Shamarko Thomas

[Coach]

What do we have in him?

When he was drafted I noticed he made few plays on the ball college, had concussion injuries, and was on the short side. You can say I was a tad skeptical. The Steelers traded up to obtain him in round three.

As a professional Thomas has not broken up a single pass. Injuries have hurt his progress but I noticed when he was healthy and Polamalu was out, Will Allen played. This suggests the coaching staff did not feel Thomas was ready.

The year before Thomas was demoted out of the dime defense.

With Troy Polamalu perhaps gone, we need Thomas to step up. While you have to love his hitting power, these days being a hard hitting safety often draws a flag...even with legal hits.

What are you thoughts? Is Shamarko Thomas a 3rd to 4th safety type who only plays special teams, or can he become a solid starter in the NFL?

 

[Coryea]

My thoughts are, if a top tier safety is there at #22 we take him, if he's the best option

 

[Vader]

Thomas wasn't a ball hawk in college so I doubt he will be one in the NFL. He's a hard hitting safety in a league that doesn't like hard hitting safeties. The Steelers need some one that can pick off a pass. I don't remember why he was benched a year ago.

 

[Coryea]

OK legit question, where did Mitchell play at in Carolina, I always thought he was a FS, but I've heard a few radio guys say he was the SS in Carolina.
Also, why not try to move Allen to FS? He's a bigger CB, he's shown the ability to make plays on the ball, prior to this season, and his weakness seems to be when he has to turn his back to the qb and run with the WR and try to make a play on the ball that way. At FS the play would be in front of him the majority of the time.

 

[Coach]

Thomas wasn't a ball hawk in college so I doubt he will be one in the NFL. He's a hard hitting safety in a league that doesn't like hard hitting safeties. The Steelers need some one that can pick off a pass. I don't remember why he was benched a year ago.

I do like the Michigan state FS prospect a lot ( Kurtis Drummond, ). He's a ball hawk type and had a good first practice at the senior bowl. Could be there for us in round three. IMO, Mitchell can be the SS.

 

[Coach]

OK legit question, where did Mitchell play at in Carolina, I always thought he was a FS, but I've heard a few radio guys say he was the SS in Carolina.
Also, why not try to move Allen to FS? He's a bigger CB, he's shown the ability to make plays on the ball, prior to this season, and his weakness seems to be when he has to turn his back to the qb and run with the WR and try to make a play on the ball that way. At FS the play would be in front of him the majority of the time.

I think Allen could make a good Free Saftey. He's tall, and has fine hands for the interception. As a cornerback he lack quickness and recovery speed. Tight Ends burned him deep.

Mitchell had one good season in the NFL that happened when he played with a great front seven. He was a risky free agent. The Steelers paid top dollar for him.

 

[Vader]

I do like the Michigan state FS prospect a lot ( Kurtis Drummond, ). He's a ball hawk type and had a good first practice at the senior bowl. Could be there for us in round three. IMO, Mitchell can be the SS.

I like Drummond. I don't start putting prospects together until after the combine or their pro-days.

 

[Coach]

I like Drummond. I don't start putting prospects together until after the combine or their pro-days.

Vader, I highly recommend watching the senior bowl practices. I DVR them.

 

[F83]

Anthony Harris Virgina in round 2, trade up in round 1 for Trai Waynes or stay and take Jalen Mills (LSU) or PJ Williams FSU, the only thing that scares me about the Wake Forest kid is the level of competition he faced, he has the height but is the same weight as Dri Archer unless the plan is cover 2 tampa him playing the run will be hard, if we stick with a primary zone scheme.

 

[Vader]

Vader, I highly recommend watching the senior bowl practices. I DVR them.

I watch them I just don't put together a list until after the combine. I usually tag a few players from the practices to see how they do at the combine.

 

[stuntmanmike]

How many agree with this statement " if you can't cover te's like gronkowski you don't belong at ss in the nfl. " And we saw sharknado against NE and gronkowski... Pretty ugly I don't know what his future is to be honest I know lebeau didn't like playing young players in place of vets didn't seem like he wanted to pitt one against the other probably out of respect. The sharknado could be our most improved next year that would be sweet.

 

[Roy92040]

I think Shazier is fast enough for SS but I don't know if he can cover.

