OT: The Pittsburgher Thread: Doritos Bowl Match Up - Taylor Swift vs San Andreas Fault

[xlm34]

It's crazy how fast things went down hill for Bell. He was on a hall of fame trajectory and then he pissed away a year of his prime with the holdout to chase money and could never really get back to the level he was at before that.

He got some really bad advice in regards to his contract. Feels like every Rb at the time was almost putting pressure on him to change the contract market for RBs.

I certainly wouldn’t care if they threw him a bone and gave him a cheap deal to come into training camp.

 

[Josey Wales]

Fowler: Steelers Set to Hire Zach Azzanni As Next WR Coach

One week after parting ways with former wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson, the Pittsburgh Steelers have reportedly found his replacement. According to a report from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Steelers are expected to hire Zach Azzanni as the next Steelers’ wide receivers coach. Fowler tweeted...

steelersdepot.com

 

[Josey Wales]

Report: Steelers Expected To Hire Tom Arth For Passing Game Role (Update)

The Pittsburgh Steelers are expected to hire former Los Angeles Chargers assistant coach Tom Arth for a passing game role, NFL Insider Aaron Wilson reports. #Steelers expected to hire #Chargers assistant Tom Arth, per a league source, for passing game position. Was passing game specialist for...

steelersdepot.com

 

[T1K]

It’s a shame Bell got greedy. He could’ve gone down as an all-time great.

I definitely wouldn’t be shocked if he’s broke either. He was attempting to be a professional boxer like last year.

 

[Peat]

He got some really bad advice in regards to his contract. Feels like every Rb at the time was almost putting pressure on him to change the contract market for RBs.

I certainly wouldn’t care if they threw him a bone and gave him a cheap deal to come into training camp.

Does making it worse count as changing it?

 

[pistolpete11]

https://www.si.com/nfl/steelers/news/source-pittsburgh-steelers-interviewing-three-offensive-coaching-candidates

Looks like they are going to go with a passing game coordinator. I don't know shit about these guys, but none of their write ups are all that inspiring.



Arth - Chargers didn't have a great passing game last year with a guy like Herbert, but they did the year prior, so.....who knows? Of the 3, I guess he'd be my pick.

London - has spent most of his career as a running backs coach. Would rather have a QB specialist type. Unfortunately, he worked with Smith in Atlanta, so he might have the inside track.

Azzani - is a WR coach.

Glad they at least went with Arth over London for the passing game coordinator. Glad they added a passing game coordinator in general, too.

Bringing Hines back would have been cool, but can't really complain about Azzani as just a WR coach, I guess. FWIW, he was at Central Michigan when AB was there.

Sullivan also officially back as the QB coach.

 

[xlm34]

Does making it worse count as changing it?

Yeah that certainly didn’t work out for anyone

 

[TimmyD]

Glad they at least went with Arth over London for the passing game coordinator. Glad they added a passing game coordinator in general, too.

Bringing Hines back would have been cool, but can't really complain about Azzani as just a WR coach, I guess. FWIW, he was at Central Michigan when AB was there.

Sullivan also officially back as the QB coach.

Tom Arth isn’t very good

 

[Peat]

Sounds like there's a little confusion over Sullivan's and Arth's roles

 

[The Grim Reaper]

 

[ChaosAgent]

He got some really bad advice in regards to his contract. Feels like every Rb at the time was almost putting pressure on him to change the contract market for RBs.

I certainly wouldn’t care if they threw him a bone and gave him a cheap deal to come into training camp.

I feel for the players at the position.
They are some of the most talented players at the youth/HS level which is why they get put there. But then you get to the NFL and you're at a position that is totally saturated and your career lifespan is nil.

I'd definitely be thinking "I wish my HS/college coach put me at DB or LB, everything would be better. I have the physical talent to do it."

So it's an injustice. I'm not cool with my team rectifying it individually (have Bell eat up $15-$20M on the cap for 4-5 years) because that would have been stupid and impeded us from fielding a competitive team. But if the NFL and NFLPA want to create some renumeration for RBs league-wide I am all for it.

