Have the Steelers become a team of marginal players?

I think some people are having a difficult time with the parity of the modern day NFL. Any team can win on any given week regardless of the perceived difference in talent. I don't believe there is a huge gap in talent between NFL teams anymore. Game day mistakes are often the great equalizer.

 

And coaching mistakes.

 

And don't forget luck.....man I swear we've had some of the worst luck recently that I can ever remember.

 

Very true. The NFL has been wide open for some seasons now. Remember how Houston were dead certs for the play-offs beginning of last season?

 

You are wrong about your point about rookie WR's that's one of the easiest positions to get on the field and cotribute, Mike Wallace was productive making plays as a rookie I think he had like 7-8 TDs. Also guys like AJ Green, Julio Jones, Calvin Johnson and look at Keenan Allen of the Chargers a 3rd pick and he was probably the best rookie WR last season.

 

I agree, of all positions for a rookie to play and have respectable success, I think WR is the second most difficult behind QB. It's just not that easy to plug-and-play as a rookie WR.

 

if it's to a lot of people here, it's any position on DL's defense.

 

Hell Troy couldn't even start until
about 3/4 of the season was gone and HE
WAS A FREAK@ that time. No I am afraid
if you are looking for any signs of rookies
on the defensive side making a substantial impact, I think we are barking up the wrong
tree, It's a shame.

 

yet we saw players do it last year on defense.

what makes the difference if we have two young wr's ( moye- wheaton) play that have a year in the system as opposed to two wr FA's (DHB-moore) or two rookies ( enter your favorite here- here) learning the new offense? 4 guys getting used to ben, and visa versa, and learning a new offense, or 2 guys that know ben, worked out with ben and know the offense.

the same with the defense. Williams learned all year. arnfelt learned all year. Thomas learned all year. garvin learned all year. Williams and fangupo learned all year. is moats and baby huey and McCain and mitchell that far superior to who is already here? will this cause another slow start out of the gate with new FA's starting?

sure we can say these guys are off of an 8-8 team, but they were a minor part of that. now they will have had a second set of OTA's, mini camps and preseasons under their belts and these new additions won't. these one year contracts have us starting over every year if we keep not letting players from the previous year play in place of a mediocre vet or another new rookie.

 

Steel Elvis said: "It all interplays, and I think we need breakout years at at least 4-5 of the 6 position groups I've listed above. That's a high bar to clear in one offseason.

---A very realistic evaluation of the situation. About the only thing I can disagree with is Moats.[Isn't he being projected as an ILB?] I think this was another excellent pick up and took the ILB position off the suspect list.

I totally agree that the OT and OLB positions are very suspect. However if the season started tomorrow I do think the DL would survive as is. The secondary would survive as is. The WR group would survive as is. And since I believe Arthur Moats and a 2nd year V. Williams can handle the ILB job it would survive. Moats of course is also an OLB and just might save Pittsburgh there too. What did you not see in him? After all he was a 4 yr starter in Buffalo and last year was supposedly one of their best ever D's.

In 31 days Pit will add 9 more players to strengthen the team. There is certainly room for some optimism. Who knows? They may even find a replacement for Gilbert for starters. Who knows? They may even find a sleeper RB who raises eyebrows and can compete with Blount and Bell. Who knows? They may even find another James Harrison for instance. Oh wait, he wasn't drafted was he? I don't know if there is another Rod Woodson out there but I would settle for another D J Johnson.

Wardismvp said: "Maybe it is just me, but I am not too
excited with our roster. I can count on one
hand players that interest me.Here is hoping
we hit a home run in the draft.

---I'll settle for a bases clearing triple. I am also now beginning to think this draft will be a good one but somewhat of a shocker from what fans speculations have been up to now.

 

The way the Steelers have done things over the years clearly worked/works. I am unsure why people continue do complain about their philosophy? Even the best ran franchises in the league are bound to have some down or transitional years.

The Steelers haven't finished under .500 in 10 seasons.

 

I agree of course Teams are going to have down or transitional years...I do believe they are trying to free up cap space and put as solid a Team around Ben as they can...

