Re: Steelers ship Santonio to the Jets
I think you nailed it on the holes this team needs filled but I find it very hard to believe that these holes can be adequately filled in one offseason and the team be ready to win 12 games or so which is probably what it will take to win the East
I don't think rookies can just come in and fill these holes and the team have success strictly relying on rookies in those positions...I think the teams needs a year or two of getting these new guys to blend in well to a system that some view as complicated,it will take time and probably another year or two of work to get back to the level of Elite
The only way I see this team becoming an immediate SB contender by September is if suddenly they do some fantastic FA wheels and deals and get some vets in here who have a winning attitude and get those holes filled with some experience - We will not win a Super Bowl filling all those holes with rookies or JAGS.
Interesting point, but............
Your lynchpin of your argument is that to win a SB we need to get 'top end' FAs to plug any holes we have, and plugging them with rookies or 'solid JAGs" gives us no real chance to win the SB.
My quesiton is this:
How many teams have ever won by adding top end FAs to their team to fill their holes?
Your logic is that rookies will take time to develop, but won't FAs? Isn't it troublesome to your approach to know that no player signed as an UFA has gone on to make a probowl (I am not 100% positive that fact is correct, but I have heard it numerous times)
Top end FAs historically underachieve.
My take is that we have easily enough strengths to compete for a SB, but also have some liabilities. Teams that win SBs are typically the ones that turn liabilities into adequate or average (either by adding players or improving the ones they have) not ones that add more 'stars'.
I think if you go back and look at SB Champs over the last 10 years or so, you will find:
-Many teams that did not have a lot of turnover on their rosters and improved from within
-Many teams that got large contributions from rookies
-Teams with a number of JAGS playing key roles, in fact, being part of the upgrade of their liabilities.
-Teams better described as 'bad at nothing' than 'good at everything'
-I don't think you will find many, if any, teams that won SBs after big FA signing sprees.