going backwards

so far............
upgrade at TE
downgrade at DL, CB, S, ILB, WR and OT

 

Downgrade at OT? I'm not sure about that. We saved money and added somebody comparable to Beachum (who just missed 10 games due to injury) while his replacement (Villanueva) filled in admirably in his first season. I think we're fine there. Especially since it saves us some money moving forward (#84, #26).

CB and S? Which of these potential departures do you find to be irreplaceable? Will Allen, Blake, Boykin? There are a dozen guys out there who can fill any of those cleats. And, we re-signed our best DB.

ILB? Sean Spence? What kind of an impact has he had in our games that we couldn't replace with somebody who hasn't shattered their knee?

I think Steve McLendon will turn out to be the only free agent departure we wind up missing in even the slightest. Week 1 doesn't kick off next week. We've got the entire offseason to find a suitable replacement.

All things considered, with the exception of the Martavis situation, this offseason is going pretty much by the Steelers book.

 

Don't forget about the draft.

 

when i typed SO FAR, i thought that was pretty self explanatory.
i agree. there are/were plenty of guys out there that could fill the shoes of allen and blake, yet none have been signed.
we didnt save any money at LT. beachum wasnt on our books, so adding harris costs us money.
spending money on a backup T, CB, S and 5th WR doesnt make much sense when you need starting spots filled.
our 2015 starting secondary was pathetic last year and so far we are relying on their backups to be starters.
draft guys barely get to see the field and rarely, if ever, make an impact the first year.
im not pissed about the amount of money they spent. i feel they spent it on the wrong guys

 

I'm only disappointed that McClendon's gone. Oh' and Airhead II (Bryant).

 

I totally agree....

 

just stop muth
do you have anything positive to type
ever?

 

I wish we could find another charlie batch or Ben's future replacement soon

 

nothing is wrong with that, but ....
who is our starting safety opposite mitchell??
starting corner opposite gay?
who's our slot corner?
who's our starting NT?
who's our second wr?

4-5 starting spots open, yet we are signing backups

 

That quote I highlighted is some brutally flawed thinking. We DID, in fact, "save money" by signing Harris instead of Beachum. We needed a left tackle. It was either re-sign Beachum or sign somebody else. Beach's market value turned out to be $4.5mill for 2016 (with incentives that could push it up to $6mill). We opted, instead, to SAVE MONEY by finding a comparable left tackle (I think a guy who protected Peyton Manning's blind side all sixteen games en route to a world championship can be defined as comparable) and we signed him to a two-year deal at $3.9mill. Quick fact: $4.5mill > $3.9mill (especially when the $4.5 is for one year and the $3.9 is for two)

This is how we operate. We're not going to overspend on Beachum or Okung. We're just not. Why? Because we've got extraordinary talent at the skill positions that have extensions coming up, we've got other needs to address, we've got draft picks to sign and the salary cap prevents us from going Brewster's Millions in the free agent market. Instead, we take a highly competent left tackle and sign him at a bargain price and use the money we SAVED on other needs (maybe even on a starting DB you covet). Embrace it. It's good news.

 

TBD

Although I give you credit. It's not common one can get as many "disagrees" as you did that quickly. Does make for conversation at a slow time of the year.

 

so if its TBD then i guess i was right that those positions have been downgraded to this point.
funny, lotsa 'fans' getting upset with my statement but i still dont see anyone telling me where we have upgraded where i said we downgraded.

 

thanks. great, well thought out response.
so in a nutshell you are banking on last years backups to become better starters than last year' starters at those positions.
i hope you are correct. it just seems to be a huge gamble.

 

Love the off season so far. We have about 42 roster spots full already with more FAs available and the draft coming up. The ONLY downer is Bryant and that's not something the FO can control.

 

starting safety opposite Mitchell..........Golden
starting corner opposite gay...............Cockrell
slot corner.......................................Golson
starting NT......................................we dont' use a NT but we still need depth. DT/DE is what we need.
second wr........................................Coates or DHB

We need depth on our roster as we seen last year. With Beachum, Bell, Brown, Ben, Shazier, Pouncey, Williams all missing time. Just imagine if we didn't have the quality of depth we had. We still was one fumble away from the AFC championship game. (I know we got help from the Bills).

I love what the steelers are doing. Plugging holes with adequate players that can step in and who already know the system. That will prevent rookies coming in and having to start immediately and we can bring them along slowly. Like we did Coates and Bryant.
At least under Butler the rookies won't waste a year sitting on the bench.

 

Let's let it play itself out a little more.

 

One guy I really liked was Boykin BUT, we lost nothing cause Tomlin never let him out of the dog house.
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT!! WHO WHO?

 

i think philon, walton and lyons will make some decent depth on the DL. they just needed a year or so of coaching. i believe we have some talent at this spot and a draft pick addition will complete this part of the defense with mccullers still getting better in year 3. i don't think we are that far off with this group. we have good starters.

golden will hold down the fort at safety and with the talk of grant possibly moving back there and a top draft pick, i think we will have upgraded this position from last year too.

i do think cockrell will be even better than last year the more reps he gets. he was picked up late don't forget so missed a lot of coaching time before being thrown on the field. guys do improve with time in a system if they have a good base. cockrell has that and should be pretty familiar now with our defense. a top draft pick should add great depth but we have a solid group to start with. upgrading the guys behind them as depth and at safety should work wonders.

 

starting corner opposite Gay..........draft pick
second wr..........Wheaton

 

Yeah and Golson being healthy is like getting another pick.

 

Now we lost Blake. Another downgrade at CB.