NFL Draft or Hey Gazoo!! your presence is requested

In My Humble Opinion
21

Kordell is horrible. Should have stayed at the “slash” position.

I like Bruener too, but as a receiving threat the only reason it ever works is because no one expects him to go out on a pattern since he’s so damn slow. If they start trying to send him more often, teams will key on it and, well, Gilbert Brown would have a good chance of keeping up with him.

Yeah, Burris and Edwards have potential. A nice combo of speed and size between them. But until a real QB comes in they won’t get a chance. It would also be nice to have an allstar or former allstar WR to work with them. And I ain’t referring to Yancey.

22

The Steelers would need to add some serious offensive weapons to finish higher than third in the AFC Central. Kordell won’t cut it…sure, he looks great against the Bengals every year, but who doesn’t? They would need players of the caliber of Franco Harris and Lynn Swann to put up a double digit score on the Ravens. The Ravens haven’t lost anything on defense (other than Kim Herring, and Corey Harris is not much of a step down) and have upgraded at quarterback (no more Tony Banks, no more Trent Dilfer) and right tackle, added depth to their offensive line, picked up the best tight end in the draft to be groomed under Shannon Sharpe, and Travis Taylor is coming back after being injured. The Titans are also tough on defense and have Eddie George, who usually can run against anyone except the Ravens. The Jaguars are in disarray because of the salary cap. The Browns made some nice additions through the draft, but still have a pathetic running game and other gaping holes. The Bengals are clueless as usual. The Steelers need to smack around the weaker teams in the division and win at least half of their non-division games and they might get a wild card. Either that, or hope that the dominant teams in the division have a whole lot of injuries.

23

So, Gazoo, How about the World Champions? I think we had a great off season, and have to be the odds on favorite to win it all going into the season. Only move I didn’t like was picking up Gerbac. Sure, he put up great numbers last year, but he’s not much of a leader, has caused problems in the locker room before, and is kinda fragile. I would have stuck with Dilfer. He’s no Unitas, but he’s tougher than any QB except Farve, smart, and leads a team like nobody’s business. Y’all kept telling me to wait for Trent to blow up last year. Well, I’m still waiting, and I am not going to argue with 11-1 and a ring. Oh well, I feel better about it since we got Cunningham. He’s certainly capable of stepping in if Gerbac gets hurt. Redman is still kinda young.
mouthbreather,

Who’s this Kerdell? Are things so bad at QB that y’all are going with a Kordell impersonator??? :wink:

24

Agreed, but the Steelers are a weird team. They always play up or down to their opponents level Last year, We lost both games to the Titans by a combined score of 5 points. Both of those games could have gone either way. And need I remind everyone who the last team to beat the World Champion Ravens was (week 9)? I’ll give you 3 guesses. So we play well against the good teams – we also beat NYJ and Oakland. Then we go and stink things up – Lose to Cleveland and Jax. Anyway, I remain optimistic. Our division is tough, arguably the toughest in the NFL. We’ll see what happens.

Lest anyone think I don’t know how to spell the name of my own team’s [sub]cough[/sub] quarterback [sub]cough[/sub], I was using the Pittsburgh phonetic spelling. Y’know – as in “Yinz goin dahn to da new stadium ta see Kerdell play? Dem Stillers iss gonna be tuff dis year”.

Anywho. Is it September yet? I’m ready for some football!

25

I don’t know the odds, but if he maintains the success ratio he’s had with his other defensive picks, those five guys just received the Denny Green Big, Fat, Kiss of Death.

The picks he’s made on offense have worked out pretty well. His defensive players, well, can you say “Demetrius Underwear?”

26

I really hate to say this, but the Ravens have upgraded during the off-season. Grbac is a better QB than Dilfer in every facet.

[anti Dilfer rant] Don’t give me Dilfer’s toughness - why did he leave the field in the Superbowl with an injury to his non-throwing hand if he’s so tough? And he did make plenty of errors during the year, but the defense saved his sorry ass. Dilfer wasn’t 11-1, the defense was. [/anti Dilfer rant]

Cunningham provides a stable backup, and Redman will be their QB for many years once he learns the pro game.

Their only loss of consequence, IMHO, is Priest Holmes, who could both start, or spell Lewis when necessary.

I don’t know if they can repeat, but they have to be the favorite in the AFC at this point.

mouthbreather - That would be one hell of an argument to try to say the AFC Central is the toughest in the league. Hell, they may be the weakest in the AFC this year. They have the Titans and the Ravens which are premier teams. Then, an average Steeler team, the fading fast Jags, and the pathetic Browns and Bungles.

