Huddle up guys!
Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE

Good Morning Steeler Nation!  If that may be too perky for your taste at this hour you might want to take another sip of your coffee.  There’s plenty to be excited about as a Steelers fan now that the dust has settled from the draft.  There are offseason workouts, minicamp, and training camp just around the corner.  Can almost smell that freshly cut grass at Saint Vincent’s huh?  This morning the mood is hopeful from the local media outlets regarding the Steelers draft picks and their abilities to contribute in the upcoming season.

Meanwhile, on the South Side, the Steelers have already begun Phase II of the offseason workouts per Teresa Varley of steelers.com.  This phase of the workouts includes position meetings between players and coaches for the first time this year.  Players will get their first opportunity of the season to get into the playbook along with the coaches in those position meetings.  Veteran CB Ike Taylor, who normally works out on his own in Florida, joined the group to encourage the younger players to get in gear for the OTA’s which will begin May21.

“It’s good for them to get a feel for each other on the field, get to know each other and see how they move.  You can do that stuff early, do it now.  When you get on the field for the OTA’s, coaches will be telling you what to do, but this is a stepping stone.  You want to know what to do without the coaches telling you.  It shows the coaches you are willing and capable and you are being responsible.”

Ed Bouchette of the PG breaks down the “New Young Money Crew” that were drafted this weekend in Markus Wheaton and Justin Brown in the third and sixth rounds respectively.  The drafting of the wide receivers was identical to the 2010 draft in which they picked up Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown.  Between the group of the new and the old, Ben Roethlisberger might just have some new and dare I say better options on offense this season.  This might provide a more productive offense than the “dink and dunk” that Ben lovingly criticized last season but also produced MVP-like numbers for him before his shoulder injury sidelined him.

Alan Robinson of the Trib explains how some of this year’s Steelers draft class could be entering training camp with a chance to start at their respective positions.  The number one overall pick Jarvis Jones will most likely enter camp as a “starter in waiting” behind Jason Worilds.  Just how well Jones competes in camp and preseason might determine how long he has to wait.  The only confidence this coaching staff has exhibited, in my opinion, in Worilds as the heir apparent to James Harrison is the fact that they dug in their heels and refused to give Harrison a chance to come back after initial talks failed and Harrison’s test of the market failed as well.  Handing over the linebacker tradition to Worilds by default, if you ask me.  Le’Veon Bell also looks to be a draft pick with a better opportunity to start as a rookie than the remaining class, explains Robinson.  Because the running back corps is, um, well let’s just say it is what it is, I agree with Robinson on this one.  I’d say that any of the RB’s that enter camp have the opportunity to separate themselves from the herd and emerge as the starter, just all about the work they’re going to put into it.  Mike Tomlin explained that all players must earn their jobs, but we all know what opportunities lie out there.

“I think it’s a daunting task for rookies to start in any system and play and perform well.  But we’re not going to close the door on anyone earning an opportunity.”

What do you think, Steeler Nation?  Who out of the draft class do you think can start right away?

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Huddle up guys! Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE

Happy Draft Day Steeler Nation!  In just a few short (or painfully long hours depending on how you’re spending your day) we will know who the newest edition to your Pittsburgh Steelers will be.  Bob Labriola of the Steelers Digest explains how important each previous draft class is to the new ones coming in.

Without question, the Pittsburgh Steelers organization has been known for decades for their abilities to build championship teams through the draft.  The 1974 draft was indisputably the most successful draft in history, with four future Hall of Famer’s joining the team that season.  As Bob points out, however, only Lynn Swann played any significant time that season due to an injured veteran.  So the moral of the story is; these players who remain from the 2012 draft class have got to be ready to step into major contributing roles for the team in order for the 2013 draft class to be successful.

