Will The Steelers Be The New Browns?

[cursona pirate]

I wish they would be like the browns. They willb e as strong as last year if not better. I think the Bengals will be even more dangerous. Its gonna be a close race next year for the AFC North.

[GrimCoconut]

In short: no.

The Browns will be the new Browns. They have had one of the worst off-seasons I've seen. They won't get Luck or RG3. They will probably pass on Tannehill & get Richardson (a wise move, actually--they would be stupid to get Tannehill). That may be all they need. Richardson will be a beast, straight-up. I would love to land him. I wish the Ravens could get Richardson.

Anyway, the Steelers are too well-run to become the Browns. Well, well-run except for their salary cap, which is horrendous. I don't know who is managing that thing, but they need to be fired two years ago. Two years in a row where they restructure deals is bad for business. They will be hurting bad in a few years.

The problem is the Steelers draft very, very well. They are very similar to us in drafting. They have a very good eye for talent & they pick excellent players. They are so similar to the Ravens, or the Ravens are so similar to them. I have to say I respect their organization because of how they draft. I mean, Wallace, Brown, & Sanders? That's unreal. Getting three pretty damn good WRs like that so close to each other when a lot of other guys busted bad is a good barometer for success.

Anyway, no, they will be our rival for some time but I see that time closing. I see the Bengals being a very big threat next year. I can see the Steelers third in our division next year, though. Perhaps a better name for this thread is "Will the Steelers be the new Bengals?". Now, that I can see.

Problem with the Bengals is they have an owner who hates to spend money.

[BloodRaven]

[quote name='flynismo' timestamp='1331168229' post='1015351']
You guys are forgetting all the young talent on that defense. Keisel and Smith will be replaced by Ziggy Hood and Cameron Heyward -- two 1st round DE.

Jason Worilds is itching for Harrison to retire or get cut.

Their front seven likely won't skip a beat. They can address the secondary via FA and the draft.
[/quote]

Ziggy Hood is a bust going into his 4th season, Cameron Heyward is unproven but at least has potential. Worilds is also unproven.

The chances that they find guys [i]as good[/i] as the players they're replacing are low, although Lawrence Timmons isn't too far off from prime Farrior.

[bpytnjr58]

[u]I am not counting them out but they are due for some down time ...wouldn't break my heart either![/u]

[flynismo]

This might sound crazy or treasonous, but I don't want to see PIT become a scrub team (not that I think they will). I get little satisfaction out of watching the Brownies take a beating every time we play them...it's like I'm not a spectator watching a sport, rather I'm just a witness to the inevitable.
The Steelers games are the ones that even fans from the NFC mark on their calendars; I don't want that excitement degraded!

[Clutch Ravens]

[quote name='flynismo' timestamp='1333894841' post='1045328']
This might sound crazy or treasonous, but I don't want to see PIT become a scrub team (not that I think they will). I get little satisfaction out of watching the Brownies take a beating every time we play them...it's like I'm not a spectator watching a sport, rather I'm just a witness to the inevitable.
The Steelers games are the ones that even fans from the NFC mark on their calendars; I don't want that excitement degraded!
[/quote]

I feel exactly the same. I don't want the best rivalry in Football to be ruined.

I'm pretty sure the Packers don't get anywhere near the same enjoyment out of beating the Vikings as they did a couple years ago.

[cursona pirate]

[quote name='Clutch Ravens' timestamp='1333913927' post='1045547']

I feel exactly the same. I don't want the best rivalry in Football to be ruined.

I'm pretty sure the Packers don't get anywhere near the same enjoyment out of beating the Vikings as they did a couple years ago.
[/quote]
Yeah this rivalry has been strong for the last five ish years. I don't thInk the rivalry will ever be forgotten. The games are usually close no matter how bad one team is.

