Last Year:
After a season where Pittsburgh went to the AFC Championship game, and the words Kordell Stewart and MVP were mistakenly used in the same sentence, the Steelers morphed into a completely different team in 2002. Kordell led Pittsburgh to its first two losses of 2002, and almost its third before being yanked out of the game just in time. In came Tommy Maddox, and as he led the Steelers to a season saving win at home against Cleveland in week 4, Slash was forgotten like Pogs. The Steelers immediately changed from a run the ball and play tough defense team to an offensive juggernaut, scoring less than 20 points only twice out of the remaining 14 weeks. With Tommy Maddox at the helm and an emerged prolific offense, Pittsburgh will now try to win the Super Bowl the other way, offensively.
What we learned from Last Year:
The most important thing to learn about this team is that they are no longer a defensive team. They never really were, but I?ll get to that in a second. It might be easy to understand why a team like the Steelers became so good offensively all of the sudden, but what happened to their defense? First off, when Tommy Maddox came in last year, he just seemed to be a better fit for the offense. He seemed to be far more consistent than Special K, and was more accurate. What made this offense so strong though was that they started to pass the ball far more than they ran it, mostly due to the Jerome Bettis injury. Offensive Coordinator Mike Mularkey should be given most of the credit. The work that he has done for this offense should not go un-noticed. From trying to work out a system where Kordell could/did succeed, to a system where your backup now has to succeed to an offensive scheme that doesn?t involve one of your best offensive weapons anymore (Jerome Bettis). After all of that, their offense is better than it was. Mularkey implemented a system which would spread out the defense, and then pass the ball. With weapons such as Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, Antawn Randel-El, and even Amos Zeroue, this is a tough team to stop. When these guys are all on the field, it influences the defence to avoid double teams. These receivers are hard enough to tackle as it is, but now with single coverage it opens up many more big play opportunities.
So now that they are scoring points consistently, what has happened to their defense? The defense on this team is not very good to begin with and it never was. This defense is based on their line-backing corps, which happens to be the best in the league. Besides that, they are very thin at every position. So if they were bad before, and they are bad now, why did they used to look so good? Well Pittsburgh used to play a score enough points/ball control offense. When they played like that, teams would try to run the ball against them, which wouldn?t work with their great linebackers. Normally when the run wouldn?t work, the offenses Pittsburgh faced would be put in longer third down situations, which was more manageable. Now, with Pittsburgh?s offense scoring points at will, the opposing teams are constantly in need of points themselves. Therefore they avoid the run, and just go straight to passing which takes these linebackers right out of the game. Dewayne Washington and Chad Scott are barely above average, and their nickel and dime defensive backs can get burned all day long. The safeties are also nothing to write home about. The only time this team gets pressure on the QB is when they blitz linebackers. Clearly since they are in a 3 ? 4 scheme, they do that quite often, but I would expect even more blitzes this year. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, if teams use 3, 4 or 5 receiver sets against them, it really erases the forte of these linebackers, and therefore the defense.
What has changed?:
If you still don?t think Pittsburgh needs help defensively, take a look at their draft. The first three picks were used on a strong safety, a defensive end, and a cornerback which shows that they themselves believe that the defense is the weak link. Don?t expect the draft picks to have major impacts on the defense.
The biggest change on this team will be the return of Jerome Bettis. It?s going to be interesting to see how he will fit in on this new look offense. He will be good for more than a few carries, but he won?t see much action on third down passing plays. He is also coming back from a knee injury which will be the biggest preliminary concern. This offense is no longer based around him. Can he still be effective with about 5 ? 10 less carries than he used to get? Will Mularkey find a way for him to be involved more without tinkering too much with this offense? I get the feeling that Bettis will slowly be phased out similar to Stephen Davis in Washington. This offense would benefit from a quicker running back who can catch the ball out of the backfield more than it would from a bruising back like Jerome Bettis. I don?t think Jerome will like his diminished role. Either way don?t expect this offense to falter too much with or without him.
One minor thing to notice was at times Tommy Maddox would throw bad interceptions. When you are passing so much, it can be expected. Most of the time, the team seemed to recover from it, but it is just something to keep an eye on.
This team has changed overnight, and they will be in a lot of high scoring games but in all honesty, they should be more successful this way.
O/U 9.5:
This one looks easy doesn?t it? Maybe a little too easy. For a team that won 10 games last year, and had a fairly easy season after Kordell?s early slip up, you?d think 10 games again this year wouldn?t be out of the question. The schedule doesn?t look much tougher, and along with other teams in their division Pittsburgh should improve. Their division games will be key if they want to win ten games again this year. A split with Baltimore, a split with Cleveland and even a split with Cincy is foreseeable. Cincy may be able to pull out one of the two shootouts. That leaves them needing 7 wins out of their remaining games: @Chiefs, Titans, @Broncos, Rams, @Seahawks, Cardinals, @49ers, Raiders, @Jets, and Chargers. There are a couple of tough outings for this team, but they are still one of the league?s better teams. They should be right around ten wins this year, depending on how they do in their own neighborhood.
Fantasy Sleeper:
This offense should be a fantasy owners dream. They will be passing a lot; they will generate high scoring games, which in turn means high statistics for the players involved. Burress will be the first man taken off this offense, and Hines Ward should follow. If some people think that there is still a QB controversy brewing you should let Maddox drop, and pick him up in a later round. The quietest guy on this offense is ?famous? Amos Zeroue. He might be a steal with one of your last picks in the pool simply because he could be in line for a big year. He should tally a lot of receiving yards, and he also should steal a few more carries away from Bettis, especially if he doesn?t fully recover from his injury. I would advise against drafting Jerome Bettis, as his numbers will suffer in this pass happy offense.