I’ll do Bob one more on that.  The 2012 draft class that remains has to be successful to help erase memory of questionable character draft picks.  The Steelers went a scooch outside everyone’s comfort zone last spring when they decided to take a chance on a few “unSteeler-like” individuals; or individuals that were already bringing to the table off-the-field incidents this organization typically has a “zero tolerance” policy for.  Second round pick Mike Adams was drafted although he had tested positive for marijuana at the combine.  Alameda Ta’amu was selected although he had a previous DUI while at school and Chris Rainey was selected although he had a history of domestic violence charges on him as well.

DeCastro and Adams both traded time on the injury report last season so their potential to the offensive line unit haven’t been fully realized just yet.  I think this season can define them as valuable additions like Maurkice Pouncey.  If this line stays healthy and plays to their potential, this could be the first season in too many to remember that Steeler Nation isn’t griping about the O-line and their faults.  I know I don’t have to tell you how valuable that can be to the offensive efforts this season.

So what are your thoughts, Steeler Nation?  Do you think the 2012 draft class has a responsibility to improve this season to help whoever is coming in as part of the 2013 class?

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In a little over twenty-four hours, thirty two young men will have the honor of being selected in the first round of the NFL draft. As in every draft some will be bona fide superstars, maybe a Hall of famer or two, some will be pro bowlers or solid starters for years. Others will become backups or career journeymen, wash-ups and mere footnotes in draft history. A remaining few will have their careers cut short by injury, preventing them from ever taking flight and robbing them of the ability to show us what they could have been. All sports have their share of such players, but the spotlight always seems to shine brightest on the NFL. The NFL network dedicated an entire top ten to draft busts and various pro football sites always wheel out their list of draft disappointments for each team.
No team was more disappointed in 1st round draft picks than the Steelers in the 1980’s. Only the Bengals in the 1990’s made more historically bad choices during one decade. While they did select one true Hall of Famer (Rod Woodson) and two solid players (Louis Lipps and Keith Gary), the rest were absolute flops. 1980’s 1st rounder Mark Malone and 1982s Walter Abercrombie were give the impossible task of replacing two future Hall of Famers in Terry Bradshaw and Franco Harris, while the rest of the decades choices (Daryl Sims, John Reinstra, Aaron Jones, Tim Worley and Tom Ricketts) were just plain awful.
And then there was their 1983 1st round choice, Gabe Rivera from Texas Tech. Senor Sack, as he was known.
Rivera proved to be neither a flop nor a solid starter.
He never had the chance.
By 1983, Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood and Dwight White were gone as were occasional starters Steve Furness and John Banaszak. Coming off of a season in which they sacked enemy quarterbacks 34 times, second only to Oakland, the Steelers were hungry for more and with their first round pick, they selected Rivera, the 6-2 294 lb. consensus All-American defensive tackle from Texas Tech, affectionately known as Senor Sack, ahead of future Hall of Fame quarterback and hometown hero Dan Marino. Senor sack started slowly, but as his NFL career progressed game by game, Rivera began making an impact stopping the run and pressuring opposing quarterbacks.
It was a career that lasted exactly six games and produced two sacks.
Aside from injuries derailing careers, some players such as Jamarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf destroyed their careers with a series of bad decisions that displayed an amazing depth of immaturity. On the night of October 20, 1983, six games into his promising NFL career, Rivera made his own bad decision that not only cost him his football career but nearly his life as well. Driving home that evening from the Steelers’ practice facility, Rivera was involved in a two car collision, the impact sending crashing through the back window of his car, crushing his spinal column, puncturing a lung and bruising his heart. It would be ten days before doctors could determine whether or not Rivera would be permanently paralyzed from the waist down or not. As it turned out, he would be.
So why was driving home that night a bad decision on Rivera’s part? Two reasons: he was speeding and he was legally intoxicated. During his stay at Texas Tech, from 1979 to 1983, Rivera had a history of traffic violations, being involved in a total of five, several for speeding. In a series of bad decisions involving motor vehicles, Rivera’s final one was obviously his most destructive and near fatal of all.
Athletes at times feel they are above certain laws that apply to the rest of us, namely that they are in some ways invincible. Since Rivera’s injury we know that is by no means the case. From Ben Roethlisberger’s near fatal motorcycle accident to the Dallas Cowboys’ Josh Brent killing teammate Jerry Brown via car accident last year, athletes have proven time and again, that not only are they above such laws of invincibility, but that they prove to be the most fragile of all. And on that October night in 1983, Rivera robbed himself and Steelers fans of the opportunity he had been given to become the teams, great defensive lineman.
Today, the affects of the accident have left Rivera with very little memory of his playing days. There was the memorable time he chased down SMUs Eric Dickerson, and not only tackled him, but ripped Dickerson’s helmet off as well. Rivera is no longer bitter over what life has dealt him; he has moved on with his life and met his second wife while he was in his wheelchair. Still regarded as the best defensive linemen in Red Raiders history, he was elected in the college football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Rivera’s story should be recounted to every rookie in every sport, how one very bad decision can change their lives in a second. Sadly, as history shows, as long as athletes believe in their own invincibility there will be more Rivera’s. Six games were all Steelers fans had to see of Rivera, six games were all he was able to show them.
Senor sack….the Steeler that never was.

