Preseason games; where the starters watch from the sidelines. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports

Every year I start a countdown till the kickoff of the next Steelers season.  I’m used to starting the countdown after I’ve recovered from whatever their last game was.  This past season, I started the countdown once they were eliminated from playoff contention.  I may or may not still be bitter about that.  I don’t countdown to the preseason, because well, it’s the preseason.  While I understand and appreciate its purpose and like all good NFL junkies I will watch the games but you and I both know they’re nothing like the real thing.  Still we all now know when we can get our first sip of the taste of football this season now that the preseason schedule dates and times have been released.

The Steelers have two home games in the preseason against the New York Giants and the Kansas City Chiefs and will play away games against the Redskins and Carolina Panthers.  Below is the schedule with dates and times.  The final preseason game will be against the Panthers for the 11^th season in a row and the date and time has not yet been finalized.

http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/Steelers-Announce-Dates-and-Times-for-Preseason-Home-Games/b2cf20c0-daca-4f9f-aeda-09b0f4266e4c

So mark your calendars, we will have Steelers football on August 10^th.  It’s preseason, but it’s still football after all.  Here we go Steelers!

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Robert Golden (Free Safety)

Like the player below him on this list, I believed all the way back in April that Robert Golden had a legitimate shot of at the very least making the Steelers Practice Squad during his Rookie season.  So far, Golden has helped himself with some nice performances, and could even find himself with a roster spot as a backup Safety and Special Teams player come Week 1 for this team.  Over three games, Golden has accumulated 5 Tackles, logged 2 Passes Defended, and had a nice break on an Interception which he returned 47 Yards last week.  While he projects more as a Free Safety, Golden played both Safety and Cornerback in college at Arizona, and could find himself in some sub-packages in a year or two if he indeed stays on the roster past the preseason.

Drew Butler might be the next Punter for this franchise. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-US PRESSWIRE

Corbin Bryant (Defensive End)

With a backup spot along Defensive Line available over the last week of the preseason, Corbin Bryant can seize the final 5-Technique position available with a strong performance.  Bryant has done a solid job over the last two preseason games, and notched 3 Tackles and 1.0 Sack against the Bills last Friday night.  Competition should be heated between Bryant and fellow youngster Al Woods, and both are sure each receive a decent amount of reps during tomorrow’s game to strut their stuff and win a job as the 4th 5-Technique in the rotation.

Drew Butler (Punter)

Do not get me wrong, Drew Butler has had a few inconsistencies here and there so far over his first three games.  But when he has been on his game, the former Bulldog has sent some boomers and punted well enough to put the injured veteran Jeremy Kapinos’ job in jeopardy.  So far, Butler has punted 19 Times for a whopping average of 47.7 Yards per boot, and stuck three of his 8 punts last Friday inside Buffalo’s 20 as well.  While there is still one week to go, Butler could all but nail down the job with a solid effort and send Kapinos packing.

Derrick Williams (Wide Receiver)

The veteran from Penn State has definitely helped his cause (TD grab last week) to be a member of the Steelers 53-man roster come the opening weekend of the season.  Wiliiams has accumulated plenty of experience on Special Teams during his career (42 Kick Returns 931 Yards in 2009), and could be used as the team’s 5th Wide Receiver if he beats out the younger players at his position.  To earn a roster spot, Williams will have to unseat David Gilreath, Rookie Toney Clemons, and Tyler Beiler, and play well on all of the Special Teams coverage units he is assigned to during the game.

David Paulson (Tight End)

Paulson might have an outside shot of making the regular season roster. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

Because Weslye Saunders will be suspended, and David Johnson’s knee was shredded, the Steelers will be forced to carry a 3rd Tight End on their roster behind Heath Miller and Leonard Pope for the first four weeks of the regular season.  Due to Pittsburgh’s need at the position, Rookie David Paulson could be called upon to fill the void and should receive some extensive looks tomorrow.  Paulson (2 Catches for 11 Yards in 2012 Preseason) has very soft hands and could be developed into a complementary H-Back weapon in the Red Zone if he is deemed worthy to be kept long-term.  If the former Duck does stay, he could be stashed on the Practice Squad for a season, develop his blocking skills and be ready to compete and contribute full-time in 2013.

Final Thoughts

The players I mentioned above are just a short list of some which I will be paying particular attention to tomorrow.  Plenty of others like Woods, Gilreath, Clemons, Beiler, Cornerbacks Terrence Frederick and Josh Victorian, Safety Da’Mon Cromartie-Smith, and Guards Kelvin Beachum and Ryan Lee will be laying it on the line during this week too.  It should be at least intriguing to see how some of these hungry players duke it out over their final audition, and I am sure that the final roster will feature a few surprises.  So let us sit, watch, and wait, and in only 11 short days the regular season will start.  Then we will truly be: “Back to Football.”

