Not as bad as it seems

[Josh Caleb Smith]

Obviously Steelers fans are doom and gloom after that loss to KC but so what?  We lost to the best team in the league on the road with an aging QB, terrible O-line etc.  We knew it would happen, just lucky to be there in the first place.

 

So this off-season the Steelers don’t need to panic and rebuild, but reload like they always do.  Still a lot of young talent on the team.

 

First thing is to build a strong O-line before getting a QB.  We could draft the next Joe Montana but he would get killed behind our current O-line.  I don’t think Kenny Pickett is the answer or any of the Free agents.

In my opinion we need 2 good Offensive lineman, to replace LT and C.  I would use our 1st rounder on a lineman, maybe Linderbaulm at Center or whoever the best available OT is.   Use FA to sign another good starter.  We have some cap room so we may be able to sign Armstead, or Jason Kelce, or Sheriff.  Anyone of those three.  It’s a huge priority, even if it costs a fortune.  Look at it this way.  No huge Pouncey or Decastro contracts on the books so who cares if we have to pay top dollar for one guy.

D-line will be fine as long as we get healthy.  They are old so maybe draft one in the 2nd or 3rd round to groom as a replacement.  But Loudermilk and Adams are young guys who got a lot of PT this year and one of those two can be a future starter in my opinion.

 

Secondary needs a tweak.  Joe Haden will be 33 and probably won’t be kept unless he’s willing to stay cheap and play the Deshae Townsend role.  I think our other big FA signing needs to be a CB.  Re-sign Witherspoon have him and a FA play outside and Sutton back to slot where he belongs.  I would also try to keep Edmunds.  He’s decent and would hate to add another need.  If somehow he wants big money let him walk and maybe draft a replacement in the mid rounds.

 

At receiver I would keep Juju.  He was cheap last year and after this season he definitely can’t be more expensive.  Ideally It would be nice to have another good WR but with the O-line needs I’d just keep Juju instead of going 6 years in a row of a WR/TE in the 2nd round.

Last but not least QB.  Honestly I’d rather give Rudolph a chance.  8-6 without Ben in 19.  Bad QB draft class.  Bad QB FA class.  Have too many needs to trade 1st rounders for someone.  I would keep Dobbs and Haskins let them battle it out.  Only way I’d take a QB is if Corral is there in the 1st or somehow Picket falls to the 2nd.  If Mason sucks and we go 6-10 now we have a top 12 pick in 2023 to be within striking distance of a franchise QB.

 

if we play our cards right I think we can be right back into the playoffs with Rudolph at QB as a wildcard next year.

[armsteeld]

Not a fan of most of this🤮

[Neumatic]

A second beating at the hands of the Chiefs isn't the tipping point, we were doom and gloom long before we were gifted the 7th seed. A top down rebuild of the offense is desperately needed, coaches and all. You are fooling yourself if you don't think this team needs a lot of work to be a contender. Id rather shove a #2 Phillips through both eyes than watch Rudolph as our starting QB. The defense carrying us to 8-6 without Ben in 2019 means absolutely nothing in 2022.

[Regulators87]

No thanks on Rudolph. I have seen enough of him. He was helped in 2019 by a defense that was top 5. He could barely beat out Duck Hodges that year, and Duck is now out of the league. Perhaps Steelers could bring back Landry Jones to compete with Mason. Obviously I am being sarcastic there, but they will clearly be bringing in some sort of outside help at qb, and no I do not believe Steelers make a splash trade for Rodgers or Wilson. They don't have the draft capital to pull it off, and quite frankly this team has too many holes and not enough depth. Not sure where they will go in regards to qb, but Rudolph, Haskins, and Dobbs are not the answer.

[MOSteelers56]

I agree with you @Josh C Smith

The offense was bad because Ben and Canada didn’t fit. We could blow it all up, or we could get a guy that actually does fit the offense. The offense was built for rhythm, timing routes, moving the qb out of the pocket, motion. Ben can’t do any of those things anymore. The defense still has some sauce too.
 

I’m going to have to watch out for flying wrenches here, but I think Green will be a pretty good center next year. Look at what Hass looked like last year vs this year. If a stumpy, weak, slow center can improve to be average-ish, what can Green be next year? It’s not unheard of.