How does the Pittsburgh Steelers offense line up? Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

I need a bib and a bucket of habanero jalapeno wings.  Bleu cheese, please.  It’s officially NFL Draft Week, getting my salivary glands fired up in full on pant to rant.  I can’t wait; this is easily one of my favorite times of the year, anticipating our Front Office and Coaching Staff will strike Steeler Gold with their upcoming 8 selections in 7 Rounds on NFL Draft Day, 2013.

An 8-8 story off a 6-2 start to finish a majorly disappointing season last year, coupled with getting “tebow’d” to close 2011 and Pittsburgh needs to improve dramatically, effective immediately.  I need it, my Family needs it, Steeler Nation needs it, the Rooney’s need it.  The Pittsburgh Steelers have to get back to our winning ways.   Awash in all the free agency losses (good, bad and indifferent) and some potential for gains let’s pick a position, by position, on what the Steelers may well look like buckled up in Latrobe this coming June working hard to turn it around in the AFC North.

PICK A POSITION: THE OFFENSIVE LINE

We’ve invested heavily in our upfront where we are young and talented, but the time is now for the Steelers Offensive Line.  I stake the team’s ultimate success in 2013 to be in near parallel with the overall success of this group.  At all cost, they have to forcibly protect our Hall of Fame Quarterback and totally dominate in their run blocking.  This simply has to happen, and it has to happen this year.  With our new O-line Coach in Jack Bicknell, Jr. and what should certainly bring us more zone-blocking common to the majority of the league, I expect this group to really perform this year.  Firstly, we have to stay healthy; there is simply no way the football gods cast down another plague upon our offensive line.  The odds finally have to be in our favor that this group starts and finishes the season fully to near-fully intact.   We have gotten very young and rather athletic with this group, and have now seen enough of them collectively to put them in the right positions, playing their natural best and “tee-ing off”.

LOOKING DOWN THE LINE

Left to Right (or, as Big Ben Roethlisberger might take in a pre-snap scan): Adams, Foster, Pouncey, DeCastro, Gilbert.  This is the best group placed at their most advantageous spots that we have for success.  I’m excited about this group’s potential, and want to reiterate (and repeat) use of the term “potential“.  While we still have a lot of practice development and in-game emerging to do the potential is there; these guys will have to quickly meld and mold to an impenetrable unit.  Pittsburgh is counting heavily on the investments made in our last three drafts to finally fortify these positions, and finally I think they deliver.  If we get a full season out of this group, they stand to play well and pay dividends on that Front Office investment.

