TMC,
What I don't understand is the Steelers cap management. They keep expensive veterans a year long then they should. Most recent examples would be Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor. Then they replace them with who, Ross Cockerel and Sean Davis?
Timmons to me was very good, but over paid. Same for Pouncey, and its proven the team record is essentially the same without him. These were threads of mine before you re-joined.
As for the 3-3-5, the " 5 " would need to be a very small & fast 4-3 outside type of guy, with coverage skills. OR a very physical safety with cover skills. You can run it, but you need a player like Derrick Brooks or Troy Polamalu to have that type of flexibility. We have neither. And the formation is a tad soft vs the run, but I'm okay with it on 2nd down and 7 or more yards to go. I think the Steelers if they get another quality edge guy and one more solid coverage person could go back to the zone blitz scheme.
Luckily for us, Colbert can scoop up a cut player like Cockrel and retain an older William Gay in free agency for peanuts. The coaches can make players like this scheme functional, but the cost is this safety first approach by Butler. And because of the lack of depth at DB, we had to start two rookies....limiting the blitzing risks we can take.
I get it!
We can't run the zone blitz the way Lebeau liked because management was duped by Jason Worlds to took franchise tag money then retired, and Colbert and Tomlin missed badly on Jarivs Jones ( I screamed when that pick was made ) , leaving an old warrior in Harrison to lead the charge as our best pass rusher.
See the problem? So Kevin Butler had to be conservative on his defense schemes, and we all see how this soft zone does vs the better QB's. It gets torn to pieces! But sometimes you're better off attacking then losing chunks of yardage when the other team is going to score as something good can happen. That is my issue with Butler and Tomlin on days when our offense is not putting up 28+ points and playing a good QB.
The next draft will need edge rushers and corners. We both agree there 100% . A play making safety would be nice too.
-Coach
So, let me understand this. You draft Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor. They spend their whole careers with you and are pretty cornerstone players in getting you to three Super Bowls where you win two. When they top 30, you draft guys to replace them like Crezdon Butler, Curtis Brown, Cortez Allen, Terrence Frederick, Shamarko Thomas, Terry Hawthorne, and Shaquille Richardson, but both Ike and Troy continue to play at a pretty high level and none of those picks pan out. In addition, both players rearrange money to allow you to climb out from under a massive salary cap crunch imposed when the new CBA began. And, you want to dump those guys a year early to save ~$4M (Troy) and ~2.75M (Ike). Yeah, those are the savings they would have generated in 2014. You throw one of the greatest Steelers ever and an elite player under the bus for ~$7M with no one to replace them. Hell, after they left, they filled the void with Allen and Antwon Blake. Is that really your argument? I'd rather spend the cash and have Troy and Ike, especially when the 2014 draft netted them Shazier, Tuitt, and Bryant. With Ike and Troy gone, probably looking at CB and S in those rounds. In the first, the safety choice was Calvin Pryor and HaHa Clinton-Dix. At corner, Darqueze Dennard and Jason Verrett. In the 2nd, Stanley Jean-Baptiste and a whole lotta nothing after him. I can get complaining about it then, but in hindsight, that would have been a disaster. Instead of having two defensive cornerstones, we MIGHT have Clinton-Dix. Maybe. Maybe we completely suck. And, they did not replace Polamalu/Taylor with Cockrell/Davis. They replaced them with Antwon Blake and Will Allen. Cockrell fell in their lap.
Timmons wasn't over paid. He had the same contract that David Harris did, drafted after Timmons, similar players, same position. Pouncey is still considered one of the best centers in football. I really don't get how you think they will retain talent if they don't pay them. While they OL did okay with Wallace, they also scaled back what they asked him to do. He rarely pulled. The second level blocks were gone. He isn't that mobile. And, I get some people like Vince Wiliams, but he isn't going to get it in coverage. What if you did not pay Timmons and Shazier was taken before we picked. What then? Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
As for the 3-3-5, I get what the 5 would be. It is why I stated elephant safety. The Steelers stayed in nickel more last year. They did it with two down DL, two OLBs, Timmons and Shazier, and 5 DBs. A 3-3-5 would mean you don't use Timmons anymore. It leaves Shazier alone in the middle, very similar to the Bears old defense. On the front, you have Heyward, Tuitt, and Hargrave. Since we have LT Walton and Alualu, you have some rotation players. You have Dupree. You draft an edge, like say Watt, who can rush, cover, and is decent against the run. So, you draft a bigger safety, one in the 215-220 pound range. Farrior wasn't far off that near the end. Foote got down in the low 230s. Sean Spence was 231. We had interest in Lavonte David that draft, he was 233. Deone Bucannon plays that role with Arizona at 215 pounds. Jatavis Brown does it with San Diego at 227. The Steelers played in passing sets ~70% of the time over the past two seasons, finished in the top 10 against the run in 2015 and just outside the top 10 last year. Are you stating that changing from Timmons to a safety is that big of a difference? If it is, then I guess Timmons was worth the money they paid him.
You really want to go back to the old zone blitz? The same defense that Brady carved up when they had guys like Ryan Clark, Polamalu, Taylor, and Gay in their prime? You cannot possibly want to go back to primarily zone defense. They are not going back to LeBeau's defense. They might sprinkle it in, but you can bet that the next 2 drafts will bring in guys to fit what Butler wants to do. If the first two drafts are any indication, it is athletic DBs that can cover, ILBs that can cover and blitz, and OLBs and DL that can press the pocket. ****, we don't even 2-gap anymore. You really think they are drafting to go back to LeBeau?
