BrianS

Defensive: Offensive: Any questions gang?

I'm genuinely curious here, not sure anyone knows . . . has an NFL ref *ever* been fired? Honest question.

I applaud the OP for playing devils advocate. I'm sure Tepper has reasons we don't see. The problem is his reasoning is flawed, and none of them outweigh the negatives. I honestly think he's been weighted down by his experiences with the Steelers. The fact of the matter is that the Steelers have been RIDICULOUSLY lucky in choosing their coaches over the last 40 years. Now Tepper is trying to emulate that "stick with your guy" philosophy. Unfortunately, Rhule is not Mike Tomlin. He is not Bill Cowher. He's certainly not Chuck Noll. As candidates, Noll and Cowher both played in the league. Meaning they had been around NFL coaching to see what it looked like first hand. All three of them had 8+ years of NFL coaching experience prior to taking over in Steel City. Once those guys took over, they won. Like, just WON. The Steelers haven't had a losing season since 2003. Our organization isn't comparable, nor is the situation. Instead of looking at the surface and saying that the Steelers stand by their coach, look deeper. The truth is that UNTIL they found Chuck Noll, the Steelers coaching history looks like any other NFL team. The Steelers didn't stick by Noll through thick and thin. Nor did they do it with any other coach. With Noll, he had a CLEAR, UPWARDS trajectory. 1-13, 5-9, 6-8, 11-3. They stuck by Noll because he won. They were somewhat tolerant at the end of his career because he had history of UNPRECEDENTED success there. Tepper is putting the cart before the horse. You become an organization that sticks by it's coach because you identify and hire a winner.

Third quarters are all about coaching. Halftime is your best opportunity to make adjustments that will improve your outcome. Halftime in your best opportunity to motivate players who may not be getting the job done. Our staff is the worst in the league at it, by a wide margin. For a team who has received a directive to become more analytics based, it sure seems like we have a blind spot to watching our own coaching performances.

Yes, that's a very, very valid concern. Working under the assumption Rhule is here next year, at the bare minimum he needs to be stripped of roster control. The GM reports to the owner, and only the owner. The owner needs to let the GM know that he is being judged based on a completely different set of criteria than Rhule. Fitts: "There's me doing my job, you doing yours. Your job is to coach the team I give you." If Rhule really truly believes "1000%" that it's working, then next year will be the year, regardless of what assets we spend or don't spend on the roster. Is he building a culture? Great. It should be in place now. Show us.

This is not unusual. You know the previous punter that Rhule brought in? Charlton? Yea, he never place kicked either . . . even in high school. Just a punter. If you've never kicked before, I really understand. It's the same thing right? Man, it could not be more different. Like, Deonte Brown under center different. Finally, a backup plan? Really? Neither of these kickers was even on our roster in week 1. Blackburn had his hands full getting two bottom of the barrel specialists to perform at an acceptable NFL level. WHICH HE DID. Where was the time to get either ready to do the other job? They were NOT GOOD when they arrived here, otherwise they would have been on a roster. This just reeks of "same old Rhule" looking for anyone to blame other than himself. He needs a "win" to make himself look good. That's all this was.

Can't help but notice no mention of Rhule. This is the guy who took Zane Gonzalez, who prior to joining the Panthers had a career field goal percentage of 78% . . . JOEY SLYE numbers . . . and turned him into a guy who made 90% of his kicks for us. He took a guy who had a career touchback percentage of 56% and helped him increase it to 63% without the benefit of an offseason to work on strength. But Blackburn was part of the problem. Ok.

Brady spent most of the day making sure Gronk got his bonus, which should have been falling on our LB's / Safeties for coverage. Jury still out on Henderson for me. Didn't hate the trade, but I'd like to see more consistency before I can get on board with saying it was a win for us.

Bear in mind with Christiansen that an unfortunately large percentage of his grades are based on games he was playing grossly out of position on the interior. I'd be curious to see his "tackle" grade if that were available.

