Have the Steelers become a team of marginal players?

With an $18,895,000 cap hit.

 

...and we are still in good shape, no need to dwell on the negative.

 

That number is due to restructurings. In other words it exists only because Kevin Colbert can't keep to a budget.

 

We are in awful shape. This is not a contender. This is a team in steady decline despite having a top 5 QB. You don't see that every day.

 

Tom Brady has a $2M salary and a $15M cap hit. What does that say about the Patriots and sticking to their budget?

 

to be honest bobby, it's cheaper than bens and they have gone to the playoffs the last two years.

 

Thats not his point and has nothing to do with the conversation.

 

I can tell just by a lot of your post that we have very different views of the state of this team. I'm just getting this out of the way because I want to hear more of your view points but just want you to know as well that I don't mean to argue with you because I realize that people see things differently.

That said I'm wondering if you could give me reasons as to why you truly see this as a team still declining?

I honestly see last years team as the worst we've seen in awhile and will see...as I truly see a team re-loading well and not continuing to go down.

 

Two seasons in a row at 8-8 says one thing, we're an 8-8 team. That's a hard pill to swallow for this franchise that's has a Franchise QB and a HOF SS.

Changes had to be made and we've purged our roster on a limited basis and unfortunately lost one player we wanted to keep ( Woods ).

On the surface your fears are valid, Baby zilla, CB Brice and Darrius.

Zilla will give us some depth and a few snaps at NT & DE. Woods was a pleasant surprise and played better than his career would have said. It's possible the same will happen will Cam.

Our ST was bad and Curtis Brown, who was a failed CB but ST star also became bad. The reason we signed both Brice & Darrius is to bolster ST play. It's possible they both make the 53 but I think only one will and mosty likely the on field time they see will be on ST.

Darrius could have added effects. He has WR experience and great speed. Something the Steelers really need. He also has bad hands, something they don't need. If he can fix his hands he'll be a great addition. Even if he doesn't this should put a fire under Moore & J. Brown.

I can see a WR corp of AB, Wheaton, Lance Moore, Kashif Moore and Justin Brown. This with a healthy Heath Miller & Matt Spaeth and a running attack with Le Le-- LeGarrette & Le'Veon we have a potential potent offense that is feared.

Our defense needs addressing. We brought in a good safety. We drafted a good safety in Shark and extended Troy and resigned vet wil allen. If we draft a day one starter at CB, add to the DL and OLB position I see a playoff team.

Cajun-

 

yeah quiet abit in tampa and he wasn't that impressive. he did play well last year but lets not say he is great. I seen Mitchell play last year and if we are basing it on one year then Mitchell signing is better.imo

 

Seems that proves the point most are trying to make to contract, you have to move money and make tough decisions when your building a team around top 5 qb.

 

I do think we have added some decent talent that could make us better but we are putting a lot of hope in draftee's that haven't been hitting very well as of late and is going to take time for them. my trouble is we don't have a lot of years left in bens prime to wait for all these pieces to come along.

those two drafts we whiffed on were critical and a lot of the reason we are back to square one. I also think way to many people are counting on troy being something he no longer is. we tied up way too much money in LB'ers and it's bit us in the rear. Woodley hurt us. bringing back larry foote to many years has hurt us. keeping sly hurt us. keeping Curtis brown last year hurt us. cutting all the young corners we have drafted hurt us. losing lewis hurt us. keeping clark to long hurt us. re-signing colon hurt us.

hopefully these new guys learn quick. we have several one year contracts and they will have to be re-signed or replaced next year again, without many moves left to make for money. including guys like pouncey and cortez allen, gilbert, spaeth, carter, gradkowski, ike, will j., heyward and worilds. we also get hit with the bigger part of Woodley's dead money. not to mention the one year FA's we just got if they decide to keep some. there have been some bad picks and moves made, it wasn't all just keeping SB talent either.

 

The salary cap issues aren't just on Ben's shoulders.... at one point we had TWO former defensive players of the year on the roster. Last year Troy, Ike, Clark, Keisel, Timmons & Woodley ate up tons of cap. When you have such a high number of "studs", you end up with some marginal talent. The problem is that our "studs" are getting older or didn't show up (i.e. Woodley). Some young talent needs to step up and bring it. Finding some that work as hard as James Harrison did just to break into the NFL is rare.

 

Exactly

 

Been working all day, and I'm late to the party. Few thought here- Denver WILL be in cap hell after next year, and that was from the mouth of their supporters. As for our signings, and its been said, but think about this......name some of Brady's WR over the last few years. Leave off Moss and Welker and its a bunch of guys who now their roles. It's not always about 40 times, reps on the bench, etc, but the player and the system. The Pats usually draft guys who score high on the Wonderlic test for a reason. They take guys, and mold them into their system. We take guys and people jump off the the closet bridge, yet the Pats have no trouble winning games with these same average players? This team was average last year,BUT they were also two plays away from 10-6! Now, add in a bruising RB to backup Bell, a new version of Clark ( much more speed) a new O line coach to help a line that honestly wasn't that bad last year, and people still question the FO.

 

I think we have not only become "mediocre" on our talent level, but I think our coaching has been pretty mediocre as well.

Like someone said, I think 16-16 over the last 32 games pretty much tells the story.

 

Agree here Mac, the revolving door has been abused to the point results are unheared - of a sad commentary for sure. Let's hope the org. has learnt from their shortcomings. Our CS along with the addition of Joey, Mike and Jim needs to motivate these players generating positive productivity relatively quick and build potential for resigning at season's end. Need to rid of this replacement syndrome and keep this train running!

 

sad but true

 

And as bad as we were last year, we still almost made the playoffs.

 

Hahahahahaha