Marcus Gilbert/Willie Colon & Jonathan Scott

Was reading an article where Kevin Colbert confirmed that Marcus Gilbert would be kicking over to Left Tackle in 2012 as Willie Colon would be coming back to play Right Tackle and Jonathan Scott would be in the mix as the competition.

What is wrong with this picture? First of all, Gilbert did a creditable job as a rookie at RT. In his second season, he should be even better, however, Colbert is talking about switching him to the left side wear it is considerably harder to play which he would have to learn to play all over again. Makes no sense!

Also, Colon has not played in two years or seasons, he is injury prone, and as many Steelers fans have discused on the board that they think he would be better at guard, which I agree. Again, makes no sense!

As far as Jonathan Scott is concerned, he is not a starter which the Steelers found out last year and ended up bringing Starks back. Scott got ate up against the Colts DE, it was disgraceful. I don't even think he is a good backup.

Again, whats wrong with this picture?

Why do the Steelers keep on messing with these terrible O-Linemen? Ben has been sacked an intolerable amount of times the last three years. He has been injured the last three years because of this terrible o-line and missed games while Eli Manning has never missed a game due to injury in his career. Whats wrong with this picture? The Steelers keep on talking about, Max Starks and WIllie Colon who have both been injured the past two years, Jonathan Scott who is not very good, Kemo who is a complete liability on the line, and are now talking about switching Gilbert from RT where he did a creditable job as a rookie to LT where he would have to learn how to play in the pros.

The Steelers have forsaken the O-Line and continue to make crazy statements about how to fix it. Time is up for all the stupid stuff, they need to draft a couple of studs this year who can start or get a stud from free agency to go with a stud draft pick. Time to let go of Starks, Colon, Kemo, and Scott. They have all proven to be quite a liability very often in their careers.

 

wish it was as easy as dafting a couple STUDS! but a team is lucky to find just one stud in the WHOLE daft! and we have NO money for free agents much less a Stud OT!

 

ALL STINK!

 

This has been the plan for Gilbert all along, get him some time under his belt and move him to LT. They did the same with Marvel Smith. You act like switching him to LT is the end of the world and he wont know what to do/etc. He's played LT in college and protected the blindside of QBs (at LT and RT)...he also played pretty well there during the preseason. He will be fine. And its not fair to Colon to say he's injury prone...these are like the only 2 injuries he's had...and it sucks they were as severe as they were, but it doesnt mean he's injury prone quite yet. As far as Scott (if he makes the team with his 2.5 mil) I read it was said Scott would be in the mix as the swing OT (aka backup)...though he plays much better at RT than LT, but still.

I do agree that Kemo should and probably will be gone at some point. Starks is a FA whos injured (though he is not a liability as you claim) and probably wont be back (unless its during the season due to another injury and he's ready to go/etc). And I could see Scott cut...DEPENDING on how much of his 2.5 mil can be saved by cutting him.

Why don't we all just wait and see what the line looks like come later this year instead of making it sound like you know everything and this is exactly how its gonna be and what they should do/etc. I think the line will be much improved, especially if they add a high round OG.

 

What I do know is some of these guys we like the least will be back. You just can't afford to cut everyone. Only olinmen I don't see returning is Kemo. Starks because he is injured and only had a one year deal. So, that's two. The rest of the bunch i see returning next year.

 

Disagree completely. If you look at our past 10 drafts or so and look at every Olineman we drafted (except Pouncey and Gilbert) we kept taking guys in the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th rounds. We have drafted a ton of Olineman in the last decade, but they've all been late round picks and most have never been starters in the NFL. We can't afford to keep going after lineman in the later rounds, we have a QB who is getting killed, RB's who can't get past the line, all because we haven't had a good line in a long time. We simply can't afford to keep letting our QB and RB's get smashed. Yes, a RB will take hits from LB'ers all day long, but they can't handle those 300 lb Dlineman crushing them as soon as they get the ball.

We neglected it for too long and now we absolutely need to take either an OT or guard in the 1st round. It's not that expensive anymore to pay rookies.

 

A couple of points here:

1. It is not inherently harder to play Left Tackle than Right Tackle. LT is more important, but not harder. Some guys get really used to one side, and are pretty good at it, and can't play as well on the other side. Colon is a good example of this. In 2009 he was our best lineman, but couldn't play the left side because it's just not his thing. Some guys might even be better on the left side, because that's what they got used to in college, but then switch to the right side in the pros because it is seen as less important. Their play there might not be as good as it would be on the left, but that might not be so noticeable since the right side is generally less dangerous.

