Who is our best offensive player?

I've been waiting years to see Heath throw his first NFL pass! We've had what seems like a lot of former QBs turned something else around here. Ward, Randel El, whatever Kordell was, Heath. I've also seen guys like Moore, Bettis, Cedrick Wilson, Antonio Brown, and Emmanuel Sanders throw passes. Plus some others too that I can't remember right now, I'm sure.

I guess the trick is that it's easier for RBs and WRs to have a chance to throw it, by getting hand-offs and tosses. But with the amount of time Heath's been spending in the backfield lately in shotgun, I was hoping to see him get a draw play or something. They wouldn't see that coming!

He did have a rush this year, on a swing pass that was technically backwards. I think it was 6 yards and a 1st. Come on, Haley! Time to get creative with your favorite player!

 

Decastro....He is the most talented guy on the Offense IMO......Of course I only have College tape to look at...So I used the same criteria to base my decision. When you look at Ben's and Miller's College tapes compared to Decastro then Decastro shows to be the better at his position.....

 

This doesn't seem like a fair way to do it, IMO. Ben and Heath have gotten much better than they were in college (obviously), so how can you look at DeCastro and say he is the best player just off of what he did in college?

 

Because if the College tape on Decastro holds true then he will be the best RG in the NFL ....Ben is a Top 5 or so guy, as well as Miller IMO......We won't know for sure until we see Decastro line up against Pro's...But the question was our best Offensive player,so if Decastro is top 3 or better at his position he would be our best offensive player.....

 

No one's doubting DeCastro's potential, but I think we can at least wait 1 year (at least one game?) before calling him better than the rest of our team.

 

can best "offensive" be on the defense
because there is no way intarnation i pick BIG BEN
until now WARD would be my most offensive player
great attitude
hit him and get up and smile
also ' he got into others faces vets and rooks
not to mention his BLOCKS

other than him and now he is gone

i'm going
HARRISON maybe troy

until someone ,anyone, including ben, steps up CONSISTENTLY on the side of the ball that is supposed to score points

yep
our offense is pretty offensive

 

I haven't kept track since the thread started but has anyone given a definition of what "best" is? Because that is what I would base my answer on. If it is most important piece then yeah I might have to agree in any offense that the QB is the most important. If we are talking consistency of play then it is not Ben but would be for me a choice between Miller and perhaps Pouncey but Pouncey's body of work is smaller than Heath than I give the edge to Heath. so what are we talking about here for best?

 

I would LOVE to see that and wouldn't be surprised if Haley inserts a Heath pass in the package. The dude has a big time arm and a lot of people thought he would have made a very good college QB. Fortunately, Al Groh had other plans and saw that Heath's future was in catching passes and not throwing them.

 

THORN there was an earlier post on page 1 I believe. We were debating what makes someone the "best". The reason I said that I think Heath is the "best" is because of how much he does and how well he does it. When I think of Heath I think of a Tight End, pass protector, blocker, no nonsense, keep your mouth shut and play football kind of guy. I think Heath is a HUGE difference maker and is INCREDIBLY dependable. For me to say that Pouncey is better than Heath is just something I can't understand because Heath has been doing it for so long consistently.

 

I think it has to be Heath then. Just for overall quality of play as you said.

 

Well me and you make up the LARGEST minority in the history of this board! lol.

 

Right, he "will be". But I thought we were going off of right now? If so he shouldn't really be in contention YET. In the future for sure he could take the lead

 

I find it hard for a guard to ever be considered the best offensive player on this team. Unless we are very ****ty at some point. Tackles and centers have the best possibility on the offensive line.

 

You're missing the point. There's more than one way to measure. Importance to a team, which would perhaps give centers and tackles (and definitely quarterbacks) an edge, and then pure talent regardless of position. Case in point, you could easily say Shane Lechler is the best player on the Raiders. He's one of the best to ever play the game at his position. He's a better punter than Carson Palmer is a quarterback by a long shot. Carson's not even in his league. But who helps the team more? Obviously the QB, no matter how good or terrible he is. So Lechler is the better player (has more talent), and Palmer carries more importance. As for a guard being the best player on our offense, Alan Faneca could push for that title for a number of years, and we were a great team.

It's my stance that if you're just looking at talent, Heath Miller is the best on the offense. Behind him we have a flurry of amazingly talented contenders. I was going to try to rank them but then couldn't even get to #2. Ben is Ben, Pouncey is probably the best in the league, Wallace, Brown, Mendenhall, and some upcoming youngsters to feel good about. There's no question Ben is the most important, and one of the most talented as well, and occasionally looks like one of the most talented players in the league, but isn't as consistent as he should be for a man that talented -- regardless of his obstacles.

By using importance logic over pure talent logic, it's undeniable that Kent Graham was better than Alan Faneca. Because what would you do without a QB? Faneca couldn't QB for crap, and if Graham had to play guard, it'd basically just be like playing with 10 guys (you could split him out to WR and play with 4 OL and a TE, which is better than playing with all 5 OL and no QB).

But I don't mean to pick on you, since almost everybody in this thread did different criteria. The whole thing was confusing. It's just like the NFL top 100. Was it last year? Next year? The whole career? Not even the voters know.

