To me, the best lesson to be taken from the Steelers is that they know what they want to be on both offense and defense and then are successful at finding players who are good fits for them. This is their greatest strength. Simply put, they don't seem to evaluate guys generally. Instead, they seem to solely evaluate guys are their ability to succeed in the Steelers' scheme regardless of what anyone else thinks of them. Thus, I suspect they would pass on lots of highly regarded players for players that are perceived to be lower rated because they see a better fit. I really think this is key.
On offense, the Texans have already shown some ability to do this. Their zone blocking scheme requires certain attributes from its linemen and they seem to be looking for players who have those attributes, rather than just the highest rated. Same thing with running backs. As a result, we've seen excellent production from middle and late round picks (Winston, Slaton, Daniels, Anderson, etc.).
My primary complaint under Kubiak is that they haven't done this on D. The defense has consistently lacked an identity and no clear idea of what they are trying to be. Not only does this hurt on the field but it hurts at draft time because it's hard to find someone that's a specific fit for your system when you don't really have a system. Exhibit A on this front is Okoye. The only reason he was a 1st round talent was his gap shooting abilities. However, we draft him and then make him play "react" football which negates his one good skill. To date, he has been a very poor fit for us because it seems like they just drafted the highest rated player without any thought of how they would use him in our system. I'm hoping that this year the Texans D will have some type of identity and they can then start looking for players with the skills to execute their gameplans.
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