Trouble is, it's not the greatest QB year. What's worse is that one of the top QB's in the draft has ties to Rhule already. What's even worse? I've watched Pickett and tried to hate him . . . but dammit he's actually a pretty good prospect.

How do you feel about Adam Gase as a coach? Just curious. Because in order for Matt Rhule to equal Gase's accomplishments in Miami, Rhule will need to go 15-2 next year. If our bar for success is that our coach is the equal to Adam Gase, we need to seriously raise our standards.

That's our coach.

Half a season. Before he was lost Luck was on course for his worst season as a pro. Luck was a far, far better player in 16 and 18 after Hamilton was elsewhere.

Is it possible we get to the playoffs next year? Yes, it's possible. There are some requirements. The main one is that the entire staff is removed and replaced with an actual NFL coaching staff. Given the events of today, do you see that happening? Yea, me either. If I can do that math, you can bet your (*&@ Cam Newton can do that math too. Cam Newton doesn't like winning. Nope. That's not even enough to describe him. Cam Newton despises losing. That's his motivation. It's not winning. And to see this team as anything less than a perennial loser with this staff in place is breaking out your old college beer goggles, your rose tinted glasses and dropping some LSD.

Sam Darnold? I wanna know why we continue to employ PJ Walker. There are 1000 PJ Walker's out there. At least Darnold was drafted. More than one team thought he might be good one day.

I wish someone had followed up that answer by asking "And your standards aren't as high as Cam's?"

Good numbers, love it. This is why I hate PSL's. It totally separates the team's on field success from it's ticket sales. Who cares if we win? We sold our tickets, we get our TV money, sheer inflation increases the value of the franchise. Winning is irrelevant.

Gase was very nearly .500 with the Dolphins. 23-25 overall. Rhule would need to go 13-4 next year to catch up in wins, and would still have a lower winning percentage.

These go to 11.

Where was this?

Better way to say it: Cam played 252 snaps, was involved in 9 TD's, or 1 TD every 28 snaps. Sam played 771 snaps, was involved in 14 TD's, or 1 TD every 55 snaps. Effectively, half as often. As a frame of reference, Dak Prescott led the top scoring offense in the league this year. He was involved in 1 TD every 27.947 snaps. Cam had no training camp. No offseason. No time to learn the playbook. No time to develop timing with WR's. What do the analytics say Matt?

So Miami fires a coach with two straight winning seasons, while playing the Patriots and Bills twice each season. I get that they also played the Jets, but still. Two straight winning seasons out of three seasons coached for a team that hasn't done that since 2002-2003. Fired. But Rhule remains. SMH.

I hear ya, but I can't quite reach ya. Rhule's sole year of NFL experience was as . . . an offensive line coach. The one job he seems to have bungled the most this year is the one he himself has the most pro experience with. When you start telling the press that your potential LT can't play there because his arms are too short . . . and then that guy drops three of the best grades on your team that season at the position? We can beat around the bush all we like, but it seems that every decision made on the offensive side of the ball this year has been the worst case scenario. It makes you wonder how at fault Joe Brady actually was.

"Deonte Brown isn't ready." I don't know what his grades looked like. He only played a few series. I noticed him twice. On the 4th down where Sam tried to sneak it left? Yea, Deonte moved his man back. Might not have gotten in the end zone, but he definitely got enough for a first. And then this time: The guy NOT getting pushed back into Sam's lap? Yea, that's Deonte again. Again, haven't seen his grades, he didn't play a bunch . . . but are you (*$@ing kidding me?

That's it? One QB who never progressed as a passer past what he accomplished in his first season? That's what it takes to be a good QB coach? Your standards for "good" seem far too low. Frankly, he's terrible. Cam's greatness came largely from Cam up until Norv and Scott showed up, by which time there were only 8 games left before his career effectively ended. Come on man, this isn't even remotely controversial. Shula is terrible.