• (C) Maurkice Pouncey: this guy deserves more publicity and acclaim.  He gets plenty already, but whatever amount and level that is? It isn’t enough.  A Sherman tank at Center in a tradition-rich position in Steeler history, Pouncey looks every bit as qualified to play out a career talked about alongside Webster and Dawson.  An 18th Pick in 1st Round of 2010 from the University of Florida, his leadership on the Offensive unit is second only to our Future Hall of Famer in Ben Roethlisberger.  At the Center position, Pittsburgh easily has one of the games best.
• (RG) David DeCastro:  if David lives up to his potential, this could easily end up being one of the best Draft picks for Pittsburgh in decades, a miracle falling down for the Steelers to pick up as the 24th Pick in the 1st Round in 2012.  Trouble is, we will only be getting to see our first real look at DeCastro.  I don’t know which I can’t get over more: our luck in DeCastro ever falling to us in the Draft, or the sickening disappointment of seeing him go down injured before even getting out of pre-season.   Let’s take the likelihood of DeCastro being as good as advertised as being high and likely, and we will see a major improvement developing towards dominance on the right hand side of our line by a Faneca-esque perennial Pro Bowler.  This, folks, should be a helluva good thing to watch on Sundays for a long time.
• (LG/T) Ramon Foster: Ramon and Pittsburgh came to a new 3 year deal during the free agency season.  If one thing is for certain about Ramon, he’s at least durable which has certainly been an unknown commodity collectively for the o-line in Pittsburgh for many seasons. Foster does fit the mold of what we seem to like in offensive linemen: guys who can be versatile across multiple positions.  Able to perform at both Guard and Tackle, he has been the team’s most consistent lineman out taking snaps, starting all 16 games last year.  An undrafted Rookie free agent in 2009 out of rocky top, Tennessee, Foster only allowed two sacks last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
• (LT) Mike Adams: with Coach Bicknell’s philosophy towards the more athletic, mobile lineman, Mike Adams should benefit and develop into a really good RT in Pittsburgh. He has some work to do yet for sure but let’s face it – offensive line is an incredibly difficult adjustment to make to compete in the NFL. Adams has the goods to be the projected 1st Round talent he initially was coming of Ohio State as a 2nd Rounder in 2012.  Healthy, Mike Adams has a great year in Pittsburgh playing his better position, Left Tackle.
• (RT) Marcus Gilbert:  i know some have their doubts about Marcus, but I think that will change this year if we can get him permanently affixed at Right Tackle.  While not as athletic as I thought he’d be as a 2011 2nd Rounder from the University of Florida, Gilbert should come back this year a little leaner and resultantly more mobile, but he needs to produce like a 2nd Rounder.  I think Marcus comes to camp this year to play for a Starting position on the line.  Motivated, he plays himself into 1st String, Right Tackle and performs very well, progressing week to week into a great, consistent lineman.
• (G/C) Doug Legursky: I love this guy.  Even though he’s currently unsigned, I’m including him here because I expect us to smartly bring him back.  ’Gursk’s versatility is to valuable to this line to not be on the roster, and sans Pouncey has the best understanding and experience along our O-line.  He’s played valuable minutes for this team (even Starting at Center in our last Super Bowl appearance in place of injured rookie-sensation Pouncey) and plays quality minutes at three different positions: Right Tackle, Left Tackle and Center. Undrafted out of Marshall in 2008, Legursky is tough as nails and provides immediate depth and experience at several positions.
• (G/T) Kelvin Beachum: the Coaching Staff seems to be really high on Beachum’s potential.  From our win over Baltimore last year with Kevin taking the game’s full 67 snaps, he more than held his own versus the likes of Terrel Suggs and Paul Kruger.  Beach is a diamond in the rough, and can play at Guard or Tackle.  For a 7th Rounder our of SMU, Pittsburgh has gotten a glimpse of a great return potential for the selection here.
• (G) John Malecki: local boy (born and raised in the ‘Burgh and Pittsburgh alum) is also under contract, and Justin Cheadle out of California round out the current cast of offensive linemen.

