Play.it Usa Forum

T.Brady_12 wrote: Può essere il 2009 l'anno di Mendenhall?

pandu86 wrote: il 2009 sarà l'anno di Willie Parker 

pandu86 wrote: il 2009 sarà l'anno di Willie Parker 

Paperone wrote: you've got it

ESPN's John Clayton reports the Steelers have signed OLB James Harrison to a six-year, $51.175 million extension.
Harrison will receive close to $20 million in bonuses. He was scheduled to earn just $1.4 million this year, but the Steelers rewarded him for his Defensive Player of the Year campaign while ensuring that he won't hit free agency in 2010. Contract details aren't in yet, but the 30-year-old's deal is sure to be front-loaded.

Paperone wrote: you've got it

ESPN's John Clayton reports the Steelers have signed OLB James Harrison to a six-year, $51.175 million extension.
Harrison will receive close to $20 million in bonuses. He was scheduled to earn just $1.4 million this year, but the Steelers rewarded him for his Defensive Player of the Year campaign while ensuring that he won't hit free agency in 2010. Contract details aren't in yet, but the 30-year-old's deal is sure to be front-loaded.

Paperone wrote: you've got it

ESPN's John Clayton reports the Steelers have signed OLB James Harrison to a six-year, $51.175 million extension.
Harrison will receive close to $20 million in bonuses. He was scheduled to earn just $1.4 million this year, but the Steelers rewarded him for his Defensive Player of the Year campaign while ensuring that he won't hit free agency in 2010. Contract details aren't in yet, but the 30-year-old's deal is sure to be front-loaded.

Paperone wrote: you've got it

pandu86 wrote: I think Joe Flacco just got a cold chill. He had one of those Yoda like moments where he felt there had been disturbance in the force and he knows somethings not right.

Whatarush wrote: Max Starks (1982)
Willie Colon (1983)
Justin Hartwig (1978)
Heath Miller (1982)
Willie Parker (1980)
Hines Ward (1976)
Casey Hampton (1977)
Brett Keisel (1978)
Larry Foote (1980)
Ryan Clark (1979)
Jeff Reed (1979)

Quarterbacks: Steelers situation.
With the exception of a guy brought in to be a fourth arm at training camp, there is no room on the roster for a guy at this position.

Ben Roethlisberger signed an eight-year contract in 2008 and nine months later put together a Joe Montanaesque drive in the final two minutes to win Super Bowl XLIII. He turned 27 in March, and his best years as an NFL starting quarterback are still ahead of him.

The role of backup quarterback is an essential one for any team hoping to compete for a championship, and this is the only spot where the depth chart is not set. One year ago, the Steelers had Charlie Batch in this role and were content with him, but when he broke a collarbone during the 2008 preseason opener it set in motion a series of events that ended with the signing of Byron Leftwich.

Dennis Dixon is the kind of player who’s perfect as a No. 3 quarterback — a young, developmental guy making the NFL minimum salary and therefore no strain on the salary cap.

Running Backs: Steelers situation.

It would be great if the Steelers could add a dynamic running back to the team that finished 12-4 and won Super Bowl XLIII, a guy to complement Willie Parker and provide a physical presence in their
backfield. In fact, that’s what the team did last April when it picked Rashard Mendenhall, and because Mendenhall was lost to a season-ending injury during Week 4 of the 2008 season, it will almost seem as
if the Steelers are getting a bonus No. 1 pick this year.

By all accounts, Mendenhall has healed wonderfully and, in fact, he could have played in the playoffs last year if he hadn’t been on injured reserve. Mendenhall has been a regular at the team’s facility throughout the offseason, and the combination of a fresh body and a
second-year player’s understanding of the system should serve him and the offense very well in 2009.

Mewelde Moore was a nice pick-up during the 2008 offseason, and he showed himself to be a guy who could start in spots, be a reliable third-down back and also a threat as a receiver out of the backfield.

Carey Davis has been mis-cast as a fullback, but he is valuable on special teams, and Gary Russell emerged at the end of last season as the team’s best option in short yardage. If the team is looking for someone to fill the role of lead blocker in power-running situations it
might have found one in Sean McHugh.

The key to the backfield this season figures to be Parker’s health. After missing only three of a possible 53 games, including postseason, over four seasons after becoming the starter, Parker missed five in
2008 with knee and shoulder injuries. Always in top shape, Parker already is third in franchise history behind only Franco Harris and Jerome Bettis with 1,155 carries. As Bettis showed, just because a back goes through a season where injuries nag him doesn’t mean the guy is on the downside.

Since it would be very difficult for a newcomer to crack this unit, adding any in this draft wouldn’t seem to be the best use of the picks.

Tight Ends: Steelers situation.

