Mel Keiper Jr

Obviously. /Tomlin
However, that is due to playcalling more so than personnel. The Quarterback and starting receivers are largely unchanged and I only expect one rookie to start on the line this year barring injury. The second half of the Colts game proved that they can go downfield at will they were simply too stubborn to change what they thought would work.

I highly doubt that Brown is starting this season barring injury. I think it is pretty obvious that Tomlin and Colbert are comfortable playing the entire season with Chukwuma at LT and Banner at RT.

 

Pretty obvious, yep. It's also pretty obvious that Chuks and Banner couldn't crack the lineup of the worst OL in the league last season. Doesn't instill much faith in their ability. Tomlin and Colbert are sending really mixed signals with how they're handling this offseason and the draft.

Are they trying to win now or build for the future or both? Ben certainly points to winning now. But not giving him an upgraded OL makes no sense if you're trying to load up for his final run...unless they think he's going to be here for more than one year. And taking Harris doesn't help the offense without an upgraded OL. So they threw darts at the dart board and hoped that one stuck long enough to pay dividends (next season or beyond).

All this looks pretty disjointed and lacks direction. This was a throw-away season the moment Ben was allowed to return, and the draft solidified that.

 

It's not really about reaching in the draft. It's about putting your entire season in their basket. If they don't start and excel, then the draft is a bust. Harris won't lift a bad OL.[/QUOTE]

I hear you on that but I got to say I think these guys can excel from what I have seen. I think we plug them in, I would rather have a bad offensive line with rookies that are giving it their all than have a bad offensive line with Kendrick Green and Dan Moore Jr. sitting on the bench

 

What are you talking about? Banner was the starter week 1 and Chukwuma started 15 games in his stead. The line was actually pretty decent early on. It degraded due to attrition taking a toll on our 3 30+ starters, one of whom retired at the end of the season. This year Decastro will be the only 30+ starter and will hopefully not be dealing with injury like he was last year.

Also, getting rid of the best quarterback on your roster is throwing away the season.

 

Conner and Snell combined for 1365 rushing and receiving

I predict Harris has over 1500 his rookie year

That's only 88 yards a game

Is that enough to win football games? Idk.

HACK

 

We got good players in the first four rounds. All should be able to contribute to help solve the problems we had running the ball last season. But that wasn’t the real problem in my opinion. The problem was teams were defending our short passing game and thus they already had eight and nine guys in the box which helped them defend against the run also.
Get that intermediate passing game going in a lot of our problems running the ball will solve theirselves.

 

Well they have a new OC, a new RB, so I expect better results in the running game.

 

As do I...



Provided Big Ben can get on board.

 

Steelers need a freakin guy who can get 1 damn yard when we need it. Harris is the guy.

 

But they have the same old QB who doesn't want to play under center.

 

While I get where you're coming from, I also think you're sticking to some generalized conclusions regarding a more complex scenario, neglecting some of nuances that can factor in as well. The players comprising the offensive line are certainly central to its success, but there are other elements that, too, can (and should) be addressed as part of the overall process of improving the offense.

Not drafting for the OL until the third can come off as ignoring the foundation in favor of building the penthouse, but in a year strong on OL depth I can understand the thinking when high talent/low depth players like Harris and Frieirmuth are available. They leveraged the deeper talent pool (along with potential improvements in scheme and returning players) in order to select premier talent at RB and TE to further bolster the offense. It's not a perfect plan, but given the amount of issues they have to address I think it unrealistic to expect a more cohesive solution over the course of a single (cash-strapped) offseason.

Colbert's moves , IMO, show relatively stable decisions being made (where he's so allowed - e.g., I don't think he would've chosen to have Ben back this year) in order to steadily rebuild the overall talent level without over-compensating and playing significantly more to either the immediate or future.

 

Kiper was not alone in his response to the draft picks of Tomlin and Colbert. You have to be ecstatic knowing all the grades below. There is solace in knowing the 1974 draft sans Stallworth and Swann was panned by most everyone. Remember? They wasted a 2nd round pick on some skinny ass small college linebacker, jack Lambert. Some guard they wanted to turn into a center. How did that Webster kid even make the team. Oh well, at least they did not waste one of their 17 picks on some kid with a girl's name, Donnie Shell.

