Pittsburgh Steelers 2013 Number 1 pick Jarvis Jones. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

What We Learned This Week in the NFL Offseason:

• 2013 NFL Draft concludes
• New York Jets pick Geno Smith and release Tim Tebow
• Packers sign Aaron Rodgers to giant contract extension
• Steelers finish up draft weekend by signing undrafted free agents

Each year the NFL Draft becomes a bigger and bigger spectacle.  Maybe because each year we’ve somehow grown hungrier and hungrier for even the tiniest bit of NFL action by April.  Whatever the reason, NFL junkies were full by Sunday night after seven rounds of solid picks, surprising picks, unpredictable trades, and Roger Goodell bro-hugs.  With the No. 1 pick overall the Kansas City Chiefs made OT Eric Fisher from Central Michigan the answer to many a trivia question for years to come.  Andy Reid made his first non-barbeque related move in Kansas City by drafting the tackle and hoping the unsexy pick proves to be a smart one.  Other notable picks from the weekend included the Miami Dolphins moving up nine spots to nap DE Dion Jordan, San Diego picking Manti Te’o in the second round, and USC QB Matt Barkley free falling to the fourth round and getting nabbed by Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Undoubtedly there has to be a Brady Quinn in every draft now, a player who is projected to be picked early and shows up in his pretty new suit with his Mom, girlfriend, cousins, neighbors, and anyone else who wanted to take in the joy of getting drafted into the NFL and then just sits there round after round not being called and getting more depressing by the minute.  This year’s Brady Quinn was WVU’s Geno Smith, who was rewarded for his patience for not being called in the first round of the draft by being picked up by the Jets in the second round.  Poor guy.  Immediately following the pick-up of Smith speculation of the Jets moving Mark Sanchez surfaced but this morning it was Tim Tebow who got his walking papers.  The Tim Tebow Experiment in New York has come to an end and they were so nice they did it to him at a time where he most likely won’t get picked up by another team since we just had this thing called a draft this weekend where teams typically address all their needs and wants, if that could happen anyway seeing as how his “talents” weren’t exactly showcased in New York aside from that one shirtless jog in the rain he did.  Even with a new GM the Jets are still a train-wreck and I’d strongly suggest avoiding all ESPN coverage until further notice.  There’s no telling how low they’ll reach to continue to keep Tebow in their continuous coverage.  Best of luck Timmy, here’s hoping you find a nice place in Canada to play someday.

The Green Bay Packers made Aaron Rodgers the highest paid quarterback in ever yesterday when they signed him to a five-year $110 million contract extension.  Rodgers got an NFL record breaking $62.5 million guaranteed, blowing Joe Flacco’s deal right out of the water.  Apparently Rodgers’ cap-number should stay relatively manageable for the life of the deal for the Packers, never going over $21 million.  The Packers just resigned Clay Matthews to an extension last month, and apparently had made re-signing Rodgers a priority after that.  Rodgers and Flacco now join Drew Brees to have the biggest contracts of quarterbacks with just one Super Bowl victory.  If only this kind of money was floating around in Trent Dilfer’s time.

Your Pittsburgh Steelers concluded the 2013 NFL Draft weekend by adding 15 undrafted free agents to their nine draft picks.  The Steelers made LB Jarvis Jones out of Georgia their No. 1 overall pick when Jones was still available to them at their #17 spot.  In the second round the Steelers went offense by drafting Michigan State RB Le’Veon Bell.  Some criticized this pick as Bell is another “big back” and Alabama’s Eddie Lacy was still on the board at the time.  It’s been reported that the Steelers were not comfortable with Lacy’s toe injury he is nursing and were not convinced he’d be ready in time to risk the pick on him.  I’m a sucker for a big back in Black & Gold with good feet.  I sure as hell hope that Bell fits into this category.

The Steelers then went on to address needs at wide receiver, defensive back and even quarterback with the later rounds of the draft.  I’m not quite sure how I feel about the Landry Jones pick in round four still, to be honest with you.  I’m also a sucker for Charlie Batch.  I totally understand the move to sign a Bruce Gradkowski to a long term deal hopefully solidifying the backup QB spot for a while and I get that you need to start thinking about the future when Ben is not able to perform at a top level anymore but I can’t imagine the roster without Charlie Batch on it and that’s how it’s looking now that they’ve drafted Jones.    In the undrafted free agent pool the most notable player the Steelers picked up was Mike Golic Jr OL from Notre Dame and son of ESPN Radio Host Mike Golic.  Below is the complete list of draft picks and undrafted free agents from steelers.com.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2013 DRAFT PICKS

* Acquired 14^th pick (111^th overall) in the fourth round via a trade with the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers traded their 2014 third-round selection in return for the 111^th overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft.

