Secondary Woes

The mass confusion was very concerning, but I attribute that to a new coordinator and some planned schematic changes. And maybe no Troy Polamalu screws things up for us, too, since he was always doing his own thing. Once the communication improves then I think we start seeing better play by default. Guys starting to think less and play more.

The good news is that any confusion and communication problems should be able to be worked out given time. Then they can go back to being the average-at-best group that they are, which is all that we need them to be at this point, and is all that they were planned to be, as well. We have basically nothing invested into the DB's expect a midrange FA contract and a 2nd round pick. I think, communication issues aside, that they are meeting expectations.

All they need to do is keep stuff in front of them, not give up big plays, and allow the front 7, which has HEAVY investment, to try to make the splash plays and keep touchdowns off the board. They basically did that against the Cheats. They bent but didn't give up anything big. Once inside the RZ things fell apart quick.

As a unit they are better than a lot of us are giving them credit for, but they clearly aren't as good as we all want them to be.

 

Why is nobody talking about how Shamarko's inability to beat out a backup quality player in Will Allen as having a dramatic impact on the secondary? Are we at the point yet where we can call him a bust? Or are we going to keep defending him and giving him chances? They put Golden on the field as the third safety before him....

 

He is not a bust he is a in the box Safety only .He can play in the box we will have to draft around him or change the scheme, he will never be a Cover 2 Safety...

We need a FS that can play center field and a CB who can Invert and play Shamarko's Deep Half.

 

A safety that can't cover is a bust.

 

we need a young will allen. if we go to this cover two, shamarko may become expendable. then again it's something he hasn't really played a lot of so maybe there is still hope there. my concern is how he's moving, it's not the same as when he first got here before that initial ankle injury. golden may have to step it up too. he's far from new here.

 

Not really. If he can play well in the box and he can guard a TE or RB then he can play in certain schemes and may play very well in those schemes. So is he limited yes he is greatly .Like trying to run sweep with your GL running back probably not going to work very often .

The Team needs to except him for what he is and get him in the right scheme or move him on .. I do think the tape shoes he is capable of playing in the box and has value in that regard.

 

It is one thing to get beat by bigger faster players, but when you get beat because your not in the right area and forget to cover the other teams best receiver more than one time, then we ever get some stupid players or bad coaching. A few more games and we will be able to tell what the problem is. I suspect some of both.

These issues were there in the preseason and last year and it shouldn't be a surprise this year. The three question marks with our secondary coming into this season have so far all have been bad.

1. Mitchell - taking bad angles and not in the right area (Same as last year)

2. Cortez - still does not have the confidence and can't make the turn to the ball. (Same as last year)

3. S. Thomas - even M Tomlin says now that his problem is mental (why does it take his third year to figure this out?)

 

Boykin was limited in practice yesterday and didn't participate today. Pretty likely he'll be out Sunday.

 

Not sure we can gauge Cortez's confidence level after one game.

 

Cortez had confidence issues last year, plus all the preseason game and the first game this year. Hence he is suppose to get less playing time this game and may soon get benched completely just like last year. It's a shame because I think he has the best build of all the CB's.

 

Cortez Allen is our 4th highest paid player this season at $6,981,000 with a $5,400,000 dead money hit if he gets released. Got a lot invested there and not in a good way.

 

Yuuuuuupppppp

 

I think that even today, the Steelers D misses James Farrior. He seemed to always have everyone lined up where they were supposed to be.

 

1. I didn't notice Mitchell being exceptionally bad. Forced a fumble at the goal line that ultimately didn't turn into a tune over unfortunately. Idk I'm not going to re watch it so I'll take your word for it.

2. Tez didn't look good at all.

3. I could've told you that last year. That's the only reason why he wouldn't have seen the field during our games with Safety injuries. It didn't take until year three to figure that out. They knew it all last year. I'm assuming they were hoping that he would improve.

The reason why our secondary is weak is because we've missed on our draft picks at S and CB in the past 5 years. We've cut a bunch of our drafted CBs and the safeties taken are ST only type of guys in Shamarko and Golden. We went FA and it appears that Mitchell hasn't been as effective as we had hoped when we signed him. We better start hitting at those positions soon. It will be the difference between going 8-8 to 10-6 every year and sneaking into the playoffs and being a team that could win it all.

 

If Boykin plays our high dollar corner is #4 on the chart. Why, WHY did they pay him that money?

 

I think we almost had to take a chance on his (Cortez Allen) continued improvement since we didn't have much else. Unfortunately he regressed.

 

Yeah, that's looking to be like it was a mistake. But as a group, I think our investment is pretty low, or at least middle of the pack league-wide.

 

Some very good points

 

Plus there's recently been a thread about him.

 

People, football is football. I don't care what Edleman/Gronk
skill level is yes they are good but this is the NFL. the remaining players
on our schedule will be good.We have to step up our game. Our players are getting paid also.