Pittsburgh Steelers Official 2013 Offseason Thread

[BigBenhotness]

Well, I'm happy.

The bogus non-calls on plenty of Ravens defensive holds will have some people questioning this championship. I personally think it always happens to every team and it's not worth complaining about, but whatever.

We're still the only team with 6 Super Bowls.

Flacco's price tag just went to ridiculous heights. Either they can't retain him or they have to release some guys to keep him. And he's not worth that price at all, and probably won't be able to handle being the reigning champion.

Lewis already announced the retirement. Reed, Birk may follow. I would say Boldin but he had a ridiculous postseason, he can still play.

Maybe they'll be given The Steelers Treatment of '09-'12. "This AFC North team has had their time in the sun, now it's the next team up!" Even if it's the Bengals, at least they won't be all over the Ravens' dick anymore.

Just spinning positives out of this. I consider this Ravens' championship to be the lesser of two evils if the 49ers have won.

I was going for frisco...hate the Ravens but they deserved. Flacco got mvp...Ben never did. Flacco has played amazing...hate to say that. oh well congrats to them, give us 2 years we will be back.

[hineswardfan]

Arians is the type of guy who'd be a great head coach but the league's worst offensive coordinator. Obviously the players loved playing for him and he motivated them really well, but he couldn't call a play to save his life. No one here has said it and I'm happy, but there will always be those idiots that say "We fired the coach of the year! We suck!" No, if he had been retained he would have been just as bad and so would the offense. I wish him all the luck in Arizona.

That guy that OCed for the Ravens last year was pretty bad too. I'd take Arians over him.

[CubbieSteve]

If the Ravens cut Boldin to clear cap room, I'm down to sign him on a two year deal.

And please give Flacco $20 mil a year Baltimore. ****ing do it.

[Polamalu43322]

Joe Flacco= SuperBowl winning quarterback. He's not mediocre.. He's simply awesome. Wow. Never would I of thought, I'd say that ****.

Watch out NFL

[BigBenhotness]

Joe Flacco= SuperBowl winning quarterback. He's not mediocre.. He's simply awesome. Wow. Never would I of thought, I'd say that ****.

Watch out NFL

tell me about it. It's like flacco said F you to everyone and shut us up.

[SenecaValley46]

Stil not scared of Flacco. I could careless if the Ravens give him 20 million a year or decide to develop a new qb. Either way theyre screwed.

[hineswardfan]

Stil not scared of Flacco. I could careless if the Ravens give him 20 million a year or decide to develop a new qb. Either way theyre screwed.

Yeah they need to recede back to the shadows and allow us to step back up haha. Silly Ratbirds.

[SteelBlitz]

Many Steelers fans are under some kind of assumption that the Steelers are a terrible team and need to make wholesale changes just to get back to the playoffs next year, I for one disagree.

The Steelers were without James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, LaMarr Woodley, Ike Taylor, Ben Roethlisberger, Rashard Mendenhall, Ryan Clark, Mike Wallace, Marcus Gilbert, Antonio Brown, Willie Colon, Heath Miller, Keenan Lewis, as well as their first and second round picks David DeCastro and Mike Adams for at least one game each. That's not even a list of everyone they lost to injury just a list of the most important players they lost and I may have missed a couple. The 2012 season was full of injuries and those injuries never allowed the team to get on a roll. Right when Ben was about to come back and it looked like we were getting healthy at the right time we suffered more O-line injuries and Ike Taylor was lost for the rest of the season. The loss of Taylor ruined what the defense could do and changed the out come of at least two games.

The second part of this is that many fans don't realize just how screwed the Ravens are this off-season. They are about to lose their team's heart and soul. They may also lose the next biggest piece of their team in Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, who is expected by many to leave in free agency. Matt Birk may decide to go out on top, he'd be 37 next season, and Joe Flacco just earned himself a huge deal. Flacco is expected to make $20 million a year which also means the Ravens are looking at salary cap hell this off-season.

They also have Cary Williams, one of their best corners, and Paul Kruger both as free agents. Ed Reed is a free agent and will demand good money on the open market. Dannell Ellerbe is a free agent and played very well at middle linebacker. They have one of the biggest lists of 2013 free agents in the NFL and once they sign all of their restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents as well as Joe Flacco they will need to make salary cap cuts just to get under far enough to sign their draft and fill their 2014 roster.

In 2012 the Ravens only lost one game that Lewis played in. I know he wasn't the same player, but his leadership was what kept this team together. If the Ravens lose Lewis, Reed, Williams, Ellerbe, and Kruger off of their defense they will be hurting in 2013 and they weren't even as dominant a group as in the past in 2012.

