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The Steelers Are Legit Super Bowl Contenders

Not expecting much this season. I’m not being pessimistic and I’m certainly not optimistic about this season, I just don’t see a recipe for success here.
My analogy of it is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Signing a very old QB that no one wanted, still having no clear cut #2 WR, an unproven running game, a work in process OL, but hay, he have lots of TEs. What could possibly go wrong?
Still for the fourth consecutive year have the highest paid defense but we saw how the highest paid defense played the last five games last year.
Two coordinators that do nothing for me and it’s all tied together by Mike Tomlin.
This thing could go off the rails quickly this season. Then it would become very interesting.
The Steeler culture, the aura, the Steeler way, all gone now.
Been watching and following since early 60’s and believe me when I tell you…. It’s bad again!
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
Do you think Rodgers is washed? Why? He looked healthy last year. The problem was the Jets OL was garbage and Rodgers had no time to throw. The Steeler OL was pretty good in pass pro last year. Fields and Wilson had enough time. The problems were Fields is slow to read and Russ ignored the middle of the field and thought he still had the wheels to extend plays.

Rodgers reads very quickly and uses the whole field.

We haven't seen the Arthur Smith offense yet. He modified it for Fields and then for Russ. He even had to change his run game for Najee. Now Smith has a QB, OL, RB and WR1 that can execute his offense. They have 3 good TEs. Fautanu is like an extra 1st rounder. People forget that he was very impressive last year and likely would have started at RT.
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The plus with Rodgers is he's one of the smartest QBs in modern times and from everything I've read from camp, his arm is still there. His legs are the only thing that worry me right now because that can throw off his mechanics. However, an improved OL and a reduced need to scramble will be huge if it all works out.

Smith was a decent hire, but I'm not so sure his offense is actually any good. The only time his offenses have finished in the top 10 in scoring is when Derrick Henry was playing lights out moreso than usual. I don't know how many points the Steelers offense will need to score this year, but what we do know is that it hasn't been good enough to get it done in the playoffs. Basically, the Steelers are going to have to have a monster running game if they want to move up to the next tier of offensive production.
 
topseed said:
While I understand and respect your point of view on Franklin's poor performance against great teams, the fact remains that his CFP record stands at 2-1. And if you want to call being tied with Notre Dame, having the ball 1st-and-10 on their own 28 with 40 seconds and 2 timeouts left, about 40 yards away from a legitimate chance at playing in the national championship game a "crawl into the fetal position," then God bless you. I can't blame Franklin for the ridiculous decision that Drew Allar made on that INT. All he had to do was throw the ball up along the sideline where Warren would have had a chance to make a big play, or it simply goes out of bounds as an incompletion.

Penn State would have had six more chances in the last nine years had there been a 12-team field. Franklin hasn't really had a shot to prove what he can or can't do in the playoffs, but he'll get another opportunity this season. Tomlin hasn't done shlt in the playoffs for 8 years, and in fact, the Steelers wouldn't have even made the field twice had the NFL not expanded to 14 teams in 2020.

Losing a toss-up game in the final seconds one step away from playing for the national title is inequivalent to getting regularly crushed in the first round, in my opinion.
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3-17 against top 10 teams

1-14 against top 5 teams

fetal position when it comes to big games.
 
Badcat said:
3-17 against top 10 teams

1-14 against top 5 teams

fetal position when it comes to big games.
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Tom Lin or Frank Lin



Salute the nation
 
Badcat said:
3-17 against top 10 teams

1-14 against top 5 teams

fetal position when it comes to big games.
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Right. And let's ignore all the facts about their most recent game against Notre Dame and just blame it on Franklin. I used to share your angst before I got to know the man, and about what had been going on with Penn State's hierarchy for many years after Paterno died. What happens this season might surprise you and a lot of others.
 
topseed said:
Right. And let's ignore all the facts about their most recent game against Notre Dame and just blame it on Franklin. I used to share your angst before I got to know the man, and about what had been going on with Penn State's hierarchy for many years after Paterno died. What happens this season might surprise you and a lot of others.
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Please share what has been going on with psu hierarchy which helped cause all of those loses for Franklin. Thank you.
 
topseed said:
While I understand and respect your point of view on Franklin's poor performance against great teams, the fact remains that his CFP record stands at 2-1. And if you want to call being tied with Notre Dame, having the ball 1st-and-10 on their own 28 with 40 seconds and 2 timeouts left, about 40 yards away from a legitimate chance at playing in the national championship game a "crawl into the fetal position," then God bless you. I can't blame Franklin for the ridiculous decision that Drew Allar made on that INT. All he had to do was throw the ball up along the sideline where Warren would have had a chance to make a big play, or it simply goes out of bounds as an incompletion.

