Every Sunday during the offseason I plan on recapping for you seven items related to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the rest of the NFL that may have fallen through the cracks the past week that should be worth your time to read or view. This weekly feature will be entitled “Steelers’ Seven Shots.”
Shot #1 – The Albany Empire had their inaugural game Saturday night and at halftime the new AFL team retired the number of former Albany Firebirds wide receiver Eddie Brown, the father of Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, who was also present for the event. The two Browns served as co-captains for the Arena football game and were driven onto the field in a limousine for the pregame coin toss.
Shot #2 – If you like to hear NFL draft analyst Greg Cosell talk about draft prospects, you might want to listen to him talk about a few of the top off-the-ball linebackers in this year’s class during a recent edition of the Ross Tucker Football Podcast.
Shot #3 – Hall of Fame head coach Bill Parcells is known for developing a list of seven criteria he used when grading quarterbacks ahead of a draft and this old post on Larry Brown Sports details them and you can see them listed below. Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph has all seven of those boxes checked ahead of this year’s draft and you might like to know that Steelers quarterback Joshua Dobbs, who was drafted by the team last year, was able to check all but two of the boxes. The two he failed to check are No. 1 and No. 6.
1. Be a three-year starter
2. Be a senior in college
3. Graduate from college
4. Start 30 games
5. Win 23 games
6. Post a 2-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio
7. Career completion rate of 60 percent or higher
Shot #4 – According to Pro Football Focus, the Steelers secondary only registered 45 run stops during the 2017 regular season. Since then, safety Mike Mitchell and cornerback William Gay have both been released and the Steelers signed former Green Bay Packers safety Morgan Burnett to a three-year contract. Burnett, by the way, registered 10 run stops last season with the Packers, according to PFF’s numbers.
A look at which secondaries in the NFL did the best against the run pic.twitter.com/K4mKkhm0n2
— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) April 14, 2018
Shot #5 – While most of you may already know that actor Ed O’Neill was once signed by the Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 1969, you may have missed him talking about his experience with the team in two different interviews on The Rich Eisen Show like I did. I came across both of these videos this past week and they include O’Neill telling the story about how the late Chuck Noll cut him.
Shot #6 – Remember former Steelers quarterback Scott Campbell? The team’s seventh-round selection in the 1984 NFL Draft out of Purdue turns 56 years old today. He actually started two games for the Steelers during the 1985 season and both resulted in losses. His first start came against the Washington Redskins as the team’s other quarterbacks, David Woodley and Mark Malone, were dealing with a stomach virus and sore toe, respectively.
Shot #7 – NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock joined Steelers Nation Unite members for a live fan forum conference call several days ago and below is the audio from that call that a reader sent me a few days ago.
