Ravenslifer

I actually think New England and Seattle are were pretty even last year - New England had the top offense in points scored and 8th ranked defense in points given up, while Seattle had the top scoring defense and 8th scoring offense. The one thing that may actually give us a favorable matchup vs. Seattle compared to New England is that we were a much better rushing defense than a passing defense last year, and Seattle's offense is much more run-oriented than New England's. So if we can keep that up, I think we have a better shot of winning an arial battle against Seattle than we would against New England.

Well if you're saying that, regardless of who is where on the depth chart, that numbers 3-6 or 3-7 see more snaps and more opportunities, I absolutely agree. I think the best way for any player to get better is to play meaningful snaps, so the more you get guys on the field the better they'll be for you at the end of the year.

I think, in spite of them acting as though it's an open competition, that the job is Perriman's to lose at this point. If he doesn't screw up royally in preseason he's the starter even if someone outperforms him in camp. I think this for 2 reasons: 1) he's the first round pick and they've already seen what happens when they panic and try to replace a guy based on preseason with Torrey and Lee Evans (meaning if you draft a guy to be the starter, TC and OTAs shouldn't change that), and 2) more importantly, Torrey and Jacoby being gone makes us speed deficient when we've had a vertical receiver take part in almost every snap on the offense for the last 4 years. I think it's just a different matchup issue when Joe has that deep threat, and I think it's something they're going to want on every play. Maybe I'm wrong but I definitely think Breshad is currently being considered the de facto starter day 1.

I don't see a need for a veteran pass rusher. Who were McPhee and Kruger before we developed them and they broke out? We have a bunch of young players that are not only cost-controlled but need playing time to get better. Same thing with many of our other positions like receiver, TE, CB - bunches of young players who have a lot of talent and need to see the field, with the advantage of having experienced guys ahead of them to take up the slack. I could see the argument if we'd lost one of Suggs or Doom this year, but we have them, and now is the opportunity for someone young to learn behind them, so maybe by the time that guy's contract is up Suggs may decide to retire and we can fill the void with the emerging player instead of letting him get taken by another team.

Heyward has yet to crack double-digit sacks in a single season. Stat wise I'd say he's about where Paul Kruger was for us in 2012 - in fact they have almost identical sack totals and Heyward has a few more tackles while starting more games, with the difference being their respective draft positions. For a first round pick it's taken him several years to develop, and I think that slowed development has hurt the Steelers in the short term. But more importantly, I think it's contributed to the perception that a lot of Steelers fans have that LeBeau was a problem on defense. Whereas I think a lot of their problems can be traced to limited impact from recent high draft picks at the end of the LeBeau era. Heyward may become a pro bowler some day, but IMO neither he, Jarvis Landry, or Ryan Shazier have had the kind of impact to this point I think Kevin Colbert was hoping for. And now with Jason Worlids retiring, you have to wonder how their new, first-time DC is going to do with the group he has.

If the young players step up, this is a Superbowl team. The talent is there, no question. But guys like Perriman and Williams are rookies, and they're going to be expected to carry a heavy workload. Young players can do some special things, but they can also make easy mistakes that are costly to the team as they continue to grow and learn. And mistakes are what have killed us in previous playoffs - interceptions, fumbles, penalties, etc. - if we'd cleaned up our own mistakes, we might have made 3 superbowls the last 5 years. That's what I see as the biggest challenge - how to give these young rookies the best chance to succeed while trying to make sure that they, and the rest of the team, avoid costly mental mistakes.

I think the biggest problem the Steelers have had recently is that they've spent high draft picks on guys like Jarvis Jones, Ryan Shazier, Cameron Heyward, that just haven't worked out as well as they were supposed to.

But how many targets did he have? In the last 2 years in Frisco Q has been targeted 260 times. He was targeted 328 times his 3 years in Baltimore, never more than 112 times a single season - so in a given year Q was being thrown to 20 more times a season in San Fran as compared to Baltimore. Having more raw numbers doesn't mean he was "better" in Frisco - Colin Kaepernick literally did not throw to anyone else, including Vernon Davis. In 2013 Q caught 85 passes - the second leading receiver, Davis, caught just 52 passes, and nobody else caught even 30 balls. In 2012 here, we had 3 guys catch at least 60 passes, one guy catch 49, 2 guys catch 30. Also, Q's played all 16 games the last 2 years in Frisco. His last two years in Baltimore he finished with 920 yards while missing one game and 887 yards while missing 2 games.