After a season where Pittsburgh went to the AFC Championship game, and the words Kordell Stewart and MVP were mistakenly used in the same sentence, the Steelers morphed into a completely different team in 2002. Kordell led Pittsburgh to its first two losses of 2002, and almost its third before being yanked out of the game just in time. In came Tommy Maddox, and as he led the Steelers to a season saving win at home against Cleveland in week 4, Slash was forgotten like Pogs. The Steelers immediately changed from a run the ball and play tough defense team to an offensive juggernaut, scoring less than 20 points only twice out of the remaining 14 weeks. With Tommy Maddox at the helm and an emerged prolific offense, Pittsburgh will now try to win the Super Bowl the other way, offensively.
What we learned from Last Year:
The most important thing to learn about this team is that they are no longer a defensive team. They never really were, but I?ll get to that in a second. It might be easy to understand why a team like the Steelers became so good offensively all of the sudden, but what happened to their defense? First off, when Tommy Maddox came in last year, he just seemed to be a better fit for the offense. He seemed to be far more consistent than Special K, and was more accurate. What made this offense so strong though was that they started to pass the ball far more than they ran it, mostly due to the Jerome Bettis injury. Offensive Coordinator Mike Mularkey should be given most of the credit. The work that he has done for this offense should not go un-noticed. From trying to work out a system where Kordell could/did succeed, to a system where your backup now has to succeed to an offensive scheme that doesn?t involve one of your best offensive weapons anymore (Jerome Bettis). After all of that, their offense is better than it was. Mularkey implemented a system which would spread out the defense, and then pass the ball. With weapons such as Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, Antawn Randel-El, and even Amos Zeroue, this is a tough team to stop. When these guys are all on the field, it influences the defence to avoid double teams. These receivers are hard enough to tackle as it is, but now with single coverage it opens up many more big play opportunities.
So now that they are scoring points consistently, what has happened to their defense? The defense on this team is not very good to begin with and it never was. This defense is based on their line-backing corps, which happens to be the best in the league. Besides that, they are very thin at every position. So if they were bad before, and they are bad now, why did they used to look so good? Well Pittsburgh used to play a score enough points/ball control offense. When they played like that, teams would try to run the ball against them, which wouldn?t work with their great linebackers. Normally when the run wouldn?t work, the offenses Pittsburgh faced would be put in longer third down situations, which was more manageable. Now, with Pittsburgh?s offense scoring points at will, the opposing teams are constantly in need of points themselves. Therefore they avoid the run, and just go straight to passing which takes these linebackers right out of the game. Dewayne Washington and Chad Scott are barely above average, and their nickel and dime defensive backs can get burned all day long. The safeties are also nothing to write home about. The only time this team gets pressure on the QB is when they blitz linebackers. Clearly since they are in a 3 ? 4 scheme, they do that quite often, but I would expect even more blitzes this year. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, if teams use 3, 4 or 5 receiver sets against them, it really erases the forte of these linebackers, and therefore the defense.
What has changed?:
If you still don?t think Pittsburgh needs help defensively, take a look at their draft. The first three picks were used on a strong safety, a defensive end, and a cornerback which shows that they themselves believe that the defense is the weak link. Don?t expect the draft picks to have major impacts on the defense.
The biggest change on this team will be the return of Jerome Bettis. It?s going to be interesting to see how he will fit in on this new look offense. He will be good for more than a few carries, but he won?t see much action on third down passing plays. He is also coming back from a knee injury which will be the biggest preliminary concern. This offense is no longer based around him. Can he still be effective with about 5 ? 10 less carries than he used to get? Will Mularkey find a way for him to be involved more without tinkering too much with this offense? I get the feeling that Bettis will slowly be phased out similar to Stephen Davis in Washington. This offense would benefit from a quicker running back who can catch the ball out of the backfield more than it would from a bruising back like Jerome Bettis. I don?t think Jerome will like his diminished role. Either way don?t expect this offense to falter too much with or without him.
One minor thing to notice was at times Tommy Maddox would throw bad interceptions. When you are passing so much, it can be expected. Most of the time, the team seemed to recover from it, but it is just something to keep an eye on.
This team has changed overnight, and they will be in a lot of high scoring games but in all honesty, they should be more successful this way.
O/U 9.5:
This one looks easy doesn?t it? Maybe a little too easy. For a team that won 10 games last year, and had a fairly easy season after Kordell?s early slip up, you?d think 10 games again this year wouldn?t be out of the question. The schedule doesn?t look much tougher, and along with other teams in their division Pittsburgh should improve. Their division games will be key if they want to win ten games again this year. A split with Baltimore, a split with Cleveland and even a split with Cincy is foreseeable. Cincy may be able to pull out one of the two shootouts. That leaves them needing 7 wins out of their remaining games: @Chiefs, Titans, @Broncos, Rams, @Seahawks, Cardinals, @49ers, Raiders, @Jets, and Chargers. There are a couple of tough outings for this team, but they are still one of the league?s better teams. They should be right around ten wins this year, depending on how they do in their own neighborhood.
Fantasy Sleeper:
This offense should be a fantasy owners dream. They will be passing a lot; they will generate high scoring games, which in turn means high statistics for the players involved. Burress will be the first man taken off this offense, and Hines Ward should follow. If some people think that there is still a QB controversy brewing you should let Maddox drop, and pick him up in a later round. The quietest guy on this offense is ?famous? Amos Zeroue. He might be a steal with one of your last picks in the pool simply because he could be in line for a big year. He should tally a lot of receiving yards, and he also should steal a few more carries away from Bettis, especially if he doesn?t fully recover from his injury. I would advise against drafting Jerome Bettis, as his numbers will suffer in this pass happy offense.
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