Could the Steelers Lose Players to the Titans Because of LeBeau?

[Panich52]

Free agency hasn’t even kicked off yet, but already there’s chatter that the Steelers may be losing a couple of players to one certain team.

That team is the Tennessee Titans, who boast a rather big ace in the hole when it comes to luring possible Steelers free agents to their team, and that’s the employment of former defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau.

Pro Football Talk reports that Tennessean Titans writer Jim Wyatt says there’s no doubt that a couple Steelers could wind up wearing the blue of the Titans in 2015 due to LeBeau’s influence.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/25/ike-taylor-says-players-will-follow-dick-lebeau-to-tennessee/

One player that is quoted to saying that LeBeau is a key to a couple players leaving Pittsburgh for Tennessee is CB Ike Taylor, who is a free agent this offseason.

“Coach LeBeau recruits himself. He is like Coach K; you know what you are getting yourself into,’’ Taylor said.

“You don’t have to ask the veteran guys who have played under him. Just say Coach LeBeau wants you to come, and they’d say: “What time? That’s the way people feel about him.”

The Steelers have two other OLB’s that could land with LeBeau, one being James Harrison, who announced Sunday he’s playing in 2015, and another is Jason Worilds, who the team won’t sign until after the start of the free agency period they announced last week.

“If the money is right in Tennessee, yeah, I could see it,’’ Taylor said about other Steelers coming to the Titans.

“The money doesn’t have to be spectacular, but if the money is right, I can tell you they are willing to go where Coach LeBeau is. … There is just a genuine, mutual respect that I have for that man, and other guys have it, too.

“I would come to Tennessee, but only because of Coach LeBeau.”

That’s not good news for the Steelers, but at the same time it’s easy to talk now before free agency, and there’s no for sure that the Titans are going to want these older players for what was one of, if not the worst defense in the NFL last season.

It’s always interesting to hear players talk before free agency starts. We will see if that same attitude that Taylor has rings true once players

The post Could the Steelers Lose Players to the Titans Because of LeBeau? appeared first on Steelers Gab.
http://www.steelersgab.com/2015/02/25/could-the-steelers-lose-players-to-the-titans-because-of-lebeau/

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[JonLP24]

1. Local media falsely broke the story of Lebeau hired by the Cardinals

All this time I thought he was with the Cardinals. Said he was going to be in some sort of supervisor, CEO, I can't think of the word of

the defense while their current D-Coordinator would do the day-to-day coaching, scheming, play-calling.

Here, it appears he is the D-Coordinator which is interesting because last season Ray Horton was the D-Coordinator and he ran the very same, Lebeau scheme. I know the Tennessee D was pretty bad last year but it wasn't the scheme

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Horton, whose defense with the Browns last season was ranked ninth in the NFL, said players have regularly been in position to make plays. The issues have been with poor gap fits and undisciplined play, not to mention poor tackling.
Titans defensive end Jurrell Casey (99) sacks Jaguars

The longest pass play against the Titans this season — a 70-yard pass from Redskins quarterback Colt McCoy to Pierre Garcon — was a 6-yard pass that featured two missed tackles, Horton said. The Titans missed a tackle close to the line of scrimmage on the longest run against them — a 53-yarder by Eagles running back LeSean McCoy.

The Titans also missed tackles on two 40-plus yard runs by the Texans' Arian Foster, Horton said.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2014/12/05/titans-ray-horton-scheme-problem/19963895/

I wonder though, did he take the job at the expense of his protege? Or his Ray Horton like a co-assistant or where he is? He turned Arizona into a top 10 pass D in 8 games, he came in during a strike so no pre-season but once the players learned the scheme they looked incredible. However, they had some very poor QBs on the other side so those years were a waste. They lost a 7-6 game a few years ago.

There shouldn't be a learning curve though since the players were under a Lebeau style scheme last year.

[LiberalFighter]

2. If it was college... sure. But this is the NFL and there are rules with free agency, etc.