defensive line prospects

I think we need to pick up two players for the dline. I have some players I like for us but not many in early rounds. does anyone have any mid to late round guys who might fit?

round 1 I think Hageman and Donald are the only two I would take here

I like ego ferguson, Jeffery pagan, ed Stinson, caraun reid, and beau allen. these guys can be had later I think

 

Donald is interesting. I don't care if he can clog two gaps or not if he's in their backfield he's disrupting the play, simple as that. he has to be accounted for. I like brent urban from Virginia too. probably rd.5 for him. height and length are lacking in a lot of the DT guys this year. I'm interested in rumph from Kentucky too as a possible nose tackle as an UDFA.

 

urban and rumph are interesting. I wouldn't count on donte making it to udfa though. if you want him take him in the 6th or 7th. I think someone will watch the tape and like what they see on him. the potential anyway

 

can we maybe just sign bj raji?

 

If the Steelers believe he can be a great player, then change the defense. But I suspect that he'll be off the board by the time we pick.

 

You know Mac, you had mentioned Donald
about a month ago, now I am not sure he fits with what we do, but he is going to make somebody a great ball player. The Steelers have seen him up close and personal, They may suprise us all and pull the trigger.Although I see the Bears taking him in front of us. Bill Fralic
says he is unblockable and he has a big motor. He will excel somewhere as most Pitt players do.

 

Trouble with the Steelers drafting D-Line is it takes Mitchell about 3 years to get them ready to play to his satisfaction.

 

I had a coach once tell me that a scheme can make you a lot better than you are. if you can play the game of football it don't matter what scheme you play in. beat the man in front of you and you will be great

 

Which is about when we'll need them to step in and be a starter, so draft one now. I don't want to see the DL, which was a position of strength, go the route of the OL in the mid-late 2000's when we failed to have the foresight to replace our aging stars.

Draft for the future; sign value free agents for immediate need.

 

DL is a position of strength? I don't think so.

 

Was does not mean that it still is.

 

Things change quick round these here parts.

Hope they've a FA D-Lineman lined up.

 

Thank you Elvis.

Lets look back. Hood was a high motor penetrating DT in college. Sound familiar? ( Aaron D. ) Yet Hood could not make the change very well to a 2-gap 5-tech in the 3-4 as a DE.

Scheme matters. Some RBs may struggle with a OZBS but excel in man-man blocking. Does that make the RB bad or good? He's still a good football player but a better player in the right scheme.

We are now thin on the DL. We will draft at least one DL. If we look to the NFL market I don't like any of the DE's left for us except Peppers & Allen ( who I believe are able to transcend scheme ) but are too expensive.

Looking to the FA Market we may be better served signing a NT ( Raji/Cody etc. ) and moving McLendon back to his more natural position 3-4 DE.

Cajun-

 

You may as well compare Le'Veon Bell to Barry Sanders. One guy was dominant in college, and the other was Ziggy Hood.

 

Not a chance. Take him in the 2nd if he falls the way some NTs do, but at #15 we will have way too many options to take, or at least way too many guys on our list to trade back for and take later in the 1st. I hope Nix isn't even on that list. Not unless he never comes off the field.

 

Why not blow it up? We don't have the personnel to run our scheme either.

 

no need to blow it up. Donald would be a good fit here and you guys need to get out of the casey Hampton is the only way to play a 3-4 mode. Donald needs double teamed and a center being left alone on him is a death wish. he's strong as an ox and has a low center of gravity, not to mention quick off the snap. all these things pose problems with trying to block him. he also has good pass rush moves that serve him well in the run game too. his penetration is hard to deal with. many of you forget what casey started out like in our defense. you only remember the fat casey as a space eater because that's what he became. in his early years he used leverage and speed off the snap to push the pocket in and get by the blockers to create havoc allowing our DE's to control the other guards and tackles for the OLB'ers. big and fat is not the only way to be successful from the interior. making a team double team him inside eats up blockers and it's our ILB job to then plug the holes in the run game. Donald very well could be a good fit in our scheme, and he would certainly be a good interior guy in our sub package next to heyward. they would be an awesome duo inside rushing the passer in that scheme.

 

I remember young Casey Hampton was actually able to run sideline to sideline really well. If a slow run play to one side was occurring he could actually run the guy down.

 

Yeah, I remember him killing Eddie George along the sideline.