Stats Courtesy of ESPN.com

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“”Cracker-Jack,” just “Cracker-f@#!ng-Jack!”  Another one bites the <expletive deleted> dust?!”

-Myself, during the 2nd Drive of the Steelers Week 3 Preseason win

Those were the only thoughts and phrases which I could muster at the sight of David DeCastro’s injury.  Thankfully, my mind was somewhat occupied and mood under control, because I was about to watch the Padres administer a beat-down to the vastly overrated Diamondbacks.  By the way, I sure most of you readers which are Pirates fans have noticed that San Diego has played some solid baseball as of late.  But because I am not Peter King, I’ll refrain from making anymore references about baseball in a football-dedicated post.

If you readers did not happen to notice, I wrote a post last week which covered the carousel of players the Steelers had already used along their Offensive Line during this preseason.  Well, the tune-skies for the never-ending game of musical chairs for the unit has yet to stop, and 4th year man/expert shuffler Ramon Foster will now be needed to step in at Right Guard.  While it is a darn shame that DeCastro will likely not see any significant action until Easter of 2013, I am at least comfortable with Foster starting in DeCastro’s place.  The former Tennessee Volunteer has started a career 26 N.F.L. games, and has the ability to at least do an adequate job at the position in the mean time.  Plus, after watching Chris Kemoeatu and his undisciplined play over the previous few seasons, it cannot get much worse at either Guard spot right now.

Pressure will be on Ramon Foster to once again step up this season. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

Backup Line Getting Thinner

My confidence in Foster aside, I am worried about however is how thin the Steelers are currently spread along their Offensive Line in terms of their total personnel.  Behind the projected starting five of Max Starks, Willie Colon, Maurkice Pouncey, Foster, and Marcus Gilbert, the Steelers have Doug Legursky, Trai Essex, and Rookie Mike Adams on the roster as the top backups.

Granted, “Leggo” and Essex have fit in well as super-subs before and should be able to fill in at one of the Guards (or even Center, I like Essex at Guard more) if some other disaster befalls this unit.  But at this point (only Week 3 of the preseason, I know), this team cannot afford anymore devastating injuries along their Offensive Line, and there is little depth at Tackle with Foster now being kicked inside.  But the ultimate “cherry on top” of this “crap-laden sundae” of a situation is that the veterans on the Offensive Line, Starks and Colon, have had their share of injury issues over the last few seasons, and could inevitably go down at some point this year.

While he has improved some, and possesses plenty of tools and athleticism to work with, Mike Adams has looked dreadful in pass-protection numerous times during the preseason.  Heaven forbid if the team actually has to use the Rookie to protect Big Ben’s blind-side against players like Von Miller, Elvis Dumervil, DeMarcus Ware, anybody in the Giants’ “NASCAR Package,” etc..  If a “trial by fire” scenario such as the aforementioned one occurs with Adams, I will just cross my fingers and hope that when “Big #7 Tree” inevitably falls, he does not “fall hard.”

Final Thoughts

On a positive note, it was nice to see the Steelers Offense get themselves somewhat in gear (especially on that 11 play 98 Yard scoring drive and Rainey’s splash play), the Defense force some Turnovers (kudos fellow Wildcat alum Robert Golden), and Daniel Hrapmann and Drew Butler make their cases to stick and stay as the team’s specialists.

At this point though, the DeCastro injury is the “turd” in the Steelers proverbial “preseason punchbowl.”  With a week left to go in the preseason, and two before their showdown in Denver, Steelers have a large amount of work to do, and must continue to play “Roster Tetris” along their Offensive Line.  My hopes for a season with less than 40 Sacks on Big Ben/Steelers Quarterbacks appears to be shot down for the moment.  But as this organization preaches, “The Standard if The Standard,” and Foster now has a golden opportunity to earn a new contract next offseason with a solid showing over the coming months.

Let’s try and get past this negative turn of events “Steeler Nation,” and hope there is a way that the team’s Offensive Linemen can avoid being struck down with anymore injuries.

Time to sound off readers:  How much will this injury hurt the Steelers this season?  What were your first thoughts?  Let me know below.

