Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at
3:14 pm
On Monday, it was announced that Joe Greene was retiring from the player personnel department of the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Thursday, the team announced a few more changes to the department.
According to the release on the official team website, Phil Kreidler has been named the team’s college scouting coordinator, replacing Ron Hughes, who will be staying with the organization as a senior assistant, college scouting. Kreidler has spent the last 22 years in the Steelers’ player personnel department.
In addition to that change, the team also announced that Dave Petett will now be a
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Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at
12:12 pm
Season 3, Episode 101 of The Terrible Podcast is up and co-host David Todd and I have plenty to talk about as the Pittsburgh Steelers prepare for their first OTA session that will take place in a couple of weeks.
The Steelers signed free agent tackle Guy Whimper since our last show, so we discuss that news along with the news that Max Starks is visiting with the San Diego Chargers this week.
The legendary Joe Greene retired from the Steelers earlier in the week and made some interesting comments to Ed Bouchette afterwards concerning players and one-upmanship attitudes. We discuss those
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Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at
9:53 am
Center A.Q. Shipley, the Pittsburgh Steelers seventh-round draft pick in the 2009 draft, was traded Thursday morning from the Indianapolis Colts to the Baltimore Ravens for a conditional 2014 draft pick.
The former Penn State center did not make the Steelers 53 man roster out of training camp in 2009, but he showed enough during the preseason to warrant him being signed to the practice squad.
In January of 2010, the Steelers reportedly tried to sign Shipley to a futures contract, but he opted instead to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles. Once again he did not make the 53 man roster in Philadelphia
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Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at
9:01 am
An interesting poll that is posted on the Baltimore Sun website has quite interesting results.
An emailer alerted me to this poll that asks readers to vote on which quarterback is best between Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
As of right now at the time of this posting Flacco has 10499 votes, while Roethlisberger is right behind with 10205 votes.
Now, this is not the most scientific approach to polling, in fact Ravens fans should be disappointed that this is so close. Just as everything else is usually flawed, I suspect that
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Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at
7:03 am
On Monday, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark said on NFL Live that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady sees ghosts when under pressure against man-to-man coverages. On Wednesday, former Patriots linebacker turned ESPN analyst Tedy Bruschi came to the defense of his former teammate and even suggested that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger should perhaps start seeing more ghosts himself.
When Brusci was asked to give his reaction to Clarks' ghost remark, he let it rip.
"It's a defensive term," started Bruschi. "Ryan's a safety and I'm a linebacker, and he calls it seeing ghosts,
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at
7:29 pm
According to Wednesday report by Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , the Pittsburgh Steelers recently reached out to free agent tackle Max Starks, but his return to Pittsburgh, at least according to him, isn't likely to happen unless he is given the opportunity to compete for a starting spot.
According to Kaboly, Starks seems to think that the Steelers have now moved passed him for good being as they signed free agent tackle Guy Whimper after talking to him.
"Let me say this, (Starks and the Steelers) had a conversation prior (to the Whimper signing), and that decision (to sign
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at
4:55 pm
With more and more NFL teams drafting athletic tight ends these days, combined with more teams trying to incorporate spread style offenses, defenses are forced to combat this with more athletic players that can defend against it.
The Pittsburgh Steelers over the last several years have primarily used just two types of personnel groupings on defense. Those two groupings have been the base 3-4 and the nickel. The difference in personnel in those two groupings has been that the nose tackle comes out on passing downs in lieu of an extra cornerback.
While the Steelers have occasionally used the
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at
2:50 pm
On Monday, the legendary Joe Greene retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers organization and Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette talked to him by phone after the announcement had been made. During his talk with Greene, the Hall of Famer told Bouchette how he thought money, and more specifically, the one-upmanship attitude that players have today, in his opinion, is ruining the Steelers.
"The scary thing is that players have a one-upsmanship about money; they sign a contract and they like it until someone signs a bigger one and now they don’t like it," Greene told Bouchette. "I don’t
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at
12:00 pm
As you probably already know by now, I am very high on Marshall McFadden, the Pittsburgh Steelers young inside linebacker out of South Carolina State and it appears that the rookie camp held last weekend did him a world of good as he prepares to do battle in training camp this year for a spot on the 53 man roster.
McFadden admitted over the weekend that he struggled grasping things last year in rookie camp, but that this year the refresher course helped him a ton.
"When I came in last year during rookie minicamp I was struggling to understand things because it was all so new to me," said
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at
10:26 am
The Pittsburgh Steelers 2013 rookie camp has come and gone and while we did get a few small reports about players from the members of the media present, here is a new tidbit to pass along and it concerns sixth-round draft pick Vince Williams.
Bob Labriola of Steelers Digest was asked on Tuesday during the Steelers Live show if any other player had caught his eye over the weekend after thoroughly discussing the top draft picks and here is what he had to say about Williams.
"The one guy that I kind of noticed was Vince Williams," said Labriola. "He would be the second pick in the sixth round,
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Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 at
6:35 am
The Pittsburgh Steelers did right by signing nose tackle Steve McLendon to a three year contract a few weeks ago. The former undrafted free agent out of Troy finally graduated from Mitchell University and deserves a chance to start in 2013. Now that we have that out of the way, what about the depth at the nose tackle position behind McLendon?