[reediddy]

I think it's a stretch calling them the new Browns. That being said, their last few drafts have not been exceptional, as usually perceived. Ziggy Hood is decent but not a dominant starter as envisioned. Marcus Gilbert betters their OL, but not drastically. Mendenhall's injury was huge, and we have yet to see how he will bounce back from that. Loss of Farrior/McFadden/Ward will all make a huge impact I think, considering 2 out of those 3 guys were essentially the leaders on their respective sides of the ball. Someone above made a point about Polamalu/Harrison disappearing, and this is true, as they're getting up there in age. And what with the loss of so many defensive guys, I think it'll make their job more difficult to be sure.

Their receiving corps is still there though, don't forget Antonio Brown. Sanders is a solid option as well. Plus Heath Miller can do damage if given the chance. I think offensively their biggest question mark is Mendenhall. How will he bounce back? I don't think they can trust Redman to handle a full workload, and I'm not sure the young guys like Dwyer/Clay are ready to step in just yet.

If they have a weak draft this year, that'll be devastating in my opinion. There are plenty of holes to fill in that roster, and they need to find gems in the later rounds if they hope to keep up with the rest of the AFCN. I say that because CIN is definitely up and coming, especially considering how many future draft picks they have, in the high rounds no less. And the Browns, if they take Trent Richardson like I'm projecting, man, look out. That's already a pretty darn good OL they have there, and if some pressure can be taken off McCoy, I can see them being a much better offense. And their pass defense was up there last year as well, of course it was partly due to the very poor run defense, but nonetheless they have good players on that side of the ball. Guys like Sheard and Taylor in their second years will surely step up.

That being said, I'm not worried about the Ravens being perennially competitive, especially with how well we draft. But I am looking forward to the AFCN becoming one of, if not THE, most competitive division in football in a few years

[JO_75]

Now after seeing their draft, I don't expect them to have a off year at all though I do expect some mistakes with rookies starting all over for them. Especially on that offensive line, for once the Steelers will have a good offensive line thanks to the addition of Decastro and Mike Adams. I just read that they moved RT Willie Colon to LG and that their projected starting offensive line is Mike Adams(Rookie LT), Willie Colon(Veteran player but first time playing Guard), Pouncey(Center), David Decastro(Rookie Guard), and Marcus Gilbert(second year player but first year starting).

They still have holes on their defense but most certainly I see them making the playoffs but how far, I have no idea.

[cobrajet]

I actually believe the Steelers will be better this year dumping some of the older "big contract" players. They had one hellava draft and instantly will improve their lines, which was in serious need of repair. Ben should be healthy and they will be bringing back all of their best starters. They will be tough as always this season.

[moneyman4110]

I think the Browns will be the new Browns.

[Tiz]

Pitt will not have yrs of rock bottom
they are young and physical at ol
The still have a physical defense
Still have a tough qb
And they still draft well.
Its utterly ridiculous to think they will have a major drop.
Cleveland had a decent draft but dependent on a 28 yr old rook qb and how quickly he can get going....

Cleveland still cleveland

[bpytnjr58]

9-7 or 8-8 is considered a down year for them.

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Tiz' timestamp='1337265760' post='1078808']
Pitt will not have yrs of rock bottom
they are young and physical at ol
The still have a physical defense
Still have a tough qb
And they still draft well.
[b]Its utterly ridiculous to think they will have a major drop.[/b]
Cleveland had a decent draft but dependent on a 28 yr old rook qb and how quickly he can get going....

Cleveland still cleveland
[/quote]

They have major cap issues. Unless the cap increases significantly by next year, they will lose brown and wallace. They will bring in two new wide receivers who will have to be broken in with a qb who will be 32 by then. Unless they strike AJ Green in the draft, that will cause a major drop on its own because their current rb core wont carry the team.

