Speaking of former Steelers cut loose, Fast Willie Parker was cut by the Redskins.  Looks like they discovered what we saw last year:  He’s now Medium Speed Willie.  Still, running backs drop like flies during the season so a veteran back up can usually find a job (Does the name Najeh Davenport ring any bells?).  Here’s hoping FWP latches on somewhere because that would be a sad ending to what was a short but glorious career.

Now, let’s talk the Steelers.  Proving that Bruce Arians is indeed bringing the Flying Circus to town, the Steelers kept six wide receivers while keeping only four running backs and zero fullbacks.  David Johnson, a FB/TE hybrid will be the blocking back in I formations.  Arians will also use the Pony Backfield, which is when Issac Redman lines up at fullback and the hand-off can go to either him or Mendenhall.  The Steelers used this formation a lot in the Chuck Noll days with Rocky and Franco so it’s nice to see it back in the playbook even though I’d like a true blocking fullback on the roster.

Rookie Antonio Brown will handle returns with Stefan Logan getting cut.  Logan, who has been scooped up by the Detroit Lions, was a victim of being a specialist who wasn’t very special.  He was brought in as the next Devin Hester and despite setting a single season Steelers record for return yardage, didn’t return any for TDs which soured the staff on him.  Part of me wonders how he’d do returning kicks on a team with halfway decent special teams blocking.

Brown showed potential as a receiver and did an okay job returning kicks so I understand the move, although he also made a couple really dumb decisions in the third game (not bringing out a kick in the end zone, fair catching a ball inside his 5) so let’s hope his youth and inexperience don’t flare up too often.  Arnaz Battle was also kept so he’d likely be the fallback option if Brown fails.   Battle is an all-around good special teams guy so it’s nice to see Mike Tomlin valuing that this season.

Cut day was a bloodbath for the Draft Class of 2009.  Guard Kraig Urbik, defensive lineman Sunny Harris, cornerback Joe Burnett, and fan favorite running back Frank “The Tank” Summers were all axed.  Harris is a bit surprising only because the team lost him off the practice squad last season then eagerly signed him back when given the chance.  The Tank was a converted fullback who had primarily been a running back in college.  He never really adapted to the position change and as a result has shown pretty much nothing.

Burnett is a bit of a surprise.  He saw game action last year (rare for a Steelers rookie) and, admittedly, did not play well.   But considering how lousy our secondary has been, it’s a bit odd they’d give up on him after only one year.  Rookie Crezdon Butler came on strong in the final two preseason games so they evidently liked his upside more than Burnett’s.  And, once again, the Steelers kept a special teams ace, Anthony Madison, who is a way below-average cornerback but is one of the best gunners in the league so I commend Tomlin for learning from past mistakes in that area.

Finally, Justin Hartwig was cut.  First round pick Maurkice Pouncey was expeced to play guard for a year since the center has to learn all the protection calls but he caught on faster than expected.  Plus, Hartwig’s play has really fallen off in the past year.  He looked perfectly capable in 2008 when the Steelers went to the Super Bowl but he was constantly getting pushed around last year.  I thought it might be due to injuries at both guard positions but he still looked terrible with the first team offense this presason.  With Pouncey blowing guys off the ball in games and at practice, it became a no-brainer to stick him at his natural position and bid Hartwig good-bye.   We’ve been asking for a revamped offensive line and this year we have it with three new starters (Pouncey, Flozell Adams at RT, and Trai Essex at RG) from what we had a year ago.

And those, ladies and gentlemen, are your 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers.

With training camp upon us, the Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up a couple pieces of important off-season business.

First, the Steelers signed Kevin Colbert to a five year contract extension.  He has been the team’s erstwhile General Manager since 2000, although they use the term Director of Player Personnel which I hate.  Not only is it a pain in the ass to type out, you can’t just use initials because the term DP brings a flood of porn spam to my inbox.  In any case, Colbert is given much of the credit for the team’s strong draft record as well as doing a terrific job dealing with free agency in the salary cap era.   Plus, he’s a Pittsburgh guy.