** Compensatory selection

PITTSBURGH STEELERS 2013 ROOKIE FREE AGENTS

What are your thoughts on the draft weekend as a whole, Steeler Nation?

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It’s getting hot and awkward in here.

What We Learned in Wild Card Weekend in the NFL:

• Todd Haley yet to agree to interview with Cardinals
• The Bungles playoff win drought continues
• Adrian Peterson cannot replicate the magic against Packers
• Ray Ray’s last dance successful for Ratbirds
• RGIII not so great on one leg

Wild Card Weekend and the Divisional Weekend are two of the best weekends of the year for a football fan.  Unfortunately, for a Steeler fan this year it was tough getting into the games without a little bit of bitterness creeping in.  The weekend was not uneventful for Steeler Nation, or maybe it was considering reports surfaced Thursday morning that the Arizona Cardinals had requested permission to speak to Steelers OC Todd Haley in regards to their vacant head coaching position and the rumor mill started cranking.  The questions of will/should Haley go and who could/would replace him spread over Steeler Nation like wild fire.  So far it’s all turned out to be moot because as of Monday morning Haley has yet to even agree to be interviewed.  Apparently Haley wants Arizona to show their cards a bit more in respect to what exactly they might be offering him as he views just an interview for the head coaching position not worth his current situation which apparently he enjoys.  Who knew?

One thing we all knew was that no matter how “hot” the Bungles were heading into the post season after winning 4 of their last 5 regular season games that they were destined for an early exit.  It looked like they might have had a shot with Matt Schaub throwing a pick 6 to Leon Hall in a very similar spot where Hall picked Roethlisberger off win Week 16 for the first touchdown of the game.  It looked for a while as though the Texans weren’t going to get into the endzone as they didn’t score a touchdown until Arian Foster, who rushed for 140 yards, ran it in from the 1 yard line in the 3^rd quarter.  That proved to be just enough as the Houston Texans walked away with at 19-13 victory and will head to New England next week to take on the Pats in the divisional round.  The last time the Bengals won a playoff game Wilson Philips was popular and Home Alone was all the rage in the movie theaters.  To put it even more in perspective, the Pirates have won a playoff game more recently than the Cincinnati Bengals.  Suck on that Bungles.

During the Cincy @ Houston game reports started surfacing out of Green Bay that Viking’s QB Christian Ponder was going to be unable to start and will be replaced by Joe Webb for their Wild Card matchup.  Not that Ponder was going to play a huge role in the game as most of the Vikings hopes for an upset would rely on Adrian Peterson’s amazing comeback season continuing with running success over the Green Bay Packers defense.  Now in spite of how many commercials Clay Matthews does where he states he will “eat” perfect strangers, the Packers have never been considered a defensive juggernaut as of late.  Their basic defensive strategy has been to let Aaron Rodgers try to outscore the other team.  Unfortunately for Minnesota, with Joe Webb under center they looked a lot like a top ten defense.  Webb was sacked three times and was off target the entire night as Peterson was held to 99 rushing yards and was a non-factor in the game.

Sunday morning up until kickoff there was a national love-fest for Ray Lewis on every network available as he was gearing up for his final home game and his final interpretive dance out of the tunnel of M & T Bank Stadium.  Lewis announced earlier in the week that this would be his “last ride” mostly to try to steal the emotional momentum the Colts have been riding on all season long as well as because Lewis is one of the biggest media whores in the league.  The anticipation to Lewis’ dance out of the tunnel was more than ridiculous and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse the dance started with Nelly’s “Hot in Here” blasting in the stadium (I’m not even kidding) and Ray rubbing a part of a patch of grass over himself and then starting his final stabby shuffle.  After the “what in the hell did I just watch?” moment was over, the game began with what looked like a defensive battle that neither team was able to score until Anquan Boldin was unable to not catch anything that was thrown his way.  Seriously, someone needs to check his gloves for stick’em.  Boldin caught five passes for 145 yards and a touchdown in a 24-9 Ratbirds victory.  The purple ones will now travel to Denver to await their playoff destiny at the hands of Peyton Manning and a much superior defense to their own.  Looks like we’re in for yet another week of “this will be the last time you see Ray Lewis____” crap all over the various sports news outlets.  Awesome.