Penn State would have had six more chances in the last nine years had there been a 12-team field. Franklin hasn't really had a shot to prove what he can or can't do in the playoffs, but he'll get another opportunity this season. Tomlin hasn't done shlt in the playoffs for 8 years, and in fact, the Steelers wouldn't have even made the field twice had the NFL not expanded to 14 teams in 2020.

Losing a toss-up game in the final seconds one step away from playing for the national title is inequivalent to getting regularly crushed in the first round, in my opinion.
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You are not allowed to use any context at all with James Franklin. If they did beat ND, then they'd say that wasn't a big win either if they lost in the championship.
 
Fiji Mariner said:
Everyone wants to blame Tomlin cuz he is a HUGE contributor to the constant mediocrity…his schemes, his conservative nature, his lack of basic strategic football acumen, his garbage decisions sinking a ship year after year after year after year

Sure he won 1 damn SB with basically Cowher’s roster (and culture) and a future HoF QB in a SB that required both the greatest play in SB history and one of the greatest ending drives coupled with a great defensive close out for the save. Yup he won that 1 SB where he also has made sooooo many blunders squandering very talented rosters year after year after year.

Doing less with more, achieving mediocrity and having many celebrate him for it…the Tomlin way

That you believe winning 1 WC game would make them a “contender” shows the amount of your Tomlinization to the mediocrity standard.

The Tomcepts will be what causes this squad to achieve nothing more than another meaningless Tomlinship and maybe just maybe if they’re super lucky, get the right wounded opponent and play their best game within the confines of the Tomcepts they may squeeze out a WC game victory.

Slow clap for the 25% chance of the potential ending of the playoff drought…the standard has truly been raised this year.

The reason many blame Tomlin is that he is the constant that keeps constantly underachieving.

I like many am in the I’ll believe he can actually change his ways when he proves it cuz he’s had almost 2 decades and shown zero growth from the extremely long tenure. It could easily be argued that he has gotten worse.

When it all comes down to it, I don’t want to blame Tomlin…I’d much rather have a great HC and celebrate him, unfortunately that is not the Steeler fan’s fate…we get Mediocre Mike
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Tomlin drives me nuts too. Colbert was hired to work with the coach, Cowher. He followed his directions. The scouts knee what to look for. When Tomlin took over, he may not have had as much say as Cowher but he still had quite a bit. Tomlin appeared to go more with his gut than data. I don't think the scouts knew what he wanted.

The good news is that it seems pretty clear to me that Tomlin's influence, at least in personnel, has been slashed to near zero. when Omar took over.

That's why you should be optimistic. There's a clear direction on building the team. There's discipline in sticking with a plan. They rebuilt the OL, then the DL and secondary. They will add the QB next year along with a WR and more depth on OL,

They added all these upgraded pieces and still added extra darft oicks, plus comp picks that will be awarded.

The ravens only won 1 playoff game last year. Do you deny they were contenders?

Even if you think the Steelers are going to be 1 and done in the wildcard, the roster turnaround is real.
 
NormalJake said:
Please share what has been going on with psu hierarchy which helped cause all of those loses for Franklin. Thank you.
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This is the thing with Franklin. He has had to fight a lot of behind the scenes battles. It actually started with Bill O'Brien. PSU was spoiled with paying Paterno almost nothing for a coach of his status. His legend was pretty much enough to recruit and he had a loyal staff that stayed put for years.

O'brien immediately complained that the facilities were not up to snuff and he did not have a budget to hire top assistants. The days of having guys like Fran Ganter and Tom Bradley stay for decades is done.

Franklin picked up those fights. The last Athletic Director, Sandty Barbor, was not good. She botched the roll out of NIL and Penn State lost guys purely because of money. I mean losing guys to Maryland, not Georgia or Ohio State.

