Bud Dupree...does he stay or go ?

this was the show me year for dupree... so did he do enough to to collect 9.2 million on a 5th year option ? i say hell no. hate to waste another high pick on another OLB , but....

If he takes a pay cut as a backup I think he stays. Other wise let him go under perform somewhere else.
He makes one good play and offsets it with a couple bonehead penalties.

I like him if he's not rushing the passer imo he's a good at dropping back in coverage to bad the Steelers don't have Watt bookends. would really like good quality CB, 3-4 OLB and a fast ILB free agent or draft pick ups this off season. getting these 3 type of players would really wake up this defense.

I think DB coach hire Bradley is starting to pay off seems the DBs were getting better at defending the ball in the air on pass plays towards the end of the season. now they need to add a little more talent to that mix. Haden on one side and a upgrayedd on the other.

solardave wrote:

If he takes a pay cut as a backup I think he stays. Other wise let him go under perform somewhere else.
He makes one good play and offsets it with a couple bonehead penalties.

i don't think they have the option to pay him less. this is the 5th year option of keeping him at 9.2 million or releasing him with no dead cap money.  
apparently that von miller pass rushing camp didn't help him much ...

i can't for the life of me under stand why they wouldn't have at least tried him at practice as an ILB . lawrence timmons was not an ILB in college. dupree has the size , speed, and athleticism to play the position.
when i was in high school , it was not uncommon for the coaches to move us to different positions for a couple of practices , or sometimes permanently depending on if they felt it was better suited for you. i myself practiced at least one day each at tackle , inside LB, and both strong and weak side OLB, before staying at strong side OLB.
on offense i spent a few days at fullback before i settled in at right guard.

i think they call that putting a player in a position to succeed. Dupree after 4 years has shown what he brings to the table at OLB and while serviceable , the position needs upgraded.

I think they should keep Bud. He was pretty solid this season. Keep Bud, Watt, see what Adeniyi can do in year two, and maybe try to add yet another pass rusher in the draft.

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

solardave wrote:

If he takes a pay cut as a backup I think he stays. Other wise let him go under perform somewhere else.
He makes one good play and offsets it with a couple bonehead penalties.

i don't think they have the option to pay him less. this is the 5th year option of keeping him at 9.2 million or releasing him with no dead cap money.  
apparently that von miller pass rushing camp didn't help him much ...

i can't for the life of me under stand why they wouldn't have at least tried him at practice as an ILB . lawrence timmons was not an ILB in college. dupree has the size , speed, and athleticism to play the position.
when i was in high school , it was not uncommon for the coaches to move us to different positions for a couple of practices , or sometimes permanently depending on if they felt it was better suited for you. i myself practiced at least one day each at tackle , inside LB, and both strong and weak side OLB, before staying at strong side OLB.
on offense i spent a few days at fullback before i settled in at right guard.

i think they call that putting a player in a position to succeed. Dupree after 4 years has shown what he brings to the table at OLB and while serviceable , the position needs upgraded.

You make sense. I wondered why they started him on the left side while he played on the right in college. Then they bring in TJ and put him on the right when he was used to the left. Not related but bear with me. They draft a CB #1 who is a cover corner and put him in a mostly zone defense. Like they're trying to reinvent the wheel.
OK so that's on Tomlin/Butler. Then they move Bud where he is comfortable and TJ too. TJ had a great year. Bud had better year this year but I think your idea of at least working him out at ILB is a great idea. It's practice. What harm can it do and the upside is huge if it works. If Adenyi takes a leap they look like geniuses for taking your suggestion. I mean that's if they troll us at all.

They can give him a new contract so that they don't need to pay him $9.2M next year. That's what I would do, something like $4-5M a year.

Stella Nation wrote:

They can give him a new contract so that they don't need to pay him $9.2M next year. That's what I would do, something like $4-5M a year.

Can they do that? I guess they can if they do it before they exercise his 5th year option. Right? I thought for sure you'd be saying "bye felicia" Stella

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert. I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m. We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

nine vegetable wrote:

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert.  I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m.  We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

They're saying he could go #1 overall so not a chance for us but has anyone seen Josh Allen from UK? Dude's a one man wrecking crew. Looks like a Kalil Mack type talent. 4th quarter of the Citrus bowl and he has 3 sacks so far.

solardave wrote:

nine vegetable wrote:

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert.  I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m.  We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

They're saying he could go #1 overall so not a chance for us but has anyone seen Josh Allen from UK? Dude's a one man wrecking crew. Looks like a Kalil Mack type talent. 4th quarter of the Citrus bowl and he has 3 sacks so far.

