Right Tackle

I think from here on out, we should draft only the most gifted players who will be good right away. Leave the less gifted players for other teams....like the browns.

 

No sarcasm here! This is the blueprint to success!

 

I'm not looking to avoid conflict, and I'm not stating my opinions as facts. Beachum giving up 7 sacks in limited starts despite receiving more TE help than I can ever recall a LT receiving is a fact. Whether Beachum will ever develop into a quality LT is by definition an opinion.

 

This is the offensive line configuration I am hoping comes out of camp too. Should the Yankey kid fall to us in the second, I'd plug him in for Foster.

 

to me if adams beats out gilbert for the right tackle spot, I'd cut gilbert. I also have a concern about adams and this court case, where they are trying to turn the tables on him taking a toll on his concentration.

I'd like two guys from this draft and we could be set for years. whether it's 4-5 rd. two 5ths or a 5th and 6th. Michael schofield and Wesley Johnson.

beachum,schofield,Johnson,Wallace,pouncey,embernate,DD,adams,hubbard. covers all positions and adds good depth at LT,RT,G and C. we wouldn't have to touch this unit for many years.

 

Cut Gilbert? Why, for the money? How much would we save?

 

I said if adams beats him out. as a RT only guy he doesn't hold a lot of value. after 4 years and getting beat out by a younger guy why not save the money? it's around 800K. same with adams if he doesn't perform. to many qb, hits, hurries, sacks and penalties. we can do better. I know munch could help, but I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that they have worked with these two a lot on technique already, it's not some secret technique that munch will bring in here that nobody else in the league doesn't know about. it's the players. we have no need for that many RT only players. we have tons of guys that can play RT. foster, abdullah the butcher, embernate, adams, gilbert, beachum. only one is playing LT at any type of decency. this is my thinking on it snack. I only want two in the draft. Johnson and schofield. that's not to much to ask for is it? LOL

 

can gilbert play LT? your swing man has to be able to do that.

 

Well Foster is not only better suited at guard, he happens to be our starting LG. And I know you don't like Gilbert, but don't you see just a teensy bit of dropoff from him to Embernate, an UDFA guard that's played a handful of preseason snaps and is coming off a torn ACL and MCL? And I know you don't like Gilbert, but to me the worst thing anyone can say about him are that he's inconsistent; Guy Whimper is the solution? To call that guy inconsistent is more like a compliment, since before last year when he filled in surprisingly well, he was consistently bad. And he'd probably also do less damage inside at guard.

I'm not trying to say Gilbert is great or anything, but I think a lot of people, for whatever reason, just block out anything good that he's done and focus solely on his downsides. He has ups and downs like anyone, but seems to me like he carries a target on his back. Some players are like that. If he loses his job this year, it will be not because he declined, it will be because Adams got significantly better. That's a good thing. Gilbert has been a starter for us whose play has ranged from meh to solid to downright good.

He has experience on the left side and feels at home there, and has seen practice there, and would probably fare much better than the guy who hypothetically beat him out on the other side. And if history is any indicator, our offensive line is made of peanut brittle. Cutting him would just be hurting the team for no good reason, even if he loses his starting job.

 

it depends on how they all do in this zone system. foster is not really built for it, unless he drops some weight, at either position.

we have yet to see much from gilbert on the left side. why wouldn't he be there? there is some good footage of gilbert but just no consistency. I'm not convinced he can play the left side either. I'm sure he can line up over there as a body and make a few pass blocks too, but not as many as he won't. I think we could do better with a player with more upside. I'm just not sure if he or adams is that guy. I think it comes down to he or adams on the right side and the other gets traded or cut.

 

If Beachum turns out to be a keeper at LT, then I agree that one of these guys will go, but I see no reason for that to happen until after next season. If Adams wins, Gilbert will probably get paid to start somewhere else after his contract runs out. If they keep Gilbert but add a new body (which I'm not opposed to), there is still Whimper's spot; I'd rather see him go than either Gilbert or Adams, so we could end up with both of them in 2015 too. I don't think it will make much difference money-wise.

I'm all for an open competition, and even adding another OT in the draft when the value presents itself. And I'm not trying to make excuses, but I think there's reason to hope for a good season from Gilbert. To summarize his first three seasons:

Season 1. Started almost the whole year and played better than most people expected him to. Seemed like the answer at RT.
Season 2. Blamed by fans for injuring DeCastro in preseason, but then silenced the haters by not allowing a sack for the first 5 weeks, before he was injured and put on IR.
Season 3. Up-and-down season, but battled an injury for much of it and we don't really know how much it affected him. http://www.steelersdepot.com/2014/0...h-a-leg-that-was-two-different-sizes-in-2013/ If that's as true as Ramon Foster says it is, then not only should he be better once he's healthy, but he should be earning bonus points from us for playing through an injury and not making excuses about it.

 

and I know we've been round and round about this, but it doesn't always take a sack to ruin a play.

 

The reason I said "silenced the haters" is because they were hating really loud due to DeCastro's injury all the way up until the season started, at which point they kinda just stopped. It's hard to play badly under the radar in Pittsburgh, especially on the OL. I thought he played well during that stretch.

 

yea, I remember. he does have stretches he plays well, but he also still has the same problems as when he got here.

he has gotten help too to that side. when he got injured and adams got injured, beachum played over there. I said it then that the extra help they used to give adams and gilbert at RT hurt beachum. he has much quicker footwork and the help he got usually took him off his man he already had under control. where that helped adams and gilbert, it hurt beachum.

I will say for as big as gilbert is he gets walked back into ben too often for my liking. double moves kill him and adams and gilbert falls off of too many blocks. no it's not every play but this all adds up. heck there are times he mauls his man.

consitancy and now having to stay with his block longer across the field in the zone scheme and I don't see good things about to happen. same with foster. he can maul his man and hit some pulls in close range, but make him go to the 2nd level and stay with some LB'ers across the field and he's just not that type of player.

I know we both like schofield. we both like Johnson as do the steelers. some one will be the odd man out. whomever they get and play on that side should be just as agile and able to play the left side too. I would like to see these two drafted and put up against adams and gilbert or whimper for that fact.

 

I don't understand the mentality of fans that seem to want to give putrid players like Mike Adams a million chances to start. He is absolutely terrible. Could he get better in 2 years, 4 years, 10 years? Maybe, but why would we care at this point? A late round rookie would have a great chance of performing better than he. If it took me 3 years to learn how to do my job, no employer would hire me.

There are oodles of veteran o-linemen out there that could/would perform better than he could. While Munchak might be able to make him into a moderately mediocre player from an absolute garbage player, I would rather see Munchak work with and turn a good player into a great player.

It is time to move on from the Mike Adams disaster and get new players into the system.