Steelheart
05-01-2017, 07:06 AM
I borrowed this question from Steelersdepot.com because I think it is an interesting one and wanted to hear your thoughts.
I will share mine though it is kind of long.
I think whatever your answer was before the draft is still the answer because we don't know what any of these guys are going to do yet. We can all be extremely excited about the picks but there could be injuries or slow development.
To make this process a little easier I think we can eliminate every position on the offesnive side right off.
OL - is about as good as it gets in both depth and starters. Every starter is good or great and even the depth has quite a bit of playing experience in Finney and Hubbard along with a potential piece of the futur in whats his name we drafted last year that ended up injured.
WR - I know a lot of talk has been about questioning this group but while we have a lot of questions, we also have some answers if you will. We know if Bryant stays clean he is the man. We know Coates has the potential for a big season if he gets his confidence back, we know Rogers is a good slot player. And AB is AB of course. I almost forget to mention him because he is so much of a give me that it seems to go without question.
TE - Exact same thing I said about the WR group applies here and Green is the Bryant of this group. If he is healthy he is the man. James we know can get the job done but people don't like that he can't do it at Gronk levels. Ok, whatever. Not being Gronk isn't a weakness. James won't hurt this offense, plain and simple. Would it be nice to have a Gronk? Sure, but it also isn't necessary. Grimble and Johnson are both solid as your 3rd and 4th TE's as well. Still, I am on record in saying we should have gotten a TE around the 4th or 5th to compete.
QB - Ben is Ben. Jones has plenty of starting experience to keep you comfortable at least and really if we are talking about the backup QB dragging a team down if it comes to it we could say that about almost every team in the NFL. So across the board I think technically you could call QB depth the biggest weakness but nah, doesn't make things interesting.
RB - If we had come out of the draft with Bell, D Will, and Touissant I would have been pretty happy with this group. As it stands with Bell, Conner, and likely Davis I am still happy but actually think this group is weaker on the whole without D Will. That being said, I don't think it IS an actual weakness. Bell on the high end raises the bar extremely high so with just him alone it is hard to call this the weakest group even if I don't love the depth.
So yeah, I am happy with all of the offensive units so can't see them competing even a little for weakest group.
When we flip to the defensive side however, I think it is a tight race between the units.
DL - I think this is the group you could most easily cross off early on in the discussion because our starters across the 3 spots are all good and with Tuitt and Heyward I think you could even say great. With those 2 you have to be a little concerned with injury and the depth isn't my favorite but we could play the what if game like that all day and drive ourselves crazy.
ILB - This is the next group I would cross off. With Shazier you have a pro bowl calibre starter and with Williams I wouldn't be shocked if he nearly matches Shazier in his play. The dude can ball and I will continue to scoff at people questioning Williams. There are no questions with him, the dude is a beast. In fact I will go a step further and argue that Williams and Shazier are as good a starting combo as Tuitt and Heyward. I understand that there can be some concern with depth but I'm not really losing sleep over it. Matekevich is a football player who knows how to get to the ball and is probably going to be limited in his mistakes and I am not sure you can ask for much more in a backup. Steven Johnson has some experience as does Fort. My big thing with depth isn't so much that we need them to play to starter level but you have to ask yourself how much they will hurt us. And I don't see Matekevich hurting us too much even if he can't make 10 tackles a game. Although maybe he can.......
OLB - And the next one I cross off. Of all our young guys Dupree is the one of I have the most hope for if you are talking between him, Burns, Davis, and Hargrave. Not to say I don't trust the others but I am really excited about Duprees potential. On the other side you have Harrison who is as steady a presence as you are going to get. He won't put up gaudy numbers but you also won't forget he is there. Behind him you have Moats and Chick and now of course, TJ Watt. Moats and Chick are okay depth. They aren't going to be putting up big sack numbers but they know the game and have experience in there. Watt I am excited for but again, until we actually see it I am not sure the story changes just yet.
S/CB - I am kind of combining them because I view both groups almost exactly the same. When I look at the starters I directly compare Burns and Davis and I directly compare Mitchell and Cockrell. With the former 2 I see 2 decent players with the potential to be really good for us. I am hoping they take that next step this year and really become the backbone of their units. With the latter 2 we have solid veteran players but ones I would also like to see upgraded. I don't think either are bad but it Mitchells case he is getting older and his contract is almost up and in Cockrells case I think we already see a guy who has reached his ceiling. His ceiling is nice, but I prefer vaulted ceilings.
Where S wins out for me over CB is the depth. I know Golden had some late season struggles but I think people overlook the fact that he was coming off of injury. Outside of that, we have watch both him and Dangerfield handle themselves pretty well coming in for injured players and I still trust both of them. I think the depth certainly could have been upgraded in the draft but I am not pulling out my hair over it.
CB for me still continues to win out as the weakest group. The depth is just such an unknown at this point. Is Golson capable? Is Sensabaugh just another Justin Brown for us? Will Gay continue his decline with age? Can Sutton come right in and compete for a starting role in Nickel? All questions and no answers.
