The questions are rolling in about the Pittsburgh Steelers 2012 free agents so I threw together a quick rundown of the restricted, unrestricted and exclusive rights free agents as the Steelers head into the offseason. The 6 restricted free agents will all certainly be tendered with only Mike Wallace receiving a first round tender. The other 5 will receive the lowest one year tenders. These amounts have not yet been released and I will post those amounts later in the offseason when they are made known. Both exclusive right free agents have no choice but to accept their tender offers and they can't Read more [...]

The playoffs begin today for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they take on the Denver Broncos in the 2nd AFC Wild Card game of the weekend in Denver. With a win, the Steelers will move on to face the New England Patriots next Saturday. As I have done each and every week this season, here are my 7 things to look for against the Broncos. Also included is my score prediction for the game. Seeing Red - Isaac Redman will make his second career start at running back now that Rashard Mendenhall was lost for the season last week with a torn ACL in his right knee. His first start came back in week 5 against Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers as expected today placed running back Rashard Mendenhall on the season ending injured reserve list today and signed back defensive back Anthony Madison to the 53 man roster to fill the spot. Mendenhall tore the ACL in his right knee on the last play of the first quarter against the Cleveland Browns this past Sunday. The surgery date for Mendenhall has yet to be determined. Madison is being brought back to help on special teams primarily as the Steelers will likely be without rookie cornerback Cortez Allen, who is recovering from a shoulder injury suffered on Sunday, against Read more [...]

Ed Bouchette reports via Twitter that the right knee injury suffered by Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall yesterday against the Cleveland Browns on a first half run is indeed a torn ACL and he will be lost for the rest of the playoffs. Bouchette reports that the good news is that there is no other damage in the knee and that Mendenhall will have surgery to repair the torn ACL over the next couple of weeks, presumably after the swelling goes down. The injury happened on on the last play of the first quarter as Mendenhall attempted to plant his right leg and cut back inside on Read more [...]

Ed Bouchette reports today that the injuries suffered by Pittsburgh Steelers cornerbacks Keenan Lewis and Cortez Allen yesterday against the Cleveland Browns are a hamstring and separated shoulder respectively. Lewis injured his hamstring some time in the second half and was replaced by cornerback Bryant McFadden when the Steelers used their nickel sub-package. Allen hurt his shoulder on a tackle during a punt return. Both Lewis and Allen are key special teams players for the Steelers as gunners and it looks like one or both could be in jeopardy of missing the AFC wild card game on Sunday against Read more [...]

Defensive back Anthony Madison reports on his Facebook page that he is back with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the announcement of the signing is expected to be later today. Madison has served three different stints with the Steelers and played in all 16 regular season games and the playoffs last year for the black and gold. Madison is known for his special teams play, but did get time on defense last year in some sub-package situations. His re-signing could indicate that rookie cornerback Cortez Allen might out a few games or even lost for the season because of the injury he suffered on Sunday Read more [...]

The Steelers defense created 35 take-aways in 2010 as opposed to just 14 so far this season. I went back and watched all off the takeaways from last year to refresh myself with how they were created. 8 of them were caused by getting to the quarterback in some shape or form. 6 were results of good hits on either a ball carrier or strip after a catch. 8 of them were results of bad throws by the opposing quarterback, 5 were nice plays where the Steelers defender jumped the route. 4 were balls that originally came off of a receivers hands and 4 more came on special teams. Below is a play-by-play Read more [...]

I hope you enjoyed the press man coverage that Dick LeBeau used almost exclusively this past Sunday against the New England Patriots because I know I certainly did. LeBeau has been visibly laying that ground work of this switch ever since James Harrison has been sidelined as the Steelers have been forced to play more dime and big nickel with 6 defensive backs over the last 4 weeks and perhaps even longer. The real early sign that LeBeau had this up his sleeve was against the Cardinals two weeks ago when rookie Cortez Allen saw the field for 10 snaps in the dime. Up until that point, Allen only Read more [...]

The newest PDF gameday release for the Sunday game against the Houston Texans is up now and these always make great pre-game reading. The latest offering from Dejan Kovacevic is about the slow start to the season by linebackers LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons. I wrote after the Willie Colon injury that the Steelers were not likely to sign back Flozell Adams partly because of salary cap room and his high demands. Ed Bouchette blogged this morning that is likely indeed the case as well. John McClain wrote in the Houston Chronicle this morning that the Texans are soft both mentally and Read more [...]

The Steelers got back to business on Sunday after their 16-7 loss Friday night to the Redskins as they held a morning and afternoon practice on Sunday. Here some notes leading up to practice today. I have both the offensive and defensive participation charts up from Friday night as well as the offensive line and blocking report from the game. I also totaled up the coverages from the game as well. Former Steelers special teams ace Anthony Madison has signed with the Lions. Chris Kemoeatu was activated from the active PUP today and that leaves only tight end Eugene Bright on the list. The Read more [...]

I wrote back in mid April how the Steelers cornerbacks did not get enough credit last season as they played the Dick LeBeau system pretty well. It seems everyone only wants to remember the loses against Saints, Patriots and Packers though. Most seem to forget that those three teams all have pretty good quarterbacks and all three indeed had pretty good games against the Steelers. Two of those three games were still very winnable for the Steelers. The latest article by Football Outsiders takes a look at how the Steelers defense did against various numbers of wide receivers sets. The Steelers ranked Read more [...]

The Steelers have never been big players in the free agent market and it should come as no surprise that when they have ventured to be somewhat active in free agency with Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert in control, the cornerback position is one they choose not to address. Willie Williams, Keiwan Ratliff and Chidi Iwuoma are the only cornerbacks you could remotely call free agent cornerback acquisitions under Colbert and it is a stretch to even say that. Williams was drafted by the Steelers in 1993 and played 4 seasons in Pittsburgh before heading off to Seattle for 7 years. The Read more [...]

ESPN reporter Adam Schefter reported earlier today that unsigned players with four or more accrued seasons are expected to become unrestricted free agents in the next collective bargaining agreement. If that indeed is the case, tackle Willie Colon, tight end Matt Spaeth, cornerback William Gay and punter Daniel Sepulveda will all likely be considered unrestricted free agents. The Steelers tendered all four players prior to the lockout starting just in case the 2010 free agency rules would be used again in 2011. Colon has 5 years accrued service and missed out on free agency last year because Read more [...]

After posting the penalties on the offensive line last week, I was asked by a few readers if I had an updated Steelers penalty report of all the penalties both accepted and declined from the 2010 season. I have these all tabled up below by player and by week from the 2010 regular season and the players are listed from most to fewest. In total, the Steelers were flagged 124 times with 23 being declined. They resulted in 913 penalty yards and nullified 307 yards in total. The defensive penalties resulted in 29 first downs while the offensive penalties resulted in 22 stalled drives. Jonathan Read more [...]

We wanted cornerbacks, we got cornerbacks as the Steelers drafted Curtis Brown and Cortez Allen in the 2011 NFL Draft. Now that the draft is complete, it is time to take an early look at the cornerback situation as it stands today. The Steelers kept 6 corners on the active roster in 2010 and may be forced to keep as many as 7 this year depending on how free agency pans out and how fast the rookies develop. Here is the Steelers cornerback situation as we know it today under new defensive backs coach Carnell Lake. RCB Ike Taylor - Taylor, as many know, is an unrestricted free agent and there Read more [...]