Teams go into drafts looking for tight ends who offer the increasingly rare combination of blocking and receiving skills that Heath Miller has, and the Steelers already have Miller. That alone means there is
no need here for a starting tight end, and with former third-round
pick Matt Spaeth entering his third NFL season there also is no need for a backup to Miller.

Sean McHugh was added to the team just before the start of the 2008 regular season, and he developed into a No. 3 tight end who also was used in the fullback’s role as a lead blocker in shortyardage
situations.

It’s possible McHugh might be a better fullback than a tight end, but using him in both roles allows the Steelers to save a roster spot, which
makes him more valuable. Adding a third tight end and keeping McHugh as well could be too much of a luxury.

Wide Receivers: Steelers situation.

Because NFL offenses increasingly employ four wide receivers at a time, it’s rare a team doesn’t enter a draft with at least some need at the position. The Steelers go in with a need, and theirs is because Nate
Washington left as an unrestricted free agent. Washington was a very nice No. 3 receiver by the time his career here ended, four years after signing as an undrafted rookie from Tiffin.

With Washington gone, what the Steelers currently have on the depth chart behind starters Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes consists of Limas Sweed, practice squad holdovers Dallas Baker and Martin Nance, and free agent Brandon Williams.

Sweed is the key here. A second-round draft pick last April, Sweed had gone into that draft as a firstround- capable talent, and the Steelers were praised for adding him with the 53rd overall selection. But those scouts not as sold on Sweed had questions about his toughness, and more on the mental side than the physical.

As a rookie, Sweed was inactive for the first four games, and then he finished the regular season with six catches for 64 yards. He played some special teams but didn’t have a tackle or any return yards, and then there were the two spectacular drops in the AFC playoffs.

So far this offseason, Sweed has been a regular participant in the program and he’s also doing more than is required. Starting this summer in Latrobe, Limas Sweed is going to have the opportunity to
show whether he’s the kind of player to drop a sure touchdown pass and then lay on the field to cost his team a timeout in the AFC Championship Game, or whether he’s the kind of player to deliver a crunching block and then catch a 14-yard pass to convert a key
third down later in the same game.

Also on management’s mind as it goes through this draft should be the age of Hines Ward. The fiveyear contract Ward signed in 2005 is due to expire after the upcoming season, and he turned 33 on March 8. Ward has two Super Bowl rings and a Super Bowl MVP trophy; he owns every significant career receiving record in franchise history and is the only receiver in franchise history to play in four Pro Bowls.

Ward already has 800 catches and is 220 yards short of 10,000 in a career, both significant milestones for an NFL receiver, and because of his physical style of play he now has a rule named after him. The idea of Ward retiring after the 2009 season is something the Steelers should be considering seriously.

Offensive Tackles: Steelers situation.

One year ago, the team was said to be in dire need of a tackle, maybe two, to strengthen an offensive line that had allowed 100 sacks in the previous 33 games, and using their high picks to get them was allegedly a definite. The Steelers then drafted only one tackle — Tony Hills — and he wasn’t picked until the fourth round.

Their depth chart here is virtually identical to the one from April 2008, but it seems as though that sixth Super Bowl trophy has mitigated the perception of their situation somewhat. As of today, Max Starks and
Willie Colon are the starters, and Trai Essex is the only other player
with any NFL experience at the position.

It’s not difficult to find evaluators who will list what Starks and Colon are not, but both players got the job done in some critical situations in both the regular season and the playoffs. Would Colon be better as a guard? This question is moot until the Steelers have someone who could play right tackle as well as he does, and the reality is that they don’t.

During training camp last summer, Coach Mike Tomlin often paired Hills vs. outside linebacker Bruce Davis in pass-rush drills. As they would go against each other in repetition after repetition, Tomlin could
be heard to yell, “I’m going to make one of you a player. I just don’t know who it’s going to be yet.”

Even if Hills develops, the Steelers would not be wasting high picks spent here, because there’s no such thing as an NFL team having too many good tackles, no such thing as having too many good offensive linemen. The Steelers definitely don’t have too many.

Guards/Centers: Steelers situation.

So much of this part of the team is like putting together a puzzle where all the pieces must fit, but also where pieces can fit in more than one place.

After trying and failing to solve the center situation with Sean Mahan, the team got it right last offseason with Justin Hartwig. The contract signed by Chris Kemoeatu early in this offseason means he’ll be the
starter at left guard for the immediate future; Kendall Simmons, the former No. 1 pick who opened the season as the starting right guard, lost his job to Darnell Stapleton after injuring his Achilles at midseason and was released in March.

By the end of the season, Hartwig was a quality NFL starter who had grown quickly into something of a leadership role among the players on the offensive line, but since he will be 31 in November it would be
foolish to bank on him being a long-term solution.

