Front office grade?

I'll reserve my grade for after the Super Bowl. Front office grade before the season starts.... makes about as much sense as the NCAA pre-season top 25.

 

The Green signing is about as embarrassing as it gets when looking at high profile FA signings. This guys $ could have been spent elsewhere. How on earth do they not know this guy can't practice? This added to the fact we did very little to improve the secondary are my biggest concerns that maybe our FO isn't as good as I thought. Last year the secondary was a joke heading into the season but not as laughable as how we handled the kicking situation. Oh then let's not forget Mike Vick. The FO and Mike T can shoulder the blame for last years failures 100%.

 

Obviously the grade that counts most is after the SB.

 

Green was a high profile signing? I didn't realize that Green was a high profile player just yet. I believe that Green was the type of FA player the Steelers like to sign. A young guy with a lot of upside/potential that's not going to command to get paid like a top 5 player at his position. At the time the Green signing looked like a good deal for an up and coming player. Especially considering that Miller retired.

I don't know all the details behind the Green "issue". There are reasons why players can't practice or participate. Maybe the team knew about them or maybe they didn't. Sometimes teams take risks on injured players based on doctor's recommendations. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. The Green deal will in no way cripple the Steelers if it doesn't work out. Better to take the "we'll see" approach when these things happen.

I guess people need to realize that earth shattering moves to improve units doesn't usually happen over night. It's usually a process that takes time. The Steelers have been slowly rebuilding this offense and defense over the past few years.

There's plenty to consider before the organization can sign or draft this or that player. Player availability, player cost, salary cap, & draft ability are probably the key things to consider.

A larger % of the failures fall on the players. After all the players play. Some would consider last season one of Tomlin's finest coaching jobs considering all the injuries and adversity the team faced. The team was in all likely hood a player fumble away from playing in the AFCCG. I guess some people's expectations are out of line with the reality of the situation. We are also fortunate that the ownership of this team isn't as critical as some of it's fans.

 

Green couldn't beat out an old man Gates at the end of his career, what did green really prove with the chargers? In 4 years he caught 77 balls for 7 TDs and wasn't considered a great blocker, so why did we give him a 20 mill 4 year contract based on his production, why not a 2 year 5 mill contract to see if he was going to become a good solid TE or could even get on the field:
Yeah in hindsight it's easy for me to see they didn't vet him as well as they should have, a 4th round pick from a small school trying to adjust to the pro level sometimes requires a longer time to adjust to the pro game, now we have to wait and see if we are ever going to get our 20 million investment back, well it's not going to happen this year since he missed camp.........

 

I never watch Colin Cowherd's show on ESPN.. but just happened to be channel surfing and saw a graphic of Roethlisberger and Heinz Field in the background, so it caught my attention. Cowherd was talking about the Steelers getting worse under Tomlin... not better and the only reason Tomlin had a ring was because of Roethlisberger at QB and Cowher's draft picks. The anti-Tomlin people here would love it. Of course there was Belichick and Brady ball-washing involved... Cowherd says Belichick keeps getting better and better as a head coach.

Truth is... if the Steelers were getting worse, they never would have improved to 11-5 in 2014 and won a playoff game last season, after two 8-8 seasons.

 

It was one of the channels near ESPN on DirecTV. Sorry for the mistake.

 

Lets be honest. We've won 1 playoff game since 2010. In the one game that we did win... the Bengals had us beaten. 2 of their players went crazy stole the win right from their own team and handed it to us...all nicely gift wrapped. We had no business winning that game. Just the Bengals being the Bengals. I kinda got a problem with not really winning a playoff game in 5 years with Ben as our QB. I think alot of people have a problem with that.

