OT: Mike Tomlin....

[recruitsreadtheseboards]

Well of course it isn't. It all has to do with the Stillers continually kicking the salary cap can down the road. And the road is at an end next year. If the cap comes in where they are talking about now the Stillers will have trouble putting a reasonably competitive team on the field.

They are going to have to get really, really lucky in the draft or it could get ugly next year. And $41 million in cap space for the quarterback is the biggest reason for that.

I like the NHL salary cap much better. Much more straight forward. But with the NFL contracts not being guaranteed and so much of it paid as signing bonus, it really makes things complicated.

 

[JokePa]

He let Brown's act go on for a few years before anything happened and that was more because of Brown than anything Tomlin did. James Harrison's nonsense went on for almost two years. When was Bell benched?

The entire year? How do you forget that? In fact, it’s pretty perfect coaching. He let his staff and himself try to straighten out the bad apples AND help the team as a whole before finally giving up and showing the team the team is more important than person. Same with Harrison.

 

[Burgh15]

What Ben have you been watching? It's clear his arm strength is an issue.

His arm strength is absolutely not an issue. A couple of weeks ago he was firing the ball as hard has he has thrown in years. Now if you want to talk about body mechanics with his throwing angle or his footwork I'll listen. But arm strength is not a problem at all.

 

[pittdan77]

The entire year? How do you forget that? In fact, it’s pretty perfect coaching. He let his staff and himself try to straighten out the bad apples AND help the team as a whole before finally giving up and showing the team the team is more important than person. Same with Harrison.

Bell sat himself out because of the franchise tag. How do you forget that? Also, trying to "straighten out bad apples" is a weird way to say they let the star WR live in a house off campus at Latrobe to keep him happy and put up with the LB skipping meetings or not showing up when he didn't feel like it for most of the season. Geez, Ben threatened to quit if they didn't get rid of Arians.

 

[303vND]

Bell sat himself out because of the franchise tag. How do you forget that? Also, trying to "straighten out bad apples" is a weird way to say they let the star WR live in a house off campus at Latrobe to keep him happy and put up with the LB skipping meetings or not showing up when he didn't feel like it for most of the season. Geez, Ben threatened to quit if they didn't get rid of Arians.

Haley not Arians but we get your point.

 

[pittdan77]

Haley not Arians but we get your point.

Right. Sorry. It's early. Ben didn't like Arians either but that's another story.

 

[JD1976]

Well of course it isn't. It all has to do with the Stillers continually kicking the salary cap can down the road. And the road is at an end next year. If the cap comes in where they are talking about now the Stillers will have trouble putting a reasonably competitive team on the field.

They are going to have to get really, really lucky in the draft or it could get ugly next year. And $41 million in cap space for the quarterback is the biggest reason for that.

If there's one organization that doesn't need "luck" in the draft it is the Steelers. Not trying to be a homer here, but haven't the Steelers proven for 50 years that they are going to draft and develop well more times than not?

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

If there's one organization that doesn't need "luck" in the draft it is the Steelers. Not trying to be a homer here, but haven't the Steelers proven for 50 years that they are going to draft and develop well more times than not?

They are going to have to get lucky because they are going to have glaring needs at several positions due to what they are going to have to do to get under the salary cap.

If you want to say that the Stillers hit more often than most in the draft then yeah, sure, I agree with that. But they are going to have to be close to perfect in next year's draft, and no one does that on anything more than just a rare occasion. With all the cap cuts they are going to probably need at least one or two offensive linemen (at least), probably at least one linebacker, and a cornerback or two. And that doesn't even get into whether or not they are going to need to get a new quarterback. They are going to have to draft near perfectly for next year's team to not have significant holes on it, and drafting near perfectly always requires luck.

 

[vietvet1]

That may be a fair statement. That said, when you are the size of Diontae Johnson, would you want to run crossing routes where you are flying across the middle and there is a 245 pound linebacker waiting to drill you? It is a recipe for Johnson to wind up sidelined for a few weeks or more. Even our bigger receivers like Claypool and Ebron can get lit up if Ben leads them right into a waiting defender. I like crossing routes, but, they are effective against man to man, not so much zone.

The offense has become a little to stale. We can't run, and we don't make a defense defend the whole field. Teams are figuring it out. They play less man, and go more zone and the defensive line always has their hands up if they can't get to Ben. Not coincidently, we have seen Ben get way more passes batted down recently. This offense is completely one dimensional right now. It will not work going forward without some creativity and attempts too at least stretch the field.

Going across the middle is no picnic. I did it often enough at the college level to appreciate the technique. In high school we called the play a quick pass. In college it was called the slant. No fun, but you didn’t think about that at the time.