And here's the best part: if Cassel had been tagged twice, not only would it have cost more money, he would have been signed long-term after his fluke 2010 season.

Meaning that right now, today, we'd only be one year into a long-term contract with Cassel that would be worth a hell of a lot more than the one he actually signed.

but Pioli blew it by trading for Castle.

if he thinks or still thinks Castle is a starting QB he aint worth a **** as GM>

But Vick was\is a thug dog killah yo! Not the right fitty-three and stuff...

yep, he did.

[/edit] actually the mistake wasn't trading for Cassel as it was giving him the big contact, instead of immediately looking for a better long term solution.

I'm definitely on board with the basics principles of the OP.
Say what you want of the Pioli regime, but the fact that he's taken a broken franchise and transformed it into a talented ball club built through the draft to be a future contender for many years is undeniable.
If he fails to acquire the pieces needed to become a SB contender before his tenure is up, I will consider him a failure, but all the dumbasses who run around acting like it's a foregone conclusion that he will not make the moves necessary just look like arrogant self-important fools.
I have no doubt that the proper triggers will be pulled when the right targets are in sight.
We need a Franchise QB. No doubt about it. But all this " I don't care if the QB busts at least we will have taken a shot" talk has got to be the stupidest shit I have ever heard. If we would have chosen Mark Sanchez we would still have the same situation at QB we have now, and would be without one of the most promising young 5-techs in the league. That whole draft was full of suck. I'd rather have Tyson Jackson than some worthless POS that would need replacing right now. It's easy to look back, find the best player from the draft and say "see, should have picked Clay Mathews, what an idiot Pioli was" totally disregarding the fact that almost 20 other teams passed on him for the loser they ended up with out of that draft.
A lot of fools around here act like their opinion is just worth way more than is.
And then you have the other group, a real valuable set, who offer no opinion whatsoever of what we should have done, and post the exact same "Cassel/Pioli suck"
post over and over and over ad nauseum.
What would we do without their valuable contributions to this board.

With that said, there is no denying the fact that this place also has a collection of some of the finest posters on ANY football site period, and not all of them stand behind this regime, but give well thought out and viable reasons why they feel they shouldn't, and I completely respect their opinions.

As long as Cassel is our starter I won't support this fool.

Good point. Fact is Cassel's contract has not prevented this team from being able to make any move it wished to make, so the contract is completely moot.

Yeah, trading for Cassel was a mistake. 2008 Tyler Thigpen was better than 2009 Matt Cassel.

A big this

2008 everything was better than 2009. Bowe, Albert, etc. You fire your OC 2 weeks before the season and have head coach over his head, things fall apart.

Until Pioli proves that he's gonna go down in flames with Cassel and not replace him with an unquestionably better option, that is realistically attainable, I will support him.

If he does end up doing what we all FEAR he might. I will spit on his grave.

Yet we went 2-14 in 2008.

Man, those were the days. Pioli just had to come in, and **** it all up.

For you to be correct that Haley is incompetent (which you obviously believe), Pittsburgh just had to make a HUGE mistake in hiring him. Who knows, you could be right, but my money is on Cassel being completely responsible for our ineptitude on offense.

Who should we get? He drafted Stanzi and signed Orton. Should he have outbid the Raiders for Carson Palmer?

FTR, I think we're about to make a serious push for Peyton if he's healthy. That's a big IF, though. Short of that, I don't know who else is out there.

Herm bit the bullet starting young guys like Carr and Flowers.