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.

Rest easy, Steeler Nation. Andre Frazier has re-signed with our beloved Black and Gold. Not only do we get his special teams expertise for another year but we also managed to save some space under the salary cap through a shrewd bit of maneuvering by Player Personnel Director Kevin Colbert. Instead of tendering him an offer which would pay him $927,000, the Pittsburgh Steelers cleverly allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent, allowing them to then sign him at a lower salary. These sort of ingenious maneuvers are why we’ve been such a successful franchise the past 15 years. Suck it, Oakland.

Of course, I’m being a smartass. Andre Frazier is a minor blip on the radar and other than running down the field on kickoffs and punts, his greatest contribution to the Steelers next year will be keeping a seat on the bench warm for important players like punter Daniel Sepulveda.

But I’m okay with that. You know why? A boring free agency season means one thing: your team is pretty damn good. Look at the Patriots. Or the Colts. Or even the Chargers. How many free agents have they signed? How many have they lost? Do they even care?

Facts are, the teams who sign the most free agents are usually teams in dire need of improvement. This year, there have been a lot of moves by the Jets, Bears, and Eagles. Well, there should be, they weren’t good last year. They should be bringing in new players to try and turn things around. The Catch-22, though, is that no team has ever successfully rebuilt through free agency. Sure, if you’re thisclose to contending, an off-season pick-up can put you over the top. T.O. going to Philly or Randy Moss being sent to New England comes to mind. But overhauling your team with free agents is like trying to redecorate your house with stuff you find at a garage sale. The quality is just not there and you end up paying ridiculous sums for #3 recievers or washed up linebackers. Ask Danny Snyder.

The curse of being a Steeler fan is your team is well-run enough that most off-seasons are blessedly dull. The Pittsburgh strategy is very clear. First, we sign our core players before they even sniff the open market. Ben Roethlisberger, Willie Parker, Troy Polamalu, and Aaron Smith were all locked up well in advance of free agency, keeping the nucleus of the team intact. The players who we don’t deem irreplaceable, or who have reached the point of becoming high priced veterans, are let go and replaced with younger prospects. We cut LB Joey Porter last season and James Harrison stepped in without missing a beat. Clark Haggans is a free agent this year and we haven’t even made a half-hearted attempt at keeping him because we have two young players, Lawrence Timmons and Lamarr Woodley (who looked great in limited playing time as a rookie), ready to take the field. Yes, losing G Alan Faneca hurts. However, if history is any guide, the Steelers will address this in the draft, ending up with a player of comparable ability at half the price.

And when the Steelers do tip toe into the free agent pool, we always go for the Giant Eagle double coupon super-saver specials, orphaned players saved from dire conditions on lousy teams by Dan “Daddy Warbucks” Rooney. Even there we’ve done very well. Never forget that C Jeff Hartings, whose retirement last year almost single-handedly lead to the collapse of our line, was originally signed away from the lowly Detroit Lions. So when I read the Steelers are talking with Atlanta S Chris Crocker or Miami G Rex Hadnot, I’m optimistic about finding another diamond in the rough and not another Sean Mahan.

We’ve already signed one free agent this off-season, former Vikings RB Mewelde Moore. I think Moore could prove to be a very important player for us next season. He’s already the odds on favorite to be our new return man, replacing the gone and happily forgotten Allen Rossum. He’ll also likely be our new third down back, assuming a role similar to the one Verron Haynes used to fill as an outlet receiver in the flat. Haynes was a major part of the 15-1 (2004) and Super Bowl (2005) teams as he kept many drives alive by converting third downs via dump-offs from Big Ben. Since his devastating and apparently career-ending knee injury two seasons ago, we have missed that kind of weapon on offense.

Moore may very well turn into yet another in a string of nice acquisitions at a bargain basement price. Considering the Steelers recent history with free agency, I wouldn’t bet against it.

