Reason why Pitt let Burress walk...

[WoodysGirl]

Originally Posted by silverbear

This makes no sense, how could the coaches not know that Burress wasn't running the patterns the play called for??

I can't imagine the coaches not knowing. Tthe question is when the did they realize and did they do anything about it once they knew. It was working for the most part, at least, until the AFC championship.

[Hoov]

Originally Posted by Charles

While I don't think Burress has reached the elite level Irvin attained, I wonder how most Cowboy fans would have reacted if Irvin was cut or not resigned due to his off the field problems. I think its common knowledge that Troy has always had Irvin's back. He was one of the feww players to show up in court when Irvin arrived in a mink coat and sunglasses. Troy has even stated he let Irvin baby sit his children.

I think sometimes chemistry can't entirely be put down in playbook.

Off field problems occuring in the offseason not the same as a player not carrying out or propperly executing the playbook.

[BrAinPaiNt]

Originally Posted by silverbear

This makes no sense, how could the coaches not know that Burress wasn't running the patterns the play called for??

From what I have gathered it looks as if they would do some plays where Ben would scramble (they designed it that way but looked to coaches like he was just avoiding the rush) and then Burress would know this was going to happen and do a come back route.

Now if you think it was just pressure, or a rook saying he felt pressure, even if it wasn't there, I could see how they could do that.

But I just don't think that was done enough for them not to notice, maybe a few times but who knows.

I think it is more like someone else said, they did not like the character and off the field whining of Burress and they did not want to pay him the big money they know he wanted but instead wanted that money to go to the better WR and leader in Hines Ward.

[CATCH17]

The Steelers got mad because Buress's production increased? What a bunch of idiots.

[Everlastingxxx]

Originally Posted by Hoov

Roethlisberger was awful against the patriots, and the steelers never should have beat the jets either. Burress was his security blanket, a Def takes that away and he fell apart.

Besides didnt you see my point about Ward being my fantsy wr

The almighty fantasy player, haha. I didn't play last season but my first season my team won it all, not tryin to brag.
Players making up their own plays brings back my childhood days (too long ago!) playing football in the street. Wonder how Manning will react when Burress pulls out his secret playbook?

[Hollywood Henderson]

I talked to 2 Steeler's scouts at the NFL Combine here in Indy and they said it was more not wanting to pay big bucks to him as well as too many dropped balls AND wanting to give Randle-El more chances...

Myself, I think they will miss that big target!

[Hoov]

Originally Posted by Everlastingxxx

The almighty fantasy player, haha. I didn't play last season but my first season my team won it all, not tryin to brag.
Players making up their own plays brings back my childhood days (too long ago!) playing football in the street. Wonder how Manning will react when Burress pulls out his secret playbook?

Last year i came in second in our league. I had priest holmes and didnt snag his backup (Dolt !!) I did draft witten and JJones in the late rounds though, and traded S Davis for T Holt right before Davis got hurt.

I know what you mean about the old days, me and this one guy were always on same team. He was QB and i was receiver. we had all kinds of codes and when i walked up to the line depending on how they played me we'd say or do something. always worked too. We had this one fav play, always good for a 1st down or more. if the guy covering me played off a few yards it was "money". Sometimes id walk up to the line and look at him and he'd get this look when he'd want me to run that fav play and the field would be wide open for it and id just start laughing so hard i could hardly run the route. yeah, those were good days.

[Everlastingxxx]

Originally Posted by Hoov

Last year i came in second in our league. I had priest holmes and didnt snag his backup (Dolt !!) I did draft witten and JJones in the late rounds though, and traded S Davis for T Holt right before Davis got hurt.

I know what you mean about the old days, me and this one guy were always on same team. He was QB and i was receiver. we had all kinds of codes and when i walked up to the line depending on how they played me we'd say or do something. always worked too. We had this one fav play, always good for a 1st down or more. if the guy covering me played off a few yards it was "money". Sometimes id walk up to the line and look at him and he'd get this look when he'd want me to run that fav play and the field would be wide open for it and id just start laughing so hard i could hardly run the route. yeah, those were good days.

Heck yea. Playing in bad conditions made it better. It actually snowed here in victoria this past winter and we played some football, it was a blast. Didn't realize how hard it is to play in snow.
My favorite play was a short curl pump fake then go deep, always worked. My gf asked me the other day if i could be anything else in my life what would i be. I told her i'd be a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. She laughed.

[Alexander]

Originally Posted by Woody'sGirl

Roethlisberger and Burress had devised plays for the QB's favorite receiver, though he almost never was the primary one, and would adjust his routes as they saw fit and not according to the playbook

Isn't this what Quincy Carter and Antonio Bryant were accused of doing in 2002?

[Tenkamenin]

Originally Posted by TheSkaven

I can't see Cedrick Wilson starting in Pittsburgh. They have Antwaan Randel El, he'll be the #2 receiver this year (nice fantasy sleeper too).

I've seen Cedric Wilson play for the 49ers, the guy young and talented. He played pretty well for the 9ers, and he's only going to get better. I think he'll start and do a fine job, I heard he was a hard worker.

[joseephuss]

Originally Posted by Woody'sGirl

They viewed Burress as a negative influence. There was a reason why Burress saw his production increase when Roethlisberger stepped in for Tommy Maddox in Game 2, only the team didn't catch on until late in the year: Roethlisberger and Burress had devised plays for the QB's favorite receiver, though he almost never was the primary one, and would adjust his routes as they saw fit and not according to the playbook.

