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kevin-colbert-cautions-Steelers-wont-be-big-spenders-in-free-agency

slashsteel said:
http://www.Invalid Link - Check SN ...steelers-wont-be-big-spenders-in-free-agency/




I feel nauseous........
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Fill holes from within? So who from "within" will fill glaring holes in the secondary, not to mention, if we lose Gay? You can say the "Steeler way" wins rings, but that doesn't make them infallible. All other teams seem to have more cap room than we do and this stubborn manner in which they sit on their hands in free agency pisses me off. They don't do it as a "strategy," they do it as a way to save Rooneys money. They purposely stay smack against the cap so they have an excuse to not sign **** in free agency. I wonder if Denver wins a ring this year if they didn't sign Talib and Ware?

For for the f----g 1,000th time, I am not advocating being huge FA spenders; I would like them to merely sign a FEW guys who aren't dog ****. Just a few.
 
papillon said:
Geesh, this is not groundbreaking news is it? The Steelers for as long as I care to remember do the following:

1) Sign there own FAs that they believe will help them win a Super Bowl (this is there splash in free agency)
2) Fill in the roster with 2nd tier free agents so that they have no holes on the roster going into the draft
3) Draft the BPA
4) Wash, rinse repeat

This is like clock work folks, clock work I tell ya.

Papillon
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Pap,

The problem starts with point #1. The Steelers do not have enough money to sign their own FA's that they believe will help them win a Super Bowl.

The team will likely slide backward losing somewhere between 2-6 players that started games last season. What we have here is bad cap management.

Point #2. Last season Colbert hit the jackpot on cheap 2nd tier free agents in Williams and Cockrell. He deserves props for that. Odds are he will not be able to duplicate this in 2016.

Point #3 Only one player helped us in a measurable fashion from the draft last season, so its foolish to think the 2016 draft will yield more than one NFL ready starter this season.

I see no one on the team able to fill Gay or Foster's shoes.
 
POP said:
Fill holes from within? So who from "within" will fill glaring holes in the secondary, not to mention, if we lose Gay? You can say the "Steeler way" wins rings, but that doesn't make them infallible. All other teams seem to have more cap room than we do and this stubborn manner in which they sit on their hands in free agency pisses me off. They don't do it as a "strategy," they do it as a way to save Rooneys money. They purposely stay smack against the cap so they have an excuse to not sign **** in free agency. I wonder if Denver wins a ring this year if they didn't sign Talib and Ware?

For for the f----g 1,000th time, I am not advocating being huge FA spenders; I would like them to merely sign a FEW guys who aren't dog ****. Just a few.
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As not dogshit I would say present roster Allen/Cockrell/Heyward-Bey/Mitchell/Moats/Villanueva/Wallace/Williams. Go back a few years and you get people like Farrior and Clark who we probably would have not won a SB without. And how do you "save Rooney's money" when you are constantly up against the cap?
 
obxsteeler said:
As not dogshit I would say present roster Allen/Cockrell/Heyward-Bey/Mitchell/Moats/Villanueva/Wallace/Williams. Go back a few years and you get people like Farrior and Clark who we probably would have not won a SB without. And how do you "save Rooney's money" when you are constantly up against the cap?
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That is my exact point. How is it, that every season, we are strapped capped, no matter what? It's by design. Other teams, with equal or better records, always have more cap space than we do. The current SB champ is a perfect example. Some how, they manage to pay Manning, and a host of good players, and STILL have the means to sign Talib and Ware. How is that possible? It would never happen in Pgh.
 
POP said:
That is my exact point. How is it, that every season, we are strapped capped, no matter what? It's by design. Other teams, with equal or better records, always have more cap space than we do. The current SB champ is a perfect example. Some how, they manage to pay Manning, and a host of good players, and STILL have the means to sign Talib and Ware. How is that possible? It would never happen in Pgh.
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that's only possible during a small window of one or two years that the stars align.
Do you think Manning will lead that team next season to a SB again? He'll be toast next season, let's see how far they go with Osweiler
Do you think they'll be able to keep all those Defensive stars after such an impressive season? They are losing key players this off season
 
Litos said:
that's only possible during a small window of one or two years that the stars align.
Do you think Manning will lead that team next season to a SB again? He'll be toast next season, let's see how far they go with Osweiler
Do you think they'll be able to keep all those Defensive stars after such an impressive season? They are losing key players this off season
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As long as you win a ring or two in the process, that is ALL THAT MATTERs.

