Free agency grade thus far?

let's change it up because I always hated putting grades on things like this or the draft. how about , how many wins do you think these moves add to what we've had the last two years? or losses?

 

I need to see them perform in Black & Gold first

 

That 2.5 mill signing bonus he received is prorated out over 5 years and comes out to 500K a year, add in his 1 million salary and his cap hit in 14 is 1.5 mill, we could have done this deal instead of going out and signing an unproven pig in the poke for the same money, i'll guarantee you Moore wont get close to Cotchreys 10 TDs this year........

 

Don't have time to chat, just wanted to drop in and say this makes no sense.

 

From SI

Grade: C-minus
Best addition: Arthur Moats, LB
Biggest loss: Emmanuel Sanders, WR
The Steelers barely had any money to spend in free agency because of a horrid cap situation. Still, that hardly lets them off the hook for their utter inability thus far to upgrade a porous offensive line. Pittsburgh also regressed at multiple other spots on the field, most notable among them wide receiver — Lance Moore does not replace Emmanuel Sanders and Jerricho Cotchery in the passing attack.
The signings they have made could play out well: Moats and S Mike Mitchell chief among the low-risk, decently high-reward candidates. But this team had to scratch and claw its way to .500 last year. Plugging leaks as they spring up will not get the Steelers back to Super Bowl contention.

http://nfl.si.com/2014/03/26/2014-nfl-free-agency-grades-afc/

 

How is Moats a better addition than Mitchell?

 

Ha, that was the first thing I thought. They call Mitchell a low-risk, high-reward guy... He will start and has way more potential than Moats, plus a more successful history.

 

It goes to show you how clueless some of these guys are. I'm sure there are plenty of guys on this board who can do better evaluations than these guys. Our OL actually started to gel late in the year.We re-signed a couple of guys along the OL on the cheap. Did he forget we have Pouncey coming back? We could possibly hold on to Velasco once he heals up. Don't forget about Ember-nasty who recently Tweeted he's coming back strong. Oh yeah! Wait I almost forgot. We just so happened to hire one of the best OL coaches.....in the game.
I would be pleasantly surprised if Moats ends up a better signing than Mitchell cause' to me that would mean Moats exceeded expectations because Mitchell should be a definite improvement.

 

Apparently the idiots from SI didn't see the performance of the O Line during the 2nd half of the season. By the end of the season, the OL was actually a lesser problem than the defense. Here's a hunch - I not only didn't expect the Steelers to sign a FA O Lineman, I think it is pretty likely they will not draft a O Lineman either and if they do it will be in the later rounds.

 

I'm surprised the report didn't also mention how our D was really old as well, given how behind the times it seemed to be.

 

My grade is still a C or C-.

My biggest problem with the Steelers is they didn't focus on shoring up areas where there was more urgency to sign a player. DE/DL comes to mind, how did Woods get let go?, seems like someone was sleeping at the wheel. And when he did go, why not more focus on getting Carrington. The signings of Cody Wallace (who I think did a nice job overall), Whimper, Palmer, etc. - why any concentration on those players at all. Those positions basically have their starters in place. DE/DL and WR was another story. There should have been more effort to quickly sign Cotch before he could start sniffing FA. Same goes for Dwyer - I know he said he believes he has more opportunity in AZ, but my guess is he never really felt appreciated. Now they have to find an experienced player who they will likely have to pay 500K more to without the reassurance he can block which is critical - which Dwyer could do.

The Worilds signing was gutsy and I do give the Steelers credit here with moving on from Woodley. Losing Sanders and Hood was a done deal, nothing could be done there. I actually still wish they would have gotten the 3rd round pick for Sanders last year from NE and the drafting of Hood was a mistake, not a bust, he never fit the Steelers' system.

As for the signings. I like the Mitchell signing and I'll be the naysayer here in that I hope he is not a lot like Ryan Clark - and what I mean by that is Ryan Clark was great at lighting people up but was a pretty awful safety in coverage - I think Mitchell may be better here, at least I hope so and we need that from a free safety.

The Moats signing was nice, Lance Moore may surprise some people. SteelersDepot did a nice article that showed him as one of the very best 3rd down receivers in football in terms of yards per catch and completion percentage playing in and away from the Superdome. I hope I am wrong on the Cam Thomas signing but I think he was a panic reaction to losing Woods and they paid him more guaranteed money at $2M than the $1.9M that Woods got, WTF. Maybe they see something in him.

I am still open to signing Harrison at the minimum, better than having Carter and he could be a good situational player.

 

sincerely i have no idea how is cam thomas

but reading here seems a bust , 20 tackles a year ???????????

 

You not going to show Peezy any love?

Bman

 

Just wanted to point out that Casey Hampton was never credited with more than like 25 tackles in a season. I don't think Cam Thomas is on the same playing field as Big Snack. I watched Cam Thomas when he was at UNC and I was really hoping we would draft him late in the draft at that point. I haven't seen much of him since but when I have seen him I haven't been all that impressed. He's a big boy but he doesn't get as much out of that as Hampton did. He didn't continue to improve the way I anticipated he would. Maybe a change of scenery and a new system will help him out. I'm still hopeful for him though!

Disclaimer: I am not comparing Casey Hampton and Cam Thomas as I don't think they are on the same level at all.

 

I say we are currently a 10-6 team, bring on the draft to get us to 12 wins.

 

ok... i will be the bad guy... how the hell do you see that we got 2 wins better than the last 2 years? i see nothing we gained over what we lost to pick up 2 wins ... or any wins for the fact? figure we went 8-8 and ben played the entire year... troy played much of the year.. i just dont seee it .. and see we lost a little more than we gained so far in FA...

HINES

 

If you knew hood was gone that means you knew we were losing a starter. Was there a 3-4 DE available? I don't think so.

 

I definitely got love for Peezy but I was more focused on what he said about our OL. My bad!

 

I will add that if we include Mike Munchak in the equation, the grade's up to a solid B.

 

Woods never really gave the Steelers a chance before signing with the Titans, Carrington probably asked for too much money. Dwyer wanted a better opportunity for himself, and Cotchery was offered a better deal more than the Steelers were willing to pay. Lance Moore should be able to do what Sanders did.

 

So are you saying that Cam Thomas is ON PAR with Casey Hampton???!!!