Steelers Offensive Line is the New Kordell?

By Jeffrey Burton (the artist formerly know as J.B. Steel)

The Steelers have a long history of enabling. Just as all people that have substance control problems know it always helps to have someone who is always there to lend support, tell you everything is OK and no matter how bad it gets they will always be there. This is a form of delusion that is destructive not only to the people that are screwed up, but the people that enable. There is always a lot of collateral damage as well.

Chuck Noll came to Pittsburgh with a hard-nosed attitude, telling most of the current players they would not be there next year. He then went on to ignore the fact that Joe Gilliam and Terry Hanratty would never be NFL Quarterbacks and benched Terry Bradshaw, who despite the fact he sucked at first, was clearly the Quarterback of the future. Eventually Bradshaw exploded as a great future Hall of Famer with 4 Super Bowl rings and is for my money the greatest Quarterback Ever to Play the Game. Yes, I said it. Screw Montana, Peyton and even the great Johnny Unitas, well maybe not Johnny , Tom Brady does not even factor in here. Not only is he not close to being the greatest Quarterback of all time, he is not the best Quarterback currently playing, but I digress.

Noll fought with Bradshaw his entire career. Noll actually said, when he was asked toward the end of Bradshaw’s career if he was concerned about the future. “The Quarterback is one 11^th of the offense.” Was his reply. He then went on to prove it by starting the worst Quarterbacks in recent Steeler history

Cliff Stoudt. A cold chill should be running through any Steeler fan old enough to remember that name. That is a horror show that deserves a rating, which prohibits it from this forum. Suffice it to say when I moved down to Florida, I was watching a Dolphins game and saw him in Dolphin sweats on the sideline, I went ‘Ayah!” and jumped out of my chair. I hadn’t even had a good look at him. I just knew it was him. The horror…The horror… Enabling project.

Mark Malone or Magnum P.U. as he was known in some circles due to his resemblance to Tom Selleck, was an incredible athlete. He could play wide receiver, run back kicks, do anything. He could throw the ball as well. He was the original Slash. What he wasn’t, was a NFL Quarterback and he loved taking his helmet off while he was running off the field so the women could bask in his beauty. Enabling project.

The years went by and David Woodley (talented but concussed), the spastic Bubby Brister and his mother and I don’t know who else made it clear that the quarterback was one eleventh of the Steelers offense or less.

Bill Cowher came in as Head Coach and Neil O’Donnell seemed to be the Steelers future, but he sentenced himself to Pallookaville after choking in the Super Bowl against the Cowgirls and going free agent to the place NFL player’s careers go to die, the Big Apple.

Then came Kordell Stewart, one of the most talented athletes ever to play professional football. This was a guy, that if he had remained Slash would have been the first person to get into the Hall of Fame playing multiple positions since I don’t know, Bronco Nagurski, Slingin’ Sammy Baugh and whoever else you can think of as a leather head. He insisted on being a quarterback and Cowher, enabled him. He was horrendous, and Cowher backed him year after year as all the fans and media shouted and waved their hands in slow motion Nooo! Nooooo!

So this leads to the latest Steelers enabling project, of our Non-Offensive line. If you’re offensive you need to be offensive, spit on the sidewalk, pinch a baby, be sarcastic to your sainted grandmother and BLOCK for your extremely tolerant 100 million dollar Quarterback. The fault is not entirely with their obvious lack of talent. It is the fact that Mike Tomlin, who I respect, Non-Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians who I don’t, and Line Coach and Vietnam Vet Larry Zierline who I like, but think is the wrong guy at the wrong time, won’t face facts. This group does not have sufficient talent to be a starting NFL Offensive Line. Utilizing numbers from Frank Trusic, “Is Bruce Arians using Fuzzy Math?” at SteelCityInsider.com that he gleaned from Jay Cooper at Fanhouse.com and Stats LLC I will interpret how the sacks are credited.

The sacks attributed to the Steelers line due to getting physically beaten or missing an assignment:

Left Tackle – 7 sacks – Max Starks is the most intimidating one on one player of this group. He is a mountain with tree trunk legs. He gets control of his guy and can usually engage him or drive him to the ground. He surrendered 4 sacks and almost all of them were for lack of getting so much as a hand on an OLB or DB rushing the edge while he was engaged with his primary blocking assignment. The former starter, talented Marvel Smith’s career with the Steelers has come to an end due to back injuries. He surrendered 3 sacks while he was starting.

Left Guard – 7 sacks – Chris Kemoeatu, the teams best run blocker has a glaring flaw. In run blocking he explodes against his assignment, is great using his arms and body to knock his guy off the line and then down the field. The problem is he blocks this way when he’s pass blocking. He does not displace and defend and watch that nobody runs the gap as you are supposed to. This is an easy thing for Defensive Coordinators to spot and I can only think there was no coaching done to address it or Chris gets too caught up in what he’s doing and forgets.