Penn State hired a great AD, Pat Kraft, who is using the power of the huge alumni base. They upgraded facilities. they are upgrading the stadium, the NIL money is now sorted out. They are crushing it in all sports now. They just landed the top hockey prospect. He's already penciled in as the #1 pick in the NHL draft and PSU got him.
 
steelhurt said:
Not expecting much this season. I’m not being pessimistic and I’m certainly not optimistic about this season, I just don’t see a recipe for success here.
My analogy of it is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Signing a very old QB that no one wanted, still having no clear cut #2 WR, an unproven running game, a work in process OL, but hay, he have lots of TEs. What could possibly go wrong?
Still for the fourth consecutive year have the highest paid defense but we saw how the highest paid defense played the last five games last year.
Two coordinators that do nothing for me and it’s all tied together by Mike Tomlin.
This thing could go off the rails quickly this season. Then it would become very interesting.
The Steeler culture, the aura, the Steeler way, all gone now.
Been watching and following since early 60’s and believe me when I tell you…. It’s bad again!
Click to expand...
So, is the glass "half full" or "half empty"???
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
The ravens only won 1 playoff game last year. Do you deny they were contenders?

Even if you think the Steelers are going to be 1 and done in the wildcard, the roster turnaround is real.
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The Ravens beat the sorriest team in the playoffs with a HC that brought an asinine gameplan to the “contest” handing them an ez out.

As long as Lamar is their QB I don’t consider them a true contender…just another pretender.

A good enough pretender to make the same old sorry *** Steelers look like clowns, but that’s the extent of the damage they can do when it matters.

The roster turnover has been real. Sadly it’s been super glued and duct taped together with dinosaurs and will need it again next year, which Omar has proven willing to do. They made a lot of moves to slightly upgrade the squad and remain in contention for another Tomlinship. Unless A Rodgers has dipped into the fountain of youth and has a miracle season this squad looks very likely to achieve the same result of the past several years.

That’s a huge leap of faith to take. Hope he proves me wrong but I’d be shocked to see this team make any real waves and become a true contender for at least 2-3 more years. There is a lot of work to do to reach that level imo.

But who knows, maybe all the other teams will get food poisoning and we can outrun their sick ***** as the bear feasts on them. Anything can happen but I’d say missing the playoffs is equally as likely as squeezing out 1 desperate WC victory to break the streak. To me, that is not a contender. Hope I’m singing a different tune when the dust settles.
 
The Ravens lost by two on the road to Buffalo and the year before they lost by 7 to the Chiefs in the AFCCG, Baltimore ran for 300 yards on us, I don't think Lamar is a pure enough passer for them to win a Super Bowl, but they are right there with a chance to win their playoff games.

Tomlin interviewed the GM candidates, he still has more say than anyone else in that room, no doubt.
 
NormalJake said:
Please share what has been going on with psu hierarchy which helped cause all of those loses for Franklin. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Not going to get into very specific details here, but I will say that the new president of the university, Neeli Bendapudi, is much more football-friendly than her predecessor, whom she replaced in 2022. Penn State's new athletic director, Pat Kraft, also came on board in 2022. He is an excellent AD with a modern approach to department spending, recruiting, the importance of NIL in today's current landscape, and most other areas of his job. These two important people work very well together, and they are a positive influence on the football program. I feel that Franklin was handicapped for years by an out-of-touch administration who were living in the past. He will continue to benefit from and build upon the newfound support, and I believe that his record against the best opponents will likely improve drastically moving forward.

You're welcome.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
You are not allowed to use any context at all with James Franklin. If they did beat ND, then they'd say that wasn't a big win either if they lost in the championship.
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His record is what it is. There's no denying it. Like I said, I was upset about it too. But now that I understand the overall situation so much better, I'm willing to support James and have confidence that he will prove his doubters wrong.
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
Tomlin drives me nuts too. Colbert was hired to work with the coach, Cowher. He followed his directions. The scouts knee what to look for. When Tomlin took over, he may not have had as much say as Cowher but he still had quite a bit. Tomlin appeared to go more with his gut than data. I don't think the scouts knew what he wanted.

The good news is that it seems pretty clear to me that Tomlin's influence, at least in personnel, has been slashed to near zero. when Omar took over.

That's why you should be optimistic. There's a clear direction on building the team. There's discipline in sticking with a plan. They rebuilt the OL, then the DL and secondary. They will add the QB next year along with a WR and more depth on OL,

They added all these upgraded pieces and still added extra darft oicks, plus comp picks that will be awarded.

The ravens only won 1 playoff game last year. Do you deny they were contenders?

Even if you think the Steelers are going to be 1 and done in the wildcard, the roster turnaround is real.
Click to expand...
Tomlin had massive influence in acquiring Wilson and Rodgers.

As has been said already he interviewed Kahn. He claims firing Canada and inserting Wilson over Fields mid season was 100% his decision.

He’s the biggest and most influential figure in any football decision, including personnel, and owns the putrid playoff results
 
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