a little worried about Mike Adams

I guess I wasn't clear. What I meant to say was:

You think he earned that big-ass contract by the way he played from '06-'08? He improved drastically in '09. He cured his pass protection woes enough to be a strong RT for us, and that's saying something. People might not remember ol' Turnstile, but he was probably as bad as Adams. He had Ben running for his life what seemed like every play. I say Colon was a good lineman because he played well, not because of one play. Why are you being intentionally obtuse?

Ugh. I see. You care about Ben and Bell so much that you can't stand to see the likes of Marcus Gilbert protecting them. So you'd rather "see" what, a bunch of unproven UDFAs and low draft picks? Oh, they could turn out to be better, I know. Beachum sure is better than Adams. But what exactly are you trying to say? Munch isn't working with anyone except Adams and Gilbert?? They aren't giving other guys a chance to play?? They have practices every day, and there will be 4 preseason games. If one of those guys can honestly protect better than Gilbert, then they will have every chance to prove it. You act like they aren't seeing what the other guys can do. They are! Every day! Did it ever occur to you that Marcus Gilbert might be the best choice for this team at RT? Do you think that was the case last year? Which of the guys at training camp last year would have been better than Gilbert?

I would think that you, as a fan, would want to put the best players on the field, even if that includes someone you have been rallying against. It's one thing to lobby for a replacement in the draft or free agency or something, but right now we got the guys we got. Since neither of us have seen those other guys play in an NFL game (except Whimper), neither of us truly know who the best player is. We're both making assumptions. I'm assuming the guy with years of experience who has experienced a good amount of success, is still young, and finished last season on top of the depth chart is the best (at least for this season). You're assuming a 5th round comp pick or some UDFA would be the best. Personally, I care about Ben and our great RBs, so I would like to wait until those rookies prove it before throwing them in there because "they have decent ball in them."

By the way, Willie Colon's turnaround should encourage you. It's proof that a player can improve after a long time of sucking. Ditto William Gay and Kraig Urbik, off the top of my head. And although Colon was always a solid run blocker, I'm not sure he ever showed the natural knack that Adams has shown for it. Adams is also taller and longer, and more athletic. He stinks, don't get me wrong, but there's reason to keep him here and keep working on him, and I don't believe you don't understand that.

I'm just about done with even my reserve baseless hopes that he will ever be a decent starter at LT. But still, if he gets it together enough to play on the right side, he could step in for Gilbert in case that guy leaves next year. Plus it gives us bargaining power with Gilbert in the first place.

The reports aren't sounding good though. But I still have hope Can't wait for the games!!

 

do you really think I meant we should put the udfa's in instead? really snack? as I've said in the recent past, adams is here this year. I do not like him as the swing tackle. we need to draft a tackle and hope we don't pull a colon with gilbert because adams hadn't panned out. I did hear one encouraging sign from todays practice. munchaks Johnson was taking 2nd team reps at LT. mike was with the 3rd unit. yea I do worry about our qb playing with his back to an inept LT. as of now mike isn't doing so swell. I'm not sure how long we should keep a guy like that as the next man up if something happens to beachum. Johnson is about the only real hope if mike doesn't come around. is that a bad thing? I'm not making him play bad, he's doing it all on his own.

 

Adams is not a little worry, he's a big worry since the beginning. Time for him to catch on or become the perennial backup that whimpers along. Does he have the quickness and or agility to be dependable out there?

This is one draft pick that has been a major disappointment and costly.

 

It's in the feet, and the heart,and the work ethic, Please Steeler's
don't over pay on Gilbert. BIG MISTAKE! The Steelers probably won't cut either of these two, even though they are not NFL caliber players.Of course just my opinion.

 

one positive from camp is wolfley saying gilbert is taking to the munch's teachings. it has helped him with his feet. not giant steps but improvement. not so much with mike. he seems to keep reverting back to the same mistakes. he said mike is putting together a lot of bad tape. this worries me.

maybe we can get some leads in games and adams could enter later in the games for some run blocking for blount. 3 things could come from this. adams gets some game experience. bell gets rested. beachum gets rested.

 

when does beefalo come to camp? I'm looking forward to seeing how we stack up at this point on both lines. one thing is for sure, as our defense gets better, it's got to help our o-line get better. going against the speed we have on defense, it may help slow the game down for them against other teams.

 

thank you sir.

 

it's working for gilbert.

 

Dangerfield making some noise again. It's early but this kid has been on the coaches radar. Link to BR fwiw

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...m=newsletter&utm_campaign=pittsburgh-steelers

 

I found it interesting that Wolfley said, "You can tell he's spent good time with Munchak." It sounds like Adams is changing things. He's going through a new learning process, like a rookie. That's inconvenient as hell for a 3rd year man, but let's face it, if he didn't make drastic changes, he was never going to be able to pass block.

I do see a path for Mike to success. He completely overhauls his technique and lets Munchak live inside his brain. He gets torn down and rebuilt. It may not be likely that he comes out the other side as a good player like Colon did, but it's possible. Unfortunately, I think if the turnaround happens, it's not going to happen overnight. Gilbert didn't need an overhaul, he just needed cleaned up and tweaking. Hence results early. I think a transformation like Adams needs will take at least a year.

Hopefully, Munchak and Co. will be able to see if Adams is improving his technique and if there's a substantial transformation happening, even if the results aren't obvious to fans (say, for example, he allows a buttload of sacks in preseason). Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better, and that could be happening here. On the other hand, maybe he will stink and his stinkness won't be the result of a change in technique, but just plain stinkness, and Munchak will say, "This guy just doesn't have it and I will never be able to fix him," and they'll cut him.