 

[Son Goku]

The nfl is a joke league

 

[OnMyOwn]

I just liked reading the justifications for it. Talk about grasping at straws for Myles to win it. Got beat in every category other than like pressure rate.

 

[xlm34]

I just liked reading the justifications for it. Talk about grasping at straws for Myles to win it. Got beat in every category other than like pressure rate.

Yeah it’s pretty dumb. If you go by real stats, Watt should have won. If you go by the advanced stats Parsons should have won.

Sucks for Watt but the voters pretty much decided Garrett was the winner early in the season.

 

[Rossi Rat]

Micah should’ve got it. Most well rounded defensive player in the league and PSU proud

 

[OnMyOwn]

 

[ChaosAgent]

Just playing Devil's Advocate.

2023 NFL Opposition & Defensive Statistics | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Check out the 2023 NFL Opposition & Defensive Statistics including AFC and NFC results and standings on Pro-football-reference.com

www.pro-football-reference.com

Cleveland: 1st in Yds/Play, 1st in 1st downs allowed, 1st in drives leading to a score, 17th in turnovers, 2nd in expected points against, 8th in QB pressure % but middle of the pack in % of blitzing per play.

Steelers: 23rd in Yds/Play, 8th in 1st downs allowed, 12th in drives leading to a score, 7th in turnovers, 10th in expected points against, 10th in QB pressure % despite being 6th in blitzing.

So Cleveland's defense was much better than the Steelers.
Now, was TJ Watt far and away our best defensive player? Yes. Is he better than Garrett and did he outsack Garrett this year? Maybe and yes.
But I struggle to reconcile Garrett being a robbery while he was the best and most important player on probably the best defense in the league. While the Steelers were pretty mid defensively. All things being equal, it's harder to generate pressure when you start with your hand in the dirt against LTs than if you start lined up wide against RTs.

Part of me also doesn't want the Steelers to have nice things. Don't just lean on TJ defensively. Get substantively better.

 

[Captain Hook]

Not surprised Garrett won. The media was pushing this narrative all season. It felt like it started in the second game of the season when the Steelers beat the Browns in Pittsburgh. PFF graded Garrett higher in that game because of pressure rate but he had 0 tackles, 0 TFL, 0 sacks etc. Watt had a sack, 2 TFL and a TD that night. That game is actually a microcosm of why I think the traditional stats matter more. Watt's big plays clearly impacted the outcome of that game more than any pressure rate.

Watt's just going to end up being one of those athletes that should be far more decorated than he is. This probably should have been his 3rd DPOY award but instead he has just one and even then he had to tie the all time sack record to get it.

I guess the only silverlining is Watt uses snubs like this as motivation.

 

[OnMyOwn]

it’s far more impressive to me when you stand out on a defense where you are literally the entire focus. Being good on a stacked defense doesn’t compare, IMO.

But, whatever.

 

[ChaosAgent]

it’s far more impressive to me when you stand out on a defense where you are literally the entire focus. Being good on a stacked defense doesn’t compare, IMO.

But, whatever.

How stacked is Cleveland's defense? They traded all their 1sts for Deshaun Watson.

 

[T1K]

Flacco wins comeback player of the year. Well deserved

 

[Josey Wales]

Steelers HC Mike Tomlin Receives Votes for Coach of the Year

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin received three votes for the Associated Press 2023 NFL Coach of the Year Award, finishing seventh in the voting. Tomlin earned one second-place and two third-place votes for a total of five vote points. Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski won...

steelersnow.com

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Steelers HC Mike Tomlin Receives Votes for Coach of the Year

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin received three votes for the Associated Press 2023 NFL Coach of the Year Award, finishing seventh in the voting. Tomlin earned one second-place and two third-place votes for a total of five vote points. Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski won...

steelersnow.com

Tomlin getting any votes for being a mediocre coach tells you how idiotic these awards are.

