Seattle CB Richard Sherman

Steelers Pass Defense:
2010: #12 in the NFL
2011: #1 in the NFL
2012: #1 in the NFL
2013: #9 in the NFL

They weren't playing man press, they were the same old Dick Lebeau zone Cover 3/Cover 6 aka "cushions".

Maybe... it's more complicated than the simplicity of "just get better corners and play man to man"

 

Must be that simple RPO if people keep clamoring for a top flight corner who will simply nullify a portion of the field just for Tom Brady to change his tactics; Bill Belichick the same.


A top flight front seven is what won Pittsburgh six super bowls last time I recall. I would not mind having another great cornerback (or we already have one should Artie undergo his "Sophomore Explosion" of a season), but the issue is cap space. Very few players are often worth the money they are given to other teams.


Let us take Josh Norman for example. He was supposed to improve the back end of the Redskins per his contract. He was not signed for the sole purpose of improving the defense as a whole. Washington thought they had their front seven completed. Turns out they did not and Josh Norman, while a good corner, is now eating up some serious cap sapce that could have gone elsewhere.


To truly improve a defense, one must invest in the players who can not only get to the quarterback but stifle top flight rushing attacks. Once those issues are solved, then go for the backend but only if the transformation of the front seven is nearing completion or is complete altogether.


Having a top flight secondary against New England may halt some of Brady's success but so long as he has time, his targets will get open at some point. Five seconds in coverage is taxing even for the most elite of cornerbacks or safeties. As a result, much of the same outcome would have happened in New England anyway. As me and you have alluded to, it does not matter what coverage scheme you are running against Brady as he has had success with both.



To end my post, as many have stated on this forum, you want to beat Brady?


Knock.

Him.

On.

His.

Butt.



See? Problem solved. Do not believe me? The 2015 AFC Divisional game is quite a good reference point.

 

Disclaimer: my memory is pretty bad and my willingness to go back to look up stats is even worse. I'm thinking we had a better secondary over all back then....and as maligned as Ike was he was a shutdown corner who followed the teams best WR all over the field. I'm not saying it's that simple and that better corners is simply the answer. I do know that the league has become more of a quick passing league....where it pretty much just used to be the Pats who did it....now it's almost every team. So I think our strategy back then isn't nearly as effective as it is now. While we can obviously use some fresh blood at OLB I'm not convinced anyone we get can improve our pass rush without having some better players or improved players behind it....Seriosly though I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can go about improving our pass rush...I feel it needs to come from up the middle, we need to improve in that area. It's been proven that teams who can generate pressure up the middle and or from their front four have had the only success in slowing the Pats down....and their corners playing tight coverage and disrupting routes...heck we have actually proved that we can do it.....once....once.

 

Yet two of your top three options on draft day are DBs....Are you sayin our front 7 is all set

 

That is not what I was stating at all.


I am stating that an elite player like Sherman needs some backup to unleash his talents. An elite front seven provides such.


To get back to our "Renegade" days, one more high draft choice of an edge rusher who is capable will solve this issue. Once that is achieved, we will have the capability to beat Brady once and for all, just like we did in 2011.

 

I was just busting your chops a little bit.. Damn do we need a top pick at every position to get where we wanna go? At that point it seems like anybody could coach them.....I'm just so sick and tired of watching the Pats do it with so much less.....so frustrating. Would really love to know how they do it. They pick last almost every year... they trade out of the first round every other year but they still manage to find players to kick our ass

 

They're just cold blooded snakes... Look into their eyes... They been telling lies! Hahahahahaha

Don't care for Bill, but he has his team on a serious leash. He lets studs go and brings in plug ins that are willing to do what's asked of them and puts them in a position to far exceed that of their perceived worth in a fans eyes. He finds a way to squeeze every bit of what they got to offer out of these non all pros. He's just really good at what he does. I'll bet their burger slingers in the stands boast the most profit margin league wide. He seriously could take a toothless lot lizard and maker her julia Roberts escort extreme but only for a season or 2 hahahahahaha

 

That is EXACTLY what I thought when I saw the title of the thread. LOL!

 

More importantly front four ....lots of coverage in the back end

 

I understand completely.


It takes time to build one's vision of their defense. A defense that not only follow's ones blueprints to the letter but one that is capable of being continually reloaded as opposed to being rebuilt. While some NFL defense do work this way, others do not. For example, a press man coverage corner may not work in a cover 2/ cover 3 or a single high centerfielding safety may not bode well for teams like the Vikings who like their safeties to be good enough to play both run support and deep zone.