 

The finest coaching job? I do recall us losing to the pathetic Raven's twice. I also recall Mike Vick... oh and the total botching of our kicker situation. Home field advantage would have been nice. Could have skipped playing the Bengals and had a healthy Ben and Brown for the playoffs. But if that's his finest season to you. ok. I kinda see it as our coaching staff completely screwed us out of HFA. Our team is loaded with talent. There really is no reason we should not be winning playoff games. The one playoff game we won in the last 5 years was the Bengal game...you know the one were they had us beaten ...and then kinda just went crazy and gave us the victory on a silver platter. Yea that was a very impressive coaching job MIke. I will say maybe the most exciting ending to a playoff game that I can remember in a very very long time.

 

UNDERACHIEVING!!!

 

They could've used a veteran CB but in free agency the price was too high, they drafted a CB in the first round instead. They came up short 5 years in a row maybe they weren't good enough or they had injuries in the playoffs.

 

The OP is clueless, as soon as the Steelers lose a game he will start fire Tomlin thread.

 

2011-13, Tomlin was dealing with an aging roster and the Steelers were pretty much in rebuilding mode, whether we like it or not. 2010 was the last year of effectiveness for the "Mohicans"... Polamalu, Ward, Woodley, Hampton, Clark, Taylor, etc. The new talent didn't start to fully mature and accumulate until 2014. Truth. This is the year for Tomlin to prove his worth. He had a good excuse last year with injuries.

The same could be said about Cowher in 2004. 2003 was awful and '01 and '02 were playoff years, but the Steelers lacked the talent to go to the next level. His true Super Bowl talent didn't come together until 2004. The results in '04 and '05 speak for themselves.

 

Yes, considering all of the injuries this team had last season some would say the coaching staff did as fine a job as ever. They lost top players at key positions at different points and still managed to make the playoffs. Only in the world of bizzaro do 2 losses define a season. Sorry but those 2 losses didn't define the season for me. I can see beyond those two losses. So what? HFA wasn't in the cards for this team. All fans will take playoffs with or without HFA. They were going to have to go on the road at some point anyway.

I guess the Steelers thought Vick was the best option at the time. It's not like there were a plethora of good QB's out there waiting to be signed. There were also the salary capp implications to consider.

I am good with how this team fared the past several years. I understand they were going through a rebuilding phase. During that rebuilding phase they've managed to remain competitive.

The team is loaded with talent on offense(WHEN HEALTHY AND WHEN PLAYERS STAY OUT OF TROUBLE). They are still in the process of rebuilding the defense. It's very difficult for any franchise to account for injuries and bad decisions made by players.

In any event, it's clear you want to be a negative nelly. The people with the mentality of playoffs wins/SB wins or bust will generally be unhappy and find reasons to complain. History shows that no team is going to win every playoff game or win the SB every year. It seems nothing can be done for individuals with that attitude. I am happy that this team can remain competitive even when they don't win the playoff games or SB.

 

I have been a fan for a long, long time. It amazes me that Cowher (loved him) gets all this credit as being the best, but it took a magical run to win his only Super Bowl. Now Tomlin can only win with Cowher's players, can only win a playoff game because the Bangals gave it to him...it's just crazy. Cowher barely won with his own players.

I understand this is a forum for fans to discuss, but this constant bashing of coach, players, GM, scouts...is ridicules.

Maybe it's the homer glasses but I love all things Steelers...I even wished the best for Cam Thomas...since he was a Steeler.

If they are associated with MY team I will support them!!

 

I think two things can be true at the same time. The Steelers are always competitive, and Tomlin for the most part is a great coach. That being said, there are some very valid criticisms of him as well (tendency to play down to weak opponents, inability to make half-time adjustments, etc.)

In terms of the FO, it sounds like Green was very misleading and should shoulder most of the blame for this strange situation. Other than that, they've worked to shore up the O-Line, improve the pass rush (results pending on that), and have consistently picked GREAT offensive weapons at tremendous value.

I do think it was frustrating that the FO failed to address the secondary for like 8 years. Hopefully Burns is solid. I'm glad we finally spent a 1st round pick to address it.