2. All this "left" and "right" talk is mostly the wrong use of words. What we're really talking about here is the QB's blind side and the side he can see easier. Since Ben is right handed, we are the norm and the left is more important. If he was a lefty, things might be different.

3. In Marcus Gilbert's specific case, he played both the left side and right side in college (and some guard), and was put on the right side intentionally to protect lefty Tim Tebow's blind side. He's comfortable on the left side; he won't have to start all over again. I expect his progress to pick up where it left off. Perhaps a slight bump in the road, but it's not like we're asking him to learn a new position.

4. He was drafted to play LT for us. This was the plan. He was never going to play RT -- we signed Colon to a long-term deal before Gilbert ever stepped on the field. He was going to be the swing guy and take over for J. Scott whenever he could, but when Colon went down that screwed everything up so they had to put him on the right side.

5. I understand your frustration over the lack of continuity by switching his position, but there are here are a couple of things that might ease your mind:

A. With the line messed up in so many ways, it has to change. Period. Continuity of a crap line is no better than continuity of a crap OC. So there was going to be change no matter what, whether that was shifting guys around, adding new players, or both.

B. As changes go (Gilbert to LT, Colon in at RT), the one on the right side should be pretty smooth. Colon is an experienced veteran, who will play better than Gilbert did last year at the position -- not knocking the rookie Gilbert, but with Colon, it should be better. On the left side, yes Gilbert has little NFL experience there, but he is comfortable at the position. He'll be replacing Starks, who really fell off at the end of the season last year (just watched the Bronco game, and he was total crap). He's younger, more athletic, and gets probably a better push in the running game. Experience is really all he needs. In a way he'll also be replacing Jonathan Scott, and he'll be light years ahead of him. I can see some growing pains happening, but I think it's our best and only play. The only way out is to draft a LT in the first round and move Gilbert to one of the guard positions. That's possible, but won't happen unless the cards fall in a very specific way. I'm not counting on it because they like Gilbert and this draft is supposedly deep with guards. They'll stick with Gilbert/Colon and draft a guard or two, which is cool with me.

C. It's common practice to get a guy's feet wet on the right side and then switch him over to the left side. We did it with Marvel Smith and it worked great. Other teams do it too. Granted, that's not what we were trying to do with Gilbert, but there's precedent that it works.

Well, I agree it's tough to say for sure that he'll make it through the year without another injury. But for a guy who missed two seasons in a row, I don't think it's all that bad. He's not like Sepulveda, who keeps injuring the same thing every other year. His achilles recovered fully and stayed healthy. His tricep is now healthy, with many more months to get stronger. I'm not really worried about either of those things, I'd be more worried that some other random part of him will break down, like his toe or his oblique. But prior to the achilles tear, he didn't miss a single game in his first 4 years. Although he's missed more time, I'd argue he's less injury prone than Pouncey, who seems to get hurt 5 times a year.

Agreed. How they ever thought he was starting material, I'll never know. I guess they were hoping Gilbert would take over for him by week 4. I don't know. I think he's decent as a backup RT, but he has failed too miserably on the left side for me to even want him there as a backup. A guy that unversitile and untalented, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get cut. If Colbert said he's "in the mix to compete," that doesn't sound like much of a commitment to me.

I think Starks is done due to the ACL, Kemo is done because he played too bad even for our coaches this year, and Scott will have to compete very well just to make the roster. I do not see why anyone would want Colon gone at this point. All that does is create an additional void. We'll save very little money by cutting him anyway. I suppose he's a liability because of his health problems the last two years. If he can stay healthy, his return allows Gilbert to go to the left side, and plug a gaping whole there. Without him, we are even more screwed and Ben will be relying on two rookies to protect him instead of one. That "if he can stay healthy" a big if, but if he gets injured again then he doesn't play, how is that different than if we cut him? Both are equally disastrous. By cutting him first I guess we save a little less than a million dollars, but I'll spend that money if it gives us a chance two have one more problem on the OL solved.

