Carnell Lake in the hot seat?

Is Carnell Lake's job safe? I know many of us feel that Dick LeBeau is pretty much out the door, but the poor play in the secondary falls on Lake's responsibility. But if you look at what Lake has to work with (rejects from other teams), I'm not sure if it is his fault. But I do wonder why Lake has not tried to demand more CBs in the draft. Many teams around the league have found decent DBs in mid to late rounds, but we really haven't had successs or tried drafting more DBs. I wish Lake would be more vocal in drafting more DBs.

 

http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.co...on-could-be-the-depth-the-steelers-need-at-cb

 

Hold your fire!!! No one is occupying the hot seat as we speak. We are still alive with plenty of momentum. let things play out before such discussions. I do believe makeup for a secondary is on a hot list.

 

I think there are quite a few of us who feel LeBeau should leave, but I am not sure many feel he will leave or be shown the door. I am pretty sure LeBeau at mid-season was already talking about coming back for another year. As far as Lake goes, I have no idea, but it isn't like he has been given a lot to work with.

 

lebeau is here as long as he wants. the players would revolt if he was forced out. they get so defensive if you even criticize him. as far as lake, I think he gets another shot because the secondary has played good in some games.lol

 

Having old farts like Ike, Troy, and useless Gay back there, would get a lot of coaches fired. Is it Lake's fault they don't have any replacements ready? if yes then he can go, Blake looks good but he's very short at least Richardson is 6'1 that's a start.

 

You can look at it a couple of ways. Allen has regressed and Ike and Troy are washed up. BUT...McCain and Blake have played well, as has Gay, and that could be because they are being coached up on proper technique by Lake. Any schematic breakdowns would be on DL. Mitchell has been disappointing as has Thomas, so it's a mixed bag in the secondary right now though mostly negative.

 

You had me until you trashed Gay

 

Gay just sucks playing corner , I can see that he's doing better playing more in the middle.

I'm not giving up on Mitchell, like I said in another thread the guy is always playing with somebody else he can't grow a relationship the same way Troy, Ike and Clark did, when there's a different body playing beside him every week, or every other play. He has to try and gel with Mcain, Blake or (Gay if Ike is hurt). He has to learn what 3 different players are capable of doing. On top of that learn a new defence. I bet his head feels like a 50lbs lead ball trying to figure things out.

 

Has Thomas been a disappointment? I guess in practice but I haven't seen him play on defense in a while. Maybe that says it all right there. Or do they not want to hurt Polomalu's feelings and put him on the bench.

 

I'd say he has been a disappointment. This is his third season and he has yet to make any kind of meaningful contribution at all to this football team.

 

Hard to say. I thought Lake did a great job, early on. Now the secondary is struggling like old times. But in his defense, he clearly just doesn't have the talent on the roster.

If we get him some good players and they still underperform, then I'll worry. In the meantime, I have confidence in him.

It has nothing to do with Troy. When Troy was out, Will Allen replaced him. Shamarko is 3rd on the depth chart.

That drives me nuts. This is exactly the kind of thing we're always complaining about. I'm sure Shamarko would make mistakes, but... like Will Allen is so perfect?? At least Shamarko could mix in some positive plays as well. And that's just for now. If you look ahead, Shamarko's the one with more potential, the one we are invested in, and the one who is young.

 

Lake was hired in 2011 a month prior to the draft. In the secondary he already had Troy, K. Lewis, Ike, Gay, Joe Burnette, Mundy and Ryan Clark. Not sure about McFadden and A. Smith. In the 11' draft we got Curtis Brown in the 3rd and C. Allen in the 4th. Butler and Burnette didn't develop as hoped. Lewis left in FA because we felt Allen could develop into his replacement. He hasn't and even regressed. Curtis Brown had a load of talent and didn't develop either and was cut. In 12' we drafted Terrence Frederick.... cut. 13' it was Hawthorne-cut and this year it was Shaq Richardson who was cut. This one bothers me and I'll come back to that.

Ryan Clark was getting older and slower, Mundy is gone so we bring in a fairly expensive veteran safety in Mike Mitchell. He is never on the same page as Troy, they don't work well together the way Troy & Clark did ( I get this may take some time but they're both veteran pros and the season is almost over) and he's rarely in position costing us big plays. Is he hardheaded and not listening or is it Lake's fault?

Back to Shaq.--- I'm quite sure in the war room the uppers were in Love with a small quick dri Archer still there in the 3rd ( they seem to like that, ie Chris Rainey & LSH love affair ) so maybe, just speculation, Lake's evaluation and approval of Shaq made that decision easier, to draft Dri and not CB Baushuad Breeland who was most likely the best CB still available.

What about Shark and Golden??? No snaps on defense thus far. Is Wil Allen that much better keeping them off the field?

I'm not sure if Lake's job is on the hot seat or not. I will suggest that if LeBeau doesn't return next year that Lake hasn't done enough to convince the next DC to keep him over "his" guys.

Cajun-

 

It's only his second season. And if you want to look at it on an even brighter side, we used a 2014 draft pick to take him, so it's kind of like it's his first.

I think what he was saying is that Thomas hasn't had a fair chance on the game field. As a rookie he jumped in at an unnatural position, and played pretty decent ball before getting hurt. He has a ton of potential. Pretty much the only knock on him coming out of college was his height. He's smart, determined, fast, and strong. All that, combined with the team's sometimes ridiculous reluctance to play youth over age - regardless of talent - and there's a case to be made that he's a good player sitting on the bench.

The other side is Curtis Brown, who got tons of chances and blew all of them.

 

Then we will insert him for a few games next year and he will play lights out and leave for free agency.

 

My bad, it is only his second season. But as you point out above, it also drives me nuts that we can't seem to get him on the field in meaningful situations.

 

Hasn't he been injured this year?

 

Yeah by his third year he should have some knowledge of this super complex defense that gets torched regularly. It drives me nuts to know that Ike will start, I would rather see Blake or McCain in there getting reps than Ike at this point. Sadly, you can say the same for Troy too. He just doesn't have it anymore. Let's see what Thomas, McCain, and Blake have to offer. They are the future and I don't see how it could get any worse.

 

Are you laughing saying the secondary has played good in some games?

The players that have been with LeBeau the longest, the old guard will be gone after this year. And LeBeau will follow.

 

Yeah I think I remember someone saying he's had hamstring injuries but I know he played last week on special teams. Even if he was 100% I don't think they would yank Troy, even though he's been a total non factor all season.

 

And as far as Mike Mitchell goes, I'm not ready to give up on him just yet. Ryan Clark's first season here was a disaster and he turned out ok. I think Mitchell would be much better if he wasn't always trying to make up for Troy and all the mistakes he's made this year. Troy is still trying to be 2010 Troy and it's just not there anymore.

 

He seems to stay that way.

 

Yeah, Lake's on the hotseat...his a$$ is about to be out as a coach and put back in a #37 uniform

 

Has Mike Mitchell done anything good this year. He has played horrible all year and don't see where he is going to help. We would of been better off if we drafted any safety and it would of been better then Mitchell. And I don't care how complicated Lebeau's defense is to learn. Just don't see any upside with Mitchell.