I wanted Steven Jackson! Rage!!

Why are we so cap-consumed with this roster that we have seen so far this preseason? I mean really...

I know it was a cap-impracticality, but I wanted an actual running back (mainly Steven Jackson) this off-season, and we got Bell instead. It's way too early to tell, but he most likely will head into the regular season injured, when we need him the most (missing Heath). He will probably turn out alright, but what if he doesn't? Other than perhaps the addition of Wheaton, our offense will suck even more this year than they did last year.

Honestly, the offense has never looked consistently competent since Hines Ward sustained his concussion against the Ravens two seasons ago, the last game he started. Our offense, the year before, was pretty good. I mean, we did go to the Super Bowl with ancients like Hines Ward and Randle El at WR.

We have always had a bad offensive line, well at least since 2005, but we never looked this bad, or looked like we literally couldn't score points against an NFL defense. We bashed BA as the reason we failed in this area, but it isn't getting better.

I didn't agree with some of his play-calling tendencies, but if you looked at the Colts last year and the Cardinals this year, you can see a transformation in their offenses that is making them better. We get Haley, there is no transformation, and we are getting worse.

I don't think that its Ben. I really don't. He took us to three Super Bowls and can make the throws. He may be past his prime, but he is still the guy. He doesn't pick the other players on the field, or draft/sign new players.

That's not to say all of our draft picks have been busts, but I think we definitely haven't had the "hits" like Arron Smith, Troy Polamalu, Casey Hampton, Hines Ward, Heath Miller, Ben Roethlisberger. We have drafted guys a tier lower, for the most part. To put it better, I think the guys that we are drafting to take over for the guys I listed above are similar caliber to the backups of the guys I listed above. That's not saying our new guys are bad, they just can't fill the shoes of those great players we have or have had in the past.

I look at Bell and I see a second round draft pick. Ricardo Colclough was a second round pick. A lot of people jump on the bandwagon and say he the next best thing for the Steelers, and coaches and front officer guys might even think that and promote that, but if he was that amazing, why did no other team take him higher? A franchise running back? Teams, like the Steelers, sometimes draft backup running backs in the first round (Mendenhall), let alone franchise running backs.

We trimmed a lot of veteran fat the past two years, but are still cap-drained and still have the same crappy players that we did last year. Are we really going to have to sit through another year of watching Redman and Dwyer trying to flounder up the middle while exchanging weekly who starts? We lose Wallace, Heath is hurt, Ben is a year older, and our line is worse. That all together, regardless of how confident you are in the Steelers, leads to disaster.

Ben should remain on the team for obvious reasons, but where else do we have money heavily invested? Timmons and Woodley? Ike? Brown? If we are going to be cap-strapped again next year, we may want to consider the possibility of dealing one or some of those high cost players for some draft picks, and then use the cap next year to re-do the offensive line and maybe land a franchise running back.

 

Well for starters Jackson was injured quite often and I actually like the guy when he's on the field. Also as far as sorta gutting the roster of the high paid guys you also said yourself that it doesn't seem like we draft good so why cut some of the proven commodities for guys that are UNproven commodities. I do agree though that it doesn't seem like we've drafted the "next" Troy, or Smith, or Ward, or Heath but those dudes are extremely hard to come by. I feel your pain though and I also share your overall sentiment which is that we can't really take advantage of free agency because we are so strapped for cash. But let's be honest and just flat out say that even if we WEREN'T strapped for cash it's not been the philosophy of this team to make the big "splashes" in free agency like others have done. There are a LOT of players I would LIKE to have had like Anquan Boldin or a really good cb but instead the most "high profile" guy we get is LSH. It's almost like the Steelers try to make "project" players even out of their free agents. LOL. I think it might get to the point where people start to really question Tomlin's scouting ability. How much of this do you personally lay on Tomlin? Does his blame just start with what actually takes the field?