 

I took it as who is the best right now,,not counting past NFL experience...So I speculated as to who would be the most dominate at their position compared to the rest of the NFL....Maybe not the way others looked at it as you stated,but doing it that way the smart money has to be Decastro....So basically I asked myself who I believe will rank the highest at their position after the season.....

IMO it was Decastro hands down as a RG as there is really no true competition IMO....Ben,Miller,Brown, and Pouncey all have stiffer comp IMO....All are great and should be TOP 4 or 5,but IMO Decastro will be #1 or #2 so thus I speculated that our best Offensive player is Decastro...

Important -Ben for sure.. Top at his position from previous play-Miller.. Guy who could become a #1 or #2 at his position Pouncey and Decastro...Again advantage Decastro based on level of comp.

 

I didn't put this in the original post but what caused this thread was the fact that my Supervisor was talking about how he would rank the people in our specific work area. His boss told him to do it that way. So when he told me about it I told him that didn't really make sense because position doesn't really dictate whether you are the BEST. The analogy that I used to illustrate what I was saying was exactly the analogy that Snack just used. I said "You naturally ASSUME the qb is the best. But when you look at the Bears Jay Cutler is not their best because their best is Matt Forte." I also said "If you look at the Titans their best is not Matt Hasselbeck or Jake Locker but it's Chris Johnson." BTW he just decided to name only one guy to represent the whole area. Basically a "Captain" and that Captain is none other than BLOUNTFORCETRAUMA baby! Steeler fans should be the best at everything!

 

You could vote for 83,7,53,84,33 or 17 or perhaps a few others. We have no BEST offensive player. They all have their rolls and they play them. Its a team sport. You could have the best QB,RB or WR to ever play the game. But without good people around him he will not alone win games for you!!

I understand and respect the OPs Q...BUT the way our O has played the last few seasons(I know BA is gone FINALLY) we have had our ups and downs.

We need a good RB and we need to get a FB. The other parts are already here. You CAN still win games in this league 14-10 with a good D. That we have!!

 

I suppose if I could have my pick of any position on the team that I would like to see addressed I would LOVE to get us a proven SHUTDOWN corner. I know Keenan Lewis seems hungry but I would just love to have a perennial probowler on the corner. As far as on the offense which I suppose is more on topic I would LOVE to have a TRUE fullback. Oh man that would be sweet!

 

No dude. I wasn't confused or thought you were picking at me or anything. I can understand your argument about the QB 99% of the time. But I could see an argument where there is a rare circumstance where a great RB being more valuable to a team than a crappy management QB. I think in these crazy rare times it being a matter of opinion.

About my comment with o-line players... In this day and age with athletes being what they are and the parity in the game, it's equally as rare that the best player on the offensive side of a team being from an o line. Let's take your QB argument off the table for a moment and just use runners and receivers. If you don't have scoring threat of some kind being your best offensive player then the whole front office needs to be fired. The Steelers have shown that you can still win the big one with a bad o-line play. Could you imagine a team winning it all with a monster o-line and very bad skill players? I can't.

 

I, sir, am most offensive!! Funk you very much.

 

It's the same principle. RBs and WRs and TEs are, generally speaking, also more important than individual OL players -- although the OL unit as a whole is more important than any of those positions if you ask me. But if you're still looking at the Lechler Talent angle, I see no reason to get upset over a lineman being the best player on the offense ("whole FO should be fired"). A strong case could be made that we're in that position now, considering Pouncey is probably the best center in the league and only going into his third year and getting better. If DeCastro is the next Faneca (many scouts say he'll be even better), we'll be in that position for sure. But does that mean our skill players aren't as good? We've got one of the best sets of RBs, WRs, and TEs in the whole league! Wallace could get 1500 yards and 12 TDs and DeCastro could still be the better player. I don't see the problem.

 

I think one or both of us might be misunderstanding the other. Because I completely agree with about out skill squads. I'm not upset by anything in reality. Hypothetically though, if a front office couldn't grab atleast one skill player in a top tier ranking in the league to be as valuable as thier best lineman using the draft, free agancy or trades then yeah some heads might need to roll.

I was never considering us in this example. We haven't had a clear best player at their position in the league in a while short of Polamalu (and some debate that in mashing together both safety positions). We had a squad of near top talent at many departments and respected positions. To me that's so much better...

I think the best way to clear up this grand question is to replace the word best with valuable (again- not considering the QB position). If you had bad talent all around except for a best WR and best O -lineman (think the lions) and had to trade one for two other top 10 players at a position, who do you deal away? Or, use us. If we had to, would you deal Miller or Pouncy? It's tough....

No matter what, im bored and just screwing around with this whole thing. I stand by my original post on the first page.

 

Honestly if I was gonna trade any of our "skill" guys I would have to boil it down to Mendy or Wallace. I just think that both of them are more expendable than Heath, Brown, or Ben. I just think with Brown you get more versatility than with Wallace. And with Mendy there's been a couple of injuries that present a question of durability. So that's my reasoning as far as that goes.

 

Not sure if I was clear. IF...we only had Wallace and Pouncy or Miller and Pouncy as players to be proud we had and had to give up one in a trade for two pretty good players at other positions. Who do is more expendable? QB's are not allowed to be considered. Let's also say DeCastro pans out to be top 2 or 3 in the league, you can use him instead of Pouncy.