[Tiz]

[quote name='Sizzlebshu' timestamp='1337483402' post='1080026']


They have major cap issues. Unless the cap increases significantly by next year, they will lose brown and wallace. They will bring in two new wide receivers who will have to be broken in with a qb who will be 32 by then. Unless they strike AJ Green in the draft, that will cause a major drop on its own because their current rb core wont carry the team.
[/quote]

They had major cap.issues this yr to yet had a great draft and,managed to free up more cap.than baltimore...in other words they are in no worse a position than we are so if you think they'll fall off for 1 yr you must think we will too.

That said 1 off year doesn't equate to the struggles of cleveland...

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Tiz' timestamp='1337502556' post='1080046']
They had major cap.issues this yr to yet had a great draft and,managed to free up more cap.than baltimore...in other words they are in no worse a position than we are so if you think they'll fall off for 1 yr you must think we will too.

That said 1 off year doesn't equate to the struggles of cleveland...
[/quote]
The scenarios are completley different. We have huge contracts coming off the books in a few years (ed reed, ray lewis) etc... We also arent losing our entire receiving core at the same time. The steelers are like us right now, barely under the cap, but they had jettison an insane amount of players to do it. I didnt say theyd be cleveland just that they would drop off big time possibly go to third in the division behind us and the up and coming bengals. Financially and personnel wise, those teams are in better positions.

[Tiz]

[quote name='Sizzlebshu' timestamp='1337527681' post='1080098']

The scenarios are completley different. We have huge contracts coming off the books in a few years (ed reed, ray lewis) etc... We also arent losing our entire receiving core at the same time. The steelers are like us right now, barely under the cap, but they had jettison an insane amount of players to do it. I didnt say theyd be cleveland just that they would drop off big time possibly go to third in the division behind us and the up and coming bengals. Financially and personnel wise, those teams are in better positions.
[/quote]

So we have huge contracts coming off and they just took some off.
We have ray and Ed on the verge of retiring
They have Harrison
They have Ben who restructured
We have joe who will get an extension
We also have to get a long term for ray rice
Ngata will be coming up soon too.
Pitt has done this before, just like we have.

So again there is nothing extraordinarily different there than what we have to deal with

So again no reason to think they will become Cleveland and not just hit rock bottom but stay there...
Not one person would view Baltimore like that but since 2k we have had our share of down seasons so why on
Earth even suggest one down season in Pitt makes them the new browns...

In regards to Cleveland being in a better state cap wise that means nothing since they don't coach players up like Pitt or scout and draft like them. Having money means nothing if you don't use it wisely or develop your rooks well.

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Tiz' timestamp='1337547102' post='1080175']
So we have huge contracts coming off and they just took some off.
We have ray and Ed on the verge of retiring
They have Harrison
They have Ben who restructured
We have joe who will get an extension
We also have to get a long term for ray rice
Ngata will be coming up soon too.
Pitt has done this before, just like we have.

So again there is nothing extraordinarily different there than what we have to deal with

So again no reason to think they will become Cleveland and not just hit rock bottom but stay there...
Not one person would view Baltimore like that but since 2k we have had our share of down seasons so why on
Earth even suggest one down season in Pitt makes them the new browns...

In regards to Cleveland being in a better state cap wise that means nothing since they don't coach players up like Pitt or scout and draft like them. Having money means nothing if you don't use it wisely or develop your rooks well.
[/quote]
I said nothing bout cleveland's cap

Ngata just got a new deal last year.

Ben's and Harrison's restructure barely got them under the cap and pushed off this prob to the future and made signing Wallace and Brown long term fairly impossible barring a major salary cap limit increase since more money was pushed into the future

With the way front office is going. No idea what they will do with Rice, but I suspect tag this year and possibly long term deal next year depending on the cap. They may try to tag him twice tho depending on pierce's performance vs rice's requirements

Flacco will get a new deal but nothing that will kill us cap wise based on how the talks are going. Agree that about 14 or 15 mill is enough. Which wont kill us if we lose boldin (aged anyway) and ray retires/other contracts are cleared up.

Either way with Rice's contract we are cetainly in a much better position to get Rice and Flacco signed than they are at resigning their entire receiving core.

