I sense a lot of you would like to see the team reload, rework contracts to try to be competitive next season. After this season, I find it hard to believe anyone could possibly consider it competing for a championship. Compete for a playoff berth. Maybe, but very tough schedule and really hard to think the team will be better. I enjoy the façade of competing and the joy of the of week 10 wins as much as anyone. I just really believe it is time to swallow the medicine and do the hard work of rebuilding. Obviously , Mike Tomlin will be head coach of this team next year. I believe they should give him the realistic tools this team can possess in the coming years and see what they are. Specifically, Mason Rudolph at QB. If they can win 7-9 games and play pretty inspired football with Rudolph improving, then they will have both earned their spot in 2022. If not move on from both. The worst thing would be to be back here at this time next year with another year before square one. That would be brutal and stupid.
I'm trying to grasp the concept of reload instead of rebuild
- Thread starter SteelerSask2
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I'm sure the Rooney's have their plan. Doesn't really matter what any of us want or are thinking on the matter. We have zero control over any of it. Knowing Tomlin will be here bums me out regardless.
Of course there is no control of what they will do. But virtually every post on here is amateur GM or coach. However, I think many of us have been proven to be correct over the long haul, more so than the team.
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The team isn't bad enough for a rebuild, it still has a lot of talent. If you want a rebuild here's what you do:
Cut: Haden, Nelson, Pouncey, DeCastro, Williams, Ebron, McDonald, Roethlisberger,
Trade: Watt, Fitzpatrick, Tuitt
Sign: Cheap free agents to field a roster
Tank the season and begin the rebuild in 2022.
Cut: Haden, Nelson, Pouncey, DeCastro, Williams, Ebron, McDonald, Roethlisberger,
Trade: Watt, Fitzpatrick, Tuitt
Sign: Cheap free agents to field a roster
Tank the season and begin the rebuild in 2022.
That is wat too extreme and unnecessary. A rebuild will be well on its way with a proper coach and the right young QB. You need to keep foundational players like Watt, Fitzpatrick (though he is misused and not worth his next contract if that continues).You can even keep some good players if the $ is right and they provide leadership to the young guys. But if a guy has a bloated contract and won't be useful in three years he is gone. so that is definitely Ben, Decastro, Ebron Macdonald, Pouncey gone. It is not good enough to contend for real and not bad enough to stink. Worst place to be.
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That's a rebuild. You have to start from the bottom up and that's what the Pirates are doing properly. You unload any bloated contracts and trade and tradable assets to build young. The Steelers don't talk about rebuild because they don't need to. The defense is pretty well set for next year with the only opening being at NT (depending on Alualu). Offensively we all know what they need to do, but you can address many of those holes in one offseason with some shrewd moves.
The Steelers aren't the Pirates, the day the Steelers start acting like the Pirates, I'm done with them! We still have more talent on defense than most teams (Heyward, Tuitt, Watt, Bush Minkah, Nelson), just have to use them correctly. Highsmith looks like he'll be a pretty good player. Need to concentrate on the offensive side of the ball.
By my definition a rebuild is mostly a new coach, new QB, and that could take 3-5 years to be title contenders. A retool is keep Ben there and try to run again next season and honestly be right here next year at best. Watt will be a great player in 3-5 years as will Fitz, Bush, Claypool. Heyward no probably not. But you do not have to tear it all down at once. It can be somewhat gradual. you just cannot keep re mortgaging contracts.
They can retool and have a decent shot. How many other defenses have 3 all pro players on it, along with 3 or 4 others that have made a probowl? Tomlin has to be more aggressive with our players though, can't leave a player like Fitz 20 yards off the LOS when the opponent is just throwing short quick passes.
The offense is a little more difficult, but if they can hit on their first OLineman pick in the draft and a RB, and DeCastro gets healthy and Banner( who was the starter at RT) is an upgrade over Chukes. And the OC can scheme and game plan.
A decent shot at what? C'mon. With Tomlin and his assistant coaches. And all of this revolves around retaining Ben and his 40 million dollars which means pushing more of his salary down the road and stunting growth to where they really need to be.