I think the Ravens are a good candidate to be the next team to win the Super Bowl and fail to make the playoffs the next season which is good for us.

Now back to the Steelers I think there is a player that played last night that the Steelers need to take a serious look at in free agency. Dannell Ellerbe was one of the best defenders on the Ravens defense down the stretch if you were watching their games, but he got overshadowed because Ray Lewis jumped on top of every tackle he made which meant he got credit as well. Ellerbe has only been in the league four years and has only started 14 games, but anyone who watched him down the stretch can see that he has the ability to be a very good middle linebacker.

If Ellerbe isn't looking for too much money in free agency I would definitely go after him and put him next to Timmons. That would also free up a position that the Steelers would have to worry about in the draft.


Other free agents that the Steelers should consider depending on price tag:

Delanie Walker
Tedd Ginn Jr.
Reggie Bush
Felix Jones
Erin Henderson

[ring91013144043]

I was going for frisco...hate the Ravens but they deserved. Flacco got mvp...Ben never did. Flacco has played amazing...hate to say that. oh well congrats to them, give us 2 years we will be back.

Ben could have easily won in 2008. He was better than Peyton Manning's "MVP" performance against the Bears two years earlier. He was just as good as Eli's "MVP" performance over the undefeated Patriots the previous year. But unlike the Colts and Giants, who didn't give it to Dominic Rhodes or Justin Tuck respectively, the Steelers gave it to the #1 deserving player rather than lazily throwing it at the quarterback. And now us fans are paying the price because some idiots don't watch the games, only look up on wikipedia who facts about the game, and say crap like "Eli won two MVPs, Ben won zero, Eli's better," and now crap like "Flacco won one, Ben has zero."

Flacco did deserve it. I can't believe people are impressed by his "heave and pray" offense that requires the defensive backs to be in man coverage watching the receiver, who stops the route and comes back to the significantly underthrown ball. But it worked and Flacco deserved this MVP award.

That guy that OCed for the Ravens last year was pretty bad too. I'd take Arians over him.

My issue with Arians wasn't how well or poorly the offense moved. It moved fine enough. Not as well as Haley's when Ben was healthy and Mike Adams was starting, but fine enough. My issue is that it was his system that was getting Roethlisberger killed. Now under Haley Ben had 30 sacks in 13 games, which adds up to 37 sacks in a 16 game season. Less than literally every single year Arians was our OC, his low was 40 in 15 games in 2011. Before the injury, Ben was on pace for just 32 sacks.

I'd take Cam Cameron over Arians. His issue was refusing to give Ray Rice the ball, even late in the game when they had to run the clock. Not running the ball would not be a big deal for us, but it was for the Ravens where Rice was their best player.

[warfelg]

My feelings on last night:

I'm contesting the Niners got robbed. And not just the call at the end. I don't think there was a single holding call all night. And there were a few times when I thought Flacco was about to go down just the mysteriously see the Niner defender slow down.

Also: Boldin was their MVA not Flacco. He bailed out Flacco with 3 or 4 catches on passes Flacco had no business throwing, most notably the big 3rd down when Flacco heaved it while running out of bounds. And it brings up part of what I hate about Flacco. If Ben threw that and AB or Wallace made that catch it would have been an amazing play by the WR. Heck I think if any QB other than Rodgers and Flacco threw that it would be deemed and amazing WR play. But when Flacco throws the stupidest pass seen to mankind, it's deemed 'the greatest play by a qb'. Seriously, these announcers need to get off their knees and wipe Flacco's man juices off their chins.

Going forward:

What ever. Now a team $8 million over the cap has to cut and restructure enough players to sign Flacco to a $20 million sinkhole. I wouldn't be surprised to see them loose most the linebackers (I think along with RayRay retiring, Ellenby is a FA and so is Kruger), Reed, and its been mentioned: Bolden. Haha they have to gut their team for a barely above average QB.

On top of that they have sunk a lot of money into their O-Line, which if McKinney and Birk are gone....is in trouble. Outside of Ngata that D-Line is terribly average, dipicted by how the Niners gashed the Ravens after he went out. If Reed really is gone, the Ravens are very prone to giving up a big play. Pollard was out of positions really often, he's just lucky that the CB's got away with defensive holding.

Personally I think us and the Bengals are better set going forward. The Bengals have the young players in place, and the problem is keeping them all. We're young and have most players (at least on offense) locked up, and it's just a matter of staying healthy. The Browns are....well the Browns. And the Ravens are very old and in cap hell more than us.