You do what you got to do to get that ring, and I give Elway kudos for doing so.

Manning is done. But they managed to win a ring before he was, just in the nick in time. That is all that matters.

But we got a front office that boasts of not trying to sign any difference makers. Ben's career will be done soon, with no additional rings, with our team's philosophy.

We have gaping holes at CB, S and edge rusher. But will they attempt to upgrade those positions? Apparently not.
 
POP said:
As long as you win a ring or two in the process, that is ALL THAT MATTERs.

You do what you got to do to get that ring, and I give Elway kudos for doing so.

Manning is done. But they managed to win a ring before he was, just in the nick in time. That is all that matters.

But we got a front office that boasts of not trying to sign any difference makers. Ben's career will be done soon, with no additional rings, with our team's philosophy.

We have gaping holes at CB, S and edge rusher. But will they attempt to upgrade those positions? Apparently not.
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I do agree we need to address those holes in FA, especially on CB as it's the most difficult position to improve via draft. I'd be really happy with a good CB brought along with Gay
 
Pop is spot on IMO about free agency, the window is narrowing. And the D won't magically fix itself.


I would like to see two "upgrades" One at SS one at Blake's old spot.

IMO that shouldn't be breaking the bank....
 
slashsteel said:
Pop is spot on IMO about free agency, the window is narrowing. And the D won't magically fix itself.

I would like to see two "upgrades" One at SS one at Blake's old spot.

IMO that shouldn't be breaking the bank....
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I'll co-sign this, with one caveat regarding the defense fixing itself.

There is a chance that either Golson or Grant becomes a very good player. If we get lucky and they are both say on Willaim Gay's level of play, the defensive pass defense problems would become less of an obstacle. I for one think Gay is going to leave in free agency.

We had a lot of sacks and QB pressures in 2015, but still ranked 30th in pass defense. Part of that is because we can't cover or tackle well enough in the secondary. The other part was scheme giving up huge cushions to avoid big plays.

Just imagine if we had two competent corners.
 
Coach said:
I'll co-sign this, with one caveat regarding the defense fixing itself.

There is a chance that either Golson or Grant becomes a very good player. If we get lucky and they are both say on Willaim Gay's level of play, the defensive pass defense problems would become less of an obstacle. I for one think Gay is going to leave in free agency.

We had a lot of sacks and QB pressures in 2015, but still ranked 30th in pass defense. Part of that is because we can't cover or tackle well enough in the secondary. The other part was scheme giving up huge cushions to avoid big plays.

Just imagine if we had two competent corners.
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I was thinking among the main 4 (Foster,Mclendon,Gay,Beachum) Steelers free agents,Gay would be the most likely to return. (age plus scheme fitting him better)
 
Coach said:
Pap,

The problem starts with point #1. The Steelers do not have enough money to sign their own FA's that they believe will help them win a Super Bowl.

The team will likely slide backward losing somewhere between 2-6 players that started games last season. What we have here is bad cap management.

Point #2. Last season Colbert hit the jackpot on cheap 2nd tier free agents in Williams and Cockrell. He deserves props for that. Odds are he will not be able to duplicate this in 2016.

Point #3 Only one player helped us in a measurable fashion from the draft last season, so its foolish to think the 2016 draft will yield more than one NFL ready starter this season.

I see no one on the team able to fill Gay or Foster's shoes.
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and despite that, the Steelers will still do those things, it's what they do, over and over again. If they want to hold on to a player and believe that player is key to a super bowl they will do what is necessary now to sign the player. They will fill in holes with FAs that are left over after the wave of splash signings is done, they get players at a discount (of sorts) because these guys have not been picked up and they want a pay check. They will still draft the player that they believe is BPA in the draft at the positions they are drafting.

