Safety depth is full. They are much better off keeping him at ILB where he can be a terror in the ILB cross blitz and effectively cover the tight ends
Safety depth is full. They are much better off keeping him at ILB where he can be a terror in the ILB cross blitz and effectively cover the tight ends
Yes, a picture paints a thousand words… or in this case, just one word. But it's the right word.Originally Posted by 86WARD
To be clear, I did not mean that Shazier would play safety, but would fill the role of "random disruptor" that Polamalu currently does. It is fairly well known that when things are working well in the Steelers defense, Polamalu is free to abandon assignments and seek out an opportunity to make a play.
In a few years, Shazier's speed and if he proves to have a high football IQ may be able to do a similar thing from the LB level.
I'm not going to pretend to know how free-lancey an ILB in a 3-4 gets to be. Could it potentially be like Troy, or are scripted assignments more important? I realize that Ryan has the athletic ability to guess and then make up ground very quickly if he guesses wrong, but would you put his potential football IQ up there with Troy's (in order to ultimately put the kind of trust in him that LeBeau puts in Troy)? I just don't know much about the kid other than his raw talent.
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Timmons has been in that role, too. I really cannot wait for the season to start.
just a quick reminder on how many felt when we picked Shazam ... see lots of tunes changing after 1 pre season game , my guess he will change all the other minds by seasons end
The Steelers had several elite defense in the 2000s, even if sometimes the steelers were weak in the CB position...As I said yesterday, you can have an elite defense even if your CB are weak but the pass rush is the key
Took me about 12 hours after the pick and 15 minutes of actually seeing him/thinking about what he could do to change my mind, but I would like to think that during that 12 hour window, my body was taken over by a Browns or Bengals fan and Buckeyes fan mad about Shazier going to an arch rival (sadly that's not the case however)
Way too soon for I-told-you-sos. He has looked good so far, but we'll see. In terms of need vs. value, ILB was maybe #3 on my list going in. Stealing what looks like a plausible NT prospect on the last day of the draft took a little of the sting away, but IMO we still have problems we didn't address in order to take this guy, so we'll see. How well the makeshift DL and CBs hold up this year will have a lot to do with my opinion; it's not just about getting a solid player, it's also what you gave up to get him.
See you Space Cowboy ...
he was .....
1) best player available
2) a pos. of need
3) the side of the ball with the most need
3 of 3 in the crucial drafting criteria I look at
Fair enough, but I'll ask you this: At this point in time, after seeing what you've seen, would you trade him for any player who was available at that spot? And for whom? The fourth best CB in the draft, whomever that is? I think you have to admit, that's a trade you probably wouldn't make.
I'm not a college guru, so I learned about Shazier after we drafted him. I took no position at the time other than get a bit excited at what I heard some experts say about Shazier. I also heard his interview right after he was drafted (which I'll admit doesn't reveal much) and I liked the way he talked about football and his passion. He also coyly admitted that the Steelers were in fact his favorite team, although he didn't let himself predict that he'd actually end up there. I have yet to find anything I don't like about this kid.
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I think its fun to go back and read these older threads.
Agreed...
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Agreed...
good old jb500ex!
Not one person in this thread compared our current LB corps to the '94 LBs.
What a dope.
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Not one person in this thread compared our current LB corps to the '94 LBs.
What a dope.
That's worth two of these..
jb500ex was most definitely a troll and probably an insecure ratturds fan
He still makes an appearance and drops a "pearl of wisdom" from time to time - we haven't banned him because he's a good source of comedy relief.
I don't know. I was hoping for some situation in which we got both Nix and a CB, although then we probably wouldn't have gotten Tuitt. It probably would've involved trading back a few picks in the first round for an extra low-2nd or high-3rd, then we could've gotten all three - but admittedly, we almost would've needed a crystal ball for that.
Basically, as I saw it, ILB was sort of a need, but thought we made an awesome pickup in Moats, and I was hoping he would improve the position on his own - plus we had the bonus wild-card up our sleeve with Spence. So it was kind of a redundant pick, and now we've got linebackers out the butt.
In hindsight, it was probably one of the better picks we could've made given who was available at CB and what we (didn't) know about how the rest of the draft would play out. It's just a little frustrating to see glaring needs go unaddressed, and I do have my standing beef with the tradition under Tomlin of EVERY draft going lineman-linebacker in the first two rounds, with almost no exceptions.
See you Space Cowboy ...
I was a fan of Nix too. I went back and forth on Mike Evans but we didn't get the chance to pick him anyways. A few of the guys here had me sold on Fuller and it was a little disappointing he was taken, but mostly I was a fan of Nix.
Shazier was probably the right pick anyways. From all accounts he's going to add something special to the middle of our defense. If we have a play designed purely for thumping we can always do a package with whoever ends up as our ILB4, but I suppose that Shazier is going to be an improvement over what we've been used to with Foote even for just that sort of thing. I'm looking forward to the next several seasons having the element that he brings, and with any luck he'll be something really special and help soften that blow of losing one of the all-time great Safeties to retirement.
