT. We have 3 UDFA's that start for us, one of which was a former DPoY. All during that span we have had very few first or second round busts (maybe Hood, Adams, Sweed to name a few). That's tells a good tale of how we draft does it not?

Starters by round:
UFA - 3 (Allen, Mitchell, Blake)
UDFA - 3 (counting Deebo)
R1 - 7 (not counting JJ)
R2 - 3
R3 - 0 (Wheaton)
R4 - 1
R5 - 1
R6 - 1
R7 - 1

I'm not saying the Scobee or Boykin deals were good (because they weren't), but this FO really doesn't screw up a whole lot.

 

The Steelers have no players left on the team from 08 or 09
draft?

 

and they are in the basement of the division.

not playing boykin is a concern. he shows up in games, i don't care how he practices. there are guys like that out there. the trouble is we don't have a spot for him and our best field leader in the secondary can't come out of the game for him. forcing boykin on the outside may just not be a good fit. i think the same can be said about forcing blake or cockrell inside to the slot, just not a smart thing to change up.

 

I don't see the problem as long as the Steelers defense continues to perform well.