where to find the speed

when we were a top defense we had speed. denver has great speed on their defense and that showed up. carolina has speed on defense and it showed up all year. from what i see about our defense is we are not quite as fast as in prior years. we have added some at certain spots but have downgraded too.
lets reveiw how this may determine if we draft spots or look to free agency.

nt- mclendon is actually pretty fast for a big man inside when we use this formation. no problem there.
mcullers is not as fast but size is huge.

DE- both of our starters have some speed for the position and walton does too for his size. thomas was slow and not stout at the point of attack. this could be one spot for a needed increase and probably through the draft for depth only.

OLB- one spot we are not as fast as before. dupree is fast enough. jones is not a speed merchant. moats has some decent speed but fairly average. chickillo far from a burner. james isn't near as fast as before. an upgrade of speed could come in handy here. draft or FA?

ILB- shazier we added speed with. timmons has slowed with age and toe issues. spence is middle of the road and a FA. fort has good speed but would need signed. williams was never a burner. garvin has some speed but would need signed and has never taken that step to see the field as a full time backup or starter quality player there. lots of money tied up here too. this is one spot that was astrength but could quickly turn into a weakness and need. draft or FA?

CB- gay was never a burner and would need signed. grant has decent speed. cockrell has decent speed. golson has decent speed. frey i don't think has great speed. blake had some speed but technique is lacking. cortez was an average speed guy. could use some speed added here.

S- mitchell has some speed. goldens is average but doable. he would need signed. allen became slow and old. shark has jets but the know how is lacking. we surely could use this speed if he could put it together. that would be a huge plus. not a lot of speed in the draft at this spot either. this is a spot of concern.

any thoughts on where we go to add some speed amongst this group?

 

The first thought would be to add speed at safety. That is the area we most lack speed IMO. Mitchell can move, but if we can find a guy to play SS who can fly that would help us out a lot. I think we are generally okay at speed at CB. Certainly not the fastest, but almost everyone in that group outside of Gay is pretty fast. Even Gay can move some. OLB would be the next area we would go. Dupree can move for a man his size, but adding someone opposite him who is a speed rusher would be great.

SS, OLB then corner. That's where we add speed. I can live with the speed we have elsewhere.

 

The Steelers need to rid themselves of the 10-12 yard cushions and start playing more physical bump and run coverage. Once that happens then the pressure will get to the QB. Rattling the QB is a result of decent coverage. Speed is counter productive if QB's can get rid of the ball quickly.

 

We did that to the Pats a few years back and it worked very well because they weren't expecting it. I don't know why, even with our poor secondary, they don't try it a number of times during a game just to keep the offense off-balance. They must be so afraid of the long play. I say try it out a few times and if it burns you, at least you tried to be aggressive.

 

Remember that game quite well. The Pats were undefeated up to that point in the season and the Steeelers handed them their behinds thoroughly. Must not have learned anything from that experiment cause they went right back to the soft coverages.

 

A couple of you must not watch games. There were times the Steelers played bump and run and it wasn't effective. There are ways for offenses to beat bump and run coverage. It's not as simple as one coverage vs another coverage.

They key for the Denver defense was their ability to play well as a unit. Stopping the run, covering WR's, and applying pressure to the QB were all keys to that defenses success.

 

Yea not sure what you mean, this team has speed and is considered a fast team on defense they just have horrible ball skills in the secondary but they could run.

 

not as fast as we once were. quickness is also lacking from what we once had. will allen is pretty slow. gay was never really fast. golden is a 4.51 guy coming out of college which is average. j.jones isn't the fastest guy of the edge. timmons is a little slower than before. blake,cockrell and mitchell have some speed and so does grant and golson, but grant and golsons short area quickness isn't top rated either. it could be improved is what i'm saying overall. i think it would help us.

 

Not as fast as we once were------------ you do realize that we were the fastest defense in football for years. So you wanna be the fastest team on defense and offense? If that is the case we might be the next undefeated team. that would not even be fun.........

 

They aren't going to play bump and run with scrub CBs like Blake starting , maybe if they had some legit CBs.

 

I understand that but the problem is Blake shouldn't be starting while Boykin was sitting. If you think about it though, what difference would it make to at least try it if MT insists on him being the starter? The results really couldn't be much worse.

 

I bet our secondary would play better if they were on speed.

 

mac daddyo said: "when we were a top defense we had speed. denver has great speed on their defense and that showed up"

BURGH43STEL said: "They key for the Denver defense was their ability to play well as a unit."

It just seems like other teams have copied what the Steelers were doing in the past couple decades. Only better. We seem to have forgot the formula. How long has Denver been a 3-4? Regardless, in 2014 they acquire Ware one of the top OLB's in the league. But what really burns me is they also picked up a UDFA, Shaquil Barrett in 2014. He is a very good one also. What hurts even more is he went to Colorado State. Wasn't that Joey Porter's school? Steelers need to wake up.

btw mac, "any thoughts on where we go to add some speed amongst this group?

I'm just guessing but I'll bet getting faster players has crossed your mind.

 

Yea the 10 yd cushion I never got. Steelers have always done that and it drives me crazy. I understand it in certain situations. Ask any receiver and they will tell you they kind of giggle when they get the 10 yd cushion.

 

the 10 yd. cushion is used by a lot of defenses. it's not just because they are afraid of big plays always. it's used at times to keep teams from using rub or pick plays on offense against them. the nfl needs to start to call this but they don't. NE is a team that runs it to perfection. thats why their quick passing offense looks so unstoppable. we run some of it too. speed or quickness ( makeup speed) of DB's then becomes a factor. so does recognition.

 

new secondary coach
rockin the black and gold

 

The reason they have to give that cushion is because they can't play tight and they don't have enough skill to cover ... We are in horrible shape at that position and we can't Coach our way out of it. The talent level is just that bad..