In some not so surprising news today, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced that they have released cornerback Bryant McFadden and wide receiver Arnaz Battle and officially announced that they have signed safety Myron Rolle, wide receiver Juamorris Stewart and linebacker Brandon Hicks to future contracts. The release of McFadden and Battle were expected as the Steelers start to clear salary cap room for 2012. McFadden was scheduled to count nearly $2.667 against the 2012 cap and Battle was scheduled to count almost $1.3625 million. By releasing both players prior to June 1st, the Steelers will eat Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II sat down with a few members of the Pittsburgh media on Tuesday for a half hour interview to discuss the Steelers past season and look ahead to 2012. You can read the question and answers here on the Post-Gazette blog. When you read through everything there were not too many surprises if you ask me, but I will go over the main talking points below with my own comments and view points added to a few of the things that Rooney said. Even though we do not usually learn too much from these interviews every offseason, it is just good to hear some of the things Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers are already nearly $20 plus million over the 2012 projected salary cap number of $125 million and that is with just 44 players under contract for 2012. The still need to tender contracts to their restricted and exclusive rights free agents and fill the offseason roster to get to the 80 player limit as well. They need to get compliant to the salary cap with their top 51 salaries by the start of the new league year around the beginning of March. Knowing what we have as far as 2012 salary cap figures, it is easy to go through and list the players most likely to be cut or restructured. Read more [...]

Below are the Pittsburgh Steelers coverage stats for their week 17 win against the Cleveland Browns on the road in Cleveland. These stats are broken down by play and include down and distance, line of scrimmage, direction, yards gained, yards after catch, personnel the offense used, defensive package, number of pass rushers and whether or not the defense blitzed on the play. Browns quarterback Seneca Wallace was 16 of 41 for starters, with two incompletions being spikes. Those are not accounted for below. He also threw for just 177 yards on the day. William Gay was the most targeted in coverage Read more [...]

Below is the defensive participation chart for the Pittsburgh Steelers week 17 Sunday game versus the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Steelers were in their base defense for 25 of the 58 non-penalty plays Sunday against the Browns. 33 plays in the nickel sub-package with Bryant McFadden replacing Keenan Lewis later in the game after Lewis suffered a hamstring injury. Rookie Cameron Heyward had 6 snaps in this game and they came at the right defensive end spot. Steve McLendon saw 3 snaps at left defensive end and none as a base nose tackle this week. No snaps for Cortez Allen 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 [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the playoffs and will play the Denver Broncos Sunday afternoon in Denver in one of the two AFC wild card games with the Cincinnati Bengals taking on the Houston Texans Saturday in Houston in the other first round AFC wild card game. The New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens both received the first round byes and are the 1st and 2nd seeds respectfully. The Steelers are the 5th seed and the Bengals are the 6th. The Texans are the 3rd and the Broncos are 4th. Should the Steelers beat the Broncos on Sunday in Denver, they will travel to Foxboro to take on the Patriots Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns Sunday to close out the regular season at 12-4. As I do every week, here are my deeper post game observations after going through the game tape a few more times. The sack by Lawrence Timmons on the Browns opening saw Timmons come on a delayed blitz and he took on fullback Owen Marecic. Marecic did not hold his block long and Timmons spun away back inside for the sack. Jason Worilds should get a little credit on the play for taking right tackle Artis Hicks up the field to open up the lane. Great tackle on Josh Cribbs by Keenan Lewis on the Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers had another close game to finish out the 2011 regular season, but they held on to beat the Cleveland Browns 13-9 Sunday at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger started despite his left ankle still not being 100% and threw for 221 yards on 40 attempts. He was sacked twice on the afternoon, but did not turn the ball over in the win. Wide receiver Antonio Brown finished out his spectacular sophomore season by hauling in 6 catches for 90 yards. Brown also chipped in 73 yards on 3 kickoff returns in the game and he went over the 1000 yard mark in return 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 [...]

On the heels of Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown being named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week today, it is the perfect time to break down his 60 yard punt return for a touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals this past Sunday at Heinz Field. You can see the full video replay here and the return only really consist of 4 key blocks as you will see in the screen shot pictures below. The play did have the controversial block in the back no-call, but it is not so blatant when you look at it frame by frame. Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 9-3 on the season with their 35-7 thrashing Sunday of the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field. I have gone through the game a second time and here are my notebook observations from the game. The Steelers special teams were very special indeed on Sunday. Rookie Cameron Heyward really sparked things on the block of the early field goal attempt and fellow rookie Curtis Brown had two nice solo tackles and assisted on another. You can see why he was touted as such a good special teams player at Texas. Stevenson Sylvester caused the fumble that was recovered by Emmanuel Read more [...]

The official game release is up for the Steelers week 12 Sunday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs, and as always it is loaded with great information, stats and milestones. Head coach Mike Tomlin resumed his normal Tuesday press conference yesterday as the Steelers returned from the bye and Tomlin also resumed his normal guest spot on Sirius XM Radio as he joined Adam Schein and Rich Gannon. Tomlin updated them on the status of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and told them how he went about watching the Chiefs game on Monday night against the Patriots. Chiefs head coach Todd Haley held Read more [...]

During the Steelers bye week I have had several request to start looking forward to the Steelers 2012 draft and while I think mock drafts are pretty ludicrous to throw out there right now with 6 weeks left in the 2011 season and the bowl games yet to be played, I will wet your appetite with what I see as the possible needs for the Steelers based on what we have seen through the first 10 weeks to go along with the impending potential 2012 salary cap challenges I wrote about earlier in the season. I take my mock drafts pretty serious, as you have seen over the years, and have quite a bit of scouting Read more [...]

The Steelers 2011 bye week is right around the corner in week 11 and what a welcomed sight it will be. Every team goes through injuries and the Steelers certainly have had their share of them this year with the lines and linebacker position taking the hardest hits thus far. As the Steelers head into their week 10 against the Bengals, they will likely do so without their sack leader LaMarr Woodley. Tomlin tried to paint an optimistic picture today during his press conference, but I do not see Woodley returning until after the bye with the bad hamstring injury. I suggested just after the injury Read more [...]