[43M]

Y'all are in for a rude awakening.

TWO good offensive lineman?   Who are the other 3?    I get we arent going to competely start from scratch again, but at this point, we need an entirely new OL.  Not a single starting caliber OLineman all year.   I still have mild hope for Green, Moore and Banner, but we will be lucky if even one of them turns out to be a decent starter.

Secondary needs a tweak?   TWEAK!?   We have Minkah at FS and Sutton should be nothing more than our nickle.    What else?    We need a number 1 CB...a number 2 CB and a starting SS....not to mention better depth...and you call that a TWEAK?

DL is probably going to lose Tuitt for good. Alualu, at best, will come back for one more year.     Heyward will be 33.   Loudermilk and Wormley are decent depth, but nothing more.   DL will be a major issue in the next two years....trust me.

Juju might want to go to a better situation....and I wouldn't blame him.    Our entire WR corps is inconsistent and undependable.   DJ and Claypool will be back, but despite the talent, neither can be trusted right now.

So....

New starting QB

Depth at RB

At least 2 or 3 new OLineman....maybe more.

1, maybe 2 new starting DLineman.

1 new starting ILB, and if Bush keeps sucking, we we'll need a replacement for him in 2023.

An almost completely new secondary with 3 new starters.

And not to memtion the coaching staff and front office...which I wont delve into, but likely needs EXTREME changes.

If all of that amounts to merely "tweaks",  then I guess I only need a few "tweaks" before I become  the next Tom Brady.  

 

[AFF]

34 minutes ago, 43M said:

Y'all are in for a rude awakening.

TWO good offensive lineman?   Who are the other 3?    I get we arent going to competely start from scratch again, but at this point, we need an entirely new OL.  Not a single starting caliber OLineman all year.   I still have mild hope for Green, Moore and Banner, but we will be lucky if even one of them turns out to be a decent starter.

Secondary needs a tweak?   TWEAK!?   We have Minkah at FS and Sutton should be nothing more than our nickle.    What else?    We need a number 1 CB...a number 2 CB and a starting SS....not to mention better depth...and you call that a TWEAK?

DL is probably going to lose Tuitt for good. Alualu, at best, will come back for one more year.     Heyward will be 33.   Loudermilk and Wormley are decent depth, but nothing more.   DL will be a major issue in the next two years....trust me.

Juju might want to go to a better situation....and I wouldn't blame him.    Our entire WR corps is inconsistent and undependable.   DJ and Claypool will be back, but despite the talent, neither can be trusted right now.

So....

New starting QB

Depth at RB

At least 2 or 3 new OLineman....maybe more.

1, maybe 2 new starting DLineman.

1 new starting ILB, and if Bush keeps sucking, we we'll need a replacement for him in 2023.

An almost completely new secondary with 3 new starters.

And not to memtion the coaching staff and front office...which I wont delve into, but likely needs EXTREME changes.

If all of that amounts to merely "tweaks",  then I guess I only need a few "tweaks" before I become  the next Tom Brady.  

 

That why it wouldn’t surprise me if they spread their FA $$$ and draft picks around.

Their 1st rounder on any position not named RB/TE/Edge would make sense.

They could conceivably sign a OG/nose/CB to all decent contract and it would make sense.

This off-season is gonna be exciting.

[Josh Caleb Smith]

On 1/17/2022 at 5:47 PM, 43M said:

Y'all are in for a rude awakening.

TWO good offensive lineman?   Who are the other 3?    I get we arent going to competely start from scratch again, but at this point, we need an entirely new OL.  Not a single starting caliber OLineman all year.   I still have mild hope for Green, Moore and Banner, but we will be lucky if even one of them turns out to be a decent starter.

Secondary needs a tweak?   TWEAK!?   We have Minkah at FS and Sutton should be nothing more than our nickle.    What else?    We need a number 1 CB...a number 2 CB and a starting SS....not to mention better depth...and you call that a TWEAK?

DL is probably going to lose Tuitt for good. Alualu, at best, will come back for one more year.     Heyward will be 33.   Loudermilk and Wormley are decent depth, but nothing more.   DL will be a major issue in the next two years....trust me.

