Heckert's Turn

[King of Kings]

Originally Posted by TheBestPlayersPlay

Sorry, but no other major sports market in the country would these reporters get off with being so lazy, and showing such cowardice and almost servitude to those in charge.

I disagree slightly. I agree with Cleveland's "journalism" is bottom of the barrel but the WORST of the worst is the Arizona market. These hacks are STILL sucking Whisenhunt's dick as the genius behind the Steelers, on the cusp of turning the Cards into this huge dynasty. That dude gets Charmin soft questions lobbed at him every single time.

[Legacy Fan]

Greg Little:

	REC	YDS	TD
Regular Season	52	538	1

Julio Jones

	REC	YDS	TD
Regular Season	42	755	5

[Legacy Fan]

For some reason, I cant type after those C&P'ed stats (actually just trying to get my post count up )

So in 10 less receptions, Julio grabs 200 more yards, and 4 more TDs. I don't think any of those stats would have helped us (assuming Julio could achieve them in Cleveland). Plus we get an extra pick in April. Two chances to get playmakers, imo. 2 Julios? Richardson & Floyd? Richardson & ___?

It's exciting to me.
Good trade.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Exactly Legacy, with those first round picks we can get two potential high-caliber starters for this team. My only gripe (and this is the perfect thread for it IMO) is I feel Heckert's much better at evaluating defensive talent than offensive talent, IMO. So we shall see how this draft pans out because the Draft is going to be huge in turning this offense around, and unlike last year, we will need a FA or two to elevate this squad IMO. We may need to dip into the FA pool to find a new HB if the team's soured on Peyton Hillis...

I watched the ATL game and Julio made some good plays but he's got his own rookie learning curve to deal with. However, Julio Jones is a certified deep threat for Matt Ryan, we have nobody that dynamic on our roster at all, not even Cribbs (though he's shown it on occasion.)

I don't think Little is even close right now as far as skill level is concerned. There are basic fundamentals that Little seems to have no grasp on and without being coached up a bit, this play time we're throwing at him is only going to help him minimally develop and at worst, develop bad habits he won't be able to shake with coaching later.

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

Exactly Legacy, with those first round picks we can get two potential high-caliber starters for this team. My only gripe (and this is the perfect thread for it IMO) is I feel Heckert's much better at evaluating defensive talent than offensive talent, IMO. So we shall see how this draft pans out because the Draft is going to be huge in turning this offense around, and unlike last year, we will need a FA or two to elevate this squad IMO. We may need to dip into the FA pool to find a new HB if the team's soured on Peyton Hillis...

I watched the ATL game and Julio made some good plays but he's got his own rookie learning curve to deal with. However, Julio Jones is a certified deep threat for Matt Ryan, we have nobody that dynamic on our roster at all, not even Cribbs (though he's shown it on occasion.)

I don't think Little is even close right now as far as skill level is concerned. There are basic fundamentals that Little seems to have no grasp on and without being coached up a bit, this play time we're throwing at him is only going to help him minimally develop and at worst, develop bad habits he won't be able to shake with coaching later.

In Philly, he was really good at getting WRs that could produce (Maclin in rd 1 and Jackson in rd 2). I think he also drafted LeSean McCoy as a very good RB to replace Westbrook. Jackson has become a perceived attitude in Philly now that a new contract negotiation froze. Well, what's our front office trying to make Hillis out to be today? I don't agree and think they should have kept their mouths closed that they were going to re-do the Hillis contract if their plan was to insult him and portray him as worthy of a scarlet letter material.

It's been tough but I try to remind myself why I couldn't wait to ordain Heckert as the missing link to finding talent especially when it's on our doorstep. That said, adding Taylor plus a first round pick and a mid round pick didn't suck at all if we ask D'Qwell how he feels playing MLBer thsi year.

Here's some GOOD pickups by Heckert:
Ogy for the NFL version of a Walmart soda price tag
Paxson - dude is pretty freakin good in blue collar DT rotation.
Sheard - LOVE that kid.
Haden - playing great considering.
Maynard - look at last game and you tell me what pinning Pitt deep did to keep that one close.
Patterson - pretty solid slew of skills
Taylor - tell D'Qwell he sucks and let me know how it goes.

