How to Reload - Not Rebuild - This Team

[Ricco Suavez]

I have to agree with SCanada, I also do not think we have the RB of the future on the current roster. The brusiers have no break-a-way speed and Mendy dances too much. If Mendy would hit the hole (if there is one) and take what he could get sometimes and then use his speed he would be the "man". Mendy scares me the way he carries the ball, out from his body too much. I do not see us having 3 thousand yd receivers , not with the conservative playcalling I seen this season. I know we still passed more than run, but only because the run was basically nil in gaining yards. All our early runs did was let the other defense know that we were incapable of running and then lock down the short routes. Haley DID NOT play to the TEAMS strengths. Only person who was better this year than last was Heath, and while I thought Heath was under utilized by Arians, he should not of been the featured reciever of this offense. Now if we could go with a two TE set like NE and cause real mismatches I could see it working. The Steelers took a pretty good offense from last year and instead of tweaking it a little and improving they tried to put Ben in a bubble and protect him, by protecting they may extend his career a couple of years. But if this is the result of protecting him then I would rather see him play with abandon and at least score 20 points a game.

[SoCalFan]

Does anyone believe Te'o would still be available? I think NOT! That would be an insanely good pick up! Players like him dont come along often! One thing I know is, well a few things, I can not wait til this season is OVER and this is going to be (for me) the most interresting off season in a long long time! I cant wait til the draft!

Here is who I like in the draft besides Te'o!

Big physical cornerback-David Amerson, North Carolina State, 6-3/194

Running back-Knile Davis, Arkansas 6-0/226

Tackle-D.J. Fluker, Alabama, 6-6/335

Fullback-Michael Zordich, Penn State, 6-1/242...

[VictoryFormation]

Haley's critical error this offseason was making the team - more importantly, the receivers - adjust to his gameplan instead of gameplanning around the talent he already had at his disposal.

I agree with this statement 100%. Many of the key players that are, currently, on the Steelers offense were brought while Bruce Arians was the Offensive Coordinator, to suit the needs of his Spread-Offense. When Todd Haley was hired, he let it be known that he was going to adjust his offense to fit the players that he had. It is apparent that he did not do a good job of it.

[SteelersCanada]

Roethlisberger accepts blame for Steelers’ fall

Ben Roethlisberger believes the Steelers‘ lone late-season collapse of his career should be remembered as just that — one bad year.

Not the start of a trend, not a reason to panic.

But even Roethlisberger is having trouble explaining how the Steelers — and their franchise quarterback — fell so far so quickly.

In mid-November, the Steelers were 6-3 and Roethlisberger was being mentioned as an NFL MVP front-runner. Now, they must beat the Browns (5-10) on Sunday just to avoid the first losing record of Roethlisberger‘s nine-season career.

They‘ve lost five of six, their first such late-season debacle since they dropped seven of their final eight in 1999, five years before Roethlisberger arrived.

How did it happen, so suddenly and inexplicably?

“I think a lot of it just has to do with my play and not playing well enough down the stretch,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday. “Fourth-quarter drives, last-minute throws, not making it happen. I guess my best answer to you is I didn‘t play well enough.”

What especially perplexes Roethlisberger: He has directed 29 game-winning drives and 22 fourth-quarter comebacks, yet his interceptions directly accounted for losses to the Cowboys and Bengals the last two weeks. He‘s been at his worst when he‘s normally at his best.

“In the past, I‘ve prided myself, and us, in fourth-quarter comebacks,” he said. “We‘ve been good at it and this year (I) just wasn‘t, and I don‘t think there‘s rhyme or reason why. It just was a year when I wasn‘t. I don‘t think there‘s any reason to go panic. I‘ve been pretty good for eight years doing it, and (now) I‘ve had one not-so-good year.”

But, Roethlisberger said, “I played pretty good football other than those (comeback) situations, so there‘s not going to be any panic.”

Still, the Steelers are 23rd in fourth-quarter offense and 26th in fourth-quarter passing, numbers that equate to losing football for a team that has played nine games decided by four points or fewer. They‘ve lost five.

“All the games we lost, we let them get away from us at the end,” wide receiver Mike Wallace said. “Maybe San Diego was the only game that (the opponent) really controlled the game. Usually we win in the fourth quarter, and this year, we lost in the fourth quarter.”

There will be a multitude of theories why Roethlisberger‘s play plateaued after he returned from his midseason 31⁄2-game injury layoff. He refuses to blame the injury for an across-the-board fall-off in his play, but he won‘t say if his shoulder is continuing to bother him.

“I‘m not going to make excuses. I‘ve got to be able to step up and perform afterwards just as well as I did before,” Roethlisberger said. “We can talk about that (injury) in the offseason maybe. I feel good enough to play.”

As for any philosophical disagreements with offensive coordinator Todd Haley, Roethlisberger said the Steelers‘ success earlier in the season convinced him the offense “works for us. When we‘re executing, I think it works.”

Roethlisberger said a full offseason working with Haley should be productive.