I usually don’t care much about these awards but Garret over Watt and Flacco over Hamlin is comical.

One guy clearly dominated his peers and the other literally rose from the dead and played again the next season.

I don’t care if he played like 17 snaps, how does he not win when he legally died on the field and came back to play?

I always thought the award was about who overcame the most adversity and was the most resilient to get back on the field.

Like when Smith won after almost losing his leg but had atrocious stats.

 

[Josey Wales]

Tomlin getting any votes for being a mediocre coach tells you how idiotic these awards are.

I usually don’t care much about these awards but Garret over Watt and Flacco over Hamlin is comical.

One guy clearly dominated his peers and the other literally rose from the dead and played again the next season.

I don’t care if he okayed like 17 snaps, how does he not win when he legally died on the field and came back to play?

I always thought the award was about who overcame the most adversity and was the most resilient to get back on the field.

Like when Smith won after almost losing his leg and had atrocious stats.

ABSOLUTELY!!! Prove the sports Dorks are also Incompetent Fools

 

[JTG]

I’ve found these threads way more enjoyable after I started utilizing the “ignore” feature.

I have never ignored anyone here aside from one person, and it was because he liked to hurl personal attacks about 15 years ago. I don't even think he posts here anymore.

I would be one of the old posters you referenced @JTG . In fact, I was one of the ones who migrated here from another forum (from roughly 1999 to 2003) with a bunch of regulars like Olivier, etc. My username back then was craig1 (someone else on the boards must have it now). Had few thousand posts...loved digging in and debating on the likes of Vladimir Malakhov (sp?), Milan Kraft, Robert Dome, Ryan Whitney, Michal Rozival, JS Aubin, Luca Caputi...and the list goes on.

I only lurk nowadays (nowadays being roughly 18 or so years of just lurking)....and I rarely read the Pens threads outside of checking in on the salary cap thread. I mostly read the Steelers and Pirates stuff....like others, only have YouTube TV, so makes it hard to watch games.

I miss the old board, but a lot of us got older, families, etc....and don't have time for it, unfortunately.

Yeah, I remember your name. I know many of those guys were just a bit older than a portion of us. There were a ton of us who would be in our mid-late 30's now, but there was a group that was just a little older than us who had kids and got married right around Sid's neck injuries, and they just never came back.

I still post in a couple forums. But yea, I’m the same age as Sid, so I’ve chilled on being super crazy about the pens. This core has done more than they needed to for me.

Agreed. This is the outcome we all dreamed of in 2004.

It's almost assuredly not true and doesn't end up happening, but I think you could make a pretty easy case that it's a good move. The Steelers effectively only had 2 RBs last year, which worked really well but it's unusual to not have any RB depth. They had Igwebuike as their RB3, but he literally didn't even have a rushing attempt last year. Bell in a RB3 role as a receiving back and blocker would be a skillset that Warren and Harris don't really offer. You wouldn't want Harris or Warren to lose many touches to Bell, but Bell as more of a utility depth RB is a role I could see working pretty well.

I'm not holding my breath because you can get a receiving back and blocker RB3 in free agency super easily, and I'm unsure whether Bell would embrace the role requirements for a RB3 (namely special teams and not getting a ton of touches). But I think you could make a pretty easy case that you could make a role for him in that spot.

He's better than anything we would find as a #3 RB. A big reason I'd actually like to see him here is Bell is one of the most patient runners I've ever seen. He may also get Najee to lose weight. LBell until his contract dispute was one of the most dominant football players I've seen. He was absolutely HOF bound.

I'd love for someone to do a statistical analysis to project where Bell would have potentially ended up statistically.

Write it down: Bell is absolutely cooked and he's broke

I would agree. He had something like 9 kids to 8 women.

It's crazy how fast things went down hill for Bell. He was on a hall of fame trajectory and then he pissed away a year of his prime with the holdout to chase money and could never really get back to the level he was at before that.

His agent shouldn't be allowed to represent anyone. He cost LB tens of millions of dollars. A good advisor would have not let him sit out.