I think you meant to quote someone else?

nine vegetable wrote:

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert.  I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m.  We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

no stella is correct. they can offer him a long term contract. but would he accept a 3 year ,4 or 5 million deal, when he's set to make 9.2 in one year ? do the steelers wanna commit to a guy who has shown very little improvement over his first 4 years ?

my philosophy is if your standing still your not making progress. by that i mean if you don't make changes then do not expect better results. i mean look at how many years they have WASTED a roster spot on Dan McCullers. 5 YEARS !!! thats 5 years of not giving another player or players a chance to be better than Dan McCullers.

Dupree is simply not a game changing play maker. you won't find that kind of guy by playing it safe and keeping your roster full of average players.

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

nine vegetable wrote:

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert.  I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m.  We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

no stella is correct. they can offer him a long term contract. but would he accept a 3 year ,4 or 5 million deal, when he's set to make 9.2 in one year ? do the steelers wanna commit to a guy who has shown very little improvement over his first 4 years ?

my philosophy is if your standing still your not making progress. by that i mean if you don't make changes then do not expect better results. i mean look at how many years they have WASTED a roster spot on Dan McCullers. 5 YEARS !!! thats 5 years of not giving another player or players a chance to be better than Dan McCullers.

Dupree is simply not a game changing play maker. you won't find that kind of guy by playing it safe and keeping your roster full of average players.

You also won't find that kind of guy in free agency. What you'll find is people worse than him - leading to my previous point. If we let him go, we will have another hole in our lineup - to go with the numerous holes we already have (ILB, another good DB or two needed, etc).

solardave wrote:

nine vegetable wrote:

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert.  I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m.  We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

They're saying he could go #1 overall so not a chance for us but has anyone seen Josh Allen from UK? Dude's a one man wrecking crew. Looks like a Kalil Mack type talent. 4th quarter of the Citrus bowl and he has 3 sacks so far.

I too like that Josh Allen kid and I wouldn't have an issue if they traded some picks to go all the way up to snag him. TJ Watt is very good, but we're still missing the kind of guy on our defense that is just flat out dominant. We need a Kalil Mack kind of guy. Someone that strikes fear into Offensive Coordinators and makes them have to gameplan for them.

Honestly, I think if we add another corner, and get our hands on a good pass rusher this defense is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Edmunds is coming into his own, and the game is going to slow down for him in year two. Haden is solid, Hilton and Davis are pretty solid, and the D-Line is solid (though they could use a little more depth). If we plug the holes we'll be that much better defensively. ILB is another area of concern as well. Bostic/Fort are good depth guys, but losing a guy of Shazier's caliber has really hurt this defense, particularly in the turnover department.

I like the idea of trying Dupree at ILB. Shop AB for a #1 and use it to get ( by trading up)  Josh Allen.
Or a similar versatile LB like him without giving up too much. Or a quality CB.
If we could get a #1 in say the top ten picks we could use that one to trade up and use our other one on BPA. That's best player available,not bust player available.

Ousting AB and Bell could be a blessing in disguise cap wise. I think Washington is going to take a leap next year and possibly be our #2.
This appears to be another drama filled off season but hopefully it goes away before training camp. I don't know that we have any Divas left after these 2 go. Hope it stops there.

nine vegetable wrote:

Master_Of_Puppets wrote:

nine vegetable wrote:

I don't think it works that way - although I am no expert.  I think, if they decline the 5th year option, he becomes a free agent and could sign with anyone.

Personally, I think we will pick up his option, even though he's probably not worth $9.5 m.  We're just not that talented at linebacker and letting him walk would leave another hole to fill.

no stella is correct. they can offer him a long term contract. but would he accept a 3 year ,4 or 5 million deal, when he's set to make 9.2 in one year ? do the steelers wanna commit to a guy who has shown very little improvement over his first 4 years ?

my philosophy is if your standing still your not making progress. by that i mean if you don't make changes then do not expect better results. i mean look at how many years they have WASTED a roster spot on Dan McCullers. 5 YEARS !!! thats 5 years of not giving another player or players a chance to be better than Dan McCullers.

Dupree is simply not a game changing play maker. you won't find that kind of guy by playing it safe and keeping your roster full of average players.

You also won't find that kind of guy in free agency.  What you'll find is people worse than him - leading to my previous point.  If we let him go, we will have another hole in our lineup - to go with the numerous holes we already have (ILB, another good DB or two needed, etc).  

Dupree is the steelers john bostic. a high draft pick who has been injured often, but is serviceable , but will never be above average as a pass rusher.
undrafted anthony chikillo has started 9 games in his career and put up 5.5 sacks in those 9 games. it has taken Dupree 15 starts this year to put up 5.5 sacks. now is chikillo starter material ? hell no .
if they shopped Dupree around for a trade, i'd wager they couldn't even get a 5th round pick for him.
Jadeveon Clowney is a free agent this year. but is going to be HIGH dollar.