If some of our FA'S can chip in and Bell can take the next step there is no need to think that this Offense can not be a lot better than last years. I still believe we need major help at the CB ,but my problem is that Dennard reminds me of Gay so much it is scary...

 

Julio Jones and AJ Green didn't struggle and their teams made the playoffs. If the Steelers were to draft a WR at #15 or in the 2nd there would less pressure on him because AB is the #1 WR on the team.

 

Maybe those guys that struggled weren't that good. I think WR and RB are two of the easiest positions to produce as a rookie, Mike Wallace produced as a one trick pony.

 

Here's a read from 2 years back on this:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...often-do-wide-receviers-bust-in-the-1st-round

 

the problem is we have our 2nd franchise qb aging. we shouldn't be in the mediocre role for many years in a row with a franchise qb on the payroll. down years need to happen in between franchise qb's.

there is a difference in down years and having to completely rebuild starters and backups. there should have been better backups in place to takeover in the time we had the same vets winning. there is no reason we didn't. we had most of our starters in position to win and it gave us time to build future starters and we blew it. what we have done the last 7-8 years has nothing to do with what the franchise has done in they're history. the people at the top are quite different. what we did prior to free agency as a franchise cannot be even remotely tied to the handling of the team now days. not having one player from 2 recent drafts hurts. it's like we sat out 2 full draft cycles. now we need for every player to hit and not only hit but become a playmaking starter more often than not. that is a tough assignment for anyone no matter the franchises background prior to this.

 

Mac, you make too much sense, the truth really
hurts because I too feel that with A franchise QB
you can't have mediocre years. 2 draft classes
already gone,and you wonder why we are
8 and 8 and possibly more of the same.Its sad.

 

Anyone that says they didn't have higher hopes or expectations after 2005 with a 23 year old Super Bowl winning quarterback for what has happened over the next 8 seasons is full of it.

You really expected to miss the playoffs in 4 out of those 8 seasons? Really? You really expected to have two of the more embarrassing playoff losses in this organization's history? You think losing to inferior coach/quarterback combo's in the playoffs is acceptable?

You call that "acceptable" down turns "every" organization should expect?

Christ, some make it sound like we should be happy we're 8-8 and not 6-10 just so we can boost we haven't had a "losing season" in 10 years.

I could care less about 8-8 vs. 6-10. You underachieved. Period. The amount of underachievement is kind of secondary, isn't it?

We exited the 2005 season as Super Bowl champions and had arguably a top-5 quarterback under contract at age 23 with no where to go but up.

We've turned that into one of the most inconsistent year-to-year (and sometimes game-to-game) teams in the league. We've squandered numerous opportunities to get better. We've struggled with O-line and running game issues for going on 7 seasons. We've changed O-line coaches 4 times. We've changed offensive coordinators. We've had pissing matches with our star quarterback. And the whole while trying to guess and fix the offensive side of the ball, the defense has aged and finally started to break down as well.

Look, based on our strength of schedule we SHOULD win 11 games this year. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me that they go out and do it. But don't think for one second we are THAT much better a team than the one that is struggling to be a consistent winner.

That has been the #1 problem. This front office has consistently, year-in, year-out thought we are better than we are. They all think the problems are temporary and that a little luck will fix the problem. Every time we have a good season, they sit on their hands, go into status quo mode and then watch the house of cards collapse and spew excuses to the fans.

They should have been acting like we're 8-8 when we actually finished 12-4 and MAYBE things would have been different. It is incredible to me how different our front office acts between those types of season even though the talent level has really been consistently the same. To base personnel decisions on record is the stupidest and illogical course of action a front office can take. Yet we have been doing exactly that every year since 2005.

 

I'm confused.

You admit to having higher hopes than what the organization has accomplished, yet seem to give them a pass because "*%&^$ happens"?

That's your argument?

I guess I see the errors they've made and hold them accountable and hope they don't repeat their past mistakes.

You seem to allow any/all errors in judgement as just par for the course. In you opinion have they done nothing wrong? Colbert? Tomlin? Roethlisberger?

Responsibility for underachieving falls on a lot of shoulders but it's still underachieving. If you don't want to admit that, fine.

We'll see where the next couple of seasons end up.