PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: ALEX MESSMER / PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The single most significant message the Steelers could possibly take from back-to-back 8-8 seasons is that something’s got to change.
And if the goal for 2014 isn’t just to beat mediocrity but to be markedly better, it stands to reason that something’s got to change a whole heck of a lot.
In all candor, I don’t know if this team can contend. Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Troy Polamalu, Lawrence Timmons remain steady anchors, a sprinkling of youth and speed has been added, the offensive line is healthy — where’s that wood again? — and the AFC North looks pretty blah from top to bottom. At the same time, the preseason tackling was terrifying, the secondary was almost as scary, there’s zero depth at the most important position, there’s no sure-fire second receiver, and both running backs just proved to be dopes in every sense of the term.
Add up a bunch of good and a bunch of bad, and I’ll show you 8-8 Part III.
Someone needs to step up.
Someone needs to make a difference, maybe even be different.
Here are my choices for ‘X’ factor on both sides of the ball for 2014:
Shamarko Thomas
It’s hard to assign an ‘X’ for Thomas in any sense, unless, of course, it’s in chalk. In the Steelers’ four preseason games, he lined up at corner, slot corner, free safety, strong safety and whatever one would call some of the other places he was positioned. He was even spotted up at the line, Troy Polamalu-style.
Actually, the whole project has kind of felt Polamalu-style, which makes a lot of sense since he’s visibly being groomed as the heir to a still vital legend.
“That’s not how I think of things at all,” Thomas corrected as part of our long talk following the team’s nearly three-hour practice Monday on the South Side, the first aimed specifically at this week’s opener with the Browns. “I just think of it as playing defense. Whatever I do, wherever I am out there, whoever I’m with, I just think of it as playing defense.”
Which makes a lot of sense, too. So much so that Mike Tomlin, Dick LeBeau and Carnell Lake seem to have embraced — or conceded to — the thought process.
For all the the praise heaped upon Thomas’ superlative showing at Saint Vincent College and in preseason, not just tackling opponents but pounding their teeth loose, nothing stood out to me quite like this answer from Tomlin in East Rutherford, N.J., after Thomas recorded four tackles, one for a loss, against the Giants: “It’s up to us as coaches to find a place for him to play, or for anyone who’s consistently making plays.”
Right. He had to be on the field. He had to play. The kid had basically forced their hand by the first week of August. And the following week against the Bills, there he was again, breaking up a swing pass in the red zone and popping loose a fumble.
Make no mistake: This isn’t how it was designed.
From way back in OTAs and minicamp, every random Will Allen and Robert Golden would get slotted ahead of Thomas when a safety was needed for first-team drills. He was always off to the side, waiting for the second-team drills or the nickel and dime formations. That’s largely because Lake’s goal for Thomas, who appeared in 14 games as a rookie last season but never appeared with the defense after an ankle injury in Week 10, was to have him ready to replace Polamalu “with his feet running once he hits that ground.” Lake wanted Thomas playing “pure safety” to focus on the demands of that position, including signal calls. And above all, he wanted it to come slowly. He wanted Thomas, at times, to step aside, watch and learn.
Trouble was, that didn’t exactly dovetail with the maniacal work ethic Thomas had demonstrated from his scholastic days through to starring at Syracuse. He wanted more, and he wanted it now.
After minicamp in June, in a tale Thomas told a group of us upon arrival at Latrobe, he texted Polamalu to tell him that he wanted to work out with Polamalu, adding that he wanted to “be great.” No teammate had ever worked out with Polamalu in the summer — Troy’s always whistled to his own tune that way — but a first-time exception was made, and the two hooked up for a week in San Diego that Thomas would call “life-changing.” They exercised, but they also talked about happiness, about health, about whatever heady stuff leads Polamalu to tweet that random dolphin formations in the South Pacific are “neat.”
“An amazing experience,” Thomas called it. “Not just working out, but his mentality, the way he goes about his days, how he takes care of his family and how he puts God first in his life.”
There’s only one Troy. But there’s also only one Shamarko, and I think you’ll agree he’s got a good grasp of that from this glimpse into our talk …
LeBeau isn’t about to divulge his plans for the Browns and beyond, but we’ll have a far better grip on Thomas’ potential for immediate impact — never mind beyond — come Sunday. It won’t be easy for Thomas to crack nickel corner, with how solid Willie Gay was last season, but that doesn’t mean he won’t emerge in some other spot as part of some other sub-package. It might be something previously unseen. He’s made enough of an impact, as Tomlin fairly conceded, that the coaching staff has to cater to him rather than vice versa. And because of that, he could play a vital role in reestablishing the Steelers’ defense as one that does more than wait for the completion and wrap up the man.
