Spinning Tires: Steelers 2021 Offseason and Beyond...

[43M]

51 minutes ago, warfelg said:

I this picture becoming any clearer for anyone yet?

McDonald has done nothing in 3 years, and he wasnt cut, he retired.    The organization loved Pouncey, and its not like they forced him out.  Fitchner was a trainwreck.

Will those things cause Ben to retire?   Perhaps...and if so, good riddance, because all 3 of them were burdens at this point....and Ben kinda is too, so maybe he should follow them.

That being said, its pathetic he is making it out to be like the Steelers did this by design.   Typical Douchette.

[CKSteeler]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:58 AM, Cbrunn said:

You want to improve the run blocking , Banner at LT and draft Jenkins as the RT. 

The ground game goes where the interior of the line goes. Particularly your guards. The team isn't moving on from Decastro and I look for a bounce back year from him. It looks like they found a good one, and a mauler in Dotson. They need a center and another tackle.

The run game is not as far away as people think, and it doesn't really require some grand schematic shifts, either. There was already a pretty big difference between when Dotson was on the field and James Connor was healthy. Connor managed a healthy 4.3 YPC last year when he was actually out there.

The run game can be completely retooled in this one off-season if they play their cards right.

Fixing the vertical passing game will go a long ways to fixing the run game, as well. And unlike most here, I think Roethlisberger still has the arm to get the ball down field consistently. The offense just needs to be designed to do that.

[CKSteeler]

3 minutes ago, 43M said:

McDonald has done nothing in 3 years, and he wasnt cut, he retired.    The organization loved Pouncey, and its not like they forced him out.  Fitchner was a trainwreck.

Will those things cause Ben to retire?   Perhaps...and if so, good riddance, because all 3 of them were burdens at this point....and Ben kinda is too, so maybe he should follow them.

That being said, its pathetic he is making it out to be like the Steelers did this by design.   Typical Douchette.

I'll disagree about Roethlisberger, but Bouchette makes zero sense. Fitchner was canned because he sucked for two out of three seasons.

[VigilantZombie]

Pouncey left on his terms. As did Vance, sure they were gonna cut Vance but most but they didn't send him packing. Fichtner sucked.

Ben has been as big of a reason this team hasn't gotten back to the SB since 2010 as anything and he was Also a major reason we lost against GB in the SB. But let's also be honest, he IS the reason we lost to Cleveland this year. Between him and Pouncey we turned the ball over 5 times and Cleveland scored nearly every single time. Ben might not be done but he is also not playing at a high level. Are we better off with him? Maybe but that's a serious indictment of how ill prepared this organization has allowed itself to be at the expense of Ben.

[3rivers]

On 2/18/2021 at 7:16 PM, 43M said:

McDonald has done nothing in 3 years, and he wasnt cut, he retired.    The organization loved Pouncey, and its not like they forced him out.  Fitchner was a trainwreck.

Will those things cause Ben to retire?   Perhaps...and if so, good riddance, because all 3 of them were burdens at this point....and Ben kinda is too, so maybe he should follow them.

That being said, its pathetic he is making it out to be like the Steelers did this by design.   Typical Douchette.

all this said, I still think it's a few years late. They were all washed up and costing the team, now the core is older and on the decline as a whole.  Ben was done 3 years ago from the games that I watched.  Pouncey too, he was no good the last few years.  Bring Back Finney for OG/C and draft a C high possibly RD2. If ben is gone I might be able to watch because if he returns and is calling the shots, I will wait until he is gone. Enough is enough

[3rivers]

20 hours ago, wwhickok said:

Pouncey left on his terms. As did Vance, sure they were gonna cut Vance but most but they didn't send him packing. Fichtner sucked.

Ben has been as big of a reason this team hasn't gotten back to the SB since 2010 as anything and he was Also a major reason we lost against GB in the SB. But let's also be honest, he IS the reason we lost to Cleveland this year. Between him and Pouncey we turned the ball over 5 times and Cleveland scored nearly every single time. Ben might not be done but he is also not playing at a high level. Are we better off with him? Maybe but that's a serious indictment of how ill prepared this organization has allowed itself to be at the expense of Ben.

the team looked much better vs browns with mason , so just move on.  Colbert will have to throw out the $19M and answer to rooney at a later date. 

