Steelers Morning Huddle 7/12/13

December 30, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers running back Isaac Redman (33) carries the ball as Cleveland Browns free safety Eric Hagg (27) defends during the second quarter at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Happy Friday Steeler Nation!  I’m glad it’s the weekend.  For those in the local Pittsburgh area, it sounds like it has been a wild week of weather.  I hope the weather holds out so you can enjoy the weekend.  Here are a few articles about the Steelers and the NFL that might help tide you over until training camp starts later this month.

A Profile on Emmanuel Sanders

Rant Sport Writer Thomas Emerick did a short profile on Emmanuel Sanders.  He wonders how Sanders will surpass last year’s numbers now that he has moved up in the WR food chain.  The big difference could be in scoring opportunities.  Sanders was not targeted in the red zone nearly as often as Mike Wallace and that seems to be where the crux of the attention at WR is settling.  Who will be the go-to target for the critical scoring receptions?  I’m ready to see some preseason games and see some actual work instead of wondering.  I’m ready for football!

Q&A with Cortez Allen

Teresa Varley, of Steelers.com, posted a Q&A session with Cortez Allen as they continue their features allowing fans to ask players questions.  If you are into reading those kinds of things, I’ve included it in this wrap-up so you know it’s out there.

Q&A With Drew Butler, Part 2

This is also posted on Steelers.com with the questions being pretty much like the first interview.  None of them provoke crazy answers and he is answering like he should.  One questions asks him how much of his position is mental preparation and how much is physical. I would imagine that every is different for individuals, but if you like to read the interviews, this one seemed a little longer than some of the others I’ve seen.

Steelers Training Camp Schedule

The Steelers released their schedule – when it is open to the public, when the players will wear pads, evening practices, etc.  If you are planning to trek to Latrobe and catch some of the practices, you’ll want to check this out for all the details including parking information. I’d love to do it just one time, but I’m never in town during training camp time.

NFL.com’s Profile on the Steelers

The NFL Network has been doing their series profiling each team.  The Steelers had their turn recently.  You can check out the 4-min video where they look at how the roster has changed and the analysts commenting included Donovan MacNabb.  The analysts focused in on Todd Haley, how he sets things up and how the relationship between he and Roethlisberger has progressed.  MacNabb feels the Bengals lead the division going into the season but the Steelers are competitive.  I think you can debate a lot of what they said and they are certainly going off of historical stats to make their predictions.   I always am cautious with that because you can make stats say whatever you want them to, often to support a skewed point.  The one thing I will say about this segment, Warren Sapp was nowhere in the room, but his name game up.  Check it out and see what you think.

NFL.com’s 10 Best Steelers

I’m guessing as part of their 32 for 32 series, NFL.com analysts also ranked the 10 best Steelers players ever.  I thought it was interesting that most of the players, except for Ben Roethlisberger, were from the 1970’s era of teams.  There are so many great players, how can you narrow it down to 10?  I was disappointed Jerome Bettis wasn’t on the list.  However, I also thought Rocky Bleier was missing too.  I saw a joke the other day on twitter about how many Steelers fans does it take to chance a lightbulb?  Zero, they just sit around and talk about how good the old one was.  Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, everyone is tired of hearing Steelers fans talk about the past.  Well, Steelers teams from the 1970s were pretty awesome – how can you not want to talk about them from time to time?  See what you think of the list and let us know.

That’s it for today.  Have a great weekend!