PFF says Burns & Davis two of the worst picks in entire draft

SteelCityUnderground wrote:

Hey 16 busts out of what, 31 picks in the first and 32 in the second? Cool story bro! (Seriously, 25% of the basically the first 2 rounds, are going to be BUSTS or BAD PICKS???)

The statistical analysis piece is definitely flimsy at best. PFF even states that their predictions of a player succeeding in the NFL based on analysis of their combine metrics is 55%. That's just better than a guess. Go on their site and you'll see fancy statistical terms like R-Squared and Statistical Outliers and nice projection curves. You can take all that and flush it like the turd it is. The problem with modeling data to predict something is you need to have the most significant factors that indicate success. Unfortunately for PFF, combine metrics isn't the most significant factors for determining player success (and it seems they define success as remaining on a team and not washing out). Injury is a major factor and good luck predicting that. But one of the biggest factors is the human element. Can the player adapt mentally and physically to the NFL? Can he overcome adversity? How's his off-field behavior (Bryant, Gordon)?  Is he smart enough to pick up the playbook (S. Thomas)? If you judge a player's opportunity to succeed in the NFL based on the combine and don't factor in the human element, then Limas Sweed would be in the HOF and Brett Favre would be a practice squad lackey. But they can't measure the human element and, therefore, their simple statistical analysis is just slightly better than a coin toss.

Or we take the easy way out and just agree with the amateur statisticians at PFF who have a very low confidence level model ..... yeah, Burns sucks alright

Steelers Antonio Brown challenges No.1 pick Artie Burns at OTAs

by Bryan DeArdo
Pittsburgh Newsletter



Antonio Brown had a game plan entering his first day of OTAs: go after first round pick Artie Burns.

That's exactly what Brown did on Thursday, lining up against the rookie during the team's "seven shots" portion of practice. According to Jacob Klinger of pennlive.com, Brown beat Burns over the top on a route the rookie thought would be a slant.

While Burns lamented giving up the score, Brown showed off his "Dancing with the Stars" moves in the end zone, as the All-Pro gave the 25th overall pick a baptism by fire.

"Can't have it too many times," Burns said. "He got me. I had bit on the slant. He went back out. He scored on me."

Burns said that he welcomes the challenge of guarding the best receiver in football, a daunting task even for the most talented and experienced cornerbacks in the NFL.

"You can't panic," Burns said about guarding Brown. "You always have to stay cool no matter what situation you're in. He came up on me fast. I just have to trust my eyes, trust my training. To be out here covering him, it helps my level of game rise up."

Despite giving up the score, Burns has impressed his veteran teammates with his ability and practice habits over the past three days.

to read rest of article:

http://pit.247sports.com/Bolt/Steelers-Antonio-Brown-challenges-No1-pick-Artie-Burns-at-OTAs-45508858

Sean Davis was the lowest ranked Steelers defender against the Redskins by Pro Football Focus:

"rookie safety Sean Davis had significant struggles, as he yielded catches on six of seven targets and missed four tackles"

https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-steelers-redskins-grades/

Hawaii 5-0 wrote:

Sean Davis was the lowest ranked Steelers defender against the Redskins by Pro Football Focus:

"rookie safety Sean Davis had significant struggles, as he yielded catches on six of seven targets and missed four tackles"

https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-steelers-redskins-grades/

Bust! Better release him immediately.

Honestly, that is what you get when you have to start rookies, but we currently have no better options and the kid just has to keep getting better each week until somebody like Burns or Gilbert can play on the outside.

Artie Burns Focus, Progress Earns Tomlin’s Praise

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2016/09/artie-burns-focus-progress-earns-tomlins-praise/

Steelers Vs Bengals: Missed Tackles Report

BY JOSH CARNEY SEPTEMBER 21, 2016

In nasty conditions Sunday at Heinz Field, the ever-improving Pittsburgh Steelers defense had another strong performance, holding the Cincinnati Bengals to just 16 points to pick up a 24-16 win.

Like I did following the Week 1 win over Washington, I’ll take a look at missed tackles by the Steelers defense and break down some of the most egregious misses against the Bengals.

Week 2 Individual Breakdown:

Artie Burns: 2
Sean Davis: 2
Ryan Shazier: 2
William Gay: 2
Robert Golden: 1
Mike Mitchell: 1
Stephon Tuitt: 1
Lawrence Timmons: 1
Arthur Moats: 1

Total — 13 missed tackles

Overall Individual Breakdown (through two weeks):

Sean Davis: 7
Lawrence Timmons: 4
William Gay: 3
Ryan Shazier: 3
Artie Burns: 2
Stephon Tuitt: 2
Mike Mitchell: 2
LJ Fort: 1
Robert Golden: 1
Arthur Moats: 1

Coming out of the Week 2 performance against the Bengals, once again a rookie defensive back is at the top of the list for missed tackles in a game, but this time it’s Artie Burns, who played a season-high 34 snaps defensively.

Outside of the two missed tackles, it was great to see Burns playing meaningful snaps early in the season against a division foe like the Bengals. That shows me that Burns is really progressing quickly and will be a big part of this defense moving forward in 2016, which is a real positive in my book.

