Steelers Release Levi Brown, Curtis Brown, And Larry Foote

I hope not let the younger players play Williams, Garvin, and maybe Spence if he's healthy.

 

In a perfect scenario, he wouldn't even see the field in 2014 even if he's on the roster. If JJ gets better you'd rather him play ROLB than Woodley, and hopefully niether OLB gets hurt. Woodley isn't a ST'er either so he will essentially be a 13.59 million dollar paper weight. I guess our disconnect BF is that you still have hope that Woodey can return to a similar form he was before 2011, and I don't. I would love to see him tear OT's apart like he did early in his career and earn that huge salary, but that just isn't him anymore. Woodley's cap hit is more than 1/10th of our team's cap space. That just can't happen. We could use that money in the future to sign a FA who will actually contribute, or sign our in house guys like Heyward, C. Allen, and Pouncey. We could more than afford 2 out of those 3 with only the cap relief from Woodley getting cut.

You're right that there isn't a whole lot in FA in terms of 34 OLB's this year though, and only having JJ and Worilds is definitey running us thin. We would only need a short term (maybe 2 year) rental. I think this whole situation has just pushed OLB way up the draft board too. While I wouldn't be shocked to see a older FA like Pace or Phillips on a short term contract, we could just draft someone higher up the draft board like Attaochu or Van Noy and be done with it.

 

Thank you for your service Persian Dough boy,I too feel you shouldn't venture far in case of injuries to the LB corp.

 

again I think it will come down to the new hybrid defense we saw more of last year. the sub package if you will. Woodley would be a nice piece of the puzzle in this scheme. that's worilds and Woodley's strengths. using two down linemen in more of a DT role we have. it eliminates the need for the casey Hampton style NT too. mclendon and woods can fill that role easier if they are then used in the sub package that is more of a strength to their game. it could lead to less time for JJ or the need for a foote type ILB. pass coverage is needed in this package and that ain't larrys strength. most are stuck in this old style 3-4 we have always run and I think it's changing more and more as we use it and it will take some different type of players at some positions. DL hasen't lost his ability to come up with new stuff yet and this is part of it.

 

Me too! haha

 

I'm not sure why but this thread brought two thoughts into my small but feeble mind. One, I'm not worried about Foote...Detroit can probably use his help. Oh yeah, they tried that once already. Two, I'm thinking with DL's complicated system we should start recruiting high school players so that by the time they are old enough to play in the NFL they might, actually, be ready to start instead of sitting until their contract is due for renegotiations.

 

I think we continue to get better on defense with Williams, garvin, Thomas, and JJ. 4 guys that saw a ton of time in year 1. I hope JJ keeps his spot. Woodley shouldn't be rewarded for losing his spot to worilds and I don't think worilds or Woodley have ever played the right side well or they would be there. now in some sub packages he should get playing time if we keep him and I don't see him going anywhere without a proven backup. he will also sub in for worilds from time to time to keep fresh legs rushing the qb.

I'm not expecting spence to get a starting job right away if he can go. the kid has been out for a long time and will have to get back to playing better on ST's early. I think garvin is a sub package player too, and Williams will improve as he did while the year went on. the shark was only held back by the high ankle sprain which cost him practice time or his role would have been expanded. he will certainly start over will allen.

I'm thinking we will see a lot of the sub package and will allen, Woodley, garvin and possibly spence and the new corner will see time in it. I believe we are starting to get back to having depth on defense again and will use fresh players as we can. I'm not counting out the use of arnfelt too as a rotational guy on the D line. woods if brought back will give us a nice rotation of arnfelt,woods,mclendon and heyward. I think last year was a learning year for the youngsters including woods and mclendon. now we are a year older and better and can keep fresh legs on defense which should make us better overall. the different packages also help keep fresh legs on the field and there are a lot of things we can do in this package to keep offenses a little confused.

one year is going to make a big difference and more seasoned backups will too. this won't be last years defense all over again like some think. if it is we need some better coaching, but I don't think that's the trouble. last year we were just young and young in the depth department.

 

Agree 100%, mac.

 

As far as Woodley goes, I think you'd get no arguments from most people that he is gorssly overpaid given his most recent production. Can he turn it around when healthy? I'd like to think so. But I say they only keep him if he's willing to take a pay cut.
The thing I'm most worried about is injuries to the team. If they keep him and his current salary, he'll be the first one to restructure if they need to add a player and make his next year cap hit even worse. The team HAS to cut some of these monster salaries and give them some wiggle room so they aren't forced to push the cap hell further down the line.

 

I think we can keep him this year with some other moves. we may overpay but we will anyway. at least we should be able to get a decent year out of him because he may know whats coming and he will play as in a contract year for everyone else to see. next year this giant salary is by far less and then we can do the two year plan by cutting after june 1. if we decide to. he will or should help us and if not he most likely will never get a big contract again from us or anyone else.

 

Post Gazette is reporting Foote was cut because Tomlin felt he wouldn't make the team.

 

I'd buy "shouldn't" over wouldn't.