They've been doing it for so long I just don't see the current circumstances changing that. This isn't the first time they've had limited cap space and a lot of FAs and they've been very competitive with this year a harbinger of things to come, IMO. They are going to compete for the title for the next 2-3 years, IMO, you don't need a perfect team to win the super bowl (look at the Pats last year and the Broncos this year), you only need the best team at the right time and the longer the core players are together as a team the better chance to win.

Papillon
 
People have to realize how the Steelers organization looks at players and salaries and how free agency plays a part of that.


The Steelers front office "slots" players on their team according to importance and talent. The better, most devoted, most important players (according to them and only them) get the best deals. When a player comes up for a new contract, the Steelers front office is very quick to evaluate where that player stands vs. the rest of the team (and counting reasonable inflation) and says... "This is what we are willing to pay". There's some negotiation after that point, but I don't think as much as people think. Colbert and Co. are pretty stubborn in their "slot" method of payment.

They do this slot method because it maintains balance in the locker room. They are very conscious of how giving player "A" a huge contract impacts what player "B" thinks.

This is why you will never see the Steelers sign a top-notch player in free agency. They just don't believe in ever "slotting" a player who has never proven they are "Steelers" as one of the highest paid players on the team. Never. It would just upset the balance of power in the locker room to make someone so highly paid that hasn't paid their dues in the Steelers organization.

They will gladly sign players in free agency they can "slot" correctly - or mostly correctly - in the group of players he'd compare himself too.

That's why when we made Ike Taylor the highest paid corner, we never signed another corner higher than him. He was the #1 corner on the team. He was getting the #1 receiver. You don't make anyone higher paid them him. Period.

This organization does it time and time again. If you can find a free agent and say "he's going to be the 10th best player on our team", then find the inflation adjusted 10th highest salary. If he won't come close to signing for that, then he isn't coming here.

While I agree this is frustrating at times, this is partly why so many players are so loyal to this organization. They never rock the boat on salaries. They never pay an outsider so much that it ***** up what people think that have put in the hard work here.
 
^^^nailed it^^^

We resign our own first in their slot, then after the pile of free agents has been sorted through a couple of times we can find a value guy or two to plug in to a slot as their market price has matched where we slot them.

Phase 1: resigning own free agents
Phase 2: let other teams hand out big deals
Phase 3: allow market to settle and contact prices to fall
Phase 4: plug holes with guys that now fall into price slot

Also why we sign guys who have played here before, they put in some time and paid some dues.

It does seem to work as we have decent retention and don't spend huge money on free agent busts.
 
obxsteeler said:
As not dogshit I would say present roster Allen/Cockrell/Heyward-Bey/Mitchell/Moats/Villanueva/Wallace/Williams. Go back a few years and you get people like Farrior and Clark who we probably would have not won a SB without. And how do you "save Rooney's money" when you are constantly up against the cap?
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Hey-Bey is a little dog crappy-ish. He can't catch. Coats is already better.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
Steelers have never been big in free agency. Who is the steelers biggest free agent signing ever? I think it might be Jeff Hartings. He was one of the top free agent targets in all the NFL that year and the steelers got him. Other than that, their free agent signings have mostly been depth guys or underrated guys from other teams.
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I would say -- especially at the time Kevin Greene was the biggest name signing; with Hartings second.

Guys like Farrior and Gandy were 1st round picks that were bargains.

I would rather they be more aggressive in the draft than go FA for the DBs -- if chasing after Dexter Jackson would have been successful I guarantee we'd still be missing a pair of Lombardi Trophies by not balling up in the draft to land Troy Polamalu. So, don't wait for the best DB to fall to them, trade up for one in draft.
 
http://steelerswire.usatoday.com/20...umber-to-eric-weddle-to-come-to-the-steelers/

Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark is doing his best to lobby for his old team. Clark played for the Steelers for eight seasons after coming over as a free agent. Clark’s signing would certainly qualify as one of the best free-agent moves Pittsburgh made in the decade or so.

