I'd take Corey Webster over Ike, Chris Gamble (Panthers), Marcus Trufant (Seahawks), Carlos Rogers (49ers) etc etc....
I think you're way off Dodens. Saying that it's close between Champ and Ike is super duper fan-boy. I don't know if I can take it seriously.
Chris Gamble? Carlos Rogers? Seriously? Corey Webster? Webster's not even the best CB on his own team. And the Seahawks lost their best CB last year...Josh Wilson. Champ Bailey is past his prime. Obviously Ike Taylor at his prime doesn't touch Bailey even like, two years ago, I won't argue that. But right now, yeah, I'd say they're pretty close to equal, with a slight edge to Taylor because he still has his speed. Look, you people may not agree with me, but that doesn't make me a homer. But I'll get to that later. Honestly, I take offense to that; that accusation bothers me because I do believe that I'm pretty objective when looking at the Steelers in relation to the rest of the league. In fact, I think I do this more than most people on this forum.
Rashean Mathis, Donte Hall,Charles Tillman .... come on dude! I'm not saying these are great corners but he is no better than any one of them.
I admit that Mathis is one player that I overlooked. I don't know if he's better than Taylor, but it's close. Donte Hall? Do you mean DeAngelo Hall? If so, I'm sorry, but that's pretty laughable. DeAngelo Hall is possibly the most overrated CB in the entire league outside of his interception ability. Charles Tillman is not better than Ike Taylor...come on. Ike Taylor plays man coverage with no safety cover, usually on a team's best wideout, while the rest of the team plays zone. It's an unusual system with unusual responsibilities, and I honestly do believe that Taylor's abilities are underrated. He only allowed one touchdown all of regular season last year, and that was late in garbage time against the Titans in week 2. You can disagree with me, and the article, but that doesn't make me a homer. It means that we've come to different conclusions in our analysis of players' abilities. I think Ike Taylor's ability to man up on a receiver and shadow him all game, minimizing his success, is overlooked.
1. The writer of the article implied a lot of things that were not true, making his article very misleading.
Or did you perceive something that wasn't there?
2. Your comment questioning how many Steelers games I've watched in the past is down right stupid. How many Jaguars games have you watched? Or Colts games? Apparently not that many otherwise you'd know both teams have good corners (Mathis and Powers). Given the proximity of Pennsylvia to Indiana and the fact that I'm not a complete fucking moron and know what I'm talking about, discrediting me, or at least your attempt to, because of the number of Steelers games I may or may not have watched is again, stupid.
Most teams have good corners. I do think that you would have a different opinion of Ike Taylor if you watched him play more consistently. I doubt you still would agree with me that he's probably around a top 15 corner in the league in terms of playing man coverage consistently, but I think you would have a slightly higher opinion of him than you do now.
3. Lee Evans is not a number one receiver. He's a one trick poney just like Nate Washington is. Btw, how did Ike Taylor shawoding him all game work out for the Steelers? Not good iirc, but then again I wouldn't know because I didn't watch the game. Anquan Boldin is far superior to him in every facet of receiver play and is clearly their most talented receiver and one of the best in the league. And as for Reggie Wayne, your comment about his production this season is laughable. He gained 106 yards in the season opener against Houston, and a td in garbage time. Evidently you didn't watch the game huh? There is/was no chemistry whatsoever between he and Collins, and you'd know this if you had watched this past Sunday night game, which you couldn't have if you're making such a claim that losing Peyton didn't affect Wayne's production.
I already explained why Taylor was covering Lee Evans and not Anquan Boldin; because he is the only CB on the Steelers' roster that is fast enough to cover him, because his entire game is speed. Last year, he did cover Boldin. And, by the way, WRs only caught 4 passes that game. Most of the damage was done by Ray Rice and the TEs. Outside of Boldin's touchdown, on which McFadden had decent coverage, the Steelers defended their WRs well. It was just everybody else that they couldn't cover, which falls more on the LBs and safeties.
As for the rest, Ike Taylor, again, can only play against the opponent he has in a given week. The fact of the matter is that Wayne probably would have had a more productive game with William Gay or Keenan Lewis covering him, and that was Taylor's job.
4. My main problem with your response isn't that you're defending Ike Taylor it's the fact that you're glorifying him like he's criminally underrated, which is exactly what you do with every Steelers player. Not only that, but you constantly claiming that he's a great player is so ridiculous that it hurts my brain, honestly. Every player that shows a little longevity and skills is claimed to be "great" nowadays, but Taylor isn't "great," he's good. There's nothing about Taylor that is "great." He's a product of the fantastic system in Pittsburgh. It goes along with my belief that Polamalu is a good safety, he isn't great. He gets torched far too often in pass coverage to be considered great in my opinion. Basically my point is this; he may be underrated in your mind, but great players don't stay under the radar long let alone nine years.
I am not glorifying him like he's criminally underrated. I do think that he is slightly underrated, and I think a lot of that has to do with the image of the Steelers having a weak secondary due to the other CBs that they have, so it reflects negatively on him through no fault of his own. As I said earlier, I don't appreciate these accusations of being a homer as though I have some sort of history. Which Steelers players do I glorify unjustly? It's not like I think the pro bowl roster should be nothing but Steelers. I take offense to this, and frankly I think it's bullshit. I'd like you to actually provide some evidence to back this up. I'm not even going to discuss your comment about Polamalu, who rarely is directly involved in covering players in pass coverage to begin with. Although he did play some last week.
5. Oh and I almost forgot, your comment about how "all the great corners don't cover a team's best receiver for an entire game" is false. Revis shadowed Randy Moss and Andre Johnson in back to back weeks and pretty much shut them down (he did this twice to Moss that season actually). So while your point is generally true, you probably should have used a better example than Revis.
I said all great corners don't cover a team's best receiver every play for every game, and they don't. I watch the Jets every single week, and he doesn't cover a team's best receiver every play of every game. So, what was your point again, here? That you obviously don't watch every Jets game so you wouldn't actually know the answer here? Besides, don't you remember last season when Antonio Cromartie was covering Moss for the second half of the first game? Sometimes covering a team's "best" receiver every play is not the most effective way to use your best man corner. But Ike Taylor does do this more than most cornerbacks, though out of necessity, because their other corners are average at best.
Basically what I'm saying is, you're an uber fucking homer bro. Besides, why are you getting annoyed with me calling you out? You should be thanking me for discussing the Steelers with you.
I'm no more of a homer than anybody else on this forum, and I don't appreciate your tone and your claim. Just because Steelers news is the only thing that I post about here more often than not doesn't mean it's the only thing that I pay attention to or that I think the Steelers do everything better than every other team in the league because they have all-pros at every position and inevitable hall of fame coaches. I stopped posting about sports here for a while because I grew tired of the constant antagonistic attitude that goes along with the average sports fan, where all responses and rebuttals are in the form of an attack. Maybe it's time for another hiatus from that. I'm sorry that you people disagree with me on my evaluation of a player that just so happens to be on the team that I like most.
