Who are our star players after this year.

[Moo Daeng]

The goal would be to draft some more.....as always.

[Cyberjag]

On offense we're going to have Cam and CMC, with Curtis Samuel as a potential.  Need to see if he recovers from his injury.  Those three give us power at a place you rarely see it and lots of versatility.  The whole right side of the line will be discussed as one of the league's best.

On defense it still starts with Luke, and KK is locked up.  You can think about Poe here and paint the picture that you don't try and run it up the middle on the Panthers.  While TD is only now being viewed around the league as someone special, as he slows down expect Shaq Thompson to emerge in discussions about Panther Linebackers.  Right now that's all we got, but I expect to see a playmaker emerge in the secondary this year.

Bottom line, we're not looking at a rebuild any time soon and I'm not worried.

[stirs]

And you pray that Luke does not get another concussion or he will retire

[RetiredCollegeCoach]

Star players going forward:

* Kuechly
* Short
* Poe

Plus 2-3 players that Draft God picks this year.

[Moo Daeng]

CAP will have a huge year and get signed elsewhere :(

[Khyber53]

We'll be seeing a bunch of our older name players head out to pasture at the end of this season. Yep, it happens. Some of those you list are really only stars to fans of this team. Peppers and Olsen do stand out league-wide, while let's face it, you need to be a fan of the team to really appreciate a Ryan Kalil or Thomas Davis. 

What we have, when those guys move on to their after-playing-days careers, is a really sturdy group of players. You have verified superstars heading up the offense and defense with Cam and Luke. If you offered each of them up for a trade for a first rounder we'd have 31 offers for each right now. 

We have Short on the D-Line as a star. We have CMC as a star in the making. I think Funchess and Samuels will be a star receiving duo before it is said and done, one fast and one a possession guy. We have a really steady guy in Shaq among the linebackers who may be an arriving star. 

All in all, it's not too bad, because we have a steady corps of lunch pail guys who show up and do their jobs. And honestly, I think  Hurney is much better at drafting sure talent than Gettleman proved to be. G-man was a great bargain shopper and could evaluate players from other pro teams like no one else, but the man just could not get a good grip on determining who would transition best from college to the pros.

I think we are going to be fine, and maybe even excellent, after this generation of players moves on. 

[Hoenheim]

3 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

I think Funchess and Samuels will be a star receiving duo before it is said and done, one fast and one a possession guy. We have a really steady guy in 

 

Funchess could be gone after next season, and Curtis Samuel can NOT stay healthy thus far. CMC was decent but not great by any  means.. that leaves us with?? We dont have any offensive stars at the skill positions and thats part of our ongoing problem weve had since Cam has been here.

Arguably the best "star" player we had since 2011 is still an aging Steve Smith. Granted, this man should end up being a HoFer , but that is still a sad fact when you think about it. Who else has really shone brightly and consistently? KB was solid, Funchess was solid this season, Ginn was important but had his dropsies, Stew was important but I wouldve never considered him a transcendent talent. 

This is excatly what Cam has been missing his entire career and hes proabably absolutely sick of it. If you gave Cam Antonio Brown, Martvis Bryant, and JuJu smith Shuster for example, we'd be fuging unstoppable. Hell any 1 of those guys could totally change things. Or can you imagine if Cam got Odell instead of KB? 

[steven8989]

6 hours ago, Verge said:

Our star players for the next five years: 

Short 
Cam 
CMC 
Luke 
Trai 
Bradberry 
Shaq 

 

Bradberry & Shaq. Idk but they better show more, I haven't seen star potential in either. Shaq was suppose to look great starting and he didn't. People thinking we will be fine without Davis, I'm not that positive about it. Shaq looks lost alot of times and he can't make it up with speed all the time.

[steven8989]

3 minutes ago, Hoenheim said:

Funchess could be gone after next season, and Curtis Samuel can NOT stay healthy thus far. CMC was decent but not great by any  means.. that leaves us with?? We dont have any offensive stars at the skill positions and thats part of our ongoing problem weve had since Cam has been here.

Arguably the best "star" player we had since 2011 is still an aging Steve Smith. Granted, this man should end up being a HoFer , but that is still a sad fact when you think about it. Who else has really shone brightly and consistently? KB was solid, Funchess was solid this season, Ginn was important but had his dropsies, Stew was important but I wouldve never considered him a transcendent talent. 

This is excatly what Cam has been missing his entire career and hes proabably absolutely sick of it. If you gave Cam Antonio Brown, Martvis Bryant, and JuJu smith Shuster for example, we'd be fuging unstoppable. Hell any 1 of those guys could totally change things. Or can you imagine if Cam got Odell instead of KB? 