The Browns won’t have a clue what hit them.
Dri Archer
Even less is known, if that’s possible, about how the Steelers will utilize their third-round rookie from this season, if only because the ledger is so much lesser. And more varied.
Archer, like Thomas, has lined up all over the field and in all types of formations. He’s the only player on the roster currently spending time in two meeting rooms, both with the running backs and the receivers, and he’s very much expected to line up as both with the regular offense. If not more.
“There are a lot of different ways,” as Todd Haley put it early in camp, “to use a player with Dri’s skill set.”
Which is to say, someone who runs astonishingly fast. Archer’s 4.2 time in the 40-yard dash would humble everyone shy of the Flash, and it’s no mirage. Once he gets his feet moving, he can’t be caught from behind or even from the side. As several football people observed during camp and the preseason, there’s no such thing as a quality pursuit angle on him because he warps the mythical line from points A to B.
That 46-yard screen from Roethlisberger in the preseason game against the Giants illustrates this wonderfully. Watch the New York linebackers fall like pins.
And if you think that’s fast, just listen to how he answers the questions I put to him Monday …
That was not on fast-forward, believe it or not.
The Steelers have more playmakers on offense than defense, but it’s possible that Archer could have just as big an impact as Thomas on his side, at least, if you ask me, if he’s utilized smartly and sporadically. The threat he presents on screens alone is enough to keep an extra defender or two wary and, in theory, away from Brown and the other receivers. He also could keep opponents from stacking eight or nine in the box, even in obvious running situations, because of his ability to beat the edge.
And then there’s the matter of pace. Ask any offensive player, Roethlisberger chief among them, and they’ll talk about a combination of speed and unpredictability, in part because because of the almost eclectic variety of styles available but also because they — and especially the line — look and sound increasingly confident in using the no-huddle.
This is Marcus Gilbert’s view of all that, plus the Dri effect, from right tackle: “To have that type of player, with that type of speed, and to have him available in multiple packages, I’m excited. If we can have all those guys on the field at the same time, honestly, I can’t wait. I know what we’re capable of with all those guys and with all the versatility we have, and it’s exciting.”
September 2, 2014
Column: Shamarko, Dri are Steelers’ ‘X’ men
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Steelers
PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: ALEX MESSMER / PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS
The single most significant message the Steelers could possibly take from back-to-back 8-8 seasons is that something’s got to change.
And if the goal for 2014 isn’t just to beat mediocrity but to be markedly better, it stands to reason that something’s got to change a whole heck of a lot.
In all candor, I don’t know if this team can contend. Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Troy Polamalu, Lawrence Timmons remain steady anchors, a sprinkling of youth and speed has been added, the offensive line is healthy — where’s that wood again? — and the AFC North looks pretty blah from top to bottom. At the same time, the preseason tackling was terrifying, the secondary was almost as scary, there’s zero depth at the most important position, there’s no sure-fire second receiver, and both running backs just proved to be dopes in every sense of the term.
Add up a bunch of good and a bunch of bad, and I’ll show you 8-8 Part III.
Someone needs to step up.
Someone needs to make a difference, maybe even be different.
Here are my choices for ‘X’ factor on both sides of the ball for 2014:
Shamarko Thomas
It’s hard to assign an ‘X’ for Thomas in any sense, unless, of course, it’s in chalk. In the Steelers’ four preseason games, he lined up at corner, slot corner, free safety, strong safety and whatever one would call some of the other places he was positioned. He was even spotted up at the line, Troy Polamalu-style.
Actually, the whole project has kind of felt Polamalu-style, which makes a lot of sense since he’s visibly being groomed as the heir to a still vital legend.
“That’s not how I think of things at all,” Thomas corrected as part of our long talk following the team’s nearly three-hour practice Monday on the South Side, the first aimed specifically at this week’s opener with the Browns. “I just think of it as playing defense. Whatever I do, wherever I am out there, whoever I’m with, I just think of it as playing defense.”
Which makes a lot of sense, too. So much so that Mike Tomlin, Dick LeBeau and Carnell Lake seem to have embraced — or conceded to — the thought process.
For all the the praise heaped upon Thomas’ superlative showing at Saint Vincent College and in preseason, not just tackling opponents but pounding their teeth loose, nothing stood out to me quite like this answer from Tomlin in East Rutherford, N.J., after Thomas recorded four tackles, one for a loss, against the Giants: “It’s up to us as coaches to find a place for him to play, or for anyone who’s consistently making plays.”