MadtownDrunkard's complaints are absurd. Green is not a high profile signing. Almost every fanbase in the NFL is not happy with their secondary. There is no way to predict injuries to Bell, Brown, Pouncey, etc. At some point, you have to take a step back and view the Steelers objectively. I don't think you could ask for much more.

 

I'm not so sure the coaching staff did anything amazing in handling injuries. I'd say they miss handled the QB and Kicker injuries about as bad as you can. Vick was a disaster. Thank god for our running game. The kicker situation was laughable. I think Butler did a solid job given the talent he had. He created pressure in other ways because our OLB's couldn't do it. What was he going to do with that secondary? So I think Butler had some bumps in the road but it seamed like he evolved and made changes quicker than previous coaches would have. But anyway... with the talent we do have... namely Ben and his weapons... we should be winning playoff games. We should also be easily beating teams like the Ravens. Those loses were coaching failures at their best.

 

If we dont win a playoff game then I'll call for Tomlin's departure. 6 years without a meaningful playoff win with our QB would be disgraceful. I'd promote one of our current staff into the job if that happens. Or hire Bill Cowher. . I had to say it.

I will say I do like our coaching staff right now. I'd be shocked if we don't win a playoff game. I'm not thrilled with Tomlin.. I think he's an average coach that out thinks him self too often. His record against bad teams is inexcusable. BUT I do like the staff he has surrounded him self with. I'm not thrilled with the FO the past few years. I think they made some serious gaffes with personnel. BUT I could be wrong about who's gaffes those were. Maybe those were Tomlin's gaffes? If that's the case then Tomlin needs to have less say in personnel decisions. We should have a great team. I think some are misunderstanding the point of my thread.

 

I are correct on one thing... I am most definitely not happy with 8-8 seasons and no playoff wins. Not when we have a franchise QB with plenty of weapons around him. We underachieved in most of those so called rebuilding years. Losing to teams that had less than 6 wins all season is why we missed the playoffs 2 of those years. Choking is not something anyone should be happy with.

 

I have not bashed anyone. I've merely stated some facts and my opinions as to who is responsible for those facts. Suggesting a grade now was only me wanting people's opinions of how we set up our team up to start the season. I stated the issues we had. I pointed out the fact that we were unable to address many of them even though we tried. I also stated that I think Butler will take the next step as a DC and could be the difference maker. The response essentially has been how dare you criticize! Don't point out facts that don't look good! Only talk about how great we are! bla bla bla

I'm well aware of the fact that now is not the important grade. But now is probably a good time to evaluate our roster heading into game 1. That's the whole point of the offseason and preseason football. TO get to this point right now. YES , after the season we can actually see what worked and what didn't. Now is a good time to evaluate what we did since the end of last season to improve our team. I know we tried to do plenty. In some cases we made some obvious improvements. In some cases we choked ($20MIL on a TE that can't play). I do wonder why no one on the staff was making sure Bell didn't miss drug tests given his past issues. Did we do all that we could to address a poorly put together secondary? I'm not so sure. I'm not the only one who's not so sure, otherwise we wouldn't be making last second trades for head case/ 1st round bust CB's. Can't deny the fact that we've had a bit of a trend of not so impressive off seasons lately. It's worth pointing out.

It's always good to ask your self "On paper are we better than last year?" Meaningful Losses: Bryant (season), Miller(retired), Bell (susp), Dupree (maybe season), Golson (season). Meaningful additions: Hargrave (R), Davis (R), Mettenburger (last second signing) AND hopefully Burns at some point. Our Special teams seem to be much improved compared to the kicker debacle we had early last season.

IMO the biggest positive impact looks like the fact that our Kicker is healthy and our D-line looks deeper. Biggest negative impact: The loss of key players all over the field. (Bryant, Miller, Dupree, and Golson - Bell for 3 weeks) oh yea and of course my opinion that we didn't improve our secondary much heading into week 1. Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

 

They had kickers that got injured how is that to blame on the FO? They found a good kicker who is cheap , you need a complete team to win not just a great offense ex: 2013 Denver Broncos got smoked in the Super Bowl.