I think a major factor in terms of Joe's success vs. other players is not only how much talent has changed around them, but how much scheme has changed as well. Joe is on his 4th offensive coordinator in the last 4 seasons, and only twice in his career has he had the same two starting wide receivers in consecutive seasons - Mason-Clayton 2008-2009, Smith-Boldin in 2011-2012. Throw in the TEs and you can see that Joe's had to deal with a lot of major changes in a relatively short amount of time. He's never had a receiver for more than 4 years. Contrast that with other QBs - Roethlisberger has had Heath Miller for 10 years, he had Hines Ward for 9 years, he'll probably have Antonio Brown for a decade. Brady had Welker for 5 years, Rodgers has had Nelson his whole career, Brees had Jimmy Graham for 6 years and has had Colston the entire time he's been in New Orleans. Peyton Manning has never been on a team without one of Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, or Demayrius Thomas. Not to mention between all of them I think they've changed OCs a grand total of 7 times in the entirety of their careers put together - Rodgers once, Brady twice, Roethlisberger twice, and Manning once his last year in Indy and once in Denver.

That was also, unfortunately, the last fully healthy year we had from Pitta.

Just stay healthy, please.

The rookies and second year players have to step up - in particular Perriman and Williams are going to be expected to carry starters' loads by the end of the season, and the same with Timmy Jernigan taking Ngata's place next to Brandon Williams. Someone will have to fill the McPhee roll as the other guy after Sizzle and Doom. Jimmy needs to come back and be Jimmy. If those things happen, and the things that cost us last year - dropped passes, giving up big plays on the ground and through the air, are cleaned up, then yes we're a contender. As I said before, talent wise we can compete with any team in the league, but we have a lot of talented guys who are short on experience, and we might see some gaffes as a result that cost us in big games. That's just the nature of the NFL - entire seasons come down to a handful of plays, and we just have to hope that the right guys are ready at the right time e.g. Jacoby Jones getting free for the Broncos pass, Jimmy Smith stopping the 49ers from scoring in the Superbowl, etc.

Oh I'm not criticizing the deal or Tannehill. Just pointing out that people still insist Joe is overpaid when guys who've done less in their careers are getting paid in the same ballpark. Tanehill has 3 years in the league, no probowls, no playoff wins, 63 TDs to 42 picks (Joe had 58 TDs and 34 picks through his first 3 years along with postseason success, team-related or not, and he didn't have Brandon Marshall or Mike Wallace to throw to). Joe got his deal after 3 AFCCG appearances, a Superbowl win along with throwing the pass that should have beaten the Pats the year before, and his next trip to the playoffs, this past season, he had us within striking position of our 4th AFCCG in 7 seasons. Tannehill has thrown for 4000 yards, and that's about the only thing he's statistically bested Joe in, all while playing in better weather against easier competition. Culter, Dalton, etc. haven't done much of anything either. It's just interesting to me that people keep calling Joe overpaid when you look around the league and realize that guys who've accomplished less are being paid around the same.

Ryan Tanehill signed an extension through 2020 worth 96 million, with 45 million guaranteed. Only Bradford and Rodgers had more guaranteed money on their deal than Tanehill's new deal.

I think Trestman will be a success here. People lambaste him for his "failure" in Chicago, but the fact is that, while QBR is not the be-all-end-all of judging a quarterback's success, it is a quick way of observing how a quarterback performed during the season. And Cutler had the two best quarterback ratings of his career under Trestman. Trestman also got Josh McCown paid by the Bucks. Joe is far and away a better quarterback than either of those two, especially in the decision-making department, so I expect even more success numbers-wise from Joe.

If it's upheld it could be a signifiant blow - they play Pittsburgh week 1 and Dallas week 4. Even if it gets reduced, without Brady I have a hard time imagining the Pats can beat the Steelers.

It's still really strange to me to grasp the concept that we could once again be too deep at the receiver position and some very good players are going to end up on other teams. It wasn't too long ago that we had guys like Randy Hymes and Clarence Moore on the depth chart - now people are fighting over whether or not Marlon Brown, who started for us 2 seasons ago, is ahead of Kamar Aiken on the depth chart and who deserves those last 2 roster spots amongst Campanaro, Butler, Worthy, Carter, etc.

Floyd claims now he wouldn't be against a rematch, but I expect the terms to drag out forever again to the point where it will never happen. And after beating Manny, I truly think the only thing on Floyd's mind is to find 2 easy fights, make it 50-0, call it a career as the all-time undefeated boxing champ.