[ring91013144043]

The second part of this is that many fans don't realize just how screwed the Ravens are this off-season. They are about to lose their team's heart and soul. They may also lose the next biggest piece of their team in Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, who is expected by many to leave in free agency. Matt Birk may decide to go out on top, he'd be 37 next season, and Joe Flacco just earned himself a huge deal. Flacco is expected to make $20 million a year which also means the Ravens are looking at salary cap hell this off-season.

They also have Cary Williams, one of their best corners, and Paul Kruger both as free agents. Ed Reed is a free agent and will demand good money on the open market. Dannell Ellerbe is a free agent and played very well at middle linebacker. They have one of the biggest lists of 2013 free agents in the NFL and once they sign all of their restricted free agents and exclusive rights free agents as well as Joe Flacco they will need to make salary cap cuts just to get under far enough to sign their draft and fill their 2014 roster.

In 2012 the Ravens only lost one game that Lewis played in. I know he wasn't the same player, but his leadership was what kept this team together. If the Ravens lose Lewis, Reed, Williams, Ellerbe, and Kruger off of their defense they will be hurting in 2013 and they weren't even as dominant a group as in the past in 2012.

I think the Ravens are a good candidate to be the next team to win the Super Bowl and fail to make the playoffs the next season which is good for us.

Now back to the Steelers I think there is a player that played last night that the Steelers need to take a serious look at in free agency. Dannell Ellerbe was one of the best defenders on the Ravens defense down the stretch if you were watching their games, but he got overshadowed because Ray Lewis jumped on top of every tackle he made which meant he got credit as well. Ellerbe has only been in the league four years and has only started 14 games, but anyone who watched him down the stretch can see that he has the ability to be a very good middle linebacker.

If Ellerbe isn't looking for too much money in free agency I would definitely go after him and put him next to Timmons. That would also free up a position that the Steelers would have to worry about in the draft.

This is exactly why I was rooting for the Ravens. Flacco earned his money. They won't be able to re-sign him, Reed, Kruger, Ellerbe, Cary Williams, etc. They'll lose at least two of those, probably three.

What you say about Ellerbe is really interesting, but obviously at the right price. We have to work on keeping Keenan Lewis before anything else.

As for what you said about us, the Steelers, I also agree. People were saying the same thing after the 2009 season, except leading up to 2010 was even more tumultuous than it is now, leading up to 2013. Roethlisberger suspended, Holmes traded away, but look how that turned out. We got to the Super Bowl.

[Polamalu43322]

I'm going to laugh, when their able to re structure and bring a lot of those main FAs back to their team. SF got ****ing manhandled last night by the oldest team in the league. Haha. Wow. RatFags completely deserved this win. Hopefully now, as many of you smart Steeler fans in here, say, that this can only cripple them. I hope it does.

I hope they lose all of those players.

We belong on top.

STAIRWAY TO SEVEN! starts now

[BigBenhotness]

@ring and warfelg.....Thanks for slapping me back to reality.
I guess I am done slurping on Flacco's man juices...Ravens were went to win. Media was going crazy with the whole Ray Lewis thing. You guys were right to say it helps us...cause it really does. I just can't stand them lol. Still, we have a lot to look forward to this upcoming year. Please...we need a good line like they had...Ben can be even more so amazing. How dare I diss Ben, he is my absolute favorite and I dissed him subjectively..how dare me.
You guys are right...there were so many plays Flacco heaved and prayed and just really got lucky...dropped int passes, spectacular WR catches, PI calls to keep the chains going. IT REALLY WAS THEIR YEAR. Congrats to them, now we need to reclaim whats ours.

[warfelg]

LOL I wasn't trying to snap anyone back to reality. I was *****ing at how lucky they got, then laughing cuz Ozzim is a dumbass and put them in a no win situation.

In a related note: I want us to find a way to get the Eagles cap guy. They always have so much space to sign free agents. Not that we would use it, but would help us stay better longer by having the flexibility.

[hineswardfan]

My issue with Arians wasn't how well or poorly the offense moved. It moved fine enough. Not as well as Haley's when Ben was healthy and Mike Adams was starting, but fine enough. My issue is that it was his system that was getting Roethlisberger killed. Now under Haley Ben had 30 sacks in 13 games, which adds up to 37 sacks in a 16 game season. Less than literally every single year Arians was our OC, his low was 40 in 15 games in 2011. Before the injury, Ben was on pace for just 32 sacks.

I'd take Cam Cameron over Arians. His issue was refusing to give Ray Rice the ball, even late in the game when they had to run the clock. Not running the ball would not be a big deal for us, but it was for the Ravens where Rice was their best player.

Yeah I agree completely man.