the order of disapproval

[3rivers]

Right now,  many here aren't liking what the steelers have put on the field for 2019.  Even before bens 'injury' , the team had been playing lousy.  If you had to rate the areas of blame in order of 1 being the most severe, how would your list look  going from 1 to say 5?

1. OC

2. OL run blocking - deteriorated so badly so quickly it's hard to believe the Maunchak made this group so much better.

3. Roster/UFA fails  - dupree, maybe baron, burns, losing skipper, moncrief etc

4. butler - not bad last week, but still some issues and most are just tired of it

5. OC . ok, no need to go here, just run case I forgot.

6. seeming to already pencil ben as the 2020 starter and that means the return of OC. Are they throwing the towel in already? 

7. Samuels not getting playing time,  I can't figure this out unless he has injury they aren't reporting as usual.

8. offseason/draft . Minkah saves the day though, so colbert gets a mulligan for now anyways as strange as it is for me to type that.  Bush could be good too, at least they made a few moves to neutralize the rest of the bad moves and then the non moves.   Eat Thomas and Minkah would help the secondary but to my knowledge they never considered ET.

Injuries are a part of this game , so I can't be a fan that bashes a player for getting hurt. We don't know what injuries this team is dealing with , and might find out next year . For now though, I think this roster isn't all that bad, but they aren't playing near as good as they can .  W#ill this team get their season some wins though and when and how many?

[Blitzburgh]

I was a little bit more optimistic around the Fitzpatrick trade before last week.  If we miss out on a once in a generation pass rusher bc of this bone head trade I will be calling for Colbert’s head.  Or even worse if we clean house with HC and front office the job will be so much less attractive for candidates bc of not having that first round pick.

[Steelers22]

Both our coordinators are god awful.  Unfortunately, due to his relationship with Ben, there is almost no chance Fichtner gets canned.  Butler, on the other hand, I think his days are numbered.  

In general, everything that could've have gone right hasn't.  Everybody is playing worse, coaches are coaching terribly, we have no draft picks--very frustrating season considering my expectations heading in.  Nonetheless, it seems like we have a good defensive core going forward and that is something to be excited about. 

[MOSteelers56]

Butler will get fired and the defense will be one of the better ones in the league next year. I doubt it'll be that much about Butler though. We just are extremely young and inexperienced. I bet by the end of the year we'll be there. 

[cjfollett]

In no specific order:

Moncrief has been a huge disappointment so far. His drops were killer in the 1st two games.

Overall D has been extremely disappointing. They're getting gashed by the run, and allowing WRs to roam free.  While the pass rush has been decent (except versus NE), they cannot get there fast enough if a QB is throwing to his first -- wide open -- read.

I'm still disappointed by losing Skipper. I don't think he would have much impact this season, but next season there's going to be a huge hole.

O Line. They've been inconsistent. I don't think losing Munchak in one year would make this much difference, but if so... wow!

TE Fail. The trade for Bush means the Steelers passed on some good TE talent. Gentry looked lost when he was thrown in vs. the 9ers. It's not like we didn't suspect McDonald might get hurt and Grimble wasn't very good. 

Coaching has been below the line. There's no other way to say it. The schemes suck or are too difficult to perform successfully. Saying the players are not executing is a cop out. Give them something they can execute.

[Magnus-Viktor]

Head Coach

Head Coach

Head Coach

[3rivers]

4 hours ago, cjfollett said:

I'm still disappointed by losing Skipper. I don't think he would have much impact this season, but next season there's going to be a huge hole.

he would have been better than dupree , no doubt. He is quick off the snap and is quicker overall on the field . 

 

1 hour ago, Magnus-Viktor said:

Head Coach

Head Coach

Head Coach

He might not be #1 for me anyways, too many other problems, but since he was an enabler , he gets some 'recognition ' here Who knows how bad that locker room was with those egos, I couldn't stand it for a few minutes let alone for years

[cjfollett]

On 9/27/2019 at 4:22 PM, 3rivers said:

he would have been better than dupree , no doubt. He is quick off the snap and is quicker overall on the field . 

 

Dupree has played decent this year. Not great, but decent. I doubt seeing how things played out that Skipper would have gotten very many reps.

[3rivers]

6 hours ago, cjfollett said:

Dupree has played decent this year. Not great, but decent. I doubt seeing how things played out that Skipper would have gotten very many reps.

decent at best, not convincing for me anyways. Skipper had a quickness off the snap that in itself would create enough problems for OL to be disruptive more than dupree (who is slow off the line ).  I doubt Skipper would have got many reps too, since the regime has to prove the RD1 pick is legit until of course the 5th year options wasted 

[Magnus-Viktor]

On 9/27/2019 at 6:22 PM, 3rivers said:

 

 

He might not be #1 for me anyways, too many other problems, but since he was an enabler , he gets some 'recognition ' here Who knows how bad that locker room was with those egos, I couldn't stand it for a few minutes let alone for years

 

He's #1 based on more and more discipline problems with this team every year he's been here.  HE is the problem.  Period.  Penalties on the field.  Antics off the field (and in the locker room).  The buck stops with HIM.  Period.  They need to can him.  I'm almost hoping they lose out so they fire his worthless butt finally.  But not having Ben, which is the only reason he has a win% above 1%, will be his get out of jail free card this season so it is irrelevant.  They made sure there's nothing to cheer for this season IF it is a complete loss, since they already traded away the 1st rounder which could be top 5.

