Hope and Change

Here are some names I hope that will bring change to the Steelers next year.

1. Eric Bienemy and not as the OC.

2. Jaylon Johnson cb

3. Lloyd Cushenberry C

4. Amarius Mims RT (probably spelled it wrong)

5. Payton Wilson ILB

6. draft a wr that can get yac and bring some toughness to the unit

7. draft a slot corner.

8. Almost forgot Gardner Minshew QB - Bonafide offseason competition with KP.

9. New DC with experience and a track record. If Cleveland can do we can do it.

10. New ST Coach and new everything on offensive side as far as coaches.

 

#8 Uncle Rico
#6 we need a qb that doesn’t constantly throw to sidelines to achieve YAC

 

How is that Washington offense doing under Bienemy? A lot of QB sacks and not many wins .

 

He's got their young QB (taken well after ours in the same draft) throwing for nearly 270 yards a game and more TD's in 13 games than Kenny has in his career...

Their roster is considerably worse than ours, and their defense leads the league in points against while being bottom 5 in turning the opposition over.... in other words, they suck. They give up over 30PPG. We haven't scored more than 30 points since 11/21/21.

 

Howell has a lot more interceptions, and has taken more sacks than any other QB like 50 of them, Washington is always trailing so Howell puts up garbage time stats.

 

Do you know that Howell has 509 attempts this season, compared to 324 for Pickett? His 509 attempts are the most in the NFL by a mile.

If you know that Washington has a horrible record, than you know that they are mostly playing from well behind and Howell is throwing the ball and piling up stats against softer coverages.

I guess Bieniemy feels his quarterback can actually learn some things by experiencing his mistakes rather than limiting him, coaching him not to make mistakes, and stunting any development.

Howell has been sacked 58 times. Pickett has been sacked 23 times.

They both average the exact same time(2.4 seconds) to throw the ball or be pressured, but Howell gets better protection because he has been blitzed 162 times while Pickett has only been blitzed 81 times. Kenny gets the same pressure as Howell but much of that pressure is put on by only 4 rushers. That means Pickett has to throw the ball with more defenders in coverage a much greater percentage of the time with the same amount of time to throw the ball.

 

Need to fix the ILB situation, I don't know why, but when Holcomb went down it actually felt like an improvement.

Need a strong safety to put aside of Minkah

Need a new Center, and possibly guard. Interior line is just serviceable at this point.

Need a WR who lines up in the slot and can take the top off the coverage

Going to need another DE, Heyward isn't getting any younger.

Going to need another Corner, Peterson is on his last leg.

 

Some insider info re: Eric Bienemy

He has helped Sam Howell a lot. Sam throws the most, but that what Eric Bienemy wants.
They come out of the locker room throwing.
They've built a ton of trust in Howell, and it looks like they've found their QB.

They can't protect a QB, dipsh!ts didn't address the O line.
They can't stop any offense, Del Rio had a top 5 Defense and managed to screw it up, even before they traded away the DE's.
You think Tomlin sucks.... Rivera is just not a Head Coach.

In Washington, they are really disappointed in Eric Bienemy. (Go figure - they light torches for everything there.)
Eric Bienemy came from KC, they are a passing team. A hybrid of 'Air' Coryell.
Eric Bienemy introduced discipline, which ticked off some players because he expected them to actually hustle and learn stuff.
Washington doesn't have a lot of players that other team wants. Allen, Payne, McLaurin are the best... Sam Howell seems to be on the rise. Samuels isn't bad. TE Logan Thomas is good but cannot stay healthy.

Personally, I'm not sure I am ok with the Head Coach idea of Eric Bienemy. Maybe.

 

I don't get the interest in Bienemy.

 

Those particular words make me want to puke.

 

I pity the new incoming head coach in a way.
He only won the Super Bowl with Tomlin's guys.

 

Oh, yes... Bad teams throw a lot, therefore some of that number is window dressing. I get it.

Some of Pickett's pressures are self inflicted though. Bailing from clean pockets or simply bailing into trouble, though some of that is obviously on the line too. They both have an average amount of time to get the ball out, but Pickett has been blitzed less. Teams don't blitz Pickett a lot because they try to avoid man coverage. He struggles to find open guys in zone, and if you just make him have to beat you with his reads and progressions you are going to have a good time against Pickett.