In other signing news, second round pick Jason Worilds signed a four year rookie contract.   Salary details weren’t available but second rounder LaMarr Woodley is making about $900,000 on the last year of his rookie contract so it’s probably somewhere in that range.  I’m anxious to see Worilds in action as I’ve seen his name mentioned in several articles listing steals of the 2010 draft.   Some were a bit confused by the Steelers taking three linebackers this year but I believe they’re already looking ahead to the day when they have to part ways with James Harrison.

This leaves first rounder Maurkice Pouncey as the only unsigned pick.   The Steelers are hardly alone in that position.  Only two teams have signed their top draft choice (it’ll be three some time today as a Tim Tebow signing is imminent).   I’m guessing agents are demanding bigger signing bonuses than usual because of next year’s impending strike/lockout.  Whatever the hold up, let’s hope it doesn’t drag out too long since injuries to Willie Colon and Justin Hartwig and the release of Darnell Stapleton mean Pouncey would have a very good chance to start for us immediately.

After the worst off-season in Steeler history, I’m looking forward to actual football.  Let training camp commence!

But do they have kung fu grip?

Blah blah blah went Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin at his weekly grab bag of lies press conference.   At this point, Tomlin’s endless droning must sound like Charlie Brown‘s schoolteacher to his players.  It’s not as if they have to worry about repercussions for angering their coach.   After promising “schematic and personnel” changes last week, he delivered the exact same game plan and exact same lineup that has been sucking for over a month now.  Guess he never heard the story of the boy who cried wolf.

Tomlin did speak the truth in one regard.   This week’s opponent, the Green Bay Packers, are not to be taken lightly.  In fact, they trajectory of their season has been the polar opposite of the Steelers.  Where we started great then crashed with a THUD, the Pack had a tough start but have rebounded to win five straight.  GB is a tough, hungry, balanced team deep in the thick of the NFC Wild Card race.

The Pack went 6-10 last year through no fault of the offense, which averaged nearly four touchdowns a game.  In his first season at QB, Aaron Rodgers ran the show with confidence and precision.   He’s continued his superior play into this season, where his 25 TDs against only 7 INTs have cemented him as an emerging superstar.  Rodgers is helped by having two All-Pro caliber wideouts in Donald Driver and Greg Jennings, either of whom can be counted on to break a game open.  To add some balance, RB Ryan Grant is an effective downhill-style runner.  As Tomlin pointed out, their offensive line was a horror show early in the season but those issues seem to have dissipated lately as some of their injured OL returned to the starting lineup.

In other words, I’m not exaggerating when I say this is probably the most dangerous offense we’ll face this season.

Naturally, the fact that our secondary is absolutely pathetic doesn’t bode well for the Black and Gold.  One could hope inclimate weather at Heinz Field would help the home team although I doubt Green Bay is going to be caught off-guard by poor weather.  Or we could hope the Packers line regresses to early season form allowing James Harrison and company to tee off on him.  The problem there is Rodgers has shown good instincts and a quick release in addition to having 1,000 yard rusher Grant to fall back on.  Honestly, with Will.i.am Gay completely sucking and Ike Taylor phoning it in, if Rodgers doesn’t throw for at least 350 yards I’ll be shocked.

I hope Ryan Clark reads this post.  Feel free to print it out and tack it up on the team bulletin board for extra motivation, Ryan.  I’m here for you, man.

Last season, Green Bay had the Origami Curtain as they lost six games which they led in the fourth quarter. So they did what any team with a terrible defense would do, they hired a former Steelers defensive coordinator.  Dom Capers, who directed a #1 ranked Steeler D to Super Bowl XXX, installed a 3-4 scheme featuring a lot of gap control and zone blitzes.   They went out and used two first round draft picks on DT BJ Raji and LB Clay Matthews to augment this new scheme.  Both players have responded by having fantastic rookie campaigns.

Although no one is having a better year than CB Charles Woodson.  Woodson is the likely front runner to succeed Silverback as NFL Defensive Player of the Year.   He plays corner but has the size and physicality of a safety.  He currently has eight interceptions, two sacks, four forced fumbles, and has made 61 tackles.  In other words, Ben Roethlisberger would be wise to stay away from him or mush brain will add yet another drive-killing Pick Six to his resume.

