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What To Do At RB

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By: Jonathan Clark, @jonclark_7 SteelerNation.com After posting a Pro Bowl season in 2018, all of Steeler Nation was ready to call James Conner our new franchise RB. After off-season contract disputes with Le’veon Bell, the star RB decided he was going to holdout the 2018 season in hopes of earning more compensation than was previously […]

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Let it play itself out. May the best back get the carries. We have more depth than we had a year ago and we have an actual threat at QB so that should give us more room to run the ball. Those 8 and 9 man fronts will get murdered if they do that with Ben at QB. That alone helps us get more rushing yards.

After the year I would let Conner walk. Going to be hard to justify paying him with others due for big pay days.
 
play it out if he has a good year lets see how much he cash wise is willing to stay home for less if not snell and mcfarland and maybe whyte are the 123 and maybe in the draft we find a long term plug in, or see whose out there if we cut big al dupree and heyward are extending it could free up cash for fornette for a prove incentive laced short term deal.
 
play it out if he has a good year lets see how much he cash wise is willing to stay home for less if not snell and mcfarland and maybe whyte are the 123 and maybe in the draft we find a long term plug in, or see whose out there if we cut big al dupree and heyward are extending it could free up cash for fornette for a prove incentive laced short term deal.

Lol .. good stuff.
 
I think we are set this year. Got two workhorse backs in Connor and Snell plus a fast and shifty guy in McFarland. Next year - who knows? Hate to say it but Connor might price himself out of the market. Sad truth is that RB value is down and replacements are fairly easy to find. Personally I'd rather keep Connor than Snell but the reality of it is that JC's contract will be up and his physical running style leaves him open to injury. I"m just gonna enjoy watching the group this year and not worry about next year.
 
Get what we can out of Conner. If he's healthy at the end of the year Offer him a "modest" contract. If not, let him be a free agent.
 
We have in my mind no real needs at RB. We have plenty in the cupboard. The real problem was poor formations, play calling, lack of adjustments at the line by the QB's and injuries.

Randy F. needs to step up in a big way if he is to survive as an OC after Ben. As it is his in game situational play calling and formations leave a lot to be desired when he doesn't have Ben to fix the calls at the line. Ben is underrated at making protection adjustments, audibles and calling his own plays. THAT is what we missed more than anything on offense last year and exposed the weaknesses that we have on a good line by not putting them in the right protection or plays and lacking the ability to audible into the right formations and plays. Mason will grow into that given the chance but it takes awhile, Ben got by early on good play calls and being younger and more athletic than he is now. Last year was a **** show of telegraphing plays by formation down and distance with no real plan or follow through in setting up plays. Even without a healthy FB we could have used Snell there and run more I and pro set to pass and run making the defense have to defend both. Hopefully with Ben back he will make Randy look good but Randy right now sucks on gameday.
 
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make it or break ir year should be for Fitchner atleast with ben he is known at times to call his one flows andd you can tell when ben is scanning and doesnt like he will change thr play ith his patent kill kill or lucky yells.
should be pressure on Fitchner to call better games or face a pink slip
 
We have in my mind no real needs at RB. We have plenty in the cupboard. The real problem was poor formations, play calling, lack of adjustments at the line by the QB's and injuries.

Randy F. needs to step up in a big way if he is to survive as an OC after Ben. As it is his in-game situational play calling and formations leave a lot to be desired when he doesn't have Ben to fix the calls at the line. Ben is underrated at making protection adjustments, audibles and calling his own plays. THAT is what we missed more than anything on offense last year and exposed the weaknesses that we have on a good line by not putting them in the right protection or plays and lacking the ability to audible into the right formations and plays. Mason will grow into that given the chance but it takes a while, Ben got by early on good play calls and being younger and more athletic than he is now. Last year was a **** show of telegraphing plays by formation down and distance with no real plan or follow through in setting up plays. Even without a healthy FB we could have used Snell there and run more I and pro set to pass and run making the defense have to defend both. Hopefully with Ben back he will make Randy look good but Randy right now sucks on gameday.

i hope we carry 6 all together including watt, conner snell McFarland and your speciality set whyte and maybe Edmunds. looking on the outside.
 
i hope we carry 6 all together including watt, conner snell McFarland and your speciality set whyte and maybe Edmunds. looking on the outside.

I think that would be a luxury we can't afford at other positions. OL, ILB. I think we will have Conner, Snell, McFarland then either Samuels or Whyte at RB and Watt at FB. I don't see us keeping more than 4 plus a FB, particularly with the Watt having the ability to carry the rock occasionally.

I am hoping that the investment in Watt with his name and work ethic will prod them to use him a much larger percentage of the time and be creative with him. I could see him lining up in the back field to show run then shifting to the 2nd TE spot or slot. They can be creative if they are willing in creating mismatches by using the same personnel groupings to do multiple formations and play calls.If we can run almost anything with the same 11 guys it becomes much harder to call the defense based on subs.
 
If the O-line isn’t fixed , nothing will matter anyway. We need to be concerned about that first.
Fixed? There's another thread in this forum that states that the offensive line is 'tremendous'. Its one of the principal reasons that Josh Rosen would prosper here, that and our excellent head coach (can't type that without lmao).
 
I like James Conner a lot. He is a dynamic player but he just doesn't stay healthy enough to be a #1 and the fumbles don't help.
 
Just maybe the O-line is a little of both. Or should I say more than likely. You have an aging line fresh off losing their franchise QB . There is some youth on the line, perhaps that will help balance the question mark.
Fixed? There's another thread in this forum that states that the offensive line is 'tremendous'. Its one of the principal reasons that Josh Rosen would prosper here, that and our excellent head coach (can't type that without lmao).

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we did what we could via Fa and the draft to fix the ol, A Foster was finished goods who was resigned because of his leadership and to keep the ol contuiaity. I felt had we let him walk and inserted Finney it would of been no loss.
I felt there were better guards but maybe with kevin being a steelers fan since a kid and bettis being his fav that will give extra motivation to unseat Wis to start at LG, also heard Dotson has practiced a bit at C so if they move Fielier to LG and the Rt is between Chuked and \banner it will likely be a redshirt season for Dotson as to groom in asa C rather than a C or when Decastro is in final year cut him and replace with Dotson.
From the view if we look they have done everything to fix the ol, hopefully last years 7th rounder another Maryland player Grey progresses and can win a swing ol spot or enough to be put on ps as some one to rorate as an emergency dress up the 53 man squad.
 
Fixed? There's another thread in this forum that states that the offensive line is 'tremendous'. Its one of the principal reasons that Josh Rosen would prosper here, that and our excellent head coach (can't type that without lmao).

Haha.. our first order of business is to actually see IF the line is fixed. If not, then the selection of Sarratt as our O-line coach should then also be questioned as well. Because he proved nothing as Munchak’s replacement.
 
I don't think the line was all that broken, I think the coaching and QB play was more responsible for making it look bad. Ben wasn't out there keeping the D honest or adjusting the plays and protections. I will reserve judgement on them for now.
 
Haha.. our first order of business is to actually see IF the line is fixed. If not, then the selection of Sarratt as our O-line coach should then also be questioned as well. Because he proved nothing as Munchak’s replacement.
Knee jerk we will have to wait and see if that O- line coach was a victim of circumstance or if he is the weak link. It isn't like BigBen was out causing D's to creep in and Ramon was Fostering his last legs or anything.

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I’m a fan of James Conner.

That being said, the guy runs like Eddie George without Eddie George’s granite physique.

Nobody can last with that style—it ended EG’s career for sakes.


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