Juju might want to go to a better situation....and I wouldn't blame him.    Our entire WR corps is inconsistent and undependable.   DJ and Claypool will be back, but despite the talent, neither can be trusted right now.

So....

New starting QB

Depth at RB

At least 2 or 3 new OLineman....maybe more.

1, maybe 2 new starting DLineman.

1 new starting ILB, and if Bush keeps sucking, we we'll need a replacement for him in 2023.

An almost completely new secondary with 3 new starters.

And not to memtion the coaching staff and front office...which I wont delve into, but likely needs EXTREME changes.

If all of that amounts to merely "tweaks",  then I guess I only need a few "tweaks" before I become  the next Tom Brady.  

 

As far as the O-line you have to be realistic.  We are not going to replace ALL 5 starters in one off-season.  Green, Moore, and the LGs were terrible.  Getting Dotson back improves one spot at least slightly, then a big name FA and a stud 1st round pick improve two other positions.  So now 3/5 of the O-line is upgraded from what we had.  That alone could take the unit from a bottom 5 O-line in the league to top 15 in 2022.  Plus between Green, Moore, and another mid round pick someone will improve.  I also think the new O-line coach will be better than Klemm.  He obviously had his heart in another spot for a portion of the season.

Then add another big piece next off-season and have a top 5-10 O-Line in 2023.
 

Now as for the secondary, the only tweak you need to make is signing another CB to replace Haden.  Keep Witherspoon play him outside, keep Sutton at nickel and sign a Steven Nelson type FA.  

[Josh Caleb Smith]

On 1/17/2022 at 1:38 PM, MOSteelers56 said:

I agree with you @Josh C Smith

The offense was bad because Ben and Canada didn’t fit. We could blow it all up, or we could get a guy that actually does fit the offense. The offense was built for rhythm, timing routes, moving the qb out of the pocket, motion. Ben can’t do any of those things anymore. The defense still has some sauce too.
 

I’m going to have to watch out for flying wrenches here, but I think Green will be a pretty good center next year. Look at what Hass looked like last year vs this year. If a stumpy, weak, slow center can improve to be average-ish, what can Green be next year? It’s not unheard of.

Yeah I think Green will improve but I wouldn’t play him at center.  I would move him to guard.  At least playing guard you dont have to worry about his bad snaps which is half of his problem.

I honestly think Mason Rudolph will be an upgrade from a 2021 Roethlisberger.  Not a huge upgrade, not saying Pro Bowl or anything like that but he has a winning record as a starting QB.  He lit up a desperate Browns playoff team last year for 315.  In the Lions game he led the Steelers on not one but TWO GW drives had the WRs not fumbled it away.  Johnson fumbled once, then Friermouth.  Plus Rudolph saved the game on a terrible snap by Green.  A full off-season with a improved O-line and a chance to get out of the shadow of Big Ben Rudolph can play.  

 

[43M]

6 hours ago, Josh Caleb Smith said:

As far as the O-line you have to be realistic.  We are not going to replace ALL 5 starters in one off-season. Green, Moore, and the LGs were terrible.  Getting Dotson back improves one spot at least slightly, then a big name FA and a stud 1st round pick improve two other positions.  So now 3/5 of the O-line is upgraded from what we had.  That alone could take the unit from a bottom 5 O-line in the league to top 15 in 2022.  Plus between Green, Moore, and another mid round pick someone will improve.  I also think the new O-line coach will be better than Klemm.  He obviously had his heart in another spot for a portion of the season.

I acknowledged that, but that doesnt mean we dont NEED 5 new starters.   Even if we need 4 or only 3, thats more than a "tweak".  

Im guessing by 2024, there are at least 4 new lineman from the 2021 season.

Thats an OVERHAUL....not a tweak.

6 hours ago, Josh Caleb Smith said:

Now as for the secondary, the only tweak you need to make is signing another CB to replace Haden.  Keep Witherspoon play him outside, keep Sutton at nickel and sign a Steven Nelson type FA.  

Thats if Witherspoon comes back....and we have no idea how good he will be starting all season.

Like I said, we at least need two new starters at CB and MAYBE a new S depending what happens with Edmunds...who isnt that good either but we have too many other holes.

Our secondary was bottom 7 in talent.   Without at least two new starters, not much will change.