Interesting little blurb on Boykin and

I don't think they should re-sign Boykin, if they want to spend money on a CB in free agency it should be on a guy who can play outside not just a slot CB.

 

i do remember all the talk about them simplifying the defense. i can't imagine it was just not grasping it. all DB's give up plays during the year, so i'm not buying it was any one play or a couple of plays. cortez, blake, ike, gay, cockrell all gave up plays and scores. i can grasp that we were better when boykin played. if it was not grasping the defense why did we keep boykin and shark over anyone else out there? golden didn't play enough either over will allen, did he not grasp the defense either after 3 years? something is wrong with this picture.

 

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2016/02/steelers-free-agent-brandon-boykin-ceiling-twitter/

In the above link PFF claims Boykin had 1 INT 2 PD and allowed a passer rating of 65.0 in the final 5 weeks of the season.

Pretty good for a player who didn't get the defense!

 

There's no money for a high profile CB.

Boykin and Gay are both free agents and I can't find any list that doesn't have Boykin rated higher.

 

Boykin would not come to Pittsburgh unless they offer more $ then everyone else. Which means we'd have to pay him as a starter. not going to happen. Not with Golsen in the wings.

 

You don't think the list of QB's we faced the final 5 weeks of the season has anything to do with those numbers? The last 5 games we faced all back up QB's. McCarron, Hasselbeck, Mallett, Davis, and Osweiler. The first 11 weeks saw us face Wilson, Brady, Dalton, Rivers, Palmer, Flacco, Alex Smith and Carr. I'm guessing that had something to do with it.

I'm not arguing in favor of Blake as a player... his play spoke for itself this year. However if the coaching staff didn't trust him early in the year with his assignments, it shouldn't be surprising that Boykin didn't play. Trust is huge and it's obvious that they didn't trust him. That's why they chose to play Blake and Cockrell over him most of the year. It was Blake's poor play that forced Boykin into the lineup anyways.

unreal? Come on. The kid played fine, but unreal is a huge overreaction.

We will keep Mitchell and Golden at safety and will either add a FA starter or draft one in an early round. Grant likely to have a position change to FS. Gay and Golson can be penciled in as starters next year week one. Cockrell is coming back so he will at least be given a chance to win the other starting job. We will cut Allen more than likely, so we have 2 open roster spots at CB... Blake has ST ability and has a lot of experience on the field for a back up. That is valuable. As a CB5 there is a possibility he's back, but if he's not it wouldn't shock me either. We will definitely be drafting a CB at some point and there's a real possibility that it's within the first 3 rounds.

I just don't see the value bringing Boykin back. If we can take him for 3mil a year or so then fine, but I think he could get more than that. Why not take that 5 mil we would be giving Boykin and use the 3 mil we save from cutting Cortez and put it together to get someone better than Boykin? Or get a starting safety? We can overhaul the secondary in so many different ways and they don't all include Boykin in the plan.

 

Blake allowed the most yards EVER and missed the most tackles of any player EVER and he is valuable to bring back?! Because of his experience missing tackles?!

Boykin could not have done worse vs. Brady (4TDs 143.8RTG) and Wilson (5TDs 149 RTG). Those were the best games of the year for each of them. Boykin didn't play 1 snap vs. NE.

The quality of QB vs. Boykin is a good point except that...

Manziel had 372 yards and a 95 RTG and Kaepernick 335 yards and a 107 RTG vs Steelers.

There's no such thing as a bad QB vs this secondary haha well... maybe Nick Foles.

 

I was agreeing with the article.
There are a few exceptions, but this defense has never been kind to rookies or first-year players in this defense. Right or wrong the coaches aren't putting players on the field until they feel that the player mentally grasps the defense. I'm not saying I agree with that, just saying that's the way the coaches are handling it.

Apparently it's just that simple. It's not some made up nonsense about giving up a fourth round draft pick over a fifth round draft pick. Or some other conspiracy theory nonsense.

As for Blake, he stinks as a starter. Those last four or five games that Boykin played in was he better than Blake? Yes he was, but that's not really saying much is it?
If being better than Blake is the measuring stick for what's a good cornerback then were in big trouble.

 

They can make some moves to free up money if they find a player they want.

 

Here you are making up quotes again. I'll give you credit for one thing, you strive hard to be a troll.

You spend all this time posing stats. but fail to understand that stats don't discount Wexell's point. There's absolutely no way for us to know one way or the other. However, Wexell is pretty good at his job and his sources are generally accurate. It makes far more sense that he's telling the truth than your whack job conspiracy theory that the organization is just trying to save face by putting on a pr campaign.

 

But after they finally inserted Boykin and he showed why they traded a 5th away Toast Blake saw less time on the field. Why it took so long to get Boykin on the field to me is a bit of a stretch that he didn't understand the Defense. Oh, and Blake knew the Defense? The 2nd most brutal CB in the NFL.

 

I think it makes more sense to put our stock into Boykin than someone just coming out of college. Sign the guy if at all possible; we know he can play.

 

Y'all keep making the same fallacious argument. Just because Blake gave up a bunch of completed passes doesn't mean he doesn't know the defense. Conversely just because boykin is a better cover corner it doesn't mean that he knows the defense or would be better despite not knowing the defense. On every play every player has a job. If they don't do that job bad things happen. You see it in every single game in the form of busted coverage. It doesn't matter how good a player is if he can't do his job he's a liability.