Where do we find this new QB? Teams go years looking for "the one", and come up empty.
You will be looking for him after next year anyhow. And he may well be on the Roster now, but the sooner you find out the sooner you can look. The question isn't if Ben could play at a championship level. Though most would say no. The question is could he play at that level with this team, and I don't know how you could possibly answer yes.
shot at the playoffs, it may be a long shot, but stunting what growth? We don't have our future QB on the roster and we're not drafting one at pick 24, I doubt there's another Rodgers that falls. If Tomlin is still here and Ben retires now, what's that going to do? So why not keep Ben, he's still our best shot at winning if you can sure up the Oline. Then in 2022 you have whatever is left of Ben's extension and you let Dobbs or whatever other scrub you find play QB that season.
They aren't going to keep Ben and that 41 million cap hit, and whatever happens with Ben isn't going to keep us from resigning Watt or Minkah in the future.
The cap is supposed to really go up after this coming season because of TV deals.
Anyone who wants a total overhaul go root for the Browns... they do it every couple of years and get nowhere...
Stunting growth is being exactly at this spot next year at this time, with a midrange draft pick and not knowing if you have a true starter on your roster. That is stunting growth.
Ok, so Ben retires, and next year we still don't have our future QB on the roster. We aren't drafting one at 24, extremely unlikely, so we're still sitting here next season without a QB. So you want Ben to retire so we can suck next year?
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Quite frankly I don’t don’t see how you can’t see that the team can’t complete for a championship, provided they have enough in place from last year.
The team was 11-0 for ***** sake;
Playing 3 games in 12 days (4/19 days) took it’s toll with multiple injuries, much attributable to improper rest/recovery.
#32 running game—1st time Steelers were last in rushing since 1966. 3/4 (32/29/31) worst seasons were the 3 under Fichtner and many of the problems were fixable. The OL just missed assignments all year.
=> last time Steelers were 31st in rushing was 2003, the next year fixing it they were 1st.
If you’re thinking Mason Rudolph and going 7-9 is the right direction, that’s insane. Not only is 7-9 about the worst record you can have, you’re still not getting a good draft pick and you’re not even competitive enough for playoffs.
Either go all-in and go for it while you still have a Ben who can go or go with youth movement ASAP. Don’t strive for 7-9 mediocrity cuz that’s just brutal and stupid
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I'm not going to say the Browns haven't suffered, but if you objectively asked anyone who's franchise is in a better space right now. C'mon!!! Do you believe they can make Ben intot a robot and he will play 4 more seasons? And even if he could, don't we know he can not win it with Tomlin at this point. Tomlin is staying. It is futile to continue the charade of competing for a title.
This team can reload if they focus on the OL and the running game after Ben retires. The defense minus Haden is still going to be elite. We will need to keep drafting wisely and bolster the OL and running game so whoever takes over for Ben doesn't have to go out and sling the ball 50 times a game. If we can do that, we can be competitive without Ben. We went 8-8 with Duck Hodges and Rudolph.
so you're operating under the assumption that Tomlin is gone in 2022 also?
I would say this. If he can make the team work next year without Ben and they do well and look like they could honestly contend in the future, as much as it makes me want to puke in my mouth, he would deserve to come back in 2022. I don't think that will happen and they will not renew his contract after 2021. but if they put up some smoke and mirrors with Ben next year and win 9 or 10 games then he comes back and it is just phoney **** and you are rebuilding anyhow. I'm saying lets see exactly what everyone can do here be it Rudolph or Tomlin and move from that position. Not lets win 10 games get knocked out in the first round (which quite honestly is really best case scenario) and then go well maybe it was Ben not Tomlin. WHICH IS EXACTLY WHERE THEY ARE NOW.
They won't fire Tomlin. They just will not give him another contract if they do not believe he is the guy to rebuild the franchise. So lets have a look next season.
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We saw that last year, another collapse in December, went from 8-5 to 8-8 and we were favored in all 3 games that we lost.