The "What-If" Game...

I know we could do this with tons of picks, but....was doing some digging and came across this. Hard to believe #7, but then....look at #22 and #23....what could've been

http://walterfootball.com/draft2011CB.php

And yes, #23 was available when we took #22

 

well the 27 is free agent at the end of the year bring him here

 

Dang you SCG! I'm a sucker for good corners and you show me that we could have had this?! Now "If I could turn back time" is gonna be stuck in my head for the rest of the night. LOL!

 

How do we know Richard Sherman wouldn't have morphed into Cortez Allen in DL's defense? The Seattle defense is an intuitive, read and react defense that allows playmakers to make plays. The Steeler defense is a complicated mathematical algorithm.

 

Yep, brought this up on another post. Our defense is so complicated that if Sherman was drafted by us, he would of sat on the bench the first year to learn and watch. Second year he would of been on special teams. Third year he would play in the nickle only. The fourth year his contract is up and he either becomes a free agent or we throw millions at him.

 

As much as Sherman talks trash and all that, he does seem like a pretty smart guy from a football standpoint. I bet a guy with that much natural ability would be a dream for DL to coach. Can you even IMAGINE the heat the rats/Steelers rivalry would have if we had a guy like Sherman?! LOL!

 

hahaha...sorry man. Kinda makes me wonder that's for sure

 

I'm not sure DL would have put up with Sherman's shenanigans. To me, our defense has lost some of its edge by conforming to "the system". Playmakers at times are showboats. We need a DC that's going to draft playmakers and build a system around their playmaking ability and put them in position to make plays. As it is, we draft these guys, many of them like JJ, Shazier, Thomas, who are true playmakers in college and force them to conform to a complicated system which takes years to master. I truly believe that our young defensive players are so uptight and worried about making mistakes that it inhibits their ability to make plays.

 

Well Joey Porter was a pretty vocal guy and he did pretty good. What's weird is we talk about how hard it is for our players to learn the scheme but then journeyman and flat out scrub qbs come out and shred it. I mean, they don't seem to be having any trouble with it. That's really why I think we have a personnel problem that is tying DLs hands, so to speak. When we had a truly elite defense guys like Terrelle Pryor wouldn't have gained a yard or completed a pass. Mettenberger wouldn't have beat us over the top on an OBVIOUS passing down for an 80yd td. The bucs wouldn't have came back and won. Hoyer wouldn't have made us look stupid. There is only so much he can do with what he has ya know? I feel like the FO has been giving him a lot of round pegs for his square holes as of late.

 

I think if a DC has round pegs, he ought to drill some round holes.

 

Well I was actually saying that he was smart from like a football perspective but I'm sure he's smart the other way too. He's actually a somewhat well spoken guy if you see him in interviews and things like that. I feel the same about the system in that it's not that it's the scheme that has ran its course but Troy, James, Kiesel, Taylor, Clark, Woodley, Smith, and Hampton ran their course. I won't brag though because I'm way too classy. I mean I am extreeeemely classy and modest as well. LOL.

 

This. I truly believe our system is where defensive players come to die. I don't know why that is because that definitely wasn't the case before, but our batting percentage is awfully low on defensive players, whether they be cant miss, plug and play 1st round picks or free agents. Now that verdict of course isn't out on guys like Shazier, Shamarko, Jarvis, etc. but I haven't liked what I've seen so far, and the last 7 years or so has shown us that we have zero ability to draft defensive players.

 

I love Lebeau. If he stays it's fine with me, if he retires that's fine too. What I don't get is if his system is so complicated, then why is it we hear time after time that the other team has figured it out? And time after time the w-l column would suggest that yeah, maybe they have? I know he don't have the horses in the stable he once had, but even when he did a lot of us were scratching our heads about the lack of handling 3rd and longs with the over the middle breakdowns... The lack of pass rush, the DB cushions. Yes it's hard to argue as we got some hardware out of it here and there, but that scheme has done some hurting as well and did so back then. Now with the rule changes and the play of the game changes, it's only gotten more ridiculous and can't just be be put squarely on the fact that we don't have the horses to run it anymore. Times change... Schemes get figured out and become less effective. Wether coach stays or goes, he needs or someone needs to do some tweaking and change the D's approach a little bit... With or without the horses.

Im a front 7 makes your DBs better man myself, but I also subscribe that a front 7 can be helped out mightily by not giving up huge cushions. It's math it's numbers it's timing. Try jamming folks more regularly to buy that extra tick we seem to be lacking. I know it's old hat and used up anymore but it only stands to reason. We can't draft a whole new D but we can take some of the kids on the upswing and put the other avg folks in better positions.

 

Blast, add me to the list also.

 

This should be your sig.

In terms of the list, I find it interesting in terms of just how much a crapshoot the draft can be going by projection.

I also think that Cortez Allen's decline this season was far more mental than it was in terms of physical skills. That's just the way it goes sometimes. There was that guy we drafted around the same time as Keenan Lewis... someone help me here... Joe Burnett? And there was a play where he dropped an easy interception. After that, his play declined massively. I sometimes wonder what happens if he makes that pick. Football's a game of inches like that.

Here's hoping Cortez sorts himself out in the off-season.

 

Richard Sherman was picked in the 5th round. He would have died in this defense.
Again, this defense will be getting even younger next season, not a LeBeau strength.
Who would bring Cam Thomas in? I'm sure it was LeBeau giving the green light. Plus having Keisel who did play his @ss off but this kept Tuitt off the field. Finally he gets a shot and look.
As far as the Cortez Allen signing I believe it was out of desperation to the mistake of losing Lewis. Hope he can get his act together, by keeping him they're is the risk of the same and that would be a major setback.

I personally would like to see LeBeau ride off and it might happen. Tomlin gave no immediate thumbs up to LeBeau staying as he has done in the past. Time for some fresh ideas. I appreciate all he has brought to the Steelers.

 

My sympathetic reading of the Thomas/Mitchell/DHB signings is that the team wants to get younger; so you get in some journeymen vets to fill the gaps while you develop younger players through the draft. In other words, Thomas wasn't signed to be a superstar starter; he was signed to be a Justin Hartwig.

Probably a Hartwig rather than a Sean Mahan - starter for one or two seasons until someone better came along, rather than versatile back up. I also wonder if the injury to McLendon may have increased the amount of time we saw Thomas on the field for.

 

Can someone please explain to me whats so damn complicated about dl's defense. It's still football and it looks a helluva lot like the rest of the defenses i see being played around the league. I'm so tired of this "it takes 3-4 years to learn this defense" bs.

 

It would be too complicated to explain.