Poll: Who starts next to Mike Mitchell week 1?

Obviously a lot still has to happen, but it's an interesting question.

 

Let's pray for no major injuries this year

 

Golden

 

I voted Golden, as that's the realistic choice - though I would be thrilled if any of the others displaced him.

 

Golden starts day one

Cajun

 

I voted Davis, I can really see the Steelers making the commitment to this kid. I know a lot of people here like Golden and he has been ok, I am not looking for just ok and I think Davis can give us more. To me there is no difference in Davis and Grant and what I mean by that is Grant spent most of the year on the PS. The other thing is how much experience does he have at S, so really not much of a difference and I would go with the 2nd round pick. Sadly with us drafting a lot of guys that can play ST I think the door will close of Shark. I was really rooting for this kid but he just hasn't progressed. As always these are just my opinions.........

 

Sean Davis. Lake is going to take him under his wing and we will never look back...Shamarko Thomas might not make the roster let alone start.

 

Golden week 1, Davis by week 8...kid needs some reps.

 

Golden will start, play alright with some struggles but will constantly put out there while the fanbase spins rumors of Tomlin holding Davis back because he doesn't like him

 

Bulb is on, its only 25 watts.

 

none of them. we go with 8 lb'ers.

golden.

 

I think the reality is that the only thing working in Golden's favor over Davis is the 63 GP of experience. That being said MOST of those games are in a special teams role only. Golden has played a major role/backup role on D in probably 10 games. That is the experience he has over Davis.

Thomas has started exactly what zero games in the NFL. Unless he is different that last year, he won't start. We drafted Davis to play, and he will play, the question then becomes....when does he start? My guess is by week 4.

Worse case scenario is probably that he starts after the bye week. They will take that extra practice time to work on some issues and get him in the company.

 

This is the key right now. We all want our team to get through OTA"s and camp with no injuries.

 

Optimistic take, but I can see Shark being a darkhorse. An extra year to learn the position might make the difference.

 

This......in a worse case scenario. But I don't see any reason he can't start from week# 1. There are nothing but cornball guys (supposedly) in front of him and Kurt Cousins doesn't inspire any fear in me from starting him.

But by season's end, Davis will have played the majority of the games for the season and will be the entrenched starter.

 

Golden couldn't make the roster on most teams, in 4 years he has 51 solo tackles 21 assists and 1 pick, that's why he only has 3 starts since he has been here, I would go with the rookie over him just to get some juice flowing on the backend.....

 

we did dummy down the defense early last year. it's a fairly new scheme to all of our db's. gay, thomas, golden, even mitchell started out under DL. we were putting in the tampa 2 early on last year so the only guys that strictly learned it from year one were golson in theory and grant and cockrell. mitchell, golden and gay were learning it after playing in our former defense first. it's fairly new to us as a team concept, at least using it with this hybrid style of defense, so even our two new rookies won't be far behind our so called vets of this system. i think that will help our rooks fall into earlier playing time in this system. when gay got here as a rookie he was more up to speed with our 3-4 because he played it in college. if davis and burns played in anything familiar to what we are teaching as our system now they will not be far behind the others and may get on the field quicker. remember we also have some fast lb'ers that can cover better than we used to have in this system and it shrinks the coverage area for our db's. just my 2 cents worth.

 

Golden. It wouldn't surprise me if Davis only played on special teams in 2016.

It's funny how Steelers fans, especially younger ones, think rookies will miraculously insert themselves into the starting lineup and become All Pro overnight. I've been watching the Steelers closely since the mid 1980's and it's only happened a few times. Kendrell Bell and Casey Hampton come to mind. Roethlisberger was pretty good, too, as a rookie.

 

Yeah he was all right, I guess.

 

Troy Polamalu and Ed Reed were both first round picks and they did not set the world on fire, by any means, during their rookie seasons. Polamalu couldn't beat out Mike Logan. Sean Davis may turn out to be great... but I'm not getting my hopes up for him starting along side Mitchell in 2016 unless injuries take their toll.

 

And here in lies the problem: This isn the 1980's or 1990's anymore. You can't let guys sit and then finally mature. Also, we've picked up something called a "salary cap" since the 1980's. LOL. Guys sit and then finally play in their second to last year under contract and then once they get good, they end up at another team. You get these guys coached up and playing now.

Until Green signed, there was almost a 100% idea that the lead TE had to be like Heath blah, blah, blah. He had to be able to be a great blocker like Heath blah, blah, blah.

Green brings more speed and athleticism to the TE position then we've had in a long time. Does he block like Heath? No. But we have joined the 20th century and finally learned that the lead TE main function better be to pass catch. Blocker being 2nd on the priority on the list.

 

Let's see how Green does before we annoint him the next "Antonio Gates." If Green gives us the same TD production at TE that Jerricho Cotchery gave us at slot WR during his last year as a Steeler... I'll be very happy. I'm not expecting Green to be the next "Gronkowski."

I was referring to rookies from the 80's to present day, over 3 decades... with or without a salary cap. It doesn't matter. Rookies, generally, do not contribute immediately and consistently on the Steelers or any other NFL team. I don't care how well they are coached up. There have been exceptions like Randy Moss... but those players are few and far between.

 

Like Marcus Peters for the Chiefs last year? LOL.

If we can get Burns and Davis to play only half as well as Peters last year, we'll be in the Super Bowl.

We were 30th out of 32 teams. They don't have to do THAT much to be better then 30th. LOL. The ceiling is looooooow. lmfao!!