Also in regards to Reed and Lewis retiring, we wont drop off because we have played without both before and have still been a top defense.

The personnel difference will make a huge difference for Pitt. I wont say that the Browns will be better barring major improvement from the Browns which is lol to begin with, but seeing them be worse than us and the Bengals is not a stretch if they lose both wallace and brown and are cap killed for the next couple of years.

[Ravens4Real]

The Steelers restructuring is going to be a non issue when the new contracts for Tv kick in and raise the salary cap. The Steelers are one of the most well run franchises in all of sports. I am sure they know what they are doing better than everyone on this board.

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Ravens4Real' timestamp='1337551558' post='1080189']
The Steelers restructuring is going to be a non issue w[b]hen the new contracts for Tv kick in[/b] and raise the salary cap. The Steelers are one of the most well run franchises in all of sports. I am sure they know what they are doing better than everyone on this board.
[/quote]
If they dont raise the cap by next year the Steelers can lose Brown, Sanders and Wallace. It also has to go up to about 135 million for them to stand a chance of being able to resign brown and wallace. Even then it would be difficult as they are close to 125 million now and have money pushed off to the future already.

[Tiz]

[quote name='Sizzlebshu' timestamp='1337527681' post='1080098']
The scenarios are completley different. We have huge contracts coming off the books in a few years (ed reed, ray lewis) etc... We also arent losing our entire receiving core at the same time. The steelers are like us right now, barely under the cap, but they had jettison an insane amount of players to do it. [b]I didnt say theyd be cleveland just that they would drop off big time possibly go to third in the division behind us and the up and coming bengals. Financially and personnel wise, those teams are in better positions[/b].
[/quote]

[quote name='Sizzlebshu' timestamp='1337549227' post='1080183']
I said nothing bout cleveland's cap

.
[/quote]


nope of course you didn't bring up the financial positions of the browns or bengals...not at all..

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Tiz' timestamp='1337618840' post='1080406']
nope of course you didn't bring up the financial positions of the browns or bengals...not at all..
[/quote]
I was referring to the Ravens and Bengals. You misinterpreted. I never denied bringing up the Bengals cap position either. Clearly you have 0 counterargument though if thats what youre trying to get me on.

[Ravens4Real]

[quote name='Sizzlebshu' timestamp='1337551703' post='1080190']

If they dont raise the cap by next year the Steelers can lose Brown, Sanders and Wallace. It also has to go up to about 135 million for them to stand a chance of being able to resign brown and wallace. Even then it would be difficult as they are close to 125 million now and have money pushed off to the future already.
[/quote]

You are overvaluing Sanders and Brown. Sanders has done very little due to injury. They will sign him easily. Brown had one good year and is an RFA next year. They will only spend 2.5. Mill on him if they do not resign him. The only one they will have a problem with is Wallace.

They won't have to worry about Brown and Sanders until 2014 and by then it has already been reported that the cap will be much larger. Also by then they will have bigger contracts off of the books. Hampton and Harrison will more than likely be gone by then.

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Ravens4Real' timestamp='1337628810' post='1080512']
You are overvaluing Sanders and Brown. Sanders has done very little due to injury. They will sign him easily. Brown had one good year and is an RFA next year. They will only spend 2.5. Mill on him if they do not resign him. The only one they will have a problem with is Wallace.

They won't have to worry about Brown and Sanders until 2014 and by then it has already been reported that the cap will be much larger. Also by then they will have bigger contracts off of the books. Hampton and Harrison will more than likely be gone by then.
[/quote]
How much is much? I consider 10-15 million a large increase (total 130-135 million). Even with that though all of the resigning will be tough and losing a guy like Harrison who is a phenomenal pass rusher would still hurt a bit.

[Tiz]

[url="http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/48677/sportscenters-afc-north-predictions"]http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/48677/sportscenters-afc-north-predictions[/url]

thought this was interesting in relation to this thread.