[VigilantZombie]

What frustrates me is we will lose Juju at the expense of Ben. Yet another talented young talent for a QB that'll never win another SB.

[3rivers]

1 hour ago, wwhickok said:

What frustrates me is we will lose Juju at the expense of Ben. Yet another talented young talent for a QB that'll never win another SB.

JJSS can go somewhere else, don't let the door hit him on the way out, go away. 

[VigilantZombie]

13 minutes ago, 3rivers said:

JJSS can go somewhere else, don't let the door hit him on the way out, go away. 

I disagree with that. He isn't a bad character and he IS a good player and with a running game and more consistent OL and QB play, he would producing far more imo.

[warfelg]

SD had an interesting one this morning:

Buy or Sell - Steelers will delay Ben’s roster bonus while both sides decide what to do. 
 

Personally I “sell” on this because delaying this bonus doesn’t help. If he delays the bonus the Steelers still need to account for the full cap hit so if they delay and he retires/restructures, then their FA targets could be signed by that point. 
 

Personally what I am “buying” in this situation is the hesitation of what the cap is doing. Without the cap set how to proceed with his contract is a challenge. If it’s higher than expected they can get away with doing less. If it comes in closer to the $180m floor they have to do more. 

[jebrick]

He would need to sign a new contract to delay the bonus.  So no

[warfelg]

2 hours ago, jebrick said:

He would need to sign a new contract to delay the bonus.  So no

No they can alter the language from 4th day of the new league year to 30th if they want without a new contract. That gives the Steelers more time before it’s guaranteed. It just doesn’t come off until he is cut/retires/extends. 

[Dcash4]

I think the delay makes sense for both. Seeing as we are still in wait and see mode from the front office and Ben hasn’t commented on playing I imagine it’s a mutual “let’s see what happens”. The team probably is okay with Ben back provided they can make the necessary moves and Ben probably doesn’t want to come back if they can’t sign some guys and he feels like he has to bookbag the offense. It’s good for both parties to just keep waiting. It’s terrible for us who want annnnything to happen.  

[warfelg]

1 hour ago, Dcash4 said:

I think the delay makes sense for both. Seeing as we are still in wait and see mode from the front office and Ben hasn’t commented on playing I imagine it’s a mutual “let’s see what happens”. The team probably is okay with Ben back provided they can make the necessary moves and Ben probably doesn’t want to come back if they can’t sign some guys and he feels like he has to bookbag the offense. It’s good for both parties to just keep waiting. It’s terrible for us who want annnnything to happen.  

The biggest reason I'm against it is if we can't open up enough space to make moves to make Ben happy, then he retires with us postponing his Roster Bonus, now we have $19mil with the 1st round of FA basically over with, effectively screwing over the team.

Yes $19mil might not sound like a lot, but if it's wait on Ben and lose Juju, Hilton, Sutton, or Ben leaves on an early decisions and getting to keep those three for the transition to a new QB (1st year cap hit for those three might be that), then I rather lose Ben as much as people might hate that.

Because if Ben leaves I would really want to have a stop gap option in place that's not Mason Rudolph, and for that to work we're going to need to spend on other positions.  Really don't want to end FA with our junk in our hands with $19mil in cap space and lose almost everyone because Ben wanted to see what happened with such little space.

[Dcash4]

52 minutes ago, warfelg said:

The biggest reason I'm against it is if we can't open up enough space to make moves to make Ben happy, then he retires with us postponing his Roster Bonus, now we have $19mil with the 1st round of FA basically over with, effectively screwing over the team.

It’s an assumption on my part but I see no way they actually would let the decision go that long. March 15th is is the important date that teams can start re-signing their current UFA’s. I would 100% bet they come to a conclusion of the Ben saga before that point. They would just want more time than March 4th for the league to decide the cap situation.