“We need to continue to grow, and we need to get better every week,” he said. “I know in the offseason it‘s not like every week is a game, but we need to get better and grow in all aspects — our run game, our pass game, every position needs to get a little bit better.”

http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/...#axzz2GEaBQ9jk

There's reason for optimism and beyond if we draft well and make the correct adjustments this offseason and it's addressed in this article. Ben is taking responsibility and telling us what we already knew - inconsistent play marred this season. There's no dancing around the point and getting around it -- we played like shit this year. There's no reason to believe this is a trend or a sign of things to come - just one down year.

[Riddle_Of_Steel]

What especially perplexes Roethlisberger: He has directed 29 game-winning drives and 22 fourth-quarter comebacks, yet his interceptions directly accounted for losses to the Cowboys and Bengals the last two weeks. He‘s been at his worst when he‘s normally at his best.

Duh. This isn't hard to figure out-- Ben just had a baby. New parents sleep on average, about 3 hours at a time for about teh first 3 or 4 months of the newborn's life.

His focus the last month has been on Little Ben, not on getting ring #7. I honestly don't know if I can blame him.

Lets make 2013 THE YEAR.

[lloydwoodson]

Originally Posted by VictoryFormation

I agree with this statement 100%. Many of the key players that are, currently, on the Steelers offense were brought while Bruce Arians was the Offensive Coordinator, to suit the needs of his Spread-Offense. When Todd Haley was hired, he let it be known that he was going to adjust his offense to fit the players that he had. It is apparent that he did not do a good job of it.

Haleys offense this year was 22nd in scoring with 20.8 ppg.

Arians offense last year was 21st in scoring with 20.3 ppg.

To everyone who blames the OC for this year's problems... go fuck yourselves.

[Kanata-Steeler]

1st off, thanks for the thread SteelersCan, and Hawaii, ....

But this talk of Ben have a few years left, inevitably Batch and Leftwich are bound to go real soon. Batch, as OLD as he is, played much BETTER than Ben did, all this past season.
What we don't know is how hurt is Ben?, and how hurt (or afraid to get hurt) he even wants to become anymore ?. Ben's a tough-scrambler, but that is slowly becoming water under a bridge.

We NEED to start thinking of a new full-time Starter in the QB position, YES, aka an "Alex Smith",..., type for example.
And Yes, Drop Batch, Leftwich,..., and bring a new fresh QB that BEN will "mentor" for us.

That's right, you want a "balanced" Running/Passing game ?, then the QB who only likes to "PASS" and save us in the last throws of a game has unfortunately gotta go finally, already.
Ben is NOT Elway, AND Ben is NOT Peyton,..., nor is he a dare I say, complete Leader, like Bradshaw.
Ben is also NOT a "...let the Running game heroes develop half of our games ! "
I want to win at all costs, but NOT at the cost of gambling for the "ComeBack Kid" (Ben's glory-seeking days') of a long forgotten Hollywood dream, of "Passing" himself into glory, when lets face, in this Steelers team, the cards just aren't there anymore, if they ever really were !
It's time to look for our new young-balanced QB as a buildable starter, finally.

Some will obviouslt view this as an anti-Ben post, but it isn't. I want this Offense to somewhat win consistemtly, u know, put up POINTS!, ..., for starters'.
If Tomlin <-> Haley <-> Ben do NOT "jell" together on this, then we are snafu'd.

Obviously we have the Running aND RECEIVING CORE TO DO IT !, SO, WHAT IS IT then???!!!
(dam, I hit the caps-lock again, but u know what I mean).

[fansince'76]

Originally Posted by Kanata-Steeler

That's right, you want a "balanced" Running/Passing game ?, then the QB who only likes to "PASS" and save us in the last throws of a game has unfortunately gotta go finally, already.
Ben is NOT Elway, AND Ben is NOT Peyton,..., nor is he a true Leader like Bradshaw.
Ben is also NOT a "...let the Running game heroes develop half of our games ! "
I want to win at all costs, but NOT at the cost of gambling for the "ComeBack Kid" (Ben's glory-seeking days') of a long forgotten Hollywood dream, of "Passing" himself into glory, when lets face, in this Steelers team, the cards just aren't there anymore, if they ever really were !
It's time to look for our new young-balanced QB as a buildable starter, finally.

Some will obviouslt view this as an anti-Ben post, but it isn't. I want this Offense to somewhat win consistemtly, u know, put up POINTS!, ..., for starters'.
If Tomlin <-> Haley <-> Ben do NOT "jell" together on this, then we are snafu'd.

Obviously we have the Running aND RECEIVING CORE TO DO IT !, SO, WHAT IS IT then???!!!
(dam, I hit the caps-lock again, but u know what I mean).

The same RB and WR "core" that coughed up fumbles and killed drives with dropped passes all season?

The only reason this team isn't staring at a 3-13 record right now is due to Roethlisberger's play in the first half of the season. Period.

[sloppyjoe]

i dont see how we can pay troy next year. he is always hurt.

[Kanata-Steeler]

Originally Posted by fansince'76

The same RB and WR "core" that coughed up fumbles and killed drives with dropped passes all season?

The only reason this team isn't staring at a 3-13 record right now is due to Roethlisberger's play in the first half of the season. Period.

And atleast half of those "drive-killers" were all on Ben, unless you missed the last few games of this season. ?