Clark was a great free safety, with exceptional instincts and ball skills. The Steelers are still trying to find a guy with his all-around game to replace him since he left in 2013.
Related:
Latest Draftwire mock gives Steelers top safety prospect

One of the names being thrown around as a potential free-agent target is San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle. He certainly fits the bill when it comes to what the Steelers are looking for. As a veteran, he would be able to acclimate to the defense quickly, and Weddle, when healthy has a nice all-around package of skills.

Clark recently took to Twitter to help encourage Weddle to come to the Steelers, even offering up his #25 to him if he wants to come to Pittsburgh.

You have to appreciate a former player doing all he can to help out his old team. There is some debate as to just what the value of Weddle is, but if the Steelers could sign him to a contract that is financially smart, then by all means do it. However, there should be no panic here. Don’t overpay for a 31-year old safety coming off a season where he missed time with a groin injury.


However, there should be no panic here. Don’t overpay for a 31-year old safety coming off a season where he missed time with a groin injury. If he can help the team without breaking the bank, move on from Will Allen and Robert Golden and more forward.
 
we need diamonds in the rough who want to be champions above all else. in fact that's what we need from all players. a single mindset united.
 
Very nice of Ryan to offer up his coveted number 25
 
Stlrs4Life said:
http://steelerswire.usatoday.com/20...umber-to-eric-weddle-to-come-to-the-steelers/

Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark is doing his best to lobby for his old team. Clark played for the Steelers for eight seasons after coming over as a free agent. Clark’s signing would certainly qualify as one of the best free-agent moves Pittsburgh made in the decade or so.

Clark was a great free safety, with exceptional instincts and ball skills. The Steelers are still trying to find a guy with his all-around game to replace him since he left in 2013.
Related:
Latest Draftwire mock gives Steelers top safety prospect

One of the names being thrown around as a potential free-agent target is San Diego Chargers safety Eric Weddle. He certainly fits the bill when it comes to what the Steelers are looking for. As a veteran, he would be able to acclimate to the defense quickly, and Weddle, when healthy has a nice all-around package of skills.

Clark recently took to Twitter to help encourage Weddle to come to the Steelers, even offering up his #25 to him if he wants to come to Pittsburgh.

You have to appreciate a former player doing all he can to help out his old team. There is some debate as to just what the value of Weddle is, but if the Steelers could sign him to a contract that is financially smart, then by all means do it. However, there should be no panic here. Don’t overpay for a 31-year old safety coming off a season where he missed time with a groin injury.


However, there should be no panic here. Don’t overpay for a 31-year old safety coming off a season where he missed time with a groin injury. If he can help the team without breaking the bank, move on from Will Allen and Robert Golden and more forward.
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The only way I'd be interested is if he'd come as a stopgap player. Allen has been decent in spot duty, but not a guy you want out there as a starter each week. I'm still not sure what kind of upside Golden has at the position. I hope we grab a safety early in the draft and work him into the lineup as the season progresses. To have a dependable starter until the young guy is ready would be ideal, whether it is Weddle or another option. Given how we operate, I fully expect it to be Allen. I like him as a backup, just don't want him in the starting lineup.
 
Weddle would be a $5 million/year stop gap. He'd immediately go to being our highest paid secondary player.
 
Pretty sure Weddle goes to the Panthers. He wants to play for a championship contender (Steelers and Panthers both fit that need), Most people want to maximize their earning potential, Panthers can offer $8 million a year and not even flinch as they are in excellent cap shape, they could definitely outbid the Steelers. Tomlin may like Weddle, but Weddle has played for Rivera before and has been reported they have a great relationship, advantage Panthers. Both teams have a need a safety-equal there. Carolina is much nicer weather for a guy coming from SoCal.

Currently living down in Panther land and I must say he has been getting a lot of focus this offseason down here.

I personally hope they get him, unless he wants to sign on the cheap (well below his market value) to play for the greatest franchise ever.
 
With his injury concerns, I don't see Weddle commanding too much in FA. And Golden is far better against the pass than Allen, so the upside is there.
 
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