The weekend started with three rookie quarterbacks starting with a chance to advance their team in the playoffs and it ended with only one of them moving on to the next round.  The one moving on is the last one picked in the bunch, the tiny Russell Wilson took his Seahawks on the road and outplayed a one-legged Robert Griffin III for a chance to play Atlanta next week.  RGIII entered the game with a knee injury that appeared to be reaggravated in the second quarter.  He never looked right the rest of the game and eventually in the fourth quarter took a bad snap, lost his footing on the sloppy field and the whole world saw his knee buckle and you could almost hear the ligaments snap into a million pieces.  First off, what kind of playoff field was that?  That turf looked worse than Heinz Field did after Bane blew it up.  Second, the controversy over whether or not it was right to keep RGIII in the game and whose ultimate call it was to allow him to continue to play will be debated over and over again but this is just another example of the hypocrisy over injuries in the NFL.  Players who take themselves off of the field when injured are almost always called “soft” while players who play visibly hurt are always lauded as “heroes” or “warriors”.  Nevertheless the Seattle Seahawks played a great game and will definitely give the Falcons a tough matchup next week.  Bring it on Divisional Round!

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James Jones won't be leaping his way to Pittsburgh any time soon. Credit: Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

It’s time once again to analyze the crazy musings about the Steelers from some guy named Lambert.  What’s on tap for today from our Gather.com friend?  Why it’s his two cents about Wallace and how the Steelers would be smart to replace him by shopping for another receiver.

This isn’t the first time that Lambert talks nonsense about how the Steelers might and should deal with Mike Wallaces unwillingness to sign with the team.  In his first whiff Lambert thinks the Steelers would best off to trade Wallace to Carolina because Steve Smith needs a younger replacement.  Not realizing that the Steelers would never trade their receiver for a lineman (as Lambert suggets) for many reasons, Lambert falls flat in his argument of the validity of such a deal.

Today Lambert continues his out of touch reporting on the Steelers with the idea that the Steelers would look to someone like James Jones of the Green Bay Packers for an option to replace Wallace.  Once again, where to begin?  First we have to look at the kind of receiver James Jones is for the Packers.  Jones is a #3 or #2 at best with most teams in the NFL.  The Packers receiving core is more crowded than a Permanti’s at noon on a Thursday.  Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Tori Gurley, Diondre Borel, Donald Driver, and Jermichael Finley.  That’s a pretty big depth chart.  Finley, of course, is their star TE, but he is a favorite of Rodgers.  Jones signed, strangely enough, last season after the Packers snagged Cobb.  The writing was on the wall that it was a crowded roster and that he would be hard pressed to get big numbers.  Jones does run a really nice shoulder fade – something that Wallace lacks – but that’s about it.  You could call him a one trick pony.  Hmmm, where have I heard that before.

Looking at comparison between the two receivers – Wallace and Jones – they are pretty different.  Wallace runs a 4.33 – one of the fastest in the NFL.  Jones runs a ‘slow’ 4.59.  In fact Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders are both faster than Jones.  So in no way can Jones ‘replace’ Wallace with his speed.  Unless there be rockets in them shoes.

Jones’ stats are also significantly less than Wallace’s.  Even for a pass happy team with Rodgers and Co., Jones caught only 38 passes for 635 yards and 7 TD’s in 2011.  Wallace had over a 1,000 yard season and had 8 TD’s.  The argument can be made that Jones’ numbers suffered because of the crowded roster.  But, you could say the same thing could happen were he with the Steelers.  Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Jerricho Cotchery, Hines Ward, Heath Miller in 2011.  Plenty of depth there.  Hines is gone, but the Steelers picked up Toney Clemons in the draft for a possible replacement at the #4 spot.  So where would Jones fit in all of this on the Steelers roster?  Without any significant talents, such as Wallace’s speed, Jones would just fall to the middle of the depth chart.  $2.3 million is a steep price for a #3 or #4 guy.  Cotchery is set to make $825k in 2012 to put it into perspective.  Not a great deal.

Speaking of deals, Lambert never actually states what the Steelers would use as a bargaining chip to trade for Jones.  Wallace?  Timmons? Clark?  Kind of hard to make a convincing argument if you don’t actually list the other half of the deal.

‘Like it or not though losing Wallace is a huge blow for the Steelers. His speed and skill are almost impossible to duplicate, let alone replace.’  - Erik Lambert

Like it or not, Lambert, your notion of trading for Jones is not a good one.  And, once again, it shows your lack of understanding of this team.  The loss of Wallace is not a huge blow – mainly for the reasons I listed above with the Steelers depth at a set of hands (Pope now included).  He may be ‘the talk’ within the media, but that’s because it’s the only dramatic thing happening at camp right now.  Otherwise it’s business as usual in Latrobe.

Nice try, Lamby.  ’Til next time.