Stats Courtesy of: Pro Football Reference.com

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See anything you like Mike? Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-US PRESSWIRE

There are few things in life that make me as happy as Steelers football.  The summer is the worst time of the year.  I’m not going to lie; I danced a jig when I finally got the link to work for the Steelers first preseason game against the Eagles last night.  While preseason isn’t usually something worth dancing a jig about, it is good to see the team in full uniform and pads and I was very anxious to get the first official look at the new Todd Haley offense at work.  What were the highs and lows of the first outing of the season?  Let’s take a look at the best and worst moments of last night’s loss to the Eagles. (more…)

Thanks to the miracle of Tivo, I finally got around to watching the Pittsburgh Steelers first preseason game.  I know I said I was watching it anyway but when they decided to postpone it for over an hour due to rain, I set my recorder and headed out to karoake bar.  Anyway, while I usually give a detailed write-up for regular season games, meaningless contests demand slightly less than my unparalleled best.  So with that in mind, here are some tings I taut I thaw…

QUARTERBACK – What we didn’t see was Ben Roethlisberger.  Whether this is Mike Tomlin‘s idea of making a statement or just his plan for getting the other two guys ready is anybody’s guess.  Personally, I think he was just hung over from a hard night icing bros and banging hoes.

Byron Leftwich started and went 6 of 10 for 43 yards.  That sounds good on paper but it wasn’t much to to get excited about.  Most of those completions came in long yardage situations where the defense was willing to give up short underneath stuff.  His throws did look sharp and accurate when he was given a nice clean pocket from which to throw.  I just worry because this offensive line may not provide many of those and his long windup and relative immobility make him a huge liability when pressured.

Dennis Dixon was by far the most impressive quarterback on the field Saturday.  Granted he played against the second and third string units but he was playing with back ups himself.  He directed scoring drives of 79, 75, and 68 yards utilizing an electric mix of passing and running (6 rushes for 31 yards to go with a perfect QB rating).  He threw a couple nice deep balls and was accurate on all the short stuff.  Plus his legs provided a dimension to the offense that clearly kept the defense off-guard.

OFFENSIVE LINE – Um, not good.  Not good at all.  Granted, the starters only played three series so this is an extremely small sample size but what I saw was almost disturbing.   I dunno if the starters decided to play at half-speed or what but the amount of penetration the freakin’ Lions were getting was not what you wanted to see.

The bookend tackles were the primary culprits.  Flozell Adams was doing his best impression of a human traffic cone as guys ran right by him.   Max Starks was also getting beat off the edge on almost every pass.  The push up the middle wasn’t there at all.  Running plays up the gut would result in little or negative gains almost every time.  The best offensive line play of the night was when second stringers Ramon Foster and Tony Hills came in to man the left side and provided some excellent blocking for Redzone Redman.

RUNNING GAME – The Steelers want to get back to Steeler Football.  I’m all for that.  But it would be good to HOLD ON TO THE DAMN BALL.   Rashard Mendenhall had his one nice run ruined because he tried that idiotic spin move he does and had the ball knocked from his mitts.   Mewelde Moore and Issac Redman also had fumbles although both got them back.

The most impressive back was Redman who carried it 15 times for 60 yards.  He also scored a nice short yardage (one yard line) TD plunge.  Rookie Jonathan Dwyer was unimpressive, carrying 6 times for 8 yards.

RECEIVERS – Third rounder Emmanual Sanders was said to be the star of training camp.  Fifth round pick Antonio Brown was the star on the field.  Brown caught three passes for 82 yards.   One of those was a 68 TD which started as a ten yard slant from Dixon that Brown cut upfield and blew by everybody for the score.  The blazing speed which got him drafted was definitely as advertised.

Newcomer Arnaz Battle also chipped in with a nice 51 yard catch-and-run.  Those were the only real notable performers out of the passing game as the majority of the time was spent working on running the ball.

SECONDARY – Again, we have a very small sample size since the first team D only played about 15 snaps.  But it looked a lot like last year.   The linebacker got good pressure on the QB and pretty much stifled any running attempts.   But as soon as Detroit started throwing, they began moving the ball with relative ease.  Ryan Clark did pick off a pass when a Detroit receiver let a poor throw sail through his hands.

Kennan Lewis and Joe Burnett, second year corners expected to step up this year, had up-and-down games.   Lewis covered Calvin Johnson in the end zone and nearly picked off an errant pass.  Burnett blanketed him on the next try but got burned on a comeback move for the TD on the third attempt.  Of course, Johnson is the best WR in the NFL so I cut the youngsters some slack.  Against lesser competition, they acquitted themselves fairly well.   I was particularly impressed with Lewis’ leaping ability and think he might prove useful this season.

SPECIAL TEAMS – Daniel Sepulveda was handling kickoffs in camp.  Skippy Reed went back to doing it during games.   So we got the same old lousy kickoffs that land at the 10 yard line.  He was a perfect 3-3 on FG attempts.

Coverage wise, they didn’t look terrible but Detroit was getting better-than-average field position off all their kicks.  If the Steelers are going to play a lot of low scoring defensive struggles, giving up good field position on a regular basis has to be fixed or it’ll come back to bite them.

In summation, the bad news is I don’t know how much they did to address last year’s shortcomings.   The good news is only three more of these travesties left before we get to some real football.