The Steelers currently have Alameda Ta'amu, their fourth-round draft pick from 2012, and Hebron Fangupo, who was claimed off of waivers from the Seattle Seahawks late last December, currently on the roster. Neither, however, have taken a regular season
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
5:21 pm
On Monday, we passed along word to you that the Pittsburgh Steelers had waived undrafted free agent nose tackle Anthony Rashad White, but according to the official league transaction sheet put out daily by the league, the 6-1, 335-pound, White was waived injured.
White has since cleared waivers and has now reverted to the Steelers injured reserve list as a result. He does not count against the 90 man roster.
We don't know the exact nature of the injury suffered by White and his stay on the Steelers injured reserve list will likely depend on the seriousness of his injury.
The Steelers might
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
3:33 pm
Are you ready for some Carrie Underwood? I mean, are you ready for some Sunday Night Football? I mean, are you ready for both?
Sunday Night Football producer Fred Gaudelli said in conference call just a short while ago that pop-country music star Carrie Underwood has been brought on board this season to perform the SNF opening anthem, I’ve Been Waiting All Day for Sunday Night after Faith Hill decided last month to relinquish the job after six years of kicking off the show.
Below is the press release concerning the announcement.
NEW YORK – May 7, 2013 – NBC selected six-time Grammy
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
2:41 pm
Former Baltimore Ravens head coach, and current Fox Sports analyst, Brian Billick released his 2013 post draft NFL power rankings on Tuesday and he ranked the Pittsburgh Steelers, 19th overall and third of the four AFC North teams.
Here is what Billick wrote about the Steelers:
Just like the Ravens, the Steelers have had their roster depleted with cap casualties and free agency departures, but unlike the Ravens, the Steelers have done little to fill the voids and plan for the future. It could be a long year in Pittsburgh.
While every man is entitled to his own opinion, Billick's reasoning
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
12:47 pm
Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor was a guest Tuesday morning on the David Baumann Show on Sports Talk Florida and he talked about training year in and year out with renown trainer Tom Shaw as well as his belief that interceptions are overrated among other things.
At the beginning of the interview, Taylor was asked about why he has chosen to work out with Shaw for so many years.
"Why not?" shot back Taylor. "No first rounder, played cornerback for one year, played running back for one year and working out with him since I was in eighth grade, so he's like a father figure.
"This
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
11:24 am
The Pittsburgh Steelers signed free agent tackle Guy Whimper on Monday and the contract details are pretty simple and not taxing cap wise.
According to an agent, Whimper signed a one-year qualifying contract that includes a base salary of $715,000 and no signing bonus. Being as it was a qualifying contract, the cap hit for Whimper will be $555,000. Thanks to displacement in the top 51 salaries, the Steelers only used $75,000 of cap space to sign Whimper.
Being as Whimper received no signing bonus, he will not cost the Steelers anything in the way of dead money to release should he not make
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
10:18 am
On Monday, Hall of Famer Joe Greene retired from the Pittsburgh Steelers personnel department and I couldn't help but think about the story in the Jan 28, 1969 edition of The Pittsburgh Press following the selection of Greene in the first round of the NFL draft. The fan reaction almost reads like modern day tweets on Twitter following a draft. I don't know who the author of the piece was, but it very well could have been the late Pat Livingston or the late Les Beiderman. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. Below is a reprint of the article.
Fans' Reaction:
'Who's Joe Greene?'
Steeler
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Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 at
9:28 am
On the Monday episode of NFL Live on ESPN, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark was asked to rank his top five safeties in the league and below are his rankings.
1. Earl Thomas
2. Dashon Goldson
3. Troy Polamalu
4. Eric Weddle
5. Jarius Byrd
Here is what Clark had to say while ranking Troy Polamalu at No. 3.
"This was a decision for me, because here is a guy that I really want to put at number one, but he's had some injuries over the past few years and hasn't been as a effective," said Clark. "He's a guy I feel like can be number one if we get him back fully healthy. Anticipation,
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Monday, May 6th, 2013 at
10:52 pm
I previously posted that Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark was a guest analyst Monday on NFL Live, and during one segment dedicated to the New England Patriots, Clark was asked to comment on them losing wide receiver Wes Welker via free agency this offseason, and how vulnerable it now makes them offensively as a result. Clark, as expected, was very straight forward in his response.
"I think what’s really underestimated is Wes Welker’s importance, to not only the New England Patriots, but Tom Brady," said Clark. "A lot of what they do is timing. A lot of what they do is option reads,
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Monday, May 6th, 2013 at
8:24 pm
On Monday, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed free agent tackle Guy Whimper to help bolster their depth on the offensive line and I speculated that tackle Marcus Gilbert might not be ready for the first OTA session that takes place in a few more weeks due to him coming off ankle surgery in December. Gilbert, however, told me tonight that the ankle is indeed fine and that he plans on working during the OTA session.
Gilbert injured the tendon in his right ankle in the Week 6 loss last season to the Tennessee Titans and flew to North Carolina shortly thereafter to see specialist, who deemed at that
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