When one is hasty upon building those ideals by attempting to purchase players based on performance who come from possibly differemt schemes or have different playstyles, it defeats the purpose of ones visiom and entices and subsequently invites failure. Just look at how much money and talent Jacksonville has stockpiled since 2014. I believe they have spent close to half a billion dollars in attempting to right the ship ($488,413,000 to be specific). Pittsburgh barely gets close to $90 million ($86,865,000).


Within the same token, poor or inadequate choices in the draft are also culprits of poor showcasings by teams. Only if a team is in the process of rebuilding with the cash to spend on players who line up with their philosophies should splurge on said players. Otherwise, if a team has had success in building through the draft and acquiring players that do fit the system for that team, the aforementioned procedure should be continued. Besides, there are usually plenty of players who do need eithet extensions or be tagged if that player does call for it. Other players enter a contract year and teams usually want to take care of those first; ones in their rookke season no less.


Once a team has completed their rebuild of a defense, all it takes really is finding who are the bluechip players, who are good depth players and which players can be replaced should there be any depth issues. Once that phase is completed, all that remains is implementing the system to that teams players. Once the players understand the system, the results will soon bear fruit.



We were seeing the infancy stages of this at the end of Dick LeBeau's tenure when he alluded to the notion that the defensive ends would "get up field a little more". Year two of the 3-4 "Eagle" defense was really year one for Butler; one thay saw an increase in sacks. We were supposed to see the near completion of that in year two of Butler's but year three in total but Bud Dupree's injury derailed the process. We saw the fruits of labor being picked after a 75% Dupree took the field.


This will be the fourth year of our "rebuild" but the third year of Butler's system. One more piece with some solid depth is all the remain; much of which can be easily acquired in the draft. When that process is finished, our ascent to the "Stairway To Seven" will commence.

 

Wow nice write up....thanks for taking the time. By the time your vision comes to fruition we will be looking for a new franchise QB....good luck with that. Like I said nice write up but you managed to make me feel worse....The Pats just won 2 SBs in the last few years with basically two different rosters,I think I remember reading 30 new players....why does it feel like we are always bringing a knife to a gun fight....sigh.

 

Not exactly.



As I stated in my final paragraph, one more piece remains. Thay piece can and will be acquired in the upcoming draft. That and some depth will ensure that this new defense can be held up for years to come.

 

Sign him, sign everyone

 

........and if one piece of this dream team gets hurt ala Dupree the whole system falls apart? Cmon man the Pats traded their best defensive player ....a guy we would probably trade Dupree straight up for Jamie Collins mid season and they still won the SB with a D that basically shut down the best O in football. Butler has been around forever under Lebeaus wing...that "eagle " should of landed a long time ago....You als can't compare a team like Jacksonville tha hasn't had a franchise QB to build around for the last 12 years...

 

Yet he couldn't win in Cleveland. Even Bill has his limitations.

 

i agree it's a juggling act. do we want to try to win in bens last year or two? that is a theory.

our core defense will help out whomever the new qb would be once he does hang it up and i'd hate to see any players like tuitt or shazier go anywhere, nor should they.

my thoughts on gilbert are about him being at the end of his 2nd contract and the way we are getting a couple of guys ready it seems to me (hawkins-mihalik) and hopefully AV to take over. we have that same o-line coach that finally taught gilbert to play at this level coaching them too. they kept mihalik around on the active last year after getting him back. gilbert will be hitting that 31-32 year age by 2018. will he get a 3rd contract?

ramon should be gone by 2018.

hubbard should be cap friendly if he's kept.

many things could play out by that year, draft, injury, age, retirement. core player though like tuitt are hard to come by and if it came down to a guy like tuitt or a guy like gilbert by then, i'd have to go tuitt.

 

Pete Carroll couldn't win in New York 30 years ago either... Some come in and are great out of the gate, some build up to their success while others appear to spend a lengthy amount of time trying to recapture whatever magic they lost long ago.

Dude is on top And has been for awhile... Cleveland can't win in Cleveland so I don't know what you're trying to get at.

 

Exactly

 

Well if people believe that one superb cornerback who can nullify a field is going to defeat Brady, I wonder what would have been if Pittsburgh had just a good enough front seven but an elite secondary against Kurt Warner's Cardinals in XLIII? The same Cardinals that were lighting up NFL postseason records at the time?


I wonder what the results would have been then?

 

I wasn't questioning your assessment of Darth Hoodie; I was pointing out that nobody wins in Cleveland.

 

Total pipe dream. Not happening. But fun thinking about, much like your dreams of riches when purchasing that 2 dollar lottery ticket when Power Ball is 650 million.

The dude would hate being in Pittsburgh since the powers that be would want him to keep his mouth shut. He has a helluva lot more freedom to spit out quotable quotes in Seattle.

Nonetheless, I would be happy as hell to see him in a Steeler uni.