 

what do you Disagree completely with? lol i never said i wouldnt take an Olinemen just saying its HARD to find STUD anything

 

It depends who you're going against, sure. By the same exact token, a lot of times put their best pass rusher against the right tackle, because the left tackle is the offense's best blocker and they want sacks, not stalemates. Do you want your best pass rusher going against Joe Thomas every play? Or Tony Pashos? No sense wasting him where he'll get blocked. But I think mostly the guys on defense are just like the guys on offense. They come up on one position and stay there. They don't often move a guy to the right defensive side after finding out what a great pass rusher he is. They are where they are because that's what the team had available when they came around. Woodley would have been a great ROLB, but we had Harrison there by the time Woodley was a starter. When Harrison retires, Woodley will stay on the left side and Worilds will take over for James on the blind side, even if Woodley is still the better pass rusher. Then our best pass rusher will be going against the RT.

Also, nowadays teams with one star pass rusher will put him on whichever side gives him the best matchup. Guys like Ware and Suggs switch sides week to week and sometimes play to play.

My point was that left and right are just left and right, and that's it. It's like a receiver or a corner lining up on one side or another. They two sides are only different because one has higher stakes, and because usually you are used to one side more than another. But Gilbert has lots of experience at both sides, and spent his first NFL preseason preparing for the left side. As for the stakes... well, we just don't have anyone else.

 

Good post nice work....I will add one of the key elements to a guys success at LT, or RT or ROLB or LOLB is the guys they have right beside of them....I think a lot would agree with that...With that said to give this OL the best chance of getting good we need a great LG to put beside Gilbert......This is the part that most think would be to costly ,but I would give up our 2nd. this year to get Decastro,he is clearly the best interior guy in the draft and would make the play of Gilbert 30 or 40 % better right of the bat....IMO there is no one else who could do that and to me that is worth giving up a pick....

 

scott needs to go.......... he is simply not an nfl caliber tackle.... colon is better off at one of the guard spotts, where i think he would be a potential pro bowler (if he could stay healthy that is)... not sure why the coaches insist on keeping him at tackle...... i think gilbert will be just fine with more reps. in the position.

 

Yeah I don't know about Scott.

I'm still a Starks fan. He sured up that line early this season when it was looking bleak. If the front office could know for sure Starks could bounce back from the knee fairly quickly I would offer Starks a low ball contract and cut Scott.

 

I am STUNNED Scott is still even being talked about!! We took a guy off of his couch and started him his very first game back instead of playing Scott. He is horrible!

 

well that guy that came off the couch had just as bad a time in a couple of games too. i don't see a real need to waste money on either of them anymore.

 

as for gilbert, maybe he can and maybe he can't. he had some struggles. just because he played it for one year at fla. doesn't mean a thing. he had a whole different style of offense there. he didn't have a pocket passer during his time there. they had a running qb. this has been talked about before with LT's and RTs from auburn ohio state, and several other programs that had spread running qb's. it's a whole different offense to block for. we have no real plan behind him is my concern. this line still gave up 40+ sacks again last year. when colon was at his best, we still gave up 40+ sacks. both years with pouncey we have given up 40+ sacks. with zerlien as coach we gave up 40+sacks. with max we gave up 40+ sacks. with kuglar we have given up 40+ sacks. something has got to give. i know ben is responsible for alot of them, but so are our linemen. gilberts MO coming out last year was trouble with speed and for his size he was a soft player. we better have a good backup plan by the time the season starts or it could be a long ( or short ) year for ben. however you want to slice it.

 

I don't think you can put Starks down to Scott level. Steelers line was horrible the first couple games. Starks comes back and then it returns to being at least good enough to win...I don't think it was a coincidence.

I'm wary about Starks' knee now, but if he comes back 100% next year into camp he is a better player than Scott EASILY. Plus Starks is a proven vet on both the right and left side. It would feel good having a known commodity as your swing tackle.

 

I don't think you can put Starks down to Scott level. Steelers line was horrible the first couple games. Starks comes back and then it returns to being at least good enough to win...I don't think it was a coincidence.

I'm wary about Starks' knee now, but if he comes back 100% next year into camp he is a better player than Scott EASILY. Plus Starks is a proven vet on both the right and left side. It would feel good having a known commodity as your swing tackle.[/quote:1bge8cuh]
maybe you need to rewatch the games again. starks looked just as bad in a few and scott did well in a few. most didn't even notice scott was in at times. they both had some horrid games. i just think the team can do better then what they bring. remember we have paid starks gobs more then scott over the years , he shouldn't have games equal or lesser then scott after this long as a starter.