Predict the North

[*SHRacerX*]

(11-13-2021, 06:30 PM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: It kills me to say it . . . Steelers.

They are built for December and January football. Run the ball and defense. It's not how you're playing now, it's how in sync your team is two months from now.

The Bengals are good, but not there yet. They don't have the o-line to compete with the big dogs yet. They need to be able to get that push in short yardage if they're going to be fighting with playoff teams and pretty much every playoff team can get after the QB. Such a waste to extend Mixon and do almost nothing to the poor o-line.

Since they've drafted Mixon
2017 Mixon 2nd rd
2017 C JJ Dielman 5th - never took a snap
2018 C Billy Price 1st - NY Giant
2018 G Rod Taylor 7th - never took a snap
2019 T Jonah Williams - meh. Not a disaster but not a force, either. Still has missed(22) more than he's played so far(19).
2019 G Michael Jordan - never developed, gone
2020 T Hakeen Adeniji 6th - Shown flashes but still very raw. Signed XSF
September 2nd, 2020, re-sign Mixon. Later picked up Spain
2021 G Jackson Carman 2nd - A work in progress, too early to tell.
2021 T D'ante Smith 4th - project
2021 C Trey Hill - very raw project that, at times, looks like an NFL Europe level player.

Reds fans watched the lack of attention to the bullpen ruin their 2021 season and feared the same thing was coming with the O-line. We're only halfway through this season, and, so far, the o-line isn't quite the disaster the the Reds bull pen was, but they are by far and away the weakest position group on this team.

At least what I saw of the steelers the few times I have watched them, they aren't really running the ball with success.  They throw to their RB a TON and have no downfield threat, but they do have a solid defense.  

The observations about offensive linemen drafted is fair, but at least they acknowledged those mistakes and signed Quinten Spain and Riley Reiff from outside as solid pieces.  The key now is to have no glaring weak spots on the line, but so far Hopkins has been a pretty poor reflection of the solid guy he was pre-injury.