Hey guess what in 23 years Steve Smith is the only offensive weapon that we have ever had and the greatest. That's bad for an organization we have never valued offense.

[Khyber53]

1 hour ago, Hoenheim said:

Funchess could be gone after next season, and Curtis Samuel can NOT stay healthy thus far. CMC was decent but not great by any  means.. that leaves us with?? We dont have any offensive stars at the skill positions and thats part of our ongoing problem weve had since Cam has been here.

Arguably the best "star" player we had since 2011 is still an aging Steve Smith. Granted, this man should end up being a HoFer , but that is still a sad fact when you think about it. Who else has really shone brightly and consistently? KB was solid, Funchess was solid this season, Ginn was important but had his dropsies, Stew was important but I wouldve never considered him a transcendent talent. 

This is excatly what Cam has been missing his entire career and hes proabably absolutely sick of it. If you gave Cam Antonio Brown, Martvis Bryant, and JuJu smith Shuster for example, we'd be fuging unstoppable. Hell any 1 of those guys could totally change things. Or can you imagine if Cam got Odell instead of KB? 

There's always room on the Steeler's fan bandwagon. This past season they were one game more successful in the playoffs than we were (with much fewer injuries). The prior year they went pretty far in the playoffs and we sat at home. The year before, we went to the Superb Owl and they didn't.

Not bad for a bunch of supposed scrubs.

I know... but, but, but, but... same old whine we hear every year. 31 teams come up short every year and 31 fan bases have to come up with a reason for doing so -- that's normal, but this constant hand-wringing over how bad our team sucks is both pathetic and isn't born out by the records, at least in comparison to the bottom half of the league where there are real, severe and unending problems. 

We aren't Cleveland. We aren't Detroit. We aren't the Bucs, or the Texans or Bengals or Bears. Heck, we're even better than the Chargers, Giants, Redskins and Cowboys overall. We aren't falling into a pit like the Ravens, Colts and Broncos. And we aren't meteoric successes that might have peaked quickly like the Rams, Vikings and Eagles of this year. 

What we are is competitive, year in and year out. We have a team no one looks forward to playing against each year. Even in our down years we slay a giant or two. We're regular contenders and each year, we have a shot. 

[LinvilleGorge]

8 hours ago, Hoenheim said:

the problem is, how many offense skill position guys are on that list? Just CMC... 

This. It seems like an echo chamber year after year, but we really need to upgrade our offensive weapons.

I thought Gettleman did more good than bad while here, but one of my major issues with him was his WR drafting. We drafted three WRs during his time in the 1st or 2nd round and only one of them actually played WR full time in college and that guy (KB) was even still considered to be a WR/TE tweener by many. Funchess was a WR/TE in college and Samuel was a WR/RB. We didn't really draft wide receivers. We drafted guys who fit Gettleman's idea of what a WR should be. 

[bigdog10]

We are dangerously close to being an awful team. We had better win it all this year or absolutely kill this draft. 

A bad draft here and the loss of the players the op mentioned could lead us down a non competitive path for a couple years. 

[Hoenheim]

4 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This. It seems like an echo chamber year after year, but we really need to upgrade our offensive weapons.

I thought Gettleman did more good than bad while here, but one of my major issues with him was his WR drafting. We drafted three WRs during his time in the 1st or 2nd round and only one of them actually played WR full time in college and that guy (KB) was even still considered to be a WR/TE tweener by many. Funchess was a WR/TE in college and Samuel was a WR/RB. We didn't really draft wide receivers. We drafted guys who fit Gettleman's idea of what a WR should be. 

Couldnt have said it any better. And Hurney was/is also terrible at drafting WRs. We as a franchise are historically bad at evaluating WR talent. 

[kungfoodude]

4 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

This. It seems like an echo chamber year after year, but we really need to upgrade our offensive weapons.

I thought Gettleman did more good than bad while here, but one of my major issues with him was his WR drafting. We drafted three WRs during his time in the 1st or 2nd round and only one of them actually played WR full time in college and that guy (KB) was even still considered to be a WR/TE tweener by many. Funchess was a WR/TE in college and Samuel was a WR/RB. We didn't really draft wide receivers. We drafted guys who fit Gettleman's idea of what a WR should be. 

I think the book is out on Gettleman. We will see in the next 3-4 years. It is tracking towards him being pretty sub par as a draft talent evaluator and better than average in the dumpster diving. 

He did great by digging us out of cap hell(Thanks Hurney 1.0) but he also saddled us with arguably the worst contract we have ever given out with the Matt Kalil deal. 

He build the DL up fairly well but never addressed LT effectively and was hit or miss with improving the WR corps. 

I personally am very glad he is gone because the day we signed Kalil, I viewed that as a fireable offense.