 

[Coach]

How many agree with this statement " if you can't cover te's like gronkowski you don't belong at ss in the nfl. " And we saw sharknado against NE and gronkowski... Pretty ugly I don't know what his future is to be honest I know lebeau didn't like playing young players in place of vets didn't seem like he wanted to pitt one against the other probably out of respect. The sharknado could be our most improved next year that would be sweet.

5'8" vs 6'7". A mis-match. Forget Gronk, can Thomas cover WR's in a cover 2, or play cover 3 by himself?

 

[Spike]

What do we have in him?

We have no idea other than he's not on the field.

 

[steelerscotty]

He played pretty good on s.t. this year. He deserves a shot. . . but we better have a plan B in case his issues arent all injury related.

 

[USDA#1]

Like Vader said, they drafted him to play a position that no longer exists....it's not his fault, really.

but so far, he's not quite a wasted pick.

if he doesn't show this year, I don't know what else you can call him.

 

[Stryker]

Thomas wasn't a ball hawk in college so I doubt he will be one in the NFL. He's a hard hitting safety in a league that doesn't like hard hitting safeties. The Steelers need some one that can pick off a pass. I don't remember why he was benched a year ago.

I thought he was injured that season, not benched.

 

[F83]

Shamarko Thomas was Bob Sanders at Sycruse.
Collins or Harris would be perfect SS for us.

 

[Vader]

I thought he was injured that season, not benched.

He was injured during his rookie season but never put back in. They even used Will Allen over him. He's healthy enough to play special teams so I don't think he is hurt. For some reason he can't get back on the field.

 

[SteelerAl]

He was injured during his rookie season but never put back in. They even used Will Allen over him. He's healthy enough to play special teams so I don't think he is hurt. For some reason he can't get back on the field.

In his rookie season he was getting a fair amount of playing time in sub packages. I believe he suffered a high ankle sprain against the Bills. When he was healthy he never got back onto the "moving train" and Will Allen played ahead of him. I don't think he logged more than a couple snaps on defense after the injury.

 

[Vader]

In his rookie season he was getting a fair amount of playing time in sub packages. I believe he suffered a high ankle sprain against the Bills. When he was healthy he never got back onto the "moving train" and Will Allen played ahead of him. I don't think he logged more than a couple snaps on defense after the injury.

Right. I don't understand that. Why not play him? Did he do something? Why not at least sub him in sometime?

 

[F83]

Why not at least sub him in sometime?

Because DL liked old players too much, when ever there wasa young player that neaded some reps some has been was getting shredded up and down the field.
It took 3 month's to reliaze Cam Thomas was *** and a counter run to his side was a guaranteed easy 5 yards.

or why was Troy in coverage in the wild card game it can be seen on the torrey smith TD he looked like a 50 year old trying traying to stay with a 12 year old, Troy returning to the team in the AFCWCG he should of just been a box saftey.
let's look to last year what did it take so long to start Cam over Ziggy?

in the wildcard game Troy should not at all have been in coverage at all.

 

[Vader]

Because DL liked old players too much, when ever there wasa young player that neaded some reps some has been was getting shredded up and down the field.
It took 3 month's to reliaze Cam Thomas was *** and a counter run to his side was a guaranteed easy 5 yards.

I don't believe that for a minute. Almost every player started their 2nd year in DL defense. I get tired of people quoting this bullshit. Troy, Woodley ETC.. all started their 2nd years and played a ton their rookie years. Hell Hood started mid way through his rookie year. Jones started his rookie year last year. Shazier started this year. I wish people would stop this myth.

 

[F83]

Hood of never seen the field in his rookie year had Smith not been placed on IR.
Woodley was heads and shoulders better as a rook than Haggans so he beat out Haggans easily in camp to start 08, Troy had to start since we moved up and payed a lot to move up from 9.
Kewin Lewis started in his 3rd year

Cant blame DL for Curtis Brown, Joe Burnett as those CB had thier shots but did nothing, Tombert really since Troy became injury prone never invested until last year into getting a dual S

 

[jitter77]

I still like moving ike to safety. I think ike and will allen would be ok. Find a safety in the draft for the future and away we go. I did not like the sham pic. He was too reckless and that does not hold up on the Nfl.