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Jon Bostic


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On 5/26/2018 at 7:14 AM, Armsteeld2 said:

I laugh out way too loud while reading Matakevich is a cerebral player who lacks the physical ability ?‍♂️Every slow player isn’t cerebral.  

True statement. However, I do think that Dirty Red actually has a high football IQ. He has been lost at times as a pro, but for whatever reason, so has the rest of the defense. I think the game speed has shocked him somewhat, but the ability to diagnose and set the defense is still there. When you know what you are doing and are confident in it, you will react faster.  When you have to think; that split second makes all the difference in the world on this level. That split second or two of hesitation allows you to get beat (speed wise) or for blockers to get on you. 

I believe that is Dirty red's issue right now. I am a homer with him, as I watched a lot of Temple football when he was there. He played downhill because he knew what he was doing. I (think/believe) that the light bulb will come on and that same knowledge/confidence/aggression will happen this year for him. I don't like what the Steelers did draft wise (not addressing some key areas and draft value), however, I do agree with Kevin Colbert that there are some things to look forward to with Dirty Red.

Mata is a solid ST who looked overwhelmed in the small sample I’ve seen so far.  

No argument here. I don't like reading it being a fan, but a true statement. Many times he was overwhelmed in practice and some pre-season games playing ILB.  Is that because of lack of ability or a lack of comfort, scheme, and confidence in what you are doing?  I believe it is the latter.

Williams is an excellent blitzer when schemed to get open.  He got there, which is a plus, but we were exotic and blitz heavy (which was often disguised perfectly and a four man rush).

Your opening statement better describes Williams than Dirty Red in my humble opinion. Last year, Vince Williams was entering his 5th NFL season and is on his second contract.  Dirty Red was entering his second season.  My expectations of Vince where much higher than the results. He did not fill the "Thumper" role that he was expected to excel at being.  I don't think it was physical or lack of ability as much as I was disappointed to hear that he couldn't set the defense. Part of being a MLB is being cerebral speed or no speed.  I didn't expect him to be Ray Lewis, but I also didn't expect the results that we got from veterans like Williams and Mike Mitchell.  In Vince's defense, that was his first year starting. Maybe the light comes on for him as well. It would be good for the defense.

 

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On 5/26/2018 at 7:14 AM, Armsteeld2 said:

I laugh out way too loud while reading Matakevich is a cerebral player who lacks the physical ability ?‍♂️Every slow player isn’t cerebral.  Mata is a solid ST who looked overwhelmed in the small sample I’ve seen so far.  

Williams is an excellent blitzer when schemed to get open.  He got there, which is a plus, but we were exotic and blitz heavy (which was often disguised perfectly and a four man rush).

I agree with the premise that not every slow player is cerebral....however if you are suggesting that this is the case with Matakevich you are wrong IMO.  Plenty of scouts said when he was getting drafted that if he even tested physically average he was a 2nd-3rd round pick easily.

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Neither Williams nor Matakevich is a sideline-to-sideline player like Shazier or Timmons ( was).  Matakevich was average speed in college and is slow in the NFL.  He is a fine backup for Williams and can work on the goalline but is just a liability otherwise.

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Let me clarify, Williams and Matakevich are both A-C MLBs.  That means they are ok as long as the play is from Tackle to Tackle but anything else and they’re both liabilities on the field.  Timmons and Shazier could easily go sideline to sideline.  

Scouts rave and miss on many players every year so I’m not too impressed when an anonymous source pipes up. Cerebral is used too often because a guy can watch film for hours yet if it doesn’t match up with his onfield play then it’s useless to me.  To be a MLB in the NFL these days, one must be fast and cerebral as the game has become a space battle but those A-C gaps need to be controlled as well.  Williams nor Matakevich play that type of game well.  I’m hyped to watch Bostic and Matthews to see how they perform.

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49 minutes ago, Armsteeld2 said:

Let me clarify, Williams and Matakevich are both A-C MLBs.  That means they are ok as long as the play is from Tackle to Tackle but anything else and they’re both liabilities on the field.  Timmons and Shazier could easily go sideline to sideline.  

Scouts rave and miss on many players every year so I’m not too impressed when an anonymous source pipes up. Cerebral is used too often because a guy can watch film for hours yet if it doesn’t match up with his onfield play then it’s useless to me.  To be a MLB in the NFL these days, one must be fast and cerebral as the game has become a space battle but those A-C gaps need to be controlled as well.  Williams nor Matakevich play that type of game well.  I’m hyped to watch Bostic and Matthews to see how they perform.

Agree with both at A-C gap ILB's.  Disagree on Matakevich not playing that type of game well because well....we've barely seen him out there.  Interested in seeing him healthy, and apparently the team is too.

