Here’s today’s inactives for the Steelers and Browns as Pittsburgh looks to avoid their second five-game losing streak in the head coaching regime of Mike Tomlin.
Steelers: RB DeAngelo Williams, QB Zach Mettenberger, S Shamarko Thomas, S Jordan Dangerfield, OT Brian Mihalik, TE Xavier Grimble, WR Darrius Heyward-Bey
Browns: QB Joe Callahan, QB Kevin Hogan, CB Tramon Williams, LB Corey Lemonier, OL Gabe Ikard, OL Jonathan Cooper, WR Jordan Payton
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Jay
November 20, 2016 at 2:32 pm
Hey, Doc George, just to piggy back off our conversation…if Dallas loses (the game I’m watching by the way, one is a real team and the other is coached by a real coach), how do you explain that with $$$$$???? Baltimore doesn’t have the QB we do, not the WRs or RBs, we even have a better offensive line. We have higher profile pics all over the defense than Baltimore too. Most trustworthy experts agree that Baltimore is an inferior team than Pittsburgh, so, could you explain on not only how they beat us, but how they would go into Dallas and beat the mighty cowboys?????
DrGeorge
November 21, 2016 at 11:57 am
Sure, Jay. First, for the record, Dallas won handily, beating the Ravens 27-17. Dak Prescott threw three TDs and is in the hunt for league MVP. He costs a lot less than Romo this year. However, he will demand big money next year, and Romo will be gone. But when Prescott makes mega-bucks, the Cowboys will suffer for it somewhere. The challenge for the coaches will be in covering up the vulnerabilities. Bill Belichick is superb at doing that.
Here’s another example: the announcers in the Seattle v. Eagles game last night discussed the effect of increasing Russell Wilson’s pay from $500,000 in the Super Bowl year to something approaching Ben R’s salary the year after. They made up the money by letting their expensive free agents on the O-line depart (using quality draft picks to replace them). But they kept all their defensive players. The inexperienced O-line nearly got Wilson killed, but, like the Steelers eight years ago, they came close to repeating the Super Bowl the following year. After that, they fell off a bit and they haven’t returned to SB form yet. The talent simply isn’t there.
As for the Ravens, their salary profile is almost as out of whack as the Steelers (see Spotrac.com/NFL for the proof). The Ravens have struggled against better teams ever since Flacco received his mega contract. But the Ravens are still competitive because four of the top five Ravens’ salaries are on the Defensive side of the ball. That’s how they beat the Steelers. Even in this era of basketball on grass, defense still wins games.
The Steelers did the opposite: they bet heavy on the offense and lost defensive talent. So we can put up plenty of points, but against the better teams, we can’t score points as fast as our defense gives them away. It isn’t that our defense isn’t playing hard; the guys are playing as well as they can; but the talent simply isn’t there. This past draft, by taking Burns, Davis, and Hargraves in the first three rounds, the Steelers tried to correct the imbalance. It will take at least one more draft, probably two, to fix the defense. In the process, a mega salary or two on the offense must be sacrificed. If we keep Ben R, then one or more of Pouncey, Moats, and D. Williams will probably go. It’s a high-stakes numbers game, and how teams allocate their payrolls is vital to their success. The other part of the equation is finding the most talent for the buck, and in that, the Steelers have been good, but not great.