Wide receivers. Of course, I’m talking about wide receivers and not Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger’s taste in the ladies. As an aside, after spending a whole week listening to Sean Salisbury and Tony Kornheiser discuss Tom Brady’s main squeeze, Brazilian supermodel Giselle Budchen, while also bemoaning the fact that Tony Romo has reportedly kicked Yoko Simpson to the curb, I’m extremely glad our quarterback limits his off-field activities to LPGA scrubs and WB starlets. Anyway, this week the national football media latched on to the story of an apparent riff developing between Ben Roethlisberger and Steelers WR Hines Ward.

It all started shortly after the season-ending soul-crushing loss to the Jacksonville Jagoffs. Ben was asked what areas he felt the Black and Gold needed to address in the draft. He responded by saying, “I’m always going to ask for a tall receiver. That’s just me. Our receivers are unbelievable, but our tallest guy might be Hines. Or Santonio [Holmes]. Hines is going to say he’s 6 foot, but he’s 5-11.”

These comments made it through the grapevine to good ‘ol Hines. “I don’t hear Tom Brady or Peyton Manning asking for that,” Ward said. “To me, it’s a rare combination of receivers out there who are good and tall. We won a Super Bowl, we didn’t have a tall receiver then,” he added, eyes welling up with emotion. “To me, I have enough problems to worry about than what Ben wants — I can’t give him the contract,” Ward continued, referring to Roethlisberger’s upcoming contract extension talks. “He wants a tall receiver? Why did we draft Santonio?” asked Hines, lips quivering from the sting of Ben’s betrayal.

Look, I like Hines Ward. I didn’t see Lynn Swann play and only caught John Stallworth toward the tail end of his career. Swannie’s career was short and Stallworth benefited from always playing opposite other good receivers. Such as Louis Lipps, who was a Rookie of the Year, damn fine wide out, and made a very tasty cookie. All of them put up some great numbers but I’d have to say Hines is the best receiver in Steeler history. He’ll go over the middle. He can be a possession receiver although he’s fast enough to break off long gainers. His 18 yard/catch average was highest among any of the top 50 reception leaders in the NFL this season, which is doubly impressive considering how often he catches 5-8 yard dump offs in the flat. He’s an awesome blocker. He’s a former Super Bowl MVP. He’s a tremendous talent.

He’s also a bit of a head case. It all goes back to the year he was drafted. Mel Kiper and his fabulous head of hair had Hines projected as a first round pick. Unfortunately, he also played quarterback and running back at Georgia which confused some scouts as to where he should play or if he was polished enough in any one area. So he dropped, all the way to the third round. Oh, the horrors! Still, Ward never forgot this “slight” and has spent his career with a chip on his shoulder trying to prove everybody was wrong about him.

Sometimes this is a good thing. Ben still smarts from being picked behind Phillip Rivers and Eli Manning. Tom Brady never forgot he was a 6th round pick. But with Hines, it’s always been a bit of a problem. A couple seasons ago, he threatened to hold out of training camp because of perceived disrespect from the Steelers organization. Only a phone call from Bill Cowher managed to convince him to stop being a baby and show up for work.

Yes, Ben should know better than to be critical of his teammates. Especially teammates who performed well for him this season. He should also know better than say things about Hines, given the man is more thin-skinned than a woman with PMS. And yes, Hines has a point about ability trumping size in receivers. The Jaguars have two gargantuan wideouts but they can only be bothered to catch 1 out of every 4 passes thrown their way. I’d rather have a midget who catches everything than a 25%er.

That said, Ben is totally correct to want a larger receiver put on the offseason shopping list. One of the frustrating parts of the Steelers offense this season was not being able to score touchdowns when inside the 5. Part of this has to do with not having a big fatass running back. The other part is not having a big end zone target. We do have 6-5 Heath Miller and 6-7 Matt Spaeth at tight end and early in the year, they were both scoring touchdowns. When teams caught on and began to cover them is when the red zone problems started. Also, neither of them are particularly quick (not fast, big guys aren’t usually fast but they have to be quick enough to get separation) which limits their usefulness in the open field. How many 20, 25, 30 yard gainers did either have this year? The jump ball bomb is a weapon missing from our offense ever since Plaxico Burress left.

