Bud Dupree is the perfect candidate for a one-year tag

When was the last time Ben played a playoff game turnover free? Those teams had great offensive talent, but the defenses really had no playmakers, except for Shazier for a few years.

 

If Mason could've finished that Jets game, I like their chances of winning that game.

 

DO you walk to work or carry your lunch?

 

And what does that have to do with my post?

 

Gotta love the IF game around here. Why is it some people’s IFs carry more weight than others? Isn’t a IF a sort of opinion or speculation? If MT would of over ruled going to the Wildcat well too often against Balt and Buffalo we may have won the extra game we needed. If MT would of used a QB sneak against Jax(playoffs) we may have won that game.
That’s why we’re here to share thoughts yet some people want to act like their what IF scenarios are somehow etched in stone while others are preposterous thoughts or ideas.

As far as the whole competitive thing it depends on your definition. When I say competitive I mean a realistic chance of being a threat come playoff time. I don’t view competitive as playing a what IF game to sneak into the playoffs. They didn’t even qualify, using my definition they weren’t competitive when the goal every year should be a SB. To each his own

 

Yes we must because 8-8 with or without Ben is not competitive.

 

It is if the team has a short at the playoffs heading into the final week of the season. That was the best the team could have hoped for without a quarterback.

 

Exactly!

 

Who the hell goes into the final week of the season without a QB!

 

Well Rudolph is a average QB, but he was injured before the final game of the season, so they were stuck with Duck as the starter in the season finale.

 

Haven’t we lost to average or below average QBs? If you are the “competitive “ team some people think we were, you find a way to win the game. If you have to come up with better plays on offense to try and make up for bad QB play or your D has to pitch a shutout. It doesn’t matter you find a way especially with playoffs at stake. We lost games to average QBs when the opposition had nothing to play for. It’s a failure on the coaches as well as the players.
Like I said it depends on your definition of competitive. We were competitive against another bad team,hardly something to hang our hats on....

 

So to be competitive you have to actually win? I thought that to say a team is competitive means it has a chance to win, which the Steelers did last year.

 

Well moving on, I will be the first to admit I didn't want Bud here just because I didn't think the team could sign anyone else. But we signed Wiz, Ebola and Wormley (still on rookie contract) and tendered Feiler and Hilton all while franchising Bud. I don't know how that will affect us in the future, especially with the restructures but for 2020 its all good. I'm still only OK with the tag on Bud because he's just such a question mark as to productive consistency. Khan worked his magic wand and did way more than I thought possible for the next year. What kind of hole that puts us in for 2021 and beyond is unknown but lets hope the cap is raised significantly.
I do like the continuity of Bud being here though and hope the defense only grows from 2019.

 

I agree Turtle, I am not a proponent for Bud or Ebron, but when you have a
38 yr old qb taking up 34 million in cap space this year and next you are up the creek
without the proverbial paddle.

 

You can come up with the best game plan ever, but if the QB keeps turning the ball over you're going to lose. Duck had 6 turnovers in those losses to the Jets and Bills .

 

I understand that but at the same time we made mistakes with the coaching decisions especially the Buffalo game. My point is it’s not always the players and it’s not always the coaching. That’s why I blamed both but if you can’t come up with a way to win games like that it probably means you’re not a good enough ,no matter where you want to place the blame. It’s a team loss including coaching. They were more than just poor QB play away from being a playoff team. There was also poor decision making from the coaching staff as well.

 

It comes down to expected costs. Bud was really good last year and it would be great if he played like that for the Steelers for the next several years... for a reasonable contract. The problem is, even with a large cap increase coming, we've kicked so many cans down the road, everyone wants Watt signed long term, everyone wants Minkah signed long term, everyone wants Cam to stay, everyone wants JuJu to stay, everyone wants FAs to be signed, and on, and on, and on. Bud is getting huge money for a guy who did nothing but run 10 yards past the QB every play for FOUR YEARS. Add it all up and many were good with him leaving. I am one of them. Now, I'll hope he's great and all the money works for us.

 

Yeah cause that is what I was sayin........smfh

 

Great we are fight corona and now we go out and get ebola.......lol. No I agree I didn't want the tag on bud because I was worried we wouldn't have the money for others. Now while they did find the money for us to keep key guys like Feiler, Hilton and Banner while signing Double E and Wiz but at the cost of what? Ben pushed money down the road and has a 41 mil cap hit as did Pouncey 14.4 mil. Both these guys are major risks and could hurt us next year, maybe cripple us if the cap don't go up majorly.

So my question is while a healthy Ben is vital to us winning next year. Did tagging Bud and pushing money down the road make us so much better than last year? Obviously bringing in Double E is big but what else did we do to make us that much better? We brought in Wis yeah but we also lost Finney and Foster so I will say that is a push. We lost Digger no replacement right now, Barron who is taking his snaps, TE is still our starting SS and if Ben goes down we still have the same backups. Do you see my point, yeah a healthy Ben will mean the difference but a healthy Ben would have meant the difference last year right?

 

The Steelers were not competitive in 3 games last season. The Pats, 1 game vs Browns, and 1 game vs the Ravens. Every other game they won or had opportunities to win. So that fits the definition of a competitive team. A team can be competitive even in a losing effort.

 

I guess I am man enough to say when reading this my stance on competitive has to change. I am thinking you are right you don't have to win to be competitive.

 

100% ....by definition Burgh is right. I’ve maintained all along though that when I say “competitive “ I am referring to having a legitimate chance of making a deep playoff run and a SB appearance. I’ve been consistent with “my definition” and have said others opinions may vary. The way I see it is if you need to win 1 game to make the playoffs and you lose all 3 when you had opportunities to win those games, it’s a failure. Whatever excuse or reason being used you still failed when given a good opportunity. So while we may have certainly been competitive over the course of the season, it’s pretty hard to say we were a threat to anyone regardless. You have to actually qualify before you can start talking “ what if’s” like some are trying to do.

Like Yoda says....” there is no try, there is do or do not......hmph....