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Why are we talking about inside linebackers? We need to be talking about how we are going to fix our depleted wide receiver core. We also need more backups at quarterback. I'm thinking at least eight. If need be, maybe one or two of them can play outside linebacker... They can't be much worse than Dupree.

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13 hours ago, Steeler Hitman said:

When you draft talent based on the 3 - 4 base, your LB'ers have to be very good.

Since the days of a younger Debo,  a young Woodley, and a younger Timmons, we have lacked having that elite CORP of LB'ers.

don't forget Farrior.  Where would you rank our 4 LB starters from 08-10 vs other teams best over the years?

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10 hours ago, 3rivers said:

don't forget Farrior.  Where would you rank our 4 LB starters from 08-10 vs other teams best over the years?

  1. I certainly didn't mean to omit Potsey Farrior.  He was a huge reason why our defense began to get good again like in the 90's before getting ravaged by free agency.
  2. I can't remember all of the tandems off of my head and I don't have the tme to look them up. However, off of the the top of my head I would say they were at least in the Top Five along with (in no particular order) the Ravens, Jets, and Packers.
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On 2018-05-30 at 8:12 AM, Steeler Hitman said:
  1. I certainly didn't mean to omit Potsey Farrior.  He was a huge reason why our defense began to get good again like in the 90's before getting ravaged by free agency.
  2. I can't remember all of the tandems off of my head and I don't have the tme to look them up. However, off of the the top of my head I would say they were at least in the Top Five along with (in no particular order) the Ravens, Jets, and Packers.

as for 3-4  starting 4 LB's , I would put our 2008-2010 LB up against anyone. Maybe not the best ever, but great IMO.  Of course the NT we had also deserves some credit

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I understand, personally, I'm not comfortable with Matakevich and Williams, even with Bostic as our inside linebackers, but can you really say we would be able to find a true upgradeable inside linebacker via trade, free agency, or recently draft? We did miss out on Evans. Instead, we addressed the safety position and got a safety who can mimic what Shazier did for us. 

So, either our FO is a group of staffing who doesn't know what to do or Butler had a plan and will employ our inside linebacker in a zone/cage situation (as much I like Watt, they misused him). I would like to see Watt and Dupree constantly attack the backfield, both have the athleticism for it. Let them. Let them spill, the cage/spill concept can change how we use our linebackers and we have been using our outside linebackers to the cage concept. 

I can't find the article via Steelersdepot but Alex Koroza did a good job explaining what those were. 

Basically, we had Harrison and Woodley cage in and keep the running game to run inside instead of outside. We need to spill, let them attack the run in the backfield like how the Eagles or some wide-nine scheme would. 

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On 2018-05-29 at 7:44 PM, FourThreeMafia said:

Why are we talking about inside linebackers? We need to be talking about how we are going to fix our depleted wide receiver core. We also need more backups at quarterback. I'm thinking at least eight. If need be, maybe one or two of them can play outside linebacker... They can't be much worse than Dupree.

you're suppose to be thinking of moving dupree to ROLB so he can get his stats and prove the FO was right in making in a RD1 pick as well as giving him the 5th year option9_9 No more banging head against wall  or clapping emoticon anymore though >:(

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/3/2018 at 5:47 PM, 3rivers said:

you're suppose to be thinking of moving dupree to ROLB so he can get his stats and prove the FO was right in making in a RD1 pick as well as giving him the 5th year option9_9 No more banging head against wall  or clapping emoticon anymore though >:(

Mike Mayock hyped Dupree so he must be amazing.

As for Bostic, I think he’s a good pick up.  He was a solid player for the Colts last year and for the Bears before he got hurt. He’s not Shazier, but most ILB’s aren’t him. A guy with that kind of speed at his size is virtually impossible to find and may not be found again.

Having Bostic and Williams in on run downs and taking one of them off the field on passing downs and putting Edmunds in one of their place seems like a good way to fix the pass D on 2nd/3rd & long and nickel defense.

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22 hours ago, turtle28 said:

Mike Mayock hyped Dupree so he must be amazing.

As for Bostic, I think he’s a good pick up.  He was a solid player for the Colts last year and for the Bears before he got hurt. He’s not Shazier, but most ILB’s aren’t him. A guy with that kind of speed at his size is virtually impossible to find and may not be found again.

Having Bostic and Williams in on run downs and taking one of them off the field on passing downs and putting Edmunds in one of their place seems like a good way to fix the pass D on 2nd/3rd & long and nickel defense.

Mayock makes mistakes too.  There is no replacing shazier, but maybe they are going back to a Farrior type player and thats good enough to help this D.  

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