So Ben was right, although the way he went about it was wrong. It’s all water under the bridge now. Hopefully Ben will apologize and smooth things out with Hines and Hines will wipe away his tears and come back this year with an even bigger chip on his shoulder. Which, now that I think about it, might be an ingenious bit of reverse psychology on Ben’s part. Or dumb luck. Whatever works.

That about sums up last night’s “game” against the Dolphins. As much fun as pulling for a 0-0 tie or watching a punt land on the ground and get stuck like a lawn dart was, there’s no way professional football should be played on a piece of shit like Heinz Field. I’m no grass growing expert, but 11 games in 7 days in late November in the Northeastern United States couldn’t possibly end well, even without the downpour. I hope Roger Goodell really comes down on the Rooneys about this fiasco, just like the league slapped down the Patriots a few years ago over their shitty field conditions for a playoff game against Indy. Then again, knowing that paragon of righteousness and fairplay, Bill Belichek, they probably Bull Durham’d the field on that one. But we’ve known for YEARS that Heinz had the worst surface in the league and yet all they do is talk and discuss and plan and never actually DO anything to fix the problem. They can grow fungus in outer space and hair on Cy Sperling, they can’t plant decent grass in Pittsburgh?

At this point, I would offer up some analysis of the game last night but given the conditions, I’m not sure we can really learn anything from that performance. Joey Porter played a great game for the Fins, almost single-handedly trying to will them to victory. His shouting “You still love me” over to the Steelers sideline was pretty funny. I kinda missed ‘ol J-Peezy for a few minutes there…at least until James Harrison absolutely OBLITERATED John Beck on a sack/fumble play and I realized we’re just fine at linebacker, thank you very much.

I wonder if Dolphin fans would’ve been content with a tie? Technically, they’d still have a winless season, but it’s better than nothing. Cam Cameron seemed pretty intent on testing that theory as his ultra-conservative offensive calls pretty much ensured the entire game would be played at about mid-field. Don’t get me wrong, our defense played well but it helps when the other team doesn’t even appear to be trying to score. In fact, I think they called more plays which went horizontally down the field than vertically. And I got a good chuckle out of the Worst Commentators Ever™ hyping Ted Ginn as an electrifying return man. I could sure feel the electricity when he’d wave his hand frantically to signal for a fair catch.

Offensively, what can I say? Willie Parker had about 85 yards to go over 1,000 for the year. A fine accomplishment but once again he didn’t really bust anything or make the home run play we’re used to him making. Obviously, the field probably killed any ability to cut back or whatever. Hines Ward had his best game of the season, which is what you expect from a possession receiver in a game like this. Ben played okay, the interception to Porter was a terrible throw and a couple sacks were caused by him holding the ball way too long, one of which killed a nice drive we had going on early in the game.

As for the line, oh, you wonderful line you. Again, it’s hard to really tell much but we did surrender another 5 sacks to a team that only had like 12 coming in. Sean Mahan turned his back to me more times than the cheerleaders in high school which tells me he’s still getting blown by like a fat orange pylon. Seriously, did Chukky Okobi tell Mike Tomlin he loved him in “Jerry McGuire” on the first day of training camp? How bad could he possibly of been if Mahan beat him out? Heath Miller got two really costly holding penalties which looked to be because instead of out running a route, Tomlin is now holding him back as an extra pass blocker. Keep our best red zone threat at the line because we can’t protect our quarterback. Great.

Anyway, so ends the saga of Sod Bowl I. My only regret was we don’t have a scoring system like they have in the CFL because a game like this deserves to end with a final score of 1-0.

In the city of Pittsburgh, there is no more natural rival than the Cleveland Browns. When the Browns moved to Baltimore many years ago, Iron City Beer even issued a commemorative can saluting “The Rivalry 1950-1995” That’s some serious hatred when you dislike somebody so much you’ll actually miss hating them.

Unfortunately, since the Browns were resurrected in 1999, The Rivalry hasn’t been what it once was because the Brownies, well, they’ve sucked. Beating them has given us all the joy of beating Corky from “Life Goes On” in a game of Scrabble.

