Chris Shula's defense struggling again.....

Mashburn · Jan 19, 2026 at 12:25 AM

SGSteeler said: ↑

What is your relation to Brian Flores? Cousin? Come on. There's way more to it than that, and you're smart enough to know it.

First, the 31 points or more thing is a weird arbitrary number. The Vikings gave up 19.6ppg and the Rams gave up 20.4ppg for the year... Meaning 13 total points over the course of the season. The differences I mentioned in a different post, but the Rams were an above average run defense and a below average pass one. The Vikings were a top 5 pass defense and a below average run defense. They were roughly the same in terms of sacks and pressure %, but the Rams were a top 5 turnover defense while the Vikings were above average. . The Rams were a really good defense in limiting missed tackles, while the Vikings were not a good team with avoiding missed tackles. The biggest thing to keep in mind is that the Vikings spent $95 million in total cap on defense (6th most), while the Rams spent $48 million (3rd fewest). This means that the Vikings had more proven players and guys on second contracts, while the Rams had significant production from guys that are either cheaper or on rookie deals.

Essentially the Rams defense wasn't significantly worse than the Vikings, despite having half the payroll spent on the players on that side of the ball. The Vikings paid a defense to be very high end and they were good. Right on par with what they (theoretically) should be expected to be. The Rams didn't pay their defense, but turned out a pretty good one. They vastly exceeded the (theoretical) expectations when it comes to personnel and money spent.

So if you're asking what Steelers fans see in him... It is that he was able to take a very low payroll and put out a quality NFL defense, that in and of itself is intriguing (especially since we had the 3rd highest spend on defense and produced a not very good defense). He also had to have significant production from young players to achieve that payroll, so the ability to coach and upskill young talent would be another thing we should be interested in. All of that is not even to mention the rave reviews he's gotten from arguably the league's best coach for his leadership and brilliance in coaching. There is a ton to be excited about with Chris Shula. Throw in the extra kicker that he doesn't have a lawsuit against the NFL and 4 other NFL teams.

I get that you prefer Flores, but don't go acting like Shula doesn't deserve all the love he is getting from both the Steelers fans that like him and the national media. It's not that personal (unless you actually are somehow related to Flores... then yeah, it is personal).
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I tried helping him the other day with a long winded post..... he did not care.

Also I am on the fence with Shula or Flores. I like Flores for his blitzing, amoeba defense. and I also like what he did for the dolphins with rotating Tua and fitzpatrick. it was gutsy, but worked. just not good enough.

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Chris Shula's defense struggling again.....

Mashburn Well-Known Member

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