 

i think the biggest part of bringing boykin back comes down to him being perceived as a slot only player. golson scares me with his size but we will see. remember he's only the size of dri archer.

gay may even go back to the slot while golson learns and if we find some outside players that can be trusted. i believe blake will be back and we go after gay and 1 safety and 1 corner in the draft. i think blakes thumb had something to do with those missed tackles.

if i were a bettin man, i'd say cockrell, gay, blake, golson, draft pick at corner. mitchell, golden, grant, draft pick, dangerfield at safety this year. grant may get some duel role coaching as a corner/safety.

 

I think Boykins playing time really came down to the conditional pick between giving up a 4th rounder for him versus a 5th rounder but of coarse nobody who makes that decision will ever fess up to it. If that is truly the case then it is a very bad way to run the organization given the consequences.

 

ME?! I'M the conspiracy theorist?! Why?! Because I'm not buying the "Didn't Get It Theory"?!

Why would a DC proclaim to the NFL that an ex player "didn't get it"? Butler just hates Boykin so much he is trying to hurt his value? That's why he said it?

Which GM in their right mind would not have serious reservations about signing Boykin? Boykin couldn't start on the 31st secondary? On top of that he "doesn't get it"?

What is the benefit of paying more money to a FA than a rookie if the vet is going to take a year to learn the defense anyway? Ouch.

Some reasons I don't believe the "Doesn't Get It Theory":

-Golden is a Rhodes Scholar who had 3 years in the defense at the start of the season. He got it. Didn't help him start over a 33 year old Allen (who missed more tackles than any S) though.

-Shamarko doesn't get it. Shamarko doesn't even get ST. He's been here 3 years and is undersized on top of his awareness issues. How is he not cut? He's not going to get it.

-Does Blake get it? He is probably the worst tackler in Steelers history. Sometimes for fun I watch Demaryius Thomas bury Blake's head in the turf on the 6 yard screen he scored on. DT looked like Eddie George there haha. If Blake "doesn't get" tackling does he really get it?

 

Boykin played in the Eagles 3/4 defense which they have had for 3 years, this nonsense that he couldnt play in our 3/4 is just that, nonsense:

With uncertainties come a number of questions, the biggest of which for the Eagles’ defense revolves around scheme moving forward. Will it continue on as a 3-4 defense as it has been for the past three seasons or will it head in a new direction altogether, switching to a 4-3 front?

 

Blake can be standing in front of his man and it is literally like he isn't there. He can not tackle. He was a liability on every series every play. You are defeating your own argument.

 

Holy crap! you really are a piece of



Work. You wear the troll and conspiracy theorist hat well. You might as well own them

 

I agree with you on a lot of this: being better than Blake doesn't mean much, the Steelers are hesitant to play first year players etc. but I don't agree about the draft pick.

Every decision I try to look at as a pie chart. Maybe the draft pick was only 15% of why Boykin didn't start over Cockrell but it was a factor at some level.

Other factors include Boykin being new to the defense which I acquiesce is a big part of it. But also, Boykin was injured early and groin injuries don't heal quickly. On top of that Boykin is only seen as a slot corner where Gay and Cockrell also took turns playing.

Those are all valid reasons... if Blake had belonged anywhere on the field. Gay and Cockrell should have started outside with Boykin in the slot if Boykin wasn't an option outside.

I have never seen so much controversy over a player sitting behind an incompetent starter. You're not willing to admit there is ANYTHING to that?

It is all completely unfounded, Boykin is a bum, Blake is a stud, and the several football analytics sites who rank Boykin as the best CB on the Steelers should all be shut down?

Sounds like a conspiracy.

 

Yes I am.

I believe Arians didn't "retire."

I believe he is the Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals.

Crazy right? I didn't believe the official story. I'm a nut.

 

The Steelers switching to a 4-3 front? I'm for it on passing downs. Keep the 3-4 defense but use Heyward as an edge rusher on passing downs much like the Texans move Watt to the edge on passing downs despite playing base 3-4.

 

Heyward is no JJ Watt, he doesnt have Watts quicks to penetrate the backfield off the edge....

 

I agree completely. No one is JJ Watt and he doesn't have the quickness.

Heyward does have 14.5 sacks from the 3-4 DE over the last 2 years though and that is pretty good. He's done that without offenses having to worry about pressure from the ROLB or NT so he probably gets chipped a decent amount.

Many people think Watt gets all his sacks from the 3-4 but if you watch highlights he gets isolated with the LT as much as possible. That's all I'm saying and I wouldn't expect 14+ sacks but I think Cam could get 9-11 for sure and decent pressure.

 

How many back up CB's at his age are there that play vey good ST's and have as much experience on the field as Blake? I'm not saying he's even a good player. He was obviously over matched as a starting CB, but if for some reason we lose 2 CB's to injury having a guy with his experience would be a good thing I think. He will probably make the team as a core STer alone.

Kaepernick's yardage was mostly ghost yardage. We were all over him through 2 1/2 quarters then backed off a little when we went up 28 points on them. We won that game 43-18. They scored 18 points, and all of it was when the game was out of reach. The Manziel game in particular I remember as being bad all around. They only scored 9 points tho. We won that game 30-9. I'm more upset about giving up 35 points and 300 plus yards to Carr than I am the 300 plus yards to Manziel with only 9 points.

The whole point of my argument was not that I think Blake is good. He's not. It's that I understand why Boykin wasn't playing if trust was the issue.