I am hopeful that Tuitt can make a difference, because he is actually better than Alualu. But, as others have said, I’m a tad bit scared that Tuitt is simply going to be out for a lot (all?) of the season. Cam & Tyson and Cam & Stefon can stop the run in those “2 D-linemen sets”. Buggs (et al) simply are not as effective… requiring a third D-lineman to be on the field.
The O-line is young; two rookies and a second-year player on that left side. As I’ve mentioned every week, teams are lining up 10 guys in the box, but only bringing 5. The O-line has to guess which 5. Sometimes they guess correctly, but a lot of the times, the young players choose incorrectly (and end up blocking air). I am confident that they will get better each week… and be a top five O-line by next season.
There are so many good, young players. Look at the rookies:
-Najee stud
-Freirmuth stud
-Green will be good
-Moore grading as good as any roookie OT
-Norwood a steal!!!
-Loudermilk might surpass Buggs by November
-Harvin has already paid dividends
Norwood has been the biggest surprise of this draft class, the kid is solid. I usually never expect anything from 7th rounders but he already looks to be one of the better secondary pickups we've had in a while
.500 record at the end and middle of the first round draft pick and destined to stay in this purgatory for years to come
They are averaging less than 6 yards per attempt and 4 yards per carry. Unless those numbers increase by a pretty decent amount...then it is just going to look like this over and over again until the season ends. Around .500.
Beyond 2021...they are setting themselves up for developing a young QB or being attractive to a veteran FA.
OL revamp seems to be moving forward with reasonable results.
TE - as soon as PF makes the normal gains as a blocker in Year 2 -- he is going to break out in a major way.
WR - more than enough talent there to excite any QB
RB - Harris is a weapon
I guess "adequate" means they CAN win any game, but like you said, you don't really know which team is going to show up in any given game or even any half. It's weird this year because much/most of the team are young guys who we're hoping can live up to their potential, or old guys we're hoping can hold it together. Other than Watt and Heyward, very few consistent known quantities.
The thing is, sometimes the modern NFL rewards that with a playoff berth. Usually if you are in a bad division, though, and it doesn't look like we are this year. And I think you are correct that we are "fair" inasmuch as some teams are clearly better than us.
See you Space Cowboy ...
Considering he got almost half of those TDs (4) in week one, not really all that impressive...
And promptly went 6-10, including being out of realistic postseason contention by Halloween, in 2003.
Am I the only one who remembers just how bad Maddox was?
Well, after the Broncos Browns game, the Broncos run defense is hot garbage, and the reason our running game looked so good when we played them. 3rd strong undrafted kid looks like Derrick Henry.
Maddox was the comeback player of the year in 02. I wouldn't call him bad, maybe had a bad game here and there but overall was a good QB for the steelers until he went down.