Ahmad Bradshaw is a great fit at Running Back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Muse some meaning out of a cummings-esque flair of saturating with punctuation the eternal run-on sentence, all on a sports blog.  Make a lot of people wonder if I’ve got my head screwed on straight, even.  Antagonize even more and have a few, somewhere, chuckle in conspiratory sarcasm.  I like disclaimers a lot, so here are a couple as introduction for your expected comments to anything that I end up saying here:

• no, that’s not what I meant.
• yes, I considered that angle, as well.
• irregardless, the Ravens are still not as good of a Football team as Pittsburgh. Period.

Yes, I’m ready for the damned Draft, too – unlike some recent years (goose-egg returns in 2006, 2008 in particular), we are seeing some maturity from our most recent Draft classes albeit not enough, nor fast enough.  What with a very deep 2013 Class of talent to begin drawing from at #17, I think Colbert & Co. get it done this year with a very solid, contributing group.  They will have to (contribute), all of them (both Colbert and the Draftees), if the Steeler’s are to regain our deserved Playoff and Super Bowl potential and form.

OFFENSIVE MANEUVERS IN THE DARK

Taking a good degree of comfort and confidence in our upcoming Draft selections, I decided at work this morning to get frivolous with Cap money we don’t have (even with the circa $5 mil coming to us in June from Willie Colon’s release) and play GM on some highly uncharacteristic Free Agency moves under the cover of darkness and primarily predicated on sports medicine miracles in getting the Steelers back to being official Bully of the AFC North.

To get us there here are some off-the-grid, under-the-radar, mistweeted by Rapoport, on-the-down-low, keep it on the hush offensive personnel maneuvers in the dark I wish Pittsburgh had made, or could make:

• Move 2 Make – Ahmad Bradshaw: right, no shock value in this one seeing how we’ll be revisiting his new screw in a seemingly feeble foot again here soon, but if the wheels on the mend have gone well enough, Ahmad Bradshaw needs to be signed.  I really think Ahmad could be a major add to this football team: I like his toughness, I like his attitude, I like his work ethic, and I like his production, even while playing hurt.  No, I am in no way thinking “the wheels on the bus go round” in this giving us another Jerome Bettis scenario, but Bradshaw just looks and feels like a Steeler to me, and has the hands to play out of Haley’s so-called Rosetta Stone.  This guy fits the ‘Burgh; healthy and effectively plugged into our system while not having to be an every down back, and I think he comes up big for Steeler Nation.   Ahmad, Dwyer and Redman – that’s a Running Back corps that can get it done in 2013, people. Plus, wouldn’t it just be cool to see “Bradshaw” across the back of a Stiller uni again?! Tell me you wouldn’t buy one of those, just because?
• Wish 2 Make – Dennis Pitta/Ed Dickson:  unfortunately, there’s a 2nd and 3rd Round draft cost associated with these two, respectively, but I sure would love to flush one of these out of the Ravens nest while at the same time making Big Ben just that much more difficult to defend.  Make no mistake, Heath Miller’s return is of major concern on how well our Offense performs next year.  The tight end position is a reinvigorated lethal weapon in a pass-happy league.  Last season, the AFC and NFC Conferences produced 16 tight ends (8 in each conference) with 50 or more receptions.  Of those sixteen, five (5) of them led their teams in catches and Gronkowski not only set a record for the position with a whopping 17 touchdown receptions, but led the entire league in that category.  For a deserved change, Heath stands to put up big numbers in our Offensive Co-Ordinator’s philosophy but I am leery of getting Superman back sooner than later this coming season (and actually am worried his injuries are worse than reported).  Pitta in particular would be sweet, taking away one of Flacco’s favorite targets to boot.   I personally would like to see some dual tight end sets and am tired of watching Pitta give the middle and seams of our Defense a c-section; Pitta/Dickson gives Big Ben Roethlisberger another great, versatile target with or with out Heath.  I can only say two words for wishing we could sign Pitta or Dickson: “FIRST DOWN“.  Need three? Try “MOVE THE CHAINS“.   
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