Here's some RISKS biting him in the fanny:
TJ Ward - always injured in college - injured alot here
Hardesty - always injured in college - injured alot here
Little - had 1 more year of experience playing WR in college than Cribbs had.
Securing Evan Moore so he can make 2 more cameo appearances per half than our water boys.
Chris Gocong getting a huge raise/extension- forget the NICE goal line plays and try to remember what he accomplishes when there's more field to defend. Does he ever make big plays or turnovers or blitz sacks? If he does, I must be missing them and that would be my bad.

Here's some crappy picks or free agent moves:
Carlton Mitchell - never gonna see what he was worth because they're madly in love with Greg Little for some inexplicability.
Shawn Lauvao - square peg - round hole.
Tony Pashos - not reliable at all - it's why we got re-stuck on pause w/ St Clair in 2010 and why we got stuck with Hicks and Cousins while the Steelers found Starks.
Jayme Mitchell - the FO went out of their way to turn a hard working kid like Benard into the same problem we hear Hillis is. He led us in sacks in 2010 btw
Delhomme & Wallace when McCoy proved to be the best of the bunch
Owen Marecic - we cut Clutts who starts for the Bears while Owen is out with a concussion.

Knowing we lack game breaking speed - whatever happened to:
Armond Smith
Buster Skirne

To Be Determined:
McCoy
Pinkston
Haag/Hagg
Cameron

My concern is WHY add a need like RB when all we gotta do is handle the Hillis thing better? As it has already been put by others, they never hesitated to overpay for Delhomme and Wallace right?

I'm sure I missed alot of guys but these are guys right off the top of my head.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Well that's just it Flugs... WHY add a need at RB when they could have handled the Hillis situation better? IMO, it was Hillis that screwed the pooch on that first. If Hillis just wanted to play, he never would have brought it up but as soon as he mentioned he was working on a contract extension, the media (YES the MEDIA) took that ball and ran with it. The situation of course has evolved over the season and may not have even been that big a deal at all to start but with all the mysterious hamstring injuries (and teammates having interventions for Hillis) I would say PH looks like the bad guy in that deal rather than this team.

Great post though, and I dunno if I agree that TJ Ward is STILL a risk, but he was when he made that pick for sure. How many games has Ward missed? Not as many as Hardesty...

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

Well that's just it Flugs... WHY add a need at RB when they could have handled the Hillis situation better? IMO, it was Hillis that screwed the pooch on that first. If Hillis just wanted to play, he never would have brought it up but as soon as he mentioned he was working on a contract extension, the media (YES the MEDIA) took that ball and ran with it. The situation of course has evolved over the season and may not have even been that big a deal at all to start but with all the mysterious hamstring injuries (and teammates having interventions for Hillis) I would say PH looks like the bad guy in that deal rather than this team.

Great post though, and I dunno if I agree that TJ Ward is STILL a risk, but he was when he made that pick for sure. How many games has Ward missed? Not as many as Hardesty...

Thanks for the reply EE! I like some of your points and appreciate the compliment.

It's hard to tell where the train went off the tracks without REALLY knowing at my end. I got the impression, he was informed he needed to schedule his strept throat better and nobody on our coaching staff knew anything more about it than they knew about McCoy's concussion that took place right in front of ALL of them. I have had strept throat numerous times back in the day and aside from having a huge fever accompanied by chills and omnipresent aches - I couldn't fathom doing anything but sleeping it off. I rarely get sick but when I do - my wife gives me a shit eating, ears-wide grin that implies "you big baby."

Just MO, but I think the front office brought up Hillis was the next priority after prioritizing the same Evan Moore they are petrified of overplaying and this Chris Gocong that ONLY looks the part in goal line defense. I think they started getting cold feet when they saw defenses extremely well prepared to stop Hillis only. A big reason they could sell out to stop the run with 9-11 guys in the box was the game plan Dan Fouts surgically, if not masterfully attacked as to why we weren't running ANY routes downfield for 3 quarters in the game he was witnessing. That makes any any RB with only 5 or 6 blockers. There's nothing out wide on the perimeter to fear deep so game films about the tendencies Fouts spotted says there's ZERO risk in putting 11 guys into the box. It took us about 4-5 weeks to realize a swing pass or wheel route might be more effective than slants INTO such traffic our game plans invited. Anyway, we get gears that can actually CATCH and we can re-tap Hillis' strength IMO. The cold feet from the front office is on them in my opinion. Should have zipped it instead of setting up the cold feet and offering insult.

It's kind of puzzling that the mediocrities of Moore and Gocong (away from the goal line) were such a priority.