Ziggy Hood- Bust?

In order to be a bust you must be highly drafted and then fail in the NFL, or at least fail to approach your potential.

I would appear he's the Stongest man in the locker room and if not he's very very close. Last yrs videos of him training really got me excited about him and possibly a breakout season for him. The result was the same ole stuff.

Here's what get's to me. After the draft Butler was talking during his interview and he made a comment that seems to have gone un-noticed. Maybe some-one with better computer skills could post it but it went like this, " Ziggy has some technique issues and Mitchell knows that and has to work with him on it"... I know that isn't exact but close enough. WHY??????????? After all this time why does he not still get it or know what to do techniquely?

Cajun-

 

i think first off butler needs to worry about his LB'ers that are not playing very well.

second, since ziggy transformed his body, he had the best year yet last year.

he may look a little different with mclendon next to him then an old casey. that could help both DE's be more productive, which inturn helps the LB'ers, which in turn, helps the DB's.

ziggy won't command a big salary to re-sign him. which would be our savings seen down the road for a solid player, that was a first rd. pick. he was a very late first rounder also. it wasen't like he was a top 10 qb rate money wise.

5th and final, heyward is going to have a great season. year 3 for him,so maybe they don't even try to re-sign ziggy. watch the kid from northwestern if you get a chance to look at some video. haggans from La.Lafayette and williams our 7th rounder. woods ain't bad either. we have plenty of competition around right now. it could take a year or two to develop behind ziggy and keisel or heyward, but they will have options.

 

not bust, not bad, just average.

Its clear teams were targeting Ziggy. Last year, teams would often run to the Ziggy/Woodley's side for significant gains. Woodley was hurt so that didn't help. I have no idea what technique-wise Ziggy is doing wrong, but teams were clearly seeing something that they tried to exploit.

 

I'm ready to label him a bust. He was a first round pick, which means he should be a lot better than he is at this point. Honestly I'd rather see him continue to put on weight, and swap him and McClendon. I think McClendon is a much better pass rusher, and Ziggy is stronger... but meh.

Like someone else mentioned, Ziggy will re-sign for cheap, and probably be a servicable and relatively young starter. You can't have a pro bowler at every position, but Ziggy should've been better given his draft position.

 

This

 

Ziggy has some unfortunate things working against him. Aaron Smith...he will always be compared to him regardless...and no player will probably EVER live up to that level. And secondly...being a 1st round pick...even though he was pick #32 (which is pretty much a 2nd round pick). People expecting a DE in this 3-4 to put up big numbers/etc. Another thing some will say is they could have picked someone else like James Laurinaitis (even though they took 2 LBs 2 years before)...or some other player.

Anyways as far as a bust? No! Jason Smith the OT taken with the 2nd overall pick...now hes a bust. But I do not see Ziggy as a bust. He's done OK...has he been great? No...will he ever be great? Who knows. I think he's been about average and played quite well at times. For where he was picked and what is expected of him...I have no problem at this point with him...and he could easily be a cheap re-sign which is good also.

 

I would label him as a bust. Forget that he was drafted in the first round. He was the first player drafted by the Steelers that year and thus we should logically assume they had him ranked higher than any other player they drafted that season. It's easily argued that Wallace who was their third round pick and Lewis who was their fourth round pick contributed more to the team in their time than Hood. Hood has poor pass rushing stats and average run defense stats. If you look at the Steelers last 10 years of first rounders, they have actually been pretty successful. Now replace all those first picks overall each year with a player that has had the same average to below average stats that Ziggy has had. We would not be a playoff team.

 

I dunno, I don't compare him to Smith, because I think Smith is one of the best 3-4 ends ever... But I want to see him play better than he has. People do sometimes put too much pressure on first rounders to produce right away, true... but Ziggy's had plenty of time now to shine.

 

Gee, common sense takes so much fun out of the message board.

 

Anyone remember Nick Eason though, or even Orpheus Roye? I feel those guys came in games at spotduty and had bigger impacts in games than Ziggy.

 

Playing behind or following a legend or possibly the player ever at a certain position has little effect in determining if a player has bust qualities. It does hurt him in the eyes of casual fans but in reality his ranking comes from his on field performance. Maybe he isn't a "classic" bust player but he has under-performed in a mighty way. Why after four years does he still have techique issues or flaws? Is that what's holding him back? He has the size, and he has the strenght.

I do have an issue with him. Drafted in the 1st rd, heck, go ahead and say 2nd rd, doesn't matter. He's a multi year starter and being means he's expected to perform better. Part of Woodleys decline- besides the obvious hammy issue- is Hood's in-effective play. I read where maybe Hood will be better because Hampton is gone and a better NT in McLendon will be there. I disagree with this accessment to a degree. The 3-4 DE is kinda on an island.