The East has the Jets, Dolphins, Bills, and Colts - all good teams, and if the Patriots could get an O-line and a RB they’d be right there. The West has the Raiders, Broncos, and two vastly improved (on paper anyway) teams in the Seahawks and Chiefs. And don’t be surprised to see the Chargers win 6 or 7 games this year.

27

He was back the next series. And he did exactly what Brian Billick asked him to do-play conservative and not make mistakes. Make no mistake, his Tampa days are behind him. Whoever gets him is gonna make out like a bandit.

28

Gazoo –

How do you think the Titans would have done in the SB against either of the final 2 NFC teams last year?

29

They would have beat the Giants. Hard to say with the Vikings, but they probably would’ve beaten them as well.

30

I agree. Thats all I was saying with the division toughness. Yes, there is a greater balance of tougher teams in other divisions, But having the 1-2 teams in the NFL in your division is no picnic.

31

Whoever won the Ravens-Titans game was going to win the Super Bowl. Also, the Raiders probably would have beaten either NFC team. The Titans manhandled the Giants earlier in the year, and the porous Vikings defense could not have stopped Eddie George. Also, the Vikings had been stumbling, losing their last three games of the regular season before knocking out an injury depleted Saints team at home in the playoffs.

The two most important things to do in the NFL:

  1. Establish your running game.
  2. Don’t let the other team get anywhere with the run.

Last year, there were two teams that blew out the Giants. Those two teams (Ravens and Titans) were also the only two teams to have a 100 yard rusher against the Giants last year. Although both the Ravens and Titans had dominant, suffocating defenses, the one thing that really made the Ravens the most dominant in the league was that no one could establish the run against them. This is especially impressive since everyone in the AFC Central had a strong running game except the Browns. Consider:

Leading team in NFL rushing yardage: the Raiders, and Tyrone Wheatley had 12 rushes for 7 yards against the Ravens, backup QB Bobby Hoying led the Raiders with 10 rushing yards

The Broncos, with 1500 yard rusher and rookie of the year Mike Anderson, who had 15 rushes for 40 yards against the Ravens

Jerome Bettis, 11 rushes for 23 yards against the Ravens at Three Rivers (and I’ll give the Steelers credit for the win at PSINet, but also remember that Tony Banks was still the Ravens QB)

Corey Dillon, who ran for an NFL record 278 yards against the Broncos and had another 200 yard game last year, was so frustrated by the Ravens defense that he refused to go back on the field late in the fourth quarter of a blowout loss, the Bengals had 4 yards rushing that day

Running backs the Ravens have faced in the 37 consecutive games they have not allowed a 100 yard rusher: Barry Sanders, Eddie George, Emmitt Smith, Dillon, Bettis, Fred Taylor, Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Anderson, Wheatley, etc.

32

Y’know, Philosophocles, I like you. To be fair, tho, the 9-6 loss to Pittsburg was Dilfer’s first game at QB. He didn’t lose another one all season.

Sorry, mouthbreather.

[sub] No, I’m not. Teehee![/sub]

33

heh. I actually am glad you’re enjoying yourself.
It probably won’t be this year, but when the Steelers do finish ahead of you beloved Ravens, I am gonna goad you so long and hard you will be ready to put a bullet in my head.

I will become UBERtroll. Stalking troll. Posting about your favorite song in IMHO? I’ll tell you about your team full of girl scouts. Posting about attending a dopefest in MPSIMS? I’ll tell you that Tony Siragusa (proabably spelled wrong, I don’t care to know the correct spelling) gives good head, but his mother is actually better. Asking a question in GQ about the speed of light? I’ll tell you how Art Modell cornholes little boys. Pontificating in GD about abortion? I’ll tell you about the affliction Ray Lewis has with barnyard animals. You will hate me. Even if you aren’t posting on the SDMB anymore, I will find you. I will picket outside your house and place of employment.

::rocks back in forth in corner:: “It won’t be long now…”

:slight_smile:

34

You saying the Redskins are gonna do well this year Dave? :wink: We got him.

35

Falcon, I bet he’ll be starting by week 8. So yea, y’all might do pretty well. :slight_smile:

36

Hell, we beat you last year… whistles

37

Sho’nuff. And we won the Super Bowl. gloats :smiley:

38

…Until the medicine the nice doctors gave you kicks in…

39

I would like to post one statement, when it comes to football - I love this game more than anything…I watched the ESPN Classics on the Colts tonight for crissake…I also love to argue about it…I enjoy arguing about it…we can go on and on about “my team is better than yours.” That’s part of why I love it. If I insult your team, or favorite player, it’s for my love of the best game ever. I konw that most people know this, but I wanna make sure that I’m not pissing people off here…