Burns did tie for the team lead in missed tackles with Sean Davis, William Gay and Ryan Shazier, but I don’t think anyone on the list from the Cincinnati game had a bad overall performance whatsoever. In fact, I felt Davis improved from Week 1 to Week 2 and Shazier really showed no signs of a lingering knee injury in sloppy conditions.

Overall, it was a solid game for the defense despite the conditions. A few of the missed tackles can be chalked up to the conditions as some defenders slid off of tackles due to soaked jerseys and slick gear, so keep that in mind...

to read rest of article:

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2016/09/steelers-vs-bengals-missed-tackles-report/

he broke up one pass, probably already beating antwon blake's season high in that category

Fire Arians wrote:

he broke up one pass, probably already beating antwon blake's season high in that category

Yes, so far Valentino Blake, CB for the Titans has 0 pass breakups.

As for Burns, that missed tackle was the stuff matadors are made of. Still needs work, but I like the sounds of his work ethic. If anybody still has video, watch his pass breakup and you see he comes forward to the WR at the snap of the ball and gets flat footed.....terrible technique, but thankfully the back of the endzone helped Burns out, as did his long arms to bat that ball down.

Steelers Vs Eagles Missed Tackles Report

BY JOSH CARNEY SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Sunday’s game in Philadelphia against the Eagles was ugly to say the least. Almost as ugly as the final score itself was the attempted tackling in the 34-3 loss.

Like I do every week, I’ll keep track of missed tackles in the game, as well as overall on the season. So far through three weeks, the Steelers have missed 40 tackles.

This week’s breakdown won’t be pretty.

Total Missed Tackles: 14

Artie Burns — 4
Vince Williams — 2
Sean Davis — 2
Ryan Shazier — 1
Mike Mitchell — 1
William Gay — 1
Stephon Tuitt — 1
Cameron Heyward — 1
Ross Cockrell — 1

Total Missed Tackles through three weeks: 40

Sean Davis — 9
Artie Burns — 6
Lawrence Timmons — 4
Ryan Shazier — 4
William Gay — 4
Stephon Tuitt — 3
Mike Mitchell — 3
Vince Williams — 2
Robert Golden — 1
Arthur Moats — 1
LJ Fort — 1
Ross Cockrell — 1
Cameron Heyward — 1

Again, the numbers above aren’t pretty any way you try to spin it, especially for the young defensive backs in Sean Davis and Artie Burns, who are first and second in missed tackles overall for the Steelers through three weeks.

While one can be pleased that Mike Tomlin and the defensive coaching staff are putting a lot of trust into the young rookies, it’s very concerning to see Burns and Davis repeatedly missing tackles early on this season.

While Davis missed five tackles in Week One against the Washington Redskins, Burns followed up with four missed tackles this week against the Eagles.

The issue with Burns’ missed tackles — outside of the disastrous effort on Darren Sproles’ long touchdown early in the third quarter — is the fact that they’re coming on plays where he’s attacking downhill on short throws.

to read rest of article:

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2016/09/steelers-vs-eagles-missed-tackles-report/

Young cornerbacks developing nicely for Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers have the makings of a deep secondary for years to come

Tyreek Hill ran a 4.29 40 at his Pro Day and he looked all of that as the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver sprinted past Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Artie Burns in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's game.

But Burns surprisingly caught up, and at the last nanosecond reached out an arm to deflect the deep pass away from Hill's hands.

Not that the play mattered in the outcome of a 43-14 Steelers win, but it mattered to the coaching staff and personnel department of the Steelers, who have to be pleased with the development of Burns and the rest of their young secondary.

Of course, the Steelers still rank 30th in the NFL in pass defense. That's where they finished last season, and that's why they spent their first- and second-round draft picks on defensive backs.

Burns and second-round safety/cornerback hybrid Sean Davis are 6-foot cover guys with outstanding speed. And then they threw Justin Gilbert into the room as a reclamation project right before the start of the season and – voila – a group of sub 5-10 mutts had turned into tall run-and-cover specimens for DBs coach Carnell Lake to mold in his own image.

"We do have a lot of young talent," said starting left cornerback Ross Cockrell. "If you just go down the line from Gilbert, obviously you know he was a top-10 pick; Artie was a first-round pick; Sean Davis was an early-round pick, very talented, plays a lot of positions for us. You've got guys like Senquez (Golson), who was an early-round pick. He's still coming back. We've got a lot of young talent, but the thing that's most impressive about them is they just have that hunger, they have that fire. They want to learn, they want to grow, they want to get better each and every week, each and every practice. It's a good thing to see."

Read More: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2016/10/05/young-cornerbacks-developing-nicely-for-pittsburgh-steelers/a87g31q/

Total missed tackles in 2016: 59

Defensive Missed Tackles

Sean Davis — 9
Artie Burns — 6
Mike Mitchell — 6
Stephon Tuitt — 6
Lawrence Timmons — 4
Ryan Shazier — 4
William Gay — 4
Ross Cockrell — 4
Vince Williams — 4
Arthur Moats — 1
Robert Golden — 1
Cameron Heyward — 1
LJ Fort — 1
Jarvis Jones — 1
Anthony Chickillo — 1
Jordan Dangerfield — 1
Ricardo Mathews — 1

Special Teams Missed Tackles

Steven Johnson — 1
Sammie Coates — 1
Tyler Matakevich — 1
Justin Gilbert — 1

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2016/10/steelers-vs-jets-missed-tackles-report/