Maybe Stapleton’s long-term future is at center. Maybe Trai Essex wins the right guard job from Stapleton. Maybe Tony Hills moves inside from tackle. “Maybe” indicates a possibility and therefore offers
hope, but “maybe” also is far from a certainty.

The Steelers won a Super Bowl with Stapleton as a starting guard, but the way Arizona’s Darnell Dockett turned the middle into his own personal playground during Super Bowl XLIII could indicate a need for bigger bodies. Maybe Stapleton can get stronger, or maybe experience helps him make up for what he might lack in size.

Two summer ago, Essex was very close to getting waived at the end of training camp, but when called upon to play in 2007 he held his own, and then he came to the following camp in much better shape and has solidified a hold on a roster spot. Stapleton figures to open training camp as the starting right guard, but Essex will have an opportunity to show the coaches that he’s one of the five best linemen on the roster.

Right now, the team has six offensive linemen on the roster with NFL experience in a Steelers uniform, plus second-year pro Hills and three other guys signed as undrafted rookies or street free agents. Since they figure to keep nine, or 10, on their 53-man roster, spending high draft choices on offensive linemen seems like a no-brainer. Just as it did last year.

Defensive Linemen: Steelers situation.

One year ago at this time, the defensive line was seen as an aging unit in dire need of an injection of youth. None of the starters was younger than 30, and since prospective defensive linemen typically
need time to develop within the team’s system, it seemed as
though at least one draft pick should be spent on this unit.

As it happened, the Steelers didn’t draft a defensive lineman in 2008, and during training camp they waived the one they had picked in 2007. Instead of getting younger, the Steelers actually got older on the defensive line when they signed 13-year veteran Orpheus Roye as training camp was about to end.

The difference between 2007 and 2008, with respect to the defensive line, was injuries. Aaron Smith didn’t miss a game, and Travis Kirschke’s back didn’t prevent him from filling in capably when Brett Keisel missed a few around midseason. Chris Hoke was there when Casey Hampton was injured, and the team also got much better play from Nick Eason in his second year with the team.

Now it’s 2009, and when training camp opens this summer, Eason will be the only guy among the top seven defensive linemen on the Steelers roster who won’t be older than 30, and he’ll be 29. It didn’t seem possible that the Steelers would go through the draft last April without adding a defensive lineman, and it’s even less likely this time around.

Linebackers: Steelers situation.

Proponents of using consecutive picks at the top of a draft to solidify a certain position point to what the team did in 2007 with Lawrence Timmons and LaMarr Woodley to support their opinion. Those additions
turned a corps that was starting to look old into one that’s as good and as versatile as any the Steelers have had in the last 15-plus years.

James Harrison is the incumbent NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and he deserved the award. James Farrior played at a Pro Bowl level in 2008 and his peers voted that way. Larry Foote held off Timmons
in a competition for a starting inside linebacker spot last summer, and even if that doesn’t happen again this year he still is too valuable a player to be discarded.

Including Timmons and Woodley, that’s five quality linebackers, and there are some young players who seem to be interesting as well.

Cynics can claim Patrick Bailey was voted the team’s Rookie of the Year award by default, but he was an explosive special teams player and that ability often translates to defense once experience in the
scheme is added. Donovan Woods, like Bailey an undrafted rookie, opened the season on the 53-man roster because he was deemed to be the better outside linebacker. Andre Frazier and Arnold Harrison
both have experience with the Steelers, and there also is Bruce Davis, last year’s No. 3 pick.

Because the Steelers depend upon linebackers for so much of what they like to do on defense, this isn’t an area that can be ignored for long but in this particular offseason it doesn’t seem to be much of a need.

Defensive Backs: Steelers situation.

There is a need at cornerback, but it might not be as pressing as some fans believe. The departure of Bryant McFadden can be looked upon as a move that robs the team of a starting cornerback, or it also can be seen as a move clearing the way for William Gay to get more playing time. Gay played almost the same number of snaps in the Super Bowl as McFadden, and Coach Mike Tomlin has been bringing
along this former No. 5 draft pick in a steady manner.

But even if Gay is the answer as the starter opposite Ike Taylor, Deshea Townsend is entering his 12th season and Fernando Bryant is a 32-year-old former No. 1 pick who now is a journeyman.

At safety, the starting lineup is set in stone, but depth could be an issue with the team giving up on Anthony Smith by not offering him a tender as a restricted free agent and with Tyrone Carter now 33. Maybe Ryan Mundy is part of the answer at safety, and maybe Roy Lewis is part of the answer at either cornerback or safety. But since it’s foolish to count on “maybes,” expect the Steelers to take advantage of a deep crop of defensive backs sometime during this draft.