None of those guys played any significant time at all. Between them, Dickson, Pitta and Stallworth saw 33 targets total that season, and over 20 of them went to Dickson alone. That was my biggest problem with the Cam-fense - throughout the 5 years he was here, guys past the number 3 receiver and the number 1 tight end just did not see the field to any appreciable degree. So the best way of putting it is Joe has never been in a situation where we're likely to have as much pass-catching talent on the field with him at the same time. Last year our number 3 receiver in offensive playing time was Marlon with 35 percent of snaps on the field, then Kamar with 25 percent of snaps. Conversely, in Trestman's offense last year, the number 3 receiver saw 40 percent of offensive snaps, the number 4 receiver and number 2 tight end saw 35 percent and 30 percent of snaps, respectively. So regardless of which group was actually more talented, I have a feeling that this year's crew is going to see the field more and thus be in more of a position to make plays for us.

My guess is he signs a long-term deal before next season's end. And I really hope he does - I have a feeling he's going to have a lot of options if he's allowed to hit FA next offseason.

Just the fact that Joe and CJ made the list is impressive enough to me. If i remember correctly they just hand out surveys and ask random players to name their top 20 or 25 players in the league, and then give the top 100 vote getters the top 100 spots. So you could look at it from the perspective that at least someone out there thinks Joe is a good player. Believe me, if you live inside another team's region the things said about Joe are pretty bad (although I do live in Steagles territory, so that may be why). And CJ is an ILB, not exactly a glamour position (similar to Yanda being criminally underrated because he's a guard).

Oakland for now.

A more important question I think the Steelers have to answer is was LeBeau really an issue? He was their D-coordininator for 11 years. In 2003 before he go there they were 15th in defense. During his run they finished 1st, 3rd, 11th, 2nd, 1st, 12th, 1st, 1st, 6th, 14th, 18th - he went on a pretty good run for someone who was supposedly "washed up". And look at their draft picks - Ziggy Hood was a bust, Worlids good player but retired, Heyward, Jones, Shazier are all still young but the results don't look promising. Not to mention a huge change was Kevin Colbert becoming GM in 2010 and I'm assuming being a major player in who they drafted. Remember when they all wanted Bruce Arians out, and all he's done is won 30 games as interim coach of the Colts and HC of the Cardinals. Now they've got a guy in Butler who's a first time DC - maybe he's a hidden gem, but he's still a rookie DC going up against OCs like Trestman and Jackson who've proven successful at this level.

My point was simply that there are absolutely no guarantees in a given NFL season. IMO the 2011 team was much better defensively than the 2012 team, and there wasn't much difference on offense towards the end of the season. The 2012 team lost like 3 of the last 4 games then went on to win the Superbowl. In 2011 we were a broken pass from playing Eli Manning for a title. In 2014 we had the Pats on the ropes before a major comeback. In 2010 same thing with the Steelers. You could make the argument that any one of those 4 teams should have played in the Superbowl, yet I think the one with the least balance and the most questions heading into the playoffs ended up with the title. We have lacked a receiver with great hands for Joe the last 2 seasons with Pitta's injury - Torrey's mistake in the Pats game may not have happened if Pitta was on the field and Joe threw to him. If Joe found Q in the endzone instead of Lee Evans, that could have been back to back Superbowls for us. I'm not going to say one way or another that this team is a Superbowl contender until I see how they look in the month of December, and even then that may not hold true. All I can reasonably expect is that this team make the playoffs, because the talent is there to do that. What I want to see happen is: A) A healthy Jimmy playing like he was last season, Breshad take the starting spot next to SSS, and C) either a healthy Dennis or Maxx taking the starting spot and excelling. But I can't say any of those things will happen this year, and if none of them do I can't say it won't happen in the coming years. There's just too many unknowns for me right now to say "yes, this is a great season." I know the players we have currently give us the talent to do it, but many of them are raw and may have rookie lapses in judgement that cost us games. The only thing I know for sure is that talent wise we match up with any team in the NFL.

If I had to guess, I'd go with: SSS Perriman Aiken Brown Camp Butler/Waller, with whoever losing this battle going to the PS Realistically Perriman, as a first round pick, will be expected to start and I think he gets that chance after how the FO saw Torrey progress. The other 3 already have NFL experience, so more or less their spots are guaranteed unless either Butler or Waller does something spectacular in the offseason. So I'd say the remaining spot is between the two guys we just haven't seen anything of at the NFL level yet, Butler and Waller.