We can make excuses all over the place if we want. The facts are that he's had an average amount of time to throw across the league and he is the worst QB at "on target throws", and better than only 3 NFL starters at "off target throws". None of this is a good sign for a guy that has started 24 games in the NFL. He hasn't seen the field well, he doesn't read well pre or post snap, and he is inaccurate. That's not a good trifecta.

 

Yep, there is plenty of bad to list too. I just always try to give perspective.

 

True, and the perspective given was certainly factual and relevant.

 

All rosters look bad with bad Qb play. I keep saying this, and History keeps showing its true. Everyone talked so bad about Cincinnati, and their roster....so bad people were telling J. Burrow not to go there...J. Burrow gets there bam...better.
Everyone talked about how bad Texans were....no ownership, no coaches, no good players.....got CJ Stroud.....bam....magic good players. If You don't care about winning....you can put up a lot of meaningless stats...especially passing yards. There is a reason some of the 5000 yard passing seasons have been on 8-8, 7 -9 teams.

 

This

 

Your post's title is giving me slight PTSD. There's definitely (at least for me) something of a negative connotation with that particular phrasing.

As for the actual content of your post, I don’t have a great deal of informed opinions on most of your suggestions. I do like the idea of bringing in someone like Minshew to compete with Kenny. I'd prefer that to just giving him an automatic guarantee of being QB1. I think competition for the position would probably be to Kenny's benefit as it would (hopefully) encourage him to seriously improve - and, of course, it would also provide Pittsburgh with a fresh, (and presumably better) alternative should he fail to do so.

 

Eric Bienemy became the OC for Kansas City in 2018 and the Chiefs PPG went from 25 to 35 that year.
In 2023 Bienemy left Kansas City and their PPG went from 29 to 22 this year.

 

Much will be debated on Bienemy heavy reliance on Howell to lead the team. I, for one, like the trial by fire approach but some will question

 

You're right. A high quality QB does bring up those around him.
But Burrows and Howell's instances are different.
I did have to eat a piece of that crow, but I was on board with their coaching. Just not the players - that I was wrong.

 

LLoyd Crushenberry? Never heard of the guy but with a name like that he sounds like a future superstar You know we will call him "Frankenberry" if we get him.

 

I do too. I don't know if you have to have your quarterback leading the NFL in attempts by as much as Howell, but the more they are exposed to, and the more aggressive they are encouraged to be with their throws builds confidence as long as you don't get them destroyed throwing that much. I guess you have to try to strike a balance there. I'm not saying that it's easy to develop a quarterback, and every player is different as to what they respond to.

I wish Tomlin would have let Pickett loose to make mistakes and then learn from them. The more repetitions the better. If he struggles he struggles, but limiting him has not allowed him to develop quickly.

Pickett has had Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph as his mentors. He wasn't made ready to play as a rookie, and then had to take over because his "mentor" couldn't run the offense after 4 games his rookie season. They have all had to play in Matt Canada's offense. Now Canada is gone, and he will most likely have to learn a completely new offense next season. That was an opportunity lost to optimize development.

When Pickett was a rookie, Tomlin expected Trubisky to be the starter and didn't give Pickett the reps in training camp that were required to be ready to be a starter and on the field from the first snap. That plan failed because Trubisky was terrible early in the season, so Tomlin named Pickett the starter after 4 games. Since then, he has limited his number of throws, often times his reads, his progressions, etc.. All because he is trying to win every game. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win, but if you have a guy that you think you have a chance to win with you better develop him quickly even if it means a few extra losses while getting him to 100% of what he's capable of as quickly as possible and reaching the highest level of team performance.

In today's NFL a good plan seems to be to find a good young quarterback, let him play early and take his lumps and develop. Then you have a few years with a young QB with some experience and a low cap number to build a team around him and hopefully have a shot to win a Super Bowl.

Developing a QB slowly doesn't make a whole lot of sense anymore. It should happen quickly. They should throw a lot at the QB to find out what they can and can't do, and let them make mistakes so they can learn from them and be able to play comfortably and confidently. It only makes sense if you already have a great QB on the roster.

It's sort of the new blueprint for success if the quarterback can become good enough, quickly enough.

 

No, it was not an improvement when they lost Holcomb. He did start the season slowly, but he was playing well when he got hurt. My concern there is he may not be 100 percent by the time next season begins.

Center is a top priority. So are cornerback, strong safety and receiver.