How quickly things change in the ever wacky NFL. Cleveland actually has a pretty good team this year. Once might even argue they’re the hottest team in the AFC not illegally videotaping their opponents. They’re an up-and-coming team which is currently only one game behind us in the standings. This game might very well decide the AFC North.

Steelers Defense vs. Browns Offense

The Browns have suffered from massive suckage in seasons past because of four issues:

1. Poor QBing
2. Bad O-Line play
3. Oft-injured sissy-boys
4. Drafts which make Mel Kiper weep

Tim Couch played about as well as an unmade bed. Charlie Frye was supposed to be the savior but was a false prophet.  Enter Derek Anderson.

Anderson finally gives them the steady passer they’ve been searching for. He’s smart, calm, can make all the throws, and doesn’t make the soul-crushing mistakes of his predecessors. Anderson is being helped by an O-line which is playing very solidly, led by first round pick Joe Thomas and former Steeler (by way of the Eagles) Hank Fraley.

As an aside, this brings me to a point about the Browns; while Joe Thomas is shaping up to be an excellent pick, they could’ve drafted Adrian Peterson instead. Imagine a Browns offense with Quinn, Peterson, Edwards, and Winslow, Jr. Instead, they have broken down Jamal Lewis. In the past 20 years, the Browns have only had one running back run for over 1,000 yards (Ruben Droughns). Droughns was replaced by Jamal Lewis who is so far, far, far past his prime, it’s like replacing Filet Mignon with Chipped Ham.

The Browns offense has gelled with the quarterback, line, and playmakers Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow. Edwards is fast becoming one of the elite receivers in the game. Winslow has overcome the injury problems which plagued him to be a top TE. In fact, Winslow’s career turnaround seemingly began around the time Joey Porter questioned his sexual orientation in some pre-game trash talking. Now, far be it for me to engage in such juvenile antics but it did lead to one of the all-time great Porter quotes after being fined for the slurs: “I didn’t mean to offend nobody but Kellen Winslow.”

Aaron Smith is supposed to be back this week but since the Browns don’t have much of a running threat, I don’t see run defense being an issue. Troy Polamalu, perhaps reading our posts, gave the entire blogosphere the figurative finger by playing his best game of the season last week. He’ll have to be on this week because defensively, the pressure will be on the secondary. Ike Taylor has to cover Edwards and either Anthony Smith or Troy will be matched up with Winslow. The secondary has to play big for the Steelers to be in this game. Of course, I’d like James Harrison to do his one-man army act again but I’ll settle for just enough pressure to make Anderson hurry his throws.

Steelers Offense vs. Browns Defense

Outside of offensive categories, the Browns are abysmal in all the other rankings. The Browns are one of only six teams playing the 3-4 as their base defense (New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, San Diego, and Dallas). They have some young talent in CB Leigh Bodden, S Sean Jones, and LB Kamerion Wimbley but they’re all still developing their skills. Unfortunately, the heart of the 3-4 is the linebackers and the Browns rely on rickety old Willie McGinest to bring the heat. This has resulted in a hellacious pass rush which has generated all of 7 sacks and is allowing on average close to 300 passing yards per game.

Which I’m sure is music to Ben Roethlisberger’s ass. That’s where he ended up when he suffered that “contusion” (NFLspeak for “big ‘ol bruise”) in the third quarter of the Ravens game. Big Ben has been under siege this year and only his amazing ability to avoid sacks by being Too Big To Tackle™ has saved us from one disaster after the other. Ben obviously likes his arms like he likes his drinks, very very stiff. I’ve never seen a QB shrug off, straight arm, and swat away so many would-be tacklers. I don’t know how badly his leg is hurting but it would be nice if our line could keep his uniform clean for once.

Despite Willie Parker having a great year rushing the ball, our O-line hasn’t really played that well. Obviously teams stack the box and concentrate on stopping the run against us but that’s never prevented us from cramming it down their throats before. A key to this game will be if we’re able to get our running game going early because the best thing the Steelers can do is grind out drives and keep the Cleveland offense on the bench. If we get into a 1998 SNES John Madden Football-like scoring contest, it could be a long day for the boys in Black and Gold.