Calvin Austin to the Giants

Well other than that he was great

 

He was the type of player who needs to be forgotten about or hidden to be effective. He wasn't breaking guys ankles with his cuts and then break away speed. He needs to be overlooked and then sneak him into zones with holes in them. He didnt have that role the last two seasons and it showed in his struggles.

 

Steeler staff have failed too many
Hope the new regime can improve
shouldn't be difficult
but.....

 

He didn't get open consistently enough, but he also doesn't get credit for breaking Awuzie's ankles on what turned out to be the winning touchdown in the regular-season finale against the Ravens. He didn't just fall down on his own.

 

Not really. At least not IMO. Many guys aren't kept for a number of reasons beyond being not good. Change of scheme style is a big one, and saving money is another.
James Farrior, and the Bus come to mind. They were let go, and or traded by teams not because they sucked, but because the team they were on were going a different way, and also saving money.

 

I'll give him credit for that play, it ranks in at 9 or 10 on top moments against the Ravens depending how I gage the block that Limas Sweed laid on a Raven that decleated him and was the lone Sweed bright spot. It tough to give CA3 too much credit when we watched AB literally make Ravens into pretzels through his tenure as a Steeler. It's a high bar to clear.

 

Good points, especially on Bettis who I thought the Rams dumped because he had a couple of subpar seasons. This says otherwise:

St. Louis Rams head coach Rich Brooks inherited a 250-pound future Hall of Fame running back in Jerome Bettis when he took over the team in 1995. But Brooks moved to install a wide-open passing offense in the heartland, which limited Bettis to just 637 yards on the ground that season.
When asked if he wanted to move to fullback, Bettis requested a trade. The Pittsburgh Steelers ended up acquiring him in April 1996 in what became one of the worst trades in Rams franchise history.

Learn something new everyday

 

He disappeared in enough games he hid himself

 

So when Jerome Bettis requested a trade because he wasn't happy with the way the team was using him, he wasn't a malcontent and a quitter like many Steelers fans say about our players that request a trade?

 

Yes

 

FWIW, this was just good asset management by the Rams given the decision by the coaching staff to move to a pass heavy offense and continue to dramatically reduce Bettis' touches and move him to FB. (*Note that this decision about scheme was horrible as described below).

Was Bettis a malcontent about the Rams wanting to continue to dramatically reduce his carries and move him to FB? YES.

Was that decision by the Rams idiotic? Also YES.

* The real question IMO is "did that system make the best us of the players they had on the roster?". Obviously the answer there is no. They got rid of a great RB (in an era where you could win with defense and a great RB) to move to a pass heavy offense. Maybe this would be a good call if they had Favre, Young, or Aikman under center. But who was their QB in 1996? Rookie QB Tony Banks. This seems like a classic case of a new coach trying to fit square pegs into his round hold system. Instead of bringing his rookie QB along slowly with the security blanket of an elite RB, he traded that guy away (because he was going to move him to FB). This is also a case of Lawrence Phillips (coach at the time I think) being too far ahead of the curve (like the 1996 Web TV). The wave of the passing game being much more valuable than the running game and RBs being devalued didn't happen for another decade or so.

 

I know this. My comment was in jest.

I thought that was clear. Sorry about that.

 

My bad...probably because I just read the single comment rather than the thread as a whole.

Before searching it today, I don't think I knew that (1) they dramatically reduced his usage the year before the trade and (2) they were going to move him to FB.

I was pretty young at the time. And growing up in Canada, the NFL wasn't yet huge in the mid-90s.

I had already chosen the Steelers as my favorite team by then, but there was so much less info in those days...maybe especially north of the border?

 

I dimly remember people being either surprised Bettis was traded or surprised he was good. I can’t remember which.

but there certainly wasn’t the wall to wall constant coverage and “analysis” that there is now. Even south of the border.

I’m pretty sure porn and the nfl pays mists if the internets bills.