Your top ranked Steeler of 2012, Troy Polamalu. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

The NFL Network completed their annual ranking of the top 100 players of the previous season this week, as voted on by the players themselves.  Not surprising Aaron Rodgers was voted #1 overall by the players, with Tom Brady dropping to #4.  So where did our Black & Gold find themselves among the 100?  There were 6 Steelers named on the entire list.  The highest ranking belonged to Troy Polamalu at 19 with LaMarr Woodley ranking the lowest of the Steelers selected at 63.  Naturally, each member of Steeler Nation is going to have gripes about who didn’t make the list and where the Steelers ranked.  I can’t believe Ben was ranked at #30 myself but let’s review the highlights of the players who did make the list. (more…)

Super Bowl XXX was the first time the Pittsburgh Steelers lost a championship game in their illustrious history.  Their opponents were the Dallas Cowboys.  Troy Aikman was the victorious quarterback.  The Steelers started off slow in that game but mounted a furious comeback that was ultimately undone by one too many mistakes.

Fifteen years later, the Steelers found themselves in Super Bowl XLV.  Ironically, it took place at Cowboys Stadium.  Troy Aikman was there calling the game.  And, once again, the Black and Gold staged a valiant comeback which was ultimately thwarted by too many miscues.

You can only dig so many holes.  Eventually, you run out of shovels.

The Steelers lived dangerously throughout this year’s playoffs.  Gave up a huge lead to Baltimore.  Ben Roethlisberger played lousy against the Jets.  Yet they found a way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  Against the Green Bay Packers, they tempted fate once too often.

This performance was pretty much a Cliff’s Notes version of everything which had led to this point.  The Steelers went into halftime staring at a 21-10 deficit.  Ben made a handful of plays but played poorly overall.  The secondary, a question mark all season, broke down at inopportune times.  And if this game doesn’t signal the end of the Bruce Arians era, he must have pictures of Art Rooney II cross-dressing at a Lady Gaga concert or something.

I said in my game preview the Steelers would be well-served to emphasize the running game like they did against New York.  On their second possession of the game, Pittsburgh lined up with David Johnson at fullback and ran the ball down Green Bay’s throat.  Then, on 3rd and 1, Arians went with his beloved empty backfield and the pass fell incomplete.  They wouldn’t return to a consistent ground attack until the second half.

Backed up at their 7, Arians dialed up a deep bomb to Mike Wallace.  He was open but Ben’s arm was hit on release and the duck was picked by Nick Collins.  Collins returned it for a touchdown.  A few drives later, Ben tried to squeeze a pass to Wallace between two defenders.  Jarrett Bush snatched the ball away from Flash for the second costly turnover of the half.

Why were we throwing so much against what is generally considered the strength of the Packers defense?  WHO KNOWS.  Why does the rain in Spain fall mostly on the plain?  WHO KNOWS.  Do androids dream of electric sheep?  WHO KNOWS.

I’m taking nothing away from the Packers.  They played like the Super Bowl veterans while Aaron Rodgers earned a well-deserved MVP award.  This game could have been uglier than Fergie’s outfit during that debacle of a halftime show if not for the Packers young receivers repeatedly dropping his perfect passes.  So to say the Steelers beat themselves would not be fair because most of those drops would’ve went for long gains.

In a happier alternate reality, Wallace would have been the MVP after being left wide open time and time again by a badly banged up Green Bay secondary playing without Charles Woodson.  Ben’s throws were routinely off-line, missing a streaking Wallace on a sure touchdown early in the third quarter being perhaps the most egregious of his errors.  Every game has bounces that go one way or the other.  The outcome hinges on who makes the plays when they need to be made.  When the chips were down, Rodgers made the plays.  Ben did not.

Neither did Dick LeBeau‘s defense.  They didn’t play badly but they didn’t play particularly well either.  Troy Polmalu was a total non-factor.  They failed to generate a single turnover.  And they wilted toward the end of the game, surrendering a 31 yard pass to Greg Jennings and a 21 yarder to James Jones when they desperately needed to get off the field.  Granted, they eventually forced a field goal but by then the clock had been milked past the two minute warning while Green Bay’s lead had been upped to six points.

Despite all the errors, the proud Steelers did not go quietly right up to the final drive of the game.  Although the game really turned when they rediscovered the running game in the second half and it allowed them to cut the 11 point deficit to 4.  As the fourth quarter began, the Black and Gold had the momentum and were driving when Rashard Mendenhall was double-humped by Clay Matthews and Ryan Pickett and the ball popped loose.  A lot of football was left to be played but that ultimately proved to be one mistake too many.

Congratulations to the World Champion Green Bay Packers.  Also, a heartfelt thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Losing the Super Bowl sucks.  No way around it.  But when you consider the adversity they faced this season, from the unfair persecution of their starting quarterback, to the injuries to key personnel, to being targeted by a corrupt commissioner and being victimized by blatantly biased officiating, there really is no way to consider this year a failure regardless of how the journey ends.   So, thank you, Black and Gold, for playing with the heart of a champion even if you eventually fell short of that goal.

There’s always next year…