[3rivers]

MV - do you think rooney will part ways with tomlin? I don't, but instead the blame will go to butler and maybe colbert. Actually , this season, the blame will go on bens injury and this season is just a waste of time for now anyways. They won't hold anyone accountable this season.  I expect a terrible season next year if the same people return especially ben and HIS OC. 

[warfelg]

2 hours ago, Magnus-Viktor said:

Antics off the field (and in the locker room).  The buck stops with HIM.  Period.  They need to can him. 

I'm sorry but outside of Brown, who's been all these "antics off the field" guys?

[warfelg]

As for my order:

#1 - Kevin Colbert - So many say "well the buck stops with Tomlin".  Sorry I forget when Tomlin was named the guy that runs everything with the franchise. He has a boss who's screwing up the cap, the draft, the depth.  You can only miss on so many picks and be ok.  Too many people give him the built in excuse of the draft being a crapshoot.  Yea I get that if he has a bad draft here or there, but this is becoming all too frequent.  From 2014 you got 1.5 guys left (Tuitt, BFN Dan, though Shazier is out for other reasons).  From 2015 you got again, 1.5 guys (Dupree and Chickillo).  Sensing a pattern here?  2 drafts 1 impact guy remaining (again I know you can't really say much on the Shazier thing other than failure to properly replace).  2016, technically 4 guys remain, but only 1 is an impact player (Burns, Davis, Hargrave, Matakevich).  2017, you got 3 impact players, and 1 who's gotten a raw deal (seriously how many times does Sutton sub in, make a good play, and right back to the bench?).  And 2018 looking like another "banner" year for Mr Colbert with Washington dog housed for no reason, Edmunds looking like a 5th round safety drafted in the first, Samuels dog housed for no reason, and Rudolph being handcuffed by a crap OC.

So you got 5 drafts, 1 all pro who isn't playing anymore. 3 pro-bowlers.  3 1st round busts.  3 years of 2nd round picks that give you nothing.  3 drafts that have given you a grand total of 3 players.  I can't believe how so many don't see that as 100% inexcusable. Any other franchise has that over a few year stretch and that GM is gone.  How Colbert is teflon to this extent is absolutely dumbfounding.

#2 - Art Rooney II - Sorry Art, you aren't Dan or the original Art.  No one in this franchise really respects you to fear you they way they did Art and Dan.  You need to start finding your own way.  I think an early start would be to realize that you just don't have a pulse on football like they did.  Step out of the room sometimes.  Or take control of the room.  Stop doing this "everyones friend" and start being the owner.

#3 - Randy Fichtner/Keith Butler - Yes I give them more blame than Tomlin.  Yes I know some of you are likely trying seeing that because you don't understand.  These are the two that call the games.  These are the part of the prep that matters.  Unless we hit a point where Tomlin is actually calling plays, we need to realize that it doesn't matter how much game planning went on and how involved Tomlin is.  As long as these two idiots are calling the plays they are going to screw up games and do things like have a slow LB cover a leading WR or not go to plays he designed because....well we never got a reason.  And now we got them throwing players under the bus.

#4 - Mike Tomlin - He's making a runny overcooked soufflé with absolute crap ingredients.  

[43M]

A little bit off topic....but Tuzar Skipper had a .5 sack today in very limited playing time.    Not saying that proves anything....but the decision to let him go over Chickilo is just one of many examples of whats wrong with this team.   Skipper was clearly better in preseason, but since they "knew" Chickillo better, they foolishly stuck with him.

This front office has shown a reluctancy to move on from mediocre players.    I mean, eventually they do, but its long after everyone else says they should.   

[warfelg]

18 minutes ago, FourThreeMafia said:

A little bit off topic....but Tuzar Skipper had a .5 sack today in very limited playing time.    Not saying that proves anything....but the decision to let him go over Chickilo is just one of many examples of whats wrong with this team.   Skipper was clearly better in preseason, but since they "knew" Chickillo better, they foolishly stuck with him.

This front office has shown a reluctancy to move on from mediocre players.    I mean, eventually they do, but its long after everyone else says they should.   

I also put part of the blame on coaching.  They rather keep a player that makes a physical mistake (missed tackle) but not a mental mistake (wrong read of a play) as opposed to the players that make a splash play (strip sack) while making a mental mistake (rushing when should have been edge setting).

I'm sorry but those players that make plays while making a mental mistake are the exact type of guys to keep because they are the ones that just become better over time (Skipper) even if it is a sub-package role.  Those guys who are mentally fine (Chickillo, Matakavich) but make physical mistakes never actually get better and end up costing you games (coming from a guy that loved Matakavich coming out of college).

 

EDIT:
Want to throw this in here - but part of the problem with that is Colbert signed Chickillo to a stupid contract making it impossible to cut him.  Chick should have been on the street at the start of FA, and even after that should have overruled his coaches and booted someone not named Skipper.

Edited September 29, 2019 by warfelg