Official 2014-2015 Pittsburgh Steelers Thread

[Crankshaft]

Ike is dumb. Borderline retarded.

[Rocco]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/ ... easons#PIT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Steelers are listed 7th, which is confusing because I was told they were doomed unless they blew everything up and started over from scratch using cardboard cutouts instead of actual players.

[Troy Loney]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/ ... easons#PIT

The Steelers are listed 7th, which is confusing because I was told they were doomed unless they blew everything up and started over from scratch using cardboard cutouts instead of actual players.

I'd clump the steelers in with the cowboys, bears, ravens and giants. A group that is clearly below the Patriots, Broncos, seahawks and 49ers. Based on the current personnel and cap restrictions, I don't see how the Steelers can propel into that elite group.

I'm not sure touting them as seven in some power ranking really justifies snarkiness...but i guess you've never really looked for justification for that before.

[Grunthy]

I think you are going to start seeing a steady decline in the patriots soon.

[Rocco]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/ ... easons#PIT

The Steelers are listed 7th, which is confusing because I was told they were doomed unless they blew everything up and started over from scratch using cardboard cutouts instead of actual players.

I'd clump the steelers in with the cowboys, bears, ravens and giants. A group that is clearly below the Patriots, Broncos, seahawks and 49ers. Based on the current personnel and cap restrictions, I don't see how the Steelers can propel into that elite group.

I'm not sure touting them as seven in some power ranking really justifies snarkiness...but i guess you've never really looked for justification for that before.

Being seventh is probably better than wanting to trade rosters with the Jaguars.

[Troy Loney]

I'm not really sure how i worded that point, but that's not exactly what i was saying.

I would still rather be where the Jaguars are than the Steelers. If we can just ignore the past few years where the jaguars haven't been able to utilize high draft picks, and look solely at a rebuilding team whose only focus is to add talent. They have no expectations and are not operating under a narrow time frame to compete. Compare that with the steelers, who are operating near the cap and forced to supplement an aging core that they have no choice but to commit to. They have struggled with drafting and player development and thus haven't been able to replace aging veterans when it would have been better to let the player walk.

But it's really just a matter of preference, I understand that with roethlisberger they have a playoff ceiling and you can't dump a potential team to rebuild. I'd just prefer not to play roulette with shallow roster that is clearly inferior to the better teams in the league.

[Grunthy]

you lost me at "I would still rather be where the Jaguars are than the Steelers."

[Fast B]

I would still rather be where the Jaguars are than the Steelers.

Riiiiiiight...

[FreeCandy44]

Skinny jeans must be cutting off blood flow to ya brain Troy.

[ulf]

you lost me at "I would still rather be where the Jaguars are than the Steelers."

lol that's where I stopped

[Rocco]

I'm not really sure how i worded that point, but that's not exactly what i was saying.

I would still rather be where the Jaguars are than the Steelers. If we can just ignore the past few years where the jaguars haven't been able to utilize high draft picks, and look solely at a rebuilding team whose only focus is to add talent. They have no expectations and are not operating under a narrow time frame to compete. Compare that with the steelers, who are operating near the cap and forced to supplement an aging core that they have no choice but to commit to. They have struggled with drafting and player development and thus haven't been able to replace aging veterans when it would have been better to let the player walk.

But it's really just a matter of preference, I understand that with roethlisberger they have a playoff ceiling and you can't dump a potential team to rebuild. I'd just prefer not to play roulette with shallow roster that is clearly inferior to the better teams in the league.

So rather than have the possibility of being good you'd rather be awful but be able to sell hope down the road, even though that hope may or may not result in actually being good? That's Littlefield-ian logic.

I am pretty sure 95% of Jaguars fans would gladly trade rosters with Pittsburgh. Just a guess.

[Fast B]

I will say this, it's probably a heck of a lot easier getting tickets to a Jags game than to a Steelers game. So they've got them going for them, I guess.

[Idoit40fans]

If the Steelers were in the Jag's position, they may be in a better place to rebuild, but the steelers are run too well to get into the Jag's position. Appropriately the Jags arent well run enough to get out of their position.

[Troy Loney]

I'm not really sure how i worded that point, but that's not exactly what i was saying.

I would still rather be where the Jaguars are than the Steelers. If we can just ignore the past few years where the jaguars haven't been able to utilize high draft picks, and look solely at a rebuilding team whose only focus is to add talent. They have no expectations and are not operating under a narrow time frame to compete. Compare that with the steelers, who are operating near the cap and forced to supplement an aging core that they have no choice but to commit to. They have struggled with drafting and player development and thus haven't been able to replace aging veterans when it would have been better to let the player walk.

But it's really just a matter of preference, I understand that with roethlisberger they have a playoff ceiling and you can't dump a potential team to rebuild. I'd just prefer not to play roulette with shallow roster that is clearly inferior to the better teams in the league.

So rather than have the possibility of being good you'd rather be awful but be able to sell hope down the road, even though that hope may or may not result in actually being good? That's Littlefield-ian logic.