[Sizzlebshu]

[quote name='Tiz' timestamp='1337791615' post='1081368']
[url="http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/post/_/id/48677/sportscenters-afc-north-predictions"]http://espn.go.com/b...rth-predictions[/url]

thought this was interesting in relation to this thread.
[/quote]

I seriously cant see that happening. The Steelers if anything improved this off season after going 12-4 last season. I see the order being the same as last year. Us first, steelers second, bengals third, browns last

[berad]

The Bengals are going to have to prove themselves again - we've seen a lot of flash-in-the-pan seasons from them, not as much consistency.

[Token]

One can only hope..

But would that mean that the Browns become the new Steelers..?

[tigerave]

Thers no way with the Rooneys at the helm that the Steelers will sink to the level of the Browns.Also with Ben at 30 yrs. young I dont see him over the hill quite yet.

[quoth_the_raven_neverscore]

[quote name='Purple_ICE 81' timestamp='1330718649' post='1009874']
For the past....for ever the Clevland Browns have been rock bottom of the AFC. The Bengals have kind of been up and down too, but if you asked the average football fan who the worst team in the AFC North is...they will probably say the Browns.

This year I see the Steelers taking a huge plummet. and it has aleady started. Recently the Steelers have been gutting their overpriced veterans to make some type of cap room. After cutting Hines Ward, James Farrior , Bryant Mcfadden, Aaron Smith amongst others. And by doing this, they only managed to dive $10M under the cap which is pothetic considering their offensive leader other than Ben Rothelisburger-Mike Wallace is a free agent and will be up for grabs. I consider Mike Wallace the Steelers "Ray Rice". To us in Baltimore Ray Rice is our offensive leader he has been the most consistent peice to our offense the past couple of years. And we all know how valuable Wallace is to the Steelers, over his 3 years in the NFL he knotted up 3200 yards which is nearly 1000yds/season since being taken in the 3rd round of the 2009 draft. He was always making plays for them, and the Steelers really dont have much offensive stars if you think about it. They have an overrated soon to be dumped RB in Mendenhall, the had an aging Hines ward who hasnt done much in years, and now are stuck with young questionable receivers. Mike Wallace was really the only "Beast" they had. And if he were to go..which is very likely, their depth chart will look like.


1.Emanuel Sanders
2.Antonio Brown
3.Jimmy Brown
4.Derrick Williams

Once Wallace gets taken if thats the case, the Steelers will get whoever claims him's 1st round pick. So if the Bengals signed him they would likely give up their 22nd pick(or whatever it is). Then the Steelers will likely use that on a WR I mean they are looking at the most reliable receiver on their team being their tightend Heath Miller, they would be stupid not to draft one.

And with the Browns likely to make a huge splash this offseason with free agency and their huge selection of draft picks they will likely slide up behind the Bengals who already made a huge turnaround last year making the playoffs with a rookie QB and WR combo.

I think the Steelers are going to get dominated on offense, their running game has declined the past couple seasons, and the only reason those young WRs Brown and Sanders flourished was because Wallace took off alot of pressure. I think the only thing to hold them together will be Rothelisburger and whatever will be left of what is already an aging defense.

Thanks Ozzie and Co. for managing our salary cap so well. We had that hiccup last off season where we had to cut Derrick Mason, Todd Heap, and Kelly Gregg and lost other good players. BUT we made up for it with smart cap savvy transacations and made it to the AFC Championship. So I will take not getting the "big name" allstar free agents in turn getting close to the superbowl.

Next year its on like donkey kong...Ball So Hard University is about to RAGE
[/quote]


it's a great notion to entertain, but not likely to happen. at least not immediately. case in point last season; after the first couple of games (especially week 1 @ baltimore) several analysts were saying that the steelers were finished and really showing their age, and they ended up nipping at our heels right until the end for the division. like roaches, they just don't go away...