Center – 5 sacks – Justin Hartwig, the line’s play caller has been a huge improvement over the hapless Sean Mahan. Early on there were some badly missed assignment call-outs that he should have caught, but the other linemen should have seen them as well. Justin will be a solid veteran center until the Steelers have his successor. He would probably make a good backup for a couple years after that provided he doesn’t drop an anvil on his toe. The Steelers think they’ve found their guy of the future with draft choice A. Q. Shipley and I hope he gets a chance to prove it in the preseason.

Right Guard – 4 sacks – Darnell Stapelton, was really bad in place of the solid Kendell Simmons whose career is probably over due to a torn Achilles tendon. Hopefully Kraig Urbik the 3^rd round draft choice this year can win the starting position and begin the revolution that has to happen on the Steelers offensive line.

Right Tackle – 6 sacks – Willie Colon, to return to a theme, I’m sure has spit on the sidewalk and pinched a baby. I’m staying way clear of the rest of my earlier comment because I fear him and know nothing of his family. If I did know I wouldn’t say anything for the same reason. Willie’s problem is he’s playing out of position. He doesn’t make adjustments well and causes one of my favorite Steelers, the most underrated Tight End in the NFL and should be Pro Bowl player, come on say it at home, Heattthhhh(!) stay at home to help way too much. Willie needs to move inside where if he can’t start, would be an outstanding back-up.

So this leaves us with 29 sacks attributed to the offense line either getting beaten physically or due to assignment. Now here’s the rub. There are another 13 sacks attributed to assignment once again or Ben holding on to the ball too long. I dismiss the Ben thing out of hand because as he’s matured, he usually makes a play or throws the ball out of bounds, so that puts it back on the O-Line and the Coaches.

There’s another 7 sacks attributed to the Running Backs, but that happens and it usually means someone on the front line got beat or the opposition was blitzing. This brings us up to a whopping 49 sacks. Yep that’s right 49 divided by 16 is 3 sacks a game. 3 times a game your 100 million dollar Quarterback is getting driven to the ground. This is acceptable for a Super Bowl quality team? Although to be fair, against the Eagles he was sacked 9 times. I remember yelling out load as time after time rushers lined up in the gap between our linemen wearing a cloak of invisibility as the Steelers O-line and Coaches seemed blind to their existence.

Now the downward end of our journey is not yet here. On top of the 49 sacks we have an inexcusable and staggering 89 hits Big Ben took. That is 138 contacts, 9 times a game if you average up your franchise is getting smacked, knocked down or slammed.  There is no accounting for the remaining QB hurries. It is simply impossible.

We are not done yet. This is the crux of this article. Arians actually had the brass to say words to the effect that they didn’t care how many times Ben got hit. They only cared if he got injured. If this is not the most classic example of enabling of abuse I don’t know what is. Arians and the other Coaches if they agree are enabling serial abuse of their franchise Quarterback. Enabling encourages abuse and it’s not only the Coaches that are at fault it is also Ben who is obviously suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and should be asking for a new O-line.

He has had multiple injuries as a result and was taken off the field with the back board and golf cart and the Thumps Up to prove he wasn’t paralyzed, in Mummy-Rap last season.

Effing Mummy-Rap.

Now the coaching of the O-line is very suspect. Most of the season I couldn’t tell you if they were in a zone or man to man blocking scheme. I don’t think they knew half the time or if they did whatever they were trying devolved so quickly they were operating out of desperation. This didn’t seem to confuse the defenses who exploited their incompetence all season long. Slight improvements happened in the second half of the season, but that’s like being a hundred miles from shore and saying ‘Hey, the boat’s not sinking as fast as before’‘

Okay, so I think I’ve beaten the problem enough. How about some solutions?

I had three picks in my Mock Draft little Big Board last year going to the line, 1^st Round Max Unger COGOT, 2^nd Round OT’s William Beatty, Eben Britton or Jamon Meredith and in later rounds Robert Brewster. There were free agents available the Steelers could have gone after. They added no free agents to compete on the Line with the exception of the undrafted OT Ramon Foster. They added Kraig Urbik RGRT and A. Q. Shipley C, who I hope will pan out.

Next season I have three O-line picks again for the Draft (Yes, I’m so pathetic, I’ve already done a Mock for 2010, but cut me some slack, I’m getting the ricky-ticky’s from lack of football and have resorted to having the NFL Network on all the time. It’s sort of like Methadone for NFL junkies.) If the coaching staff think their starters are so good they should make them prove it with some competition. I think they will find that this ‘starting line’ is actually a bunch of good reserve linemen and have been all along.

The Steelers have been famous for the anonymity of the Offensive Line. The only players that were ever pointed out were the standouts, Mike Webster, Dermonti Dawson, Alan Faneca, Jeff Hartings. The rest did their job and nobody knew who they were. We now have a line that is mostly I’m sorry to say, infamous. We need that hard-nosed Chuck Noll attitude that I’ll paraphrase, I’ve looked at the film. I’ve seen you play. The problem is not that you have a bad attitude or don’t have a good work ethic. You are simply not good enough and a lot of you won’t be back here next year.”

This should have been addressed this year in the off-season in a major way. It wasn’t. If it continues this year Noll’s message from the past should extend not only to the Offensive Line, but to the Coaches as well.

Go Stillers!

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