I will share mine though it is kind of long.
I think whatever your answer was before the draft is still the answer because we don't know what any of these guys are going to do yet. We can all be extremely excited about the picks but there could be injuries or slow development.
To make this process a little easier I think we can eliminate every position on the offesnive side right off.
OL - is about as good as it gets in both depth and starters. Every starter is good or great and even the depth has quite a bit of playing experience in Finney and Hubbard along with a potential piece of the futur in whats his name we drafted last year that ended up injured.
WR - I know a lot of talk has been about questioning this group but while we have a lot of questions, we also have some answers if you will. We know if Bryant stays clean he is the man. We know Coates has the potential for a big season if he gets his confidence back, we know Rogers is a good slot player. And AB is AB of course. I almost forget to mention him because he is so much of a give me that it seems to go without question.
TE - Exact same thing I said about the WR group applies here and Green is the Bryant of this group. If he is healthy he is the man. James we know can get the job done but people don't like that he can't do it at Gronk levels. Ok, whatever. Not being Gronk isn't a weakness. James won't hurt this offense, plain and simple. Would it be nice to have a Gronk? Sure, but it also isn't necessary. Grimble and Johnson are both solid as your 3rd and 4th TE's as well. Still, I am on record in saying we should have gotten a TE around the 4th or 5th to compete.
QB - Ben is Ben. Jones has plenty of starting experience to keep you comfortable at least and really if we are talking about the backup QB dragging a team down if it comes to it we could say that about almost every team in the NFL. So across the board I think technically you could call QB depth the biggest weakness but nah, doesn't make things interesting.
RB - If we had come out of the draft with Bell, D Will, and Touissant I would have been pretty happy with this group. As it stands with Bell, Conner, and likely Davis I am still happy but actually think this group is weaker on the whole without D Will. That being said, I don't think it IS an actual weakness. Bell on the high end raises the bar extremely high so with just him alone it is hard to call this the weakest group even if I don't love the depth.
So yeah, I am happy with all of the offensive units so can't see them competing even a little for weakest group.
When we flip to the defensive side however, I think it is a tight race between the units.
DL - I think this is the group you could most easily cross off early on in the discussion because our starters across the 3 spots are all good and with Tuitt and Heyward I think you could even say great. With those 2 you have to be a little concerned with injury and the depth isn't my favorite but we could play the what if game like that all day and drive ourselves crazy.
ILB - This is the next group I would cross off. With Shazier you have a pro bowl calibre starter and with Williams I wouldn't be shocked if he nearly matches Shazier in his play. The dude can ball and I will continue to scoff at people questioning Williams. There are no questions with him, the dude is a beast. In fact I will go a step further and argue that Williams and Shazier are as good a starting combo as Tuitt and Heyward. I understand that there can be some concern with depth but I'm not really losing sleep over it. Matekevich is a football player who knows how to get to the ball and is probably going to be limited in his mistakes and I am not sure you can ask for much more in a backup. Steven Johnson has some experience as does Fort. My big thing with depth isn't so much that we need them to play to starter level but you have to ask yourself how much they will hurt us. And I don't see Matekevich hurting us too much even if he can't make 10 tackles a game. Although maybe he can.......
OLB - And the next one I cross off. Of all our young guys Dupree is the one of I have the most hope for if you are talking between him, Burns, Davis, and Hargrave. Not to say I don't trust the others but I am really excited about Duprees potential. On the other side you have Harrison who is as steady a presence as you are going to get. He won't put up gaudy numbers but you also won't forget he is there. Behind him you have Moats and Chick and now of course, TJ Watt. Moats and Chick are okay depth. They aren't going to be putting up big sack numbers but they know the game and have experience in there. Watt I am excited for but again, until we actually see it I am not sure the story changes just yet.
S/CB - I am kind of combining them because I view both groups almost exactly the same. When I look at the starters I directly compare Burns and Davis and I directly compare Mitchell and Cockrell. With the former 2 I see 2 decent players with the potential to be really good for us. I am hoping they take that next step this year and really become the backbone of their units. With the latter 2 we have solid veteran players but ones I would also like to see upgraded. I don't think either are bad but it Mitchells case he is getting older and his contract is almost up and in Cockrells case I think we already see a guy who has reached his ceiling. His ceiling is nice, but I prefer vaulted ceilings.
Where S wins out for me over CB is the depth. I know Golden had some late season struggles but I think people overlook the fact that he was coming off of injury. Outside of that, we have watch both him and Dangerfield handle themselves pretty well coming in for injured players and I still trust both of them. I think the depth certainly could have been upgraded in the draft but I am not pulling out my hair over it.
CB for me still continues to win out as the weakest group. The depth is just such an unknown at this point. Is Golson capable? Is Sensabaugh just another Justin Brown for us? Will Gay continue his decline with age? Can Sutton come right in and compete for a starting role in Nickel? All questions and no answers.