Kevin Colbert screwed up

When you have holes on defense, but continue to ignore them and draft players on offense instead. In 2017 drafted a WR in the second round, then in 2018 he does the same. Also in 2017 drafted a QB in the mid round, then turns around and does the same in 2018. Where's the help for the defense, I wasn't a fan of this last draft at all too many players on offense was drafted IMO. I really liked Genard Avery who the Browns drafted in the fifth round, a LB who can play ILB and OLB. The Steelers drafted Marcus Allen two spots ahead of where Avery was drafted in the fifth round .

 

He's been doing it for years too with the secondary. It was abysmal for years but constantly neglected.

 

Hindsight

 

Glenn, I agree with you over 90% of the time, but you can't say hindsight when most of this board was calling for linebacker help the whole off-season leading up to the draft.

 

Remember the steelers don't draft for need, best player available. LOL

 

It is pretty easy to go back and say we should have drafted this player or that player. There are some good guys on here who have opinions on players and some work out and some don't but we are not in the front office and don't know the plan. With that said the last 3 drafts we had 22 picks, 12 have been defense 9 have been offense and 1 was STfacepalm! This last draft still has me wondering wtf at the LB position, but you can't fix everything.

2016 first 3 picks D, 2017 2 of the first 3 D and I think the WR(juju) was pretty darn good looking at it now, 2018 1 out of 3 D. The 2018 draft has a lot of us up in arms since we needed D help so much. My problem is we need LB and went S but not sure he is just a S. I didn't like the pick but time will tell if it works out, I didn't like the Juju pick either and now I love it.......

 

You could have Jack Ham, Lambert, Dick Butkus, and Ray Nitschke and it still wouldn't make a difference if they're each running a different defense on every play.
The problem isn't a lack of talent, it's scheme and comprehension. And that starts at the top.

 

You are delusional. Polyanna.

 

BINGO BINGO BINGO. Maybe the talent isn't immense, but dammit we'd be winning games if the defense was on the same page. The offense alone is good enough to win games as long as the defense isn't woeful.

 

Well, yeah, those guys are really old now. Also, Nitschke is dead.

 

I was always wishing for them to draft by position of need but not any more. I saw what we get with that, a major reach drafting Artie Burns in the 1st round when everyone figured he could have been had in the second and possibly the 3rd. The same thing with Edmunds, they were looking for a hybrid style safety/LB and so far he looks to have tackling issues but too early to tell.

Drafting for need is good when there is a top talent left on the board but getting 3rd talent in the first round isn't helping and there has to be a problem with the scouting department when it comes to LB and secondary players, outside of Shazier all the picks have been poor or serviceable but no standouts.

 

There's no pleasing everyone, every team has weaknesses, makes mistakes, misses on draft picks, etc. There's a lot of good to say about the owners, about Colbert, about many players and coaches. That said, I've had three big complaints for a while now:

- Tomlin has serious shortcomings
- We ignore deficiencies on Defense and/or improperly fill them (including coaches)
- We should have let Bell go

All three of those things are killing this team now. All three of them have been glaringly obvious. It's inexcusable.

 

Do you think their performance would be any worse than what we're seeing currently?

 

So our GM and head coach are both incompetent and yet have never combined for a losing season. Man we must be lucky.

 

we have a LB. it doesn't matter if he was a draft pick or not he's here and better than what we are fielding right now. all we need to do is play him. we have another on the PS and one we are waiting 6 weeks to get back. they are pretty good but we have 2 hard headed coaches that won't put them out there. did i mention we are sucking hind teet in our division right now.

 

This post suggests that taking JuJu Smith-Schuster in the second round of the 2017 draft was a mistake. That clearly is not true.

Your overall point is fine, but that bit, not so much.

 

Steelers are good at drafting offense in the '10s decade. Horrible at drafting defense.

 

I never said that JuJu isn't a good player or a mistake, but it wasn't their most pressing need at the time. All the great offense in the world doesn't mean a thing if you can't stop anybody on defense.

 

On the PS Keion Adams hasn't shown anything, I agree Thomas needs to get on the field some.

 

Or............

 

Just like last year when they couldn't find snaps for Harrison but instead just kept shlepping Dupree out there....oh wait it was because of his great coverage skills. Wait how many INTs or PD did he have....oh that's right...none. Well teams must of been just to scared to throw his direction....except for the fact they weren't. Oh! Now this year a side switch is in order. When they should of tried it some last year with Watt and Harrison. Oh well the MO of this staff is a day late and a dollar short....
KA should be given a chance. Some want to laugh and say he hasn't shown anything,when he hasn't been given a chance.....does he have Dupree's " cover" skills probably not but I bet he is already a better pass rusher and that's what we need,not cover LBs.

 

Colbert is fine. I have seen enough of the confusion on this team from a preparation standpoint to know who's fault it is. Mike Tomlin is a lousy coach, always has been. Nothing will change. Mike McCarthy is in the same boat. Both overrated and have had their stink covered by hall of fame QBs.

 

He needs to listen to TSF. Consensus this offseason/TC:

Draft LB
Don't tag Bell and sign quality FA to help D
Cut Berry

Anything else?

 

Very hard to judge the drafts in hindsight. (but I'll do it lol).. If anything could be criticized, it was not drafting a safety in the 2017 draft where it was loaded. Then they drafted 18 safeties this year, thus limiting our chances at a LBer. But the LBers available later in the 2018 draft didn't wow me either. They did want to get the Alabama LBer in the first but he got picked. Not Colbert's fault he wasn't available. Plan B was Bostic.

I liked both the '17 and '18 drafts overall, but if they nabbed a safety last year, maybe Edmunds isn't the pick and a LBer would have been chosen at some point this year in rnds 1 or 2. Safety was an obvious need in the '17 draft as well.

 

Are you actually doubling down on that? Seriously? Smith-Schuster was a huge part of the team going 13-3 in 2017 and he is an even bigger part of the offense now. Yes, the defense needs to get better, but they got a great young player in the second round. It was the right call. I say this as someone who was critical of the pick at the time. I got that wrong. They got it right. Smith-Schuster is more than worth the pick they spent on him.