I am pretty sure 95% of Jaguars fans would gladly trade rosters with Pittsburgh. Just a guess.

I'd rather the team start from scratch as opposed to desperately clinging to mediocrity.

[Letang Is The Truth]

this argument again?

[Troy Loney]

this argument again?

They keep baiting me. I ignored it the first time, but that power rankings post was a direct call out.

[Froggy]

I don't know. I'd rather be in a position where even limping in the playoffs is a possibility. The 2012 Ravens showed that even a mediocre team, that by all rights was lucky to even make the playoffs, can win a super bowl

[canaan]

Your goal is to get to the playoffs, build off of that core, and try to capitalize with your hungrier talent playing above their heads and your top end talent leading the way. if you are still in the mix to make the playoffs, even if it is a parity-driven league, blowing it up is a terrible idea given the landscape of the league.


the most amusing part of this silly hypothetical is that the steelers have been notoriously underwhelming in the drafting department over the past decade and have slipped to the second tier of NFL teams in terms of championship threats, so the nuclear answer would be to obvious get rid of everybody and rely on drafting strategy. makes sense, but not at all.

[Troy Loney]

I understand the mindset of the fan base and why the front office can't blow it up and i'm not advocating they do that (anymore). It's just like I said, i'd rather be a young rebuilding team with cap flexibility than an aging mediocre roster that loses young assets in free agency. (wallace, lewis & sanders)

[ulf]

I think the steelers have turned their "aging core" into a pretty young one, save a few guys, pretty quickly. And I have faith those few guys will be gone after this year. They're in decent shape, and with the parity of the league, I'll take two 8-8 seasons during the rebuild any time.

[Crankshaft]

I understand the mindset of the fan base and why the front office can't blow it up and i'm not advocating they do that (anymore). It's just like I said, i'd rather be a young rebuilding team with cap flexibility than an aging mediocre roster that loses young assets in free agency. (wallace, lewis & sanders)

Wallace wasn't worth the money he was given.

Keenan Lewis was never going to resign with the Steelers. He wanted to go to the Saints.

Emmanual Sanders wasn't worth the money he got.

[IanMoran]

I understand the mindset of the fan base and why the front office can't blow it up and i'm not advocating they do that (anymore). It's just like I said, i'd rather be a young rebuilding team with cap flexibility than an aging mediocre roster that loses young assets in free agency. (wallace, lewis & sanders)

Wallace wasn't worth the money he was given.

Keenan Lewis was never going to resign with the Steelers. He wanted to go to the Saints.

Emmanual Sanders wasn't worth the money he got.

I don't know on the Lewis thing... IIRC, he said he was upset the Steelers didn't even offer him anything or something along those lines (my memory could be messed up). I was ticked off they let Keenan go, and that largely happened because of re-signing old guys they shouldn't have. Troy's right in that instance... That's the only example I'll agree with. Wallace / Sanders were terrible contracts

[IanMoran]

Yea... just checked, the Steelers never offered Lewis a contract, per Lewis

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2013/03/ke ... im-a-deal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He said he wanted to sign here, but once the Steelers didn't offer him anything / he hit free agency his #1 goal was to go to NOLA. I think people just took that NOLA quote out of context in that he didn't want to sign with Pgh

[Troy Loney]

The Wallace situation is kind of hard to assess. He was the perfect piece in the Arians/Roethlisberger offense, I guess it's a bit of a chicken and the egg thing, would Wallace have been such a POS malcontent if they had given him a contract earlier and not gone through that whole BS with giving the wallace contract to brown and that mess. Then there's the debacle that was the Haley/Wallace holdout season.

They'd be a better team with Wallace, and the Sanders thing was baffling too, matching the RFA tender just to let him walk the next year? If he wasn't worth that much, why not take the draft pick?

I think all these confusing/mess situations are a product of prior years cap mismanagement. And get ready for some really bad kicking of the can down the street cap moves when they inevitably extend Big Ben.

[IanMoran]

The Wallace situation is kind of hard to assess. He was the perfect piece in the Arians/Roethlisberger offense, I guess it's a bit of a chicken and the egg thing, would Wallace have been such a POS malcontent if they had given him a contract earlier and not gone through that whole BS with giving the wallace contract to brown and that mess. Then there's the mess that was the Haley/Wallace holdout season.

They'd be a better team with Wallace, and the Sanders thing was baffling too, matching the RFA tender just to let him walk the next year? If he wasn't worth that much, why not take the draft pick?

I think all these confusing/mess situations are a product of prior years cap mismanagement. And get ready for some really bad kicking of the can down the street cap moves when they inevitably extend Big Ben.

The Steelers offered Wallace 5 years - $50 million. Mia gave him 5 years - $60 mill, $27 mill guaranteed. Its not like the Steelers just decided they didn't want him... I would have been upset if they gave him the $ he was look for at any time during his career here

I'd argue, salary implications considered, the Steelers are a worse team with Wallace