NBC Sports: C-

Draft Wire: C

The Draft Network: C

Pro Football Focus: C

CBS Sports (Pete Prisco): C

Sports Illustrated: C+

Yahoo! Sports: C+

 

mels kind of like santa claus, he had his day in the sun and now we won't see him for a year.

 

I thought that was a groundhog

 

the groundhog has better hair. well so does santa.

 

Don't really disagree with that, but it wasn't stacking the box that pushed our linemen back into the backfield on most running plays. The intermediate passing game can't and won't improve with a sub 2.6 release. It starts up front. It ends up front. Without vastly improved OL play, the running game won't improve, nor will the intermediate passing game.

 

Fair points, all. And yes, I'm pretty much a broken record at this point regarding the OL. I've been lamenting its deficiencies for a couple years now. That's why I'm doubling down on it now.

I totally agree that there are other factors that contribute to the overall health and success of an offense. I wouldn't even tread as lightly as to call them "nuances." My gripe (one of my gripes, actually) is that we didn't do enough in the past to prepare for the loss of cornerstones (i.e., Ben and Pouncey). And after losing more of the better pieces of a bad OL, our best effort to fix it is to draft two OL who might not even start day 1.

It isn't as much that we didn't use our first pick on an offensive lineman, but that we didn't end up with a better OL at the end of the day. Presumptuous? Absolutely.

I'm very pessimistic, but even more, I hope I'm wrong. I have just seen more of the same leadership and decision-making that I've seen for years. I'm not surprised by how this offseason has developed because I've seen this show before. Tomlin and company throw darts with the best of them, just hoping that they made the right decision, or simply turtling and making no decision whatsoever. It's the very definition of insanity. And it's not new.

That's why I'm so grumpy. That's why I keep spouting the same pessimism over and over again.

And it's why I keep saying that I hope I'm wrong. I would much rather the Steelers succeed than for me to be right about them being unable to keep this franchise from falling further from what it once was, the greatest sports franchise in sports.

 

This. If he is so damn good at what he does, wouldn't conventional wisdom dictate that he'd be a GM of one of the 32 teams it's been his career to evaluate? Any mongoloid can study the draft and team priorities for a few hours then hit 60-70% on the top 20 in the first round and call himself an expert draft analyst. I would submit that at this point Kiper is just as famous for his silly pompadour as he is for his draft predictions and grades. He's no more of an authority of anything NFL related to me than Stephen A. ("A" for a**hole) Smith, Colin Cowturd or Skip "Gutless" Bayless.

 

Kiper is a loudmouthed no nothing hack who should have honored his promise and retired when Jimmy Clausen busted.

 

In Mel's case, same difference. Punxsutawney Phil would likely be just as accurate.

 

Except for the $400K/yr he makes.....

 

I rip the guy, mostly for self amusement. As some else correctly pointed out, he has made quite a living for himself carving out a niche market years ago by being the so-called go to guru about all things associated with the NFL draft. So, the guy is no dummy and he obviously has some skill. He is also going to miss on picks, just like the pros and people that put mock drafts together for fun. I just find it hard to take him seriously about the grade, even if it was an A+. Why? Well, how long does anyone think he studied all 32 teams and all their picks versus their positions of need enough to offer an honest, in depth assessment? He has become the McDonald's of draft analysts. Yeah, it'll cure the hunger, but it's not real satisfying and you'll likely regret it soon enough.

 

I actually feel the OLine issues could be a bit exaggerated. Dotson and Decastro is potentially a good guard pairing, maybe very good if DeCastro is healthy.

They loved Banner by all accounts before he went down with that ACL, he could be an improvement over Villanueva and we know Chuks is ok, not great, but ok, he won’t kill them.

Center is a big question but maybe a combination of Finney / Green gives them acceptable play there.

Then we have the new coaching staff, Canada and Klemm will do everything they can to have these guys ready. The predictably we saw last season absolutely played in to the perceived problems.

Optimistic outlook, but still, I’m not sure the line is destined to be a total disaster. There is a chance they get back to at least average.