AP photo: Don Wright
I recently promised to cover the defensive line “soon,” and given the plethora of plumbing problems and viral indispositions, this counts as soon.
In many ways the core of the defensive line is the most uniformly impressive group on the team. The middle is anchored by Javon Hargrave, who could have but didn’t win the Steelers’ Rookie of the Year award. Read more
After doing essentially nothing in free agency this spring other than signing a few of their own, the Steelers have suddenly exploded into a frenzy of activity, relatively speaking, signing not one but three guys within the past few days. Let’s take a quick look at them, with the latest coming first. Read more
by Hombre de Acero
With NFL Free Agency about to begin its third week the 2017 off season is fully underway. And for the Steelers it’s business as usual, greatly to the chagrin of much of the franchise’s fan base. Nonetheless, there’s been enough activity thus far to give this corner of Steelers Nation 5 Smoldering Questions to struggle with before our focus firmly shifts to the 2017 NFL Draft. Read more
Via Steelers.com
Unfortunately, it turns out the Steelers aren’t goin’ to the Super Bowl this year, in case you haven’t heard, because they haven’t signed any overpriced free agents, and the Patriots have. (I suppose time will tell whether they are overpaid or not.)
I have to admit, I wish the Steelers would work a little harder on grabbing Ross Cockrell, but maybe they are waiting to make a play for Malcom Butler. (Hah!) (Although it would be a good idea for the Steelers to sign him so that Antonio Brown won’t have to run down hotel corridors any more. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please watch the video at the end of the article…) Read more
Matt Freed, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
My husband and I had dinner the other night with some friends from our days in New Mexico. I was very much looking forward to the dinner and catching up with them, at least until they arrived and the first words out of Richard’s mouth were “Gosh, my team has been uncharacteristically active in free agency this year.” My heart plummeted as I remembered he was not only a Patriots fan but one of the smug kind. (Actually, those are pretty much the only kind of Pats fans I’ve met. Are there any other kind?)
It was too late to bail on the dinner arrangements, and besides the restaurant we met at is an old favorite, one that I seldom get to enjoy anymore, since it is now about 1500 miles away from my house. So I gritted my teeth and merely responded that I realized it was uncharacteristic, and assumed it must be because Bill Belichick has discovered some new loophole or other. Richard said “Oh, I hope so.”
He also offered me condolences on the AFC Championship game, which were, of course, completely lacking in any sincerity whatsoever. Luckily, I like his wife a lot, and she doesn’t care about football as far as I know. Read more
via USA Today
Another year, another frenzy in the meat market known as NFL Free Agency. We can always count on a few stunners, and this year has been no exception. And, so far at least, this year is no exception in the Steelers’ reluctance to wade very far into these very expensive waters.
As Kevin Colbert recently noted, more teams are following the Steelers’ model of drafting and retaining their own players, and this makes the ones who do hit free agency all the more expensive. Read more
It’s time to tackle head-on the 275-pound elephant in the room—James Harrison. In other words, we’re going to have a look at the outside linebackers.
No one has more respect for what James Harrison has brought to the Steelers than I do. He’s had a full career of overcoming the odds, and he continues to do so. Last season he was, at age 38, the oldest non-kicker or quarterback still playing football. That’s amazing. And when you consider he did so at a high level for the past two seasons, and was the almost-every-down ROLB, after Joey Porter had solemnly assured everyone Harrison’s snap counts would be limited, is nothing short of remarkable. Read more
via espn.go.com
by Homer J.
Homer has visited the old port and the old market in Charleston, SC, where 40% of the colonial slave trade passed through. He is fully aware of America’s racial past, an he is in full agreement with William Faulkner’s observation that, “the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.”
That’s why he views the NFL Combine, now underway in Indianapolis, with a mix of fascination and unease.
The title seemed appropriate to celebrate the news of Antonio Brown’s massive extension. And no, he didn’t get a new hair style, although I suspect he will, just to mark the occasion—he got a nice fat contract.
I expect if you are a betting sort of person you can find a site someplace in which you can lay down money on the odds of him committing even more outrageous and extravagant hi-jinks, now that he has $19 million in guaranteed money to tide him over, besides all the rest of it. We can only hope his post-season heart to heart meeting with Mike Tomlin at a downtown steakhouse included some equally extravagant promises of future good behavior. But in the end I expect what they mainly care about is future performance.
Because of this news it seems appropriate to address the wideouts. So let’s get this out of the way first. We just looked at the defensive backs and pondered why it is that the Steelers, who have come up smelling like roses in drafting later-round wide receivers, have generally smelled like something else in their drafting of defensive backs. goffthesloth left a very interesting comment on that post, which I quote in its entirety: Read more