I thought it was interesting that they were able to see a difference in Burress' production based on just one game with Maddox. One game isn't enough to set a trend. Burress had 1 catch in game 1, 2 in game 2 and 2 in game 3. What a big jump.

[speedkilz88]

Cedrick Wilson isn't a starting material wr. Maybe a decent #3, but thats it.

[ravidubey]

Originally Posted by Woody'sGirl

Best move: It's a case of addition by subtraction. Pittsburgh
Exit Burress, enter Cedrick Wilson, signed as a free agent. The former 49er, expected to start opposite Hines Ward, gives Pittsburgh's offense the downfield speed it lacked.

No reflection on you WG at all, but for this article to call replacing Plaxico Burress with Cedrick Wilson a "Best move" is, to be blunt, idiotic, self-serving, mindless, and stupid! This is rationalizing at it's very best-- a way for an organization to justify going cheap on someone they think needed a comeuppance. This is the media wanting to hurt someone because they can, knowing certain segment of fans will devour this kind of stuff.

Someone should make up a term for this "character police attitude" the media and many fans seem to be adopting-- it's probably spawned from some kind of jealous backlash against the free-spirited recklessness of these young, rich, professional athletes who have little care in the whole world except to be really good at football.

It's as if Plaxico Burress is a curse because he's really talented and that clashes with the conservative Pittsburgh offense. There can be no tolerance for a player who behind the scenes, not publicly, demands more even if it clashes with a blue collar coach? No, every team should be jammed full of "character guys" with average talent who play like a team so everyone can be the New England Patriots (oh yeah, did we mention it's a cheaper approach?). Yeesh.

Have we as Cowboys fans forgotten what it was like to have any swagger or pride at all? Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Big E, Larry, Primetime, Lett-- these guys had serious talent, worked hard at making it better and executing to perfection, and were damned proud of it!

Burress did nothing wrong but demand to help his football team and occasionally (golly gee willickers) catch a pass thrown beyond 10 freaking yards in the air! Instead he gets admonished by the "character police" which is really nothing more than a sad excuse to lower his asking price to something the team could afford.

And how did the classy character-police in the Steeler organization do this? By saying anything directly to Plaxico's face or even to his agent? NO, that would take real character-- instead the Steelers spread their opinions through back-handed leaks to mediots like this one who just eat this crap right up.

You're telling me the Steelers-- who analyze and scrutinize game films over and over obsessively during the season finally "caught on" so late in the year that they decided it was better to wait until after the free agency signing period to bother to tell the media? Was this to imply that the Steelers plays were never intended for Burress and the only reason his production "magically" went up was because the rookie QB and this one bad seed (and oh BTW expensive) WR went behind everyone's back and redrew the plays which they never practiced but executed to perfection in games?!? What kind of sheer lunatic BS are they trying to pull?

I think the media needs to get a clue and the character police ought to arrest themselves.

[Everlastingxxx]

[WoodysGirl]

Originally Posted by ravidubey

No reflection on you WG at all, but for this article to call replacing Plaxico Burress with Cedrick Wilson a "Best move" is, to be blunt, idiotic, self-serving, mindless, and stupid! This is rationalizing at it's very best-- a way for an organization to justify going cheap on someone they think needed a comeuppance. This is the media wanting to hurt someone because they can, knowing certain segment of fans will devour this kind of stuff.

Someone should make up a term for this "character police attitude" the media and many fans seem to be adopting-- it's probably spawned from some kind of jealous backlash against the free-spirited recklessness of these young, rich, professional athletes who have little care in the whole world except to be really good at football.

[View Full Quote]It's as if Plaxico Burress is a curse because he's really talented and that clashes with the conservative Pittsburgh offense. There can be no tolerance for a player who behind the scenes, not publicly, demands more even if it clashes with a blue collar coach? No, every team should be jammed full of "character guys" with average talent who play like a team so everyone can be the New England Patriots (oh yeah, did we mention it's a cheaper approach?). Yeesh.

Have we as Cowboys fans forgotten what it was like to have any swagger or pride at all? Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Big E, Larry, Primetime, Lett-- these guys had serious talent, worked hard at making it better and executing to perfection, and were damned proud of it!

Burress did nothing wrong but demand to help his football team and occasionally (golly gee willickers) catch a pass thrown beyond 10 freaking yards in the air! Instead he gets admonished by the "character police" which is really nothing more than a sad excuse to lower his asking price to something the team could afford.

And how did the classy character-police in the Steeler organization do this? By saying anything directly to Plaxico's face or even to his agent? NO, that would take real character-- instead the Steelers spread their opinions through back-handed leaks to mediots like this one who just eat this crap right up.

You're telling me the Steelers-- who analyze and scrutinize game films over and over obsessively during the season finally "caught on" so late in the year that they decided it was better to wait until after the free agency signing period to bother to tell the media? Was this to imply that the Steelers plays were never intended for Burress and the only reason his production "magically" went up was because the rookie QB and this one bad seed (and oh BTW expensive) WR went behind everyone's back and redrew the plays which they never practiced but executed to perfection in games?!? What kind of sheer lunatic BS are they trying to pull?

I think the media needs to get a clue and the character police ought to arrest themselves.

I don't think it's a reflection on me, at all. I only posted the portion that I thought people might be curious about. Espn.com is doing an offseason overview of each division and today's covered the AFC North.

I think you're post made some very valid points.