On offense, the Steelers will be without LG Chris Kemoeatu.  Kemo played hurt last week which could be why our pass protection stunk except most of the stench came from the right side of Justin Hartwig, Trai Essex, and Willie Colon.  Still, Kemo’s been our best run blocking linemen and probably the best all-around performer which admittedly isn’t saying much.  His absence will be felt on the whopping 10-15 running plays Bruce Arians forces himself to call every game.

Hines Ward, who was limping badly and largely ineffective last week, practiced and is expected to play.   I admire the man’s grit and determination but I don’t see what he’s accomplishing by playing hurt other than showing his teammates how much gutsier he is than Whiny Ben.   Then again, 50% of Hines is probably preferable to 100% of Limas Sweed.   I concentrate on our passing game because lord knows no matter how much I scream and hollar about Stillers Football, we all know Big Ben will be chucking the ball 40+ times on Sunday.   As soon as the Pack hits one big play down the field, Arians will push the panic button and roll out the Flying Circus.  You know it, I know it, and I’m sure Green Bay knows it.

In fact, I’m sure they’re counting on it.

Beyond that, there’s isn’t much to say about this game.   You have two teams headed in total opposite directions.  By the law of averages, you’d think maybe a team that has lost five straight is due for a win while a team that has won five in a row is due for a loss.  But that assumes the Steelers are an average team.  At this point, all evidence points to contrary.

Rejoice, Steeler Nation, our long national nightmare is finally over. Yesterday, the Pittsburgh Steelers came to terms with center Justin Hartwig.

The deal is a reported $4 million dollars for two years, including a $975,000 signing bonus. Once again, our tricky Player Personnel Director, Kevin Colbert, sits back during the early days of free agency, allowing the rotten teams to blow their wads like a virgin on prom night, then swoops in and manages to pick up a quality player at a discount price.

Don’t be fooled by the relative pittance we’re paying him, Hartwig is a fine player who basically became another salary cap casualty. Two years ago, the Carolina Panthers gave Hartwig a five-year/$17 million deal to lure him away from the Titans. They expected him to anchor their line but a nagging groin injury limited him to one start in 2006. Healthy in 2007, he started every game except the season finale. Carolina said he had a knee injury but the smart money says they wanted him to sit so they could take a look at Ryan Kalil as the heir apparent. Evidently they liked what they saw from the kid which made Hartwig, a grand old man of 29, totally expendable.

The entire situation is not unlike what we do here in the ‘Burgh, such as when we cut LB Joey Porter last year because we had a younger cheaper player ready to play. If you have two fairly equal options available, common sense is you go with the newer model. Unless you’re the Raiders, then you pick the old guy because you love veteranosity. But for a team like the Steelers, where our options are either somebody who has never taken an NFL snap at center or the Human Traffic Cone, Sean Mahan, a player the caliber of Hartwig is a huge upgrade.

And make no mistake; Justin Hartwig will be our starting center in 2008.

The Steelers also announced they resigned restricted free agents Chris Kemoeatu and Trai Essex. This pretty much completes our restructuring of the offensive line for next season. Colbert will almost certainly draft an OLineman with our first round pick but now he won’t be expected to start until 2009. Mahan, who to be fair is a natural guard, will compete with the Samoan Bulldozer (Kemoeatu) for the spot vacated by LG Alan Faneca. If he fails, there will be temptation to cut him considering at about $3.3 million/year, he’s being overpaid by about $3 million. However, our depth is pretty weak and he can back-up both G and C so he might be worth keeping around. Mister Transition, Max Starks, looks to be our starting LT, thus bringing our grand total to three new starters on the line this coming season.

Hopefully these changes will cut down our ridiculously high sack totals from last year where Ben Roethlisberger had about a 50-50 chance of ending up on his magnificiently sculpted ass on any given play. Considering we just paid Ben the approximate gross national product of Latvia to be our quarterback for the next decade, I’m sure keeping him healthy and upright is something of interest to the Steelers. With these strategically considered off-season moves, I feel much better that they succeeded in their goal. Let’s face it, True Believers, things really have nowhere to go but up.