Do the Steelers need a new DC and defensive system?

MAYBE some of the injures this year were due to LOPSIDED TOP's in the first 3/4 of the year. Kenny sucked, Canada sucked, Tomlin sucked - 3 and outs galore - the D was on the field WAY too long! had to be at the bottom for TOP thru week 12

 

It was the first seven games that time of possession was a problem. They converted 50 percent of their third downs and the TOP was just 1:09 apart against the Titans. They had an advantage in TOP six times in the final ine regular-season games. One of those came against the Bengals when they scored two long touchdowns, so those drives were successful but short.

Was it time of possession that led to Minkah Fitzpatrick's hamstring injury or was it the sloppy field on a rainy day? Was it time of possession that made Keanu Neal collide with Cole Holcomb on the play that ended Holcomb's season? It was interesting that the losses of Holcomb and Alexander in consecutive weeks happened around the time the Steelers righted the ship in terms of time of possession. Hell, arguably the most impactful defensive injury of the regular season happened just a few plays into the loss to the 49ers. That was when Heyward got hurt and it ruined his entire season. Maybe the damage was already done in terms of fatigue by Week 8, or maybe TOP really isn't as much of a factor in defensive injuries as you think, especially the freak ones that cost them Holcomb and Watt.

 

According to Hayward he was injured on the first day of training camp. They just tried to manage it. Then we lost minkah in week 8, Holcomb in week 9, and Alexander in week 10. That’s a tough pill to swallow, but the scheme is broken

 

There are 3 problems on defense that seem glaring to me (probably more that I don't see....lol). Starting from the furthest out..

Our secondary was great. Then Minkah was injured and it fell apart. Then Minkah came back and it was still bad. We all know that Minkah handled the secondary and made it great. After his injury, they looked lost. Then they started to get better, but nowhere near to what they were. So I think our problem here is rotating personnel due to injuries and suspensions has hindered the ability of our secondary to become a machine that works in harmony with all of its parts. I also would not be shocked to find out that Minkah's conditioning suffered due to his injury or that he is still not 100%. Kazee is probably still under the microscope and will need to keep that in mind during 2024.

Pass defense in the center of the field from about 8 to 15 yards. We suck there. It is probably our absolute weakest point IMO. I don't know if it is personnel, scheme or something else.....but we suck there. That needs fixed in a bad way. It leads to far too many chunk plays, some of which go the distance.

Our pass rush. It is good, but it really depends on TJ getting past however many defenders they put on him and pressuring the QB. We have some other players that do ok, but TJ is a force multiplier for them. When he is there, they do better. Without him, they are average. I am also tired of QBs squirting out for for 1st downs and more. We could use another guy or two with some speed to shut that down.

And honorable mention #4 is actually a rules issue. They have to do something about QBs and fake slides. IMO, any QB that crosses the line of scrimmage should be treated like any other player. Tackle them the same way. They can still give themselves up, but none of this namby pamby oh poor QB stuff. Additionally, any QB that makes any motion that can be interpreted as giving themselves up should be treated down at that spot even if they don't give themselves up. Furthermore, defenders that hit any player that gives themselves up should be given a bit more leeway without pulling a penalty. Some of those unsportsmanlike conduct / unnecessary roughness calls are not far off from a defender is in the air, the QB takes a dive and gets hit by the stiff breeze of that passing defender and the yellow flag comes out. Not just on Steeler games, but I have seen a lot of those type of plays this year where I can't figure out how they expected the defender to be able to pull off from a hit. They mitigate it as much as possible by getting hands on the ground, avoiding body weight slams and rolling to the side and still get hit with a penalty. Physics is a real thing and you can't always avoid a hit. If owners are worried about their billion dollar franchise QB getting hurt, stop using designed QB runs.

 

You can get smaller and faster in the middle of your defense, but your front 3 linemen need to be absolute studs to keep them clean, and we don’t have that.