The benefit, hopefully, is he's re-signed to a decent contract THEN becomes that dominant force we're looking for.

Mac, I think Butler is focusing on his LBers per his comments about Worilds and Stevenson. I'm not sure what spawned his comment on Hood but since DL & LB work so closely and rely on each other so much I'm sure Butler and Mitchell have a very close working relationship.

Cajun-

 

Yes. His strength doesn't translate to the field for some reason. He's easily blocked by one OL usually which puts more pressure on our LBs. One of the reasons our LBs were so effective during the Aaron Smith era is because he was taking up two or three blockers. Then you throw Big Snack in there getting double teamed and that made for easy pickings for our LBs.

I haven't looked it up, but I'll bet Hood was a great Combo guy. He's just not a great player. And some of you can say if they are serviceable they can't be considered a bust, but the Steelers expect more than serviceable and mediocre out of their first round picks.

 

while I don't consider hood a bust yet, he is certainly moving in that direction..... granted, 3-4 de's in our scheme aren't going to put up eye popping stats like a jj watt, they should at least be able to occupy multiple blockers. too often last season hood was blocked 1 on 1 (and quite effectively at that). the few games that he looked active and made plays on the field were far too few... like many here, I was extremely excited after watching hood's workout videos and was ready to see an absolute beast, and like many I came away feeling like I was rick rolled..... I haven't given up on him yet though, as mac mentioned earlier, he will probably look quite different with McClendon next to him... having Woodley in shape coming in behind him should make a big difference also, so for now, I will simply continue the evaluation process game by game and see what transpires this season.

 

Do you think Hood may be part of the reason that Woodley has been less effective the last couple of seasons? If you've got one guy controlling Hood then you can put multiple helmets on Woodley. Injuries are obviously the biggest issue with Woodley, but not having a quality DE in front of him has to adversely affect his game as well.

 

sorry about chiming in on your question, but i think it works both ways jack. woodley being out of shape and oft injured hurt ziggy also. casey on the inside being blocked by just the center alot more often then in years past also help take a toll on the DE's. it all has to work together to make it work as it should.

 

I would take it one more step besides Mac, I think the impressive numbers for Worilds in his limited duty last season can be attributed to which side he was on. We saw that when he was in while Harrison was hurt he struggled form that side being blocked by a much larger tackle where as when he was in on Woodley's side while he was injured the tackle took care of Hood leaving Worilds with a more favorable match-up against TE's or a RB who he was able to overpower and get to the QB. If Hood is healthy and drawing a double team that creates more favorable match-ups up and down the line of course if Hampton is 100% then it becomes pick your poison. The guards have to DBL team Hampton and Hood leaving Kiesel and Harrison either unblocked or with single linemen and no dbl team help, Woodley or Worilds can speed rush past the TE and we are looking at the zone blitz pressure of old instead of what we have been seeing lately or at least what I think it would be.

 

Lets not stop @Ziggy you got to ask about Heyward also. 2 very big disappointments so far
in their careers. He couldn't carry his old mans jock strap.

 

I'll say bust also, and I'm not looking at stats only game footage. I understand the DE isn't supposed to put up big numbers but look how poor the run D was, and it appeared that most of the big runs came at the expense of Ziggy. I watch him get blocked by a single lineman only to have a pulling guard and a RB block Woodly and the RB scampers for big yardage, I saw the same play run 3 times consecutively when we played the texans and the shortest run was 8 yards. The best game he had in his career was the Eagles game and the eagles are the only team in the league that has an oline that is worse than that of the Steelers. I would think if he plays the same this year that they could sign him as a back up for league minimum and he would probably have to take it since I doubt any team would be willing to pay him any more than that.

 

i expect year 3 to be much different for heyward. he doesn't get alot of opportunity to even get into the flow of the game. they also hold the heck out of him, which never gets called.

as i said with mclendon playing nose it should help at all front 5 spots, which will in turn help the inside backers too, and so on down the line. it's all about mismatches and making them commit to double teams or just more blockers to stop it. if mclendon can play in the other teams backfield, we will see a whole different d-line this year. let's assume woodley gets the hint and comes in in shape for a whole season too.

 

and first against the pass. how in the heck were we 8-8?

 

No turnovers, no sacks, no splash plays. (at least not enough of them)

 

don't worry about chiming in.......... you said it well.... it all works together. Woodley needs to get in better shape and stay healthy. hood need to find a way to convert his work outs on to the field. this is the ultimate team game, and if one isn't carrying his weight, then it creates one big domino effect.

 

Someone posted this in the comments on steelersdepot.com the other day, it really puts things in perspective in regards to Ziggy Hood.