Right. He had to be on the field. He had to play. The kid had basically forced their hand by the first week of August. And the following week against the Bills, there he was again, breaking up a swing pass in the red zone and popping loose a fumble.
Make no mistake: This isn’t how it was designed.
From way back in OTAs and minicamp, every random Will Allen and Robert Golden would get slotted ahead of Thomas when a safety was needed for first-team drills. He was always off to the side, waiting for the second-team drills or the nickel and dime formations. That’s largely because Lake’s goal for Thomas, who appeared in 14 games as a rookie last season but never appeared with the defense after an ankle injury in Week 10, was to have him ready to replace Polamalu “with his feet running once he hits that ground.” Lake wanted Thomas playing “pure safety” to focus on the demands of that position, including signal calls. And above all, he wanted it to come slowly. He wanted Thomas, at times, to step aside, watch and learn.
Trouble was, that didn’t exactly dovetail with the maniacal work ethic Thomas had demonstrated from his scholastic days through to starring at Syracuse. He wanted more, and he wanted it now.
After minicamp in June, in a tale Thomas told a group of us upon arrival at Latrobe, he texted Polamalu to tell him that he wanted to work out with Polamalu, adding that he wanted to “be great.” No teammate had ever worked out with Polamalu in the summer — Troy’s always whistled to his own tune that way — but a first-time exception was made, and the two hooked up for a week in San Diego that Thomas would call “life-changing.” They exercised, but they also talked about happiness, about health, about whatever heady stuff leads Polamalu to tweet that random dolphin formations in the South Pacific are “neat.”
“An amazing experience,” Thomas called it. “Not just working out, but his mentality, the way he goes about his days, how he takes care of his family and how he puts God first in his life.”
There’s only one Troy. But there’s also only one Shamarko, and I think you’ll agree he’s got a good grasp of that from this glimpse into our talk …
LeBeau isn’t about to divulge his plans for the Browns and beyond, but we’ll have a far better grip on Thomas’ potential for immediate impact — never mind beyond — come Sunday. It won’t be easy for Thomas to crack nickel corner, with how solid Willie Gay was last season, but that doesn’t mean he won’t emerge in some other spot as part of some other sub-package. It might be something previously unseen. He’s made enough of an impact, as Tomlin fairly conceded, that the coaching staff has to cater to him rather than vice versa. And because of that, he could play a vital role in reestablishing the Steelers’ defense as one that does more than wait for the completion and wrap up the man.
The Browns won’t have a clue what hit them.
Dri Archer
Even less is known, if that’s possible, about how the Steelers will utilize their third-round rookie from this season, if only because the ledger is so much lesser. And more varied.
Archer, like Thomas, has lined up all over the field and in all types of formations. He’s the only player on the roster currently spending time in two meeting rooms, both with the running backs and the receivers, and he’s very much expected to line up as both with the regular offense. If not more.
“There are a lot of different ways,” as Todd Haley put it early in camp, “to use a player with Dri’s skill set.”
Which is to say, someone who runs astonishingly fast. Archer’s 4.2 time in the 40-yard dash would humble everyone shy of the Flash, and it’s no mirage. Once he gets his feet moving, he can’t be caught from behind or even from the side. As several football people observed during camp and the preseason, there’s no such thing as a quality pursuit angle on him because he warps the mythical line from points A to B.
That 46-yard screen from Roethlisberger in the preseason game against the Giants illustrates this wonderfully. Watch the New York linebackers fall like pins.
And if you think that’s fast, just listen to how he answers the questions I put to him Monday …
That was not on fast-forward, believe it or not.
The Steelers have more playmakers on offense than defense, but it’s possible that Archer could have just as big an impact as Thomas on his side, at least, if you ask me, if he’s utilized smartly and sporadically. The threat he presents on screens alone is enough to keep an extra defender or two wary and, in theory, away from Brown and the other receivers. He also could keep opponents from stacking eight or nine in the box, even in obvious running situations, because of his ability to beat the edge.
And then there’s the matter of pace. Ask any offensive player, Roethlisberger chief among them, and they’ll talk about a combination of speed and unpredictability, in part because because of the almost eclectic variety of styles available but also because they — and especially the line — look and sound increasingly confident in using the no-huddle.
This is Marcus Gilbert’s view of all that, plus the Dri effect, from right tackle: “To have that type of player, with that type of speed, and to have him available in multiple packages, I’m excited. If we can have all those guys on the field at the same time, honestly, I can’t wait. I know what we’re capable of with all those guys and with all the versatility we have, and it’s exciting.”
Change usually is.
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