Free Safety/Returners
 

We dont have a starting FS of a punt/kick returner. Does that worry anyone else.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

Is Lance Shulters still out there? If so, that's not a bad worst case scenario.

You can pick up a punt/kick return guy anywhere. I wouldn't let that worry me if I were you.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

Yea we do. Steelers brought in Ryan Clark from the Redskins. Clark will prove to be just as good or even alittle better then Chris Hope. Hope was a good player but come on he got way to much money from the Titans noway he was worth that. Willie Reid was drafted to handle the punt returns. Reid was an elite college punt returner. Reid broke Deion Sanders records at Florida State for punt returning. So I'm sure Reid will be fine as our punt returner.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

I'm still not so sure about Ryan Clark, Anthony Smith better be ready to play.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

Reid sounds like the man, to break Sanders records is a great accomplishment, Sanders I thought was the sh!t at Fla, St

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

I think Ryan Clark will do just fine at FS for us.

Willie Ried will handle the punt returns and Santonio Holmes will probally be back there with Ried on kickoffs.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

No worries, Ryan Clark will be an excellent Free Safety. I don't understand why anyone should be concerned with the free agency loss of Chris Hope. I mean the dude only made plays in a few games. No one is going to convince me that Hope was some kind of baller. I watched all of the games and as I've said, he only made plays in a few games. A lot of people say that he was "solid" at the position but I raise this question. Was he really that solid or did the coaching staff do a pretty good job of protecting his side of the field? I just don't consider him to be a loss and he's certainly not worth the money that he's going to be paid, at least not worth it to the Steelers. He's forgotten in my mind. The Steelers organization will not waste that kind of money on moderately-talented players or players classified as being "solid". Heck you can pick up a solid player for league minimum salary. Let's all move on and support Ryan Clark.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

Clark started in Washington but all he did was play the deep part of the field and never came up to hit because Sean Taylor was there to do the hitting and in our defense our aggressiveness is what we take pride in. All im saying is we drafted Anthony Smith for a reason.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

Yeah,Clark did the same thing in Washington that Hope did in Pittsburgh.If you watch,Hope did a lot of "playing center field" in our scheme.

Ryan Clark's Stats:

Tackles- 57
Sacks- 0.5
Interceptions- 3
INT Yards- 10
TD- 0
Passed Defended- 5

Chris Hope's Stats:

Tackles- 96
Sacks- 0
Interceptions- 3
INT Yards- 60
TD- 0
Passes Defended- 0

Hope made more tackles,but I didn't watch many Redskin games last year so I dunno how many chances he got.But I did see him hit a guy once and the dude's mouthpeice came flying out,so I am sure he can lay somebody out like Hope did.

If anything,our defensive backfield got better with Clark,I think he'll be better in coverage than Hope was.

And yes,we did draft Anthony Smith for a reason,to groom him into our FS of the future.Ryan Clark isn't the long-term answer IMHO,but he's a damn good FS.

Re: Free Safety/Returners
 

Good point. With all the moving Troy does we want a FS that can cover well. I agree Clark will be better then Hope in coverage. Also Clark can hit. I read somewhere he gave Jamal Lewis a nice shot. I think it might have been Clarks rookie year.