That said a real nose tackle, even if he's "only on the field for half the downs", is really the lynchpin when you're serious about a 3-4 defense. I suppose right now I'm really hoping that they're not simply content with McLendon and they have some idea that they're going to at least try fashioning Thomas (or Fangupo?!) into our NT while they work McCullers up to his potential. I don't hate McLendon and he's maybe even a premier starter in a 4-3, but he's just not a special nose tackle - he's "okay".
We're going to be very happy with Shazier. I suppose they must have had OLB in mind all along for Moats, but even if not, if you have a position where you have one solid starter and several options for the other side -- or even two solid starters, but then you have what you think might be a generational talent come to you in the draft, you take him. Otherwise you just may be passing on Dan Marino because you're good with Mark Malone. It's a bit early to call Shazier a generational talent, but they must have been thinking about what they wanted opposite Timmons, and decided that Shazier fit the profile completely. My only argument would be that to have this type of linebacker, you better get your NT right... so I'll be watching close what happens with Thomas, Fangupo, and Big Dan.
Needed a linebacker who could turn and run in coverage. Moats was brought in, although at the time I thought he was going to be an ILB, to provide insurance for Worilds leaving and Jones continuing to not develop. So the ILB options were simply hoping for a Spence miracle or that Williams suddenly got more athletic.
I never anticipated the pick and thought for sure it would be a CB. Maybe it would have, except their guy was gone.
The pick of Shazier did suprise me a little. Not because of the player, but because I simply was not thinking LB at this point. Shazier was probably the best player on the board at that point, and his position was obviously one the Steelers wanted to upgrade. This kid is one hell of a player, and by all I know about him a good kid. He is smart and works hard, he has shown in the past that he is more interested in making the play than stats. IMO, he has a good chance of being the best LBer to come out of this draft. Before you count me as a bandwagoner, this is something I have said before the draft. The pick made sence, we got a good player, maybe a great player. Of course me being a Big Ten fan may slant my opition a little.
AML
I understand what you're saying, but I really don't think this was a situation where Tomlin wanted another linebacker so he got one. If Fuller were on the board, he probably would have been the guy we nabbed. But once he was gone, they didn't get stupid and reach for the fourth best corner when a potential superstar was sitting there (yes, it's all potential on draft day).
Our corners are certainly our week spot, but like others are saying, it isn't the end of the world if our front 7 becomes a force to be reckoned with. It's really how we ended up being the defense we were in '08. Now, don't get me wrong, Ike was younger and probably better back then and so was Troy. But we never had anything but a mediocre #2 corner. We just had splash plays from our stars when we needed them. I'm absolutely not going to put this '14 defense in the same class with a squad that had Hampton, Aaron Smith, James Harrison, and Woodley (when he was actually looking like a superstar in the playoffs). We might be a year or two away from getting all the pieces, and we really need Jarvis Jones to take huge strides forward to even come close to filling the James Harrison role (and even in my pre-season optimistic Fantasy Land bubble, I'm not going to pretend that we'll ever see another 3-4 DE the likes of Aaron Smith in our lifetime). Maybe I'm dreaming, but I think Timmons (now in his prime) matched with a talent like Shazier might become as good as an '08 Timmons matched with Potsy. That's because I feel like Timmons has grown into the Potsy role and Shazier is actually at a better starting point than Timmons was in his first couple of years.
On the other side of the ball, call me crazy, but if we stay healthy (and Bell and Blount have their heads on straight) we might have an offense that can actually score a lot more points than ever before. If we stay healthy (and that's the absolute most important thing) this O-line might be the best we've seen in a long time. Remember how bad the O-line was in '08? Remember that Eagles game where Ben get sacked 73 times (rough estimate)? I just don't think we need our defense to carry us as much as we did then. We saw a glimpse of this offense matching points with another high powered offense last year in the Detroit game, and now that Ben seems to be on the same page with Haley, I think we can do a lot more of that. Bell and Blount could be the best tandem we've had since the Bus and Parker, so our run game should be solid. I'm feeling pretty good about Wheaton as a legit #2, Moore being pretty close to Cotchery as a slot guy, and hopefully Bryant will improve into a nice big, reliable target. I'm also bullish on this lightning fast rookie and the ways we might use him. I know I don't need to mention Heath, so I won't. And AB is just something special. I honestly think he might be the most underrated receiver in the NFL (probably because he doesn't fit the big, Megatron-type mold). But everything I've read about him reminds me of Jerry Rice; his work ethic, the way he practices. I think what really sold me on his greatness was the Cleveland game last year when I thought AB had finally met his match. I was really worried that Joe Haden would shut him down like he did to Megatron and A.J. Green twice! I read, and heard, a lot about Joe Haden leading up to that match up and how he has become a total student of the game. In an interview he said that his process involves as much film study as any corner in the league. He said that he was studying every route that AB has ever run, every tendency he has, how he's used in this offense (the one thing Haden admitted that was different about playing against Ben was when things broke down into a scramble drill). But one thing I'm certain of is that as hard as Haden worked that week in practice leading up to the game, AB worked harder. And he absolutely tore Haden up, and not on scramble drills. Early in the game he torched Haden on a deep route for a TD. He just outworked him and outplayed him down after down.
I know I've gone far off topic, but I just want to try to remember the optimism I had here on this thread once the season really gets under way, because any of you who read my posts on game days know how crazy angry and pessimistic I get. So at least I have couple more weeks of living in my fantasy world.
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