There’s been more than one article since the draft about the importance now of the Steelers re-signing CB Ike Taylor. There’s no doubt about it, with the team not spending one of their two top draft picks on a corner, the inking of Taylor to a new deal becomes ever so important if the Steelers are going to make another Super Bowl run in 2011.
Here’s some of what James Walker at ESPN has to say about re-inking Taylor:
If Taylor is re-signed, this would help the transition of the younger corners. Similar to last year, Taylor and Bryant McFadden would be the starters for the Steelers, while young corners like Brown, Allen, Crezdon Butler and Keenan Lewis can compete for backup roles.
But the going rate for free-agent cornerbacks are extremely high this offseason. Oakland Raiders corner Stanford Routt recently signed a deal averaging $10 million per season, which could set the market for free agents like Taylor and Johnathan Joseph of the Cincinnati Bengals.
With those kind numbers being thrown around, there’s no guarantee Taylor will return to the Steelers. If that’s the case, one of Pittsburgh’s inexperienced corners might have to step up into a starting role in 2011.
The Steelers are usually not big name players on the free agent market unless those players belong to them. Brent Grimes of the Falcons and Richard Marshall of Carolina are two players that the Steelers could and should take long looks at, but at the end of the day it comes down to this – Taylor is the best fit for the Steelers as their #1 CB in 2011.
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DrGeorge
May 3, 2011 at 9:16 am
Taylor will almost certainly be resigned; that was the implicit message in our draft strategy in not trading up for a blue-chip CB. Barring injury to our veterans, draftees Brown and Allen have zero chance of starting, Butler has not earned playing time as a CB, Gay struggled so badly at that position we resigned McFadden, and Lewis is better suited physically to Safety than CB. Ergo, the Steelers will keep Taylor, even if they have to over-pay for him.
However, the Steelers ought to look at any quality CB available when free agency returns to find a replace for McFadden, who has slowed a step and has frequent lapses in technique. His corner position remains the most glaring weakness of the defense. The Steelers secondary depends over much on zone defenses because we lack the speed to play man-to-man defense. We must be able to shut down short routes to give our pass rushers time to get to the QB. Opposing QBs now negate our blitzes by throwing under the zone. A faster CB would help to neutralize that strategy. (Replacing Farrior with a faster ILB on passing downs is the other part of that equation.)
Going from a 3-4 to a 2-4-5 alignment on passing downs, as some pundits have suggested, doesn’t solve the problem if you don’t have the talent to play it. LeBeau can work wonders to cover the deficiencies of one player, but he can’t cover simultaneous inadequacies at CB and ILB. Even average QBs exploited our secondary last year, making way too many long 3rd down conversions. We simply need better cover talent to make any formation work.
thor 53
May 4, 2011 at 1:41 pm
This shouldn’t even be an issue. Ike is due a fair salary for the work performed so far. Fair pay is meaningless if one only examines fair being paid the top salary amongst that skill position. Fair pay should be examined somewhat in gratitude for having the opportunity to making an exceptional pay by today’s work standards. Don’t misunderstand,Ike is a commodity that the Steelers need and I would like to see him with them for a long time. But Ike needed the Steelers when he first arrived here because as I remembered he was a project that the Steelers needed to bring along slowly. He was raw, as he was described, but tall, quick and agile. The Steelers took a chance to spend and invest time into developing into the quality player he is. Yes, he earned what he got from hard work but so did the Steelers. WOuld he have been given the same chance somewhere else or would he be in the country’s workforce doing jobs just as important if not more for much less earnings. Sometimes gratification should influence some decision making both ways not just one.