The smaller faster ilb still can’t hang with TE’s on this team. I hate to say it, but a taller rangy safety like Edmunds did well here.

Overall though this defense concedes a lot to the run game. I really don’t have a lot of confidence in stopping anyone in short yardage.

 

That last point is sad, that used to be our hallmark you are not going to run on us!

 

They need a new OUTSIDE DC n let him choose his staff n system

Basically Tomlin needs to GTFO they way on BOTH sides of the ball

Which questions why he is still here, but.....

 

A lot of the defensive problem, I think, is that we don’t have enough good players. Too many draft picks have washed out here the last few years. Now, there are too many holes to fix it in one draft.

The bargain FA’s aren’t really helping the cause either. A bunch of mid-tier guys … won’t lose you games, but won’t win you championships.

I also have to scratch my head who we let go … Maulet, Nelson, and Witherspoon got let go for a Pat P who had 0 in the tank, Pierre, and Levi Wallace?

The miscommunications in the secondary is concerning. Seems like a coaching issue to me. Steelers have one of the smaller coaching staffs in the NFL. Do we need to add guys to increase the attention to detail?

 

We have a system? It seems like our system is let’s see what Watt does. Watching the Rats - Texans game and the Texans adjusted after the first Rats TD. We wait until halftime regardless of how far we fall behind

 

Most of this defense is soft. We need nasty back.

 

I think Cookie needs to get on with his life's work.

 

Mike Tomlin did not run 3-4 system when he was with Tampa in the Super Bowl or with the Vikings, he ran the Tampa 2. When he came here he was told they were staying with the 3-4. Our personnel would have to be changed a lot to convert back.

 

Do your homework

“We were in man to man the 9th most frequently in the nfl.”

- strummerfan

 

Um

That is his life’s work

 

Are you aware that was 16 or so years ago and all of the personnel have already changed a lot

 

Tomlin’s defense in playoffs have always been leaky. Even now they are 1-13 or something ridiculous without TJ Watt. They don’t win with scheme but great individual effort. Steelers will not be in a Superbowl as long as Tomlin is there.

 

Yes, but they have chosen to stay with that system. The players they have drafted, including Watt, are players to fit that system. They haven’t made a total switch to a 4-3 so the system has remained the same. My point is that Tomlin is likely not pushing buttons in that system, they hire coaches to run the system that he was told to maintain.

 

Keep in kind 3 of their ILBs went soon due to injury resulting them to tell Myles Jack to out down his walker and to put back on football pads.

Add a Joey Porter Jr. Injury, TJ Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, etc.. they actually did pretty darn good

They need to focus on an offense that can lead drives so the defense doesn't have to be on the field all game long getting injured imo

 

The answer is simple. Health and execution.

 

The Steelers won 10 games and made the post season. What factors/mistakes cost the Steelers a chance to win the game vs the Bills??

 

Speaking of the Rats, did you see their defense in the second half? That's what I'm talking about, Maulet who use to play for us was used as a blitzer and was very effective. Stroud never had a chance with the Rat's defensive scheme. We keep doing too much of the same thing and hoping TJ gets to the QB. Biggest problem we have is too much of the same thing on defense. Granted they have a middle linebacker who is a beast but the rest of their defense has about as much talent as ours, but they have much better schemes.

 

Basically is what he did when first hired. Had HOFer Dick LeBeau and Arians. He just had to learn how to be a Head Coach. LeBeau was being pushed out and resigned. Tomlin inserted his scheme. And got more power.

I feel that Rooney is scaling him back some. Which would be a good thing.

 

considering all of the injuries on that side of the ball what exactly do YOU think Austin should have and could have done differently?

 

They days are over, you cant be a bully/ nasty defense in today's NFL......


Edit, What i meant to say, is the days of players playing mean/angry, like Ham , Lambert , Green, Deebo, Peezy, Lloyd, are over.. The NFl wont allow it

 

Cough

https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/which-nfl-teams-run-the-most-man-coverage

think that number came down a bit towards the end of the year due to injuries