Onward we go with our player by player look at the Pittsburgh Steelers 2012 Free Agents. we are breaking them down one by one and look ahead to their pending 2012 free agency situation. The first part of this series I am focusing on the restricted free agents and this is the fourth player in that series. In this free agent analysis we will have a look at guard Ramon Foster. Player: Ramon Foster Position: Guard Experience: 3 Years Free Agent Status: Restricted 2011 Salary Cap Hit: $527,668.00 2011 Season Breakdown: Foster did not own a starting spot on the offensive line out of 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 [...]

Onward we go with our player by player breakdown of the 2012 Pittsburgh Steelers free agents. We are still looking at the restricted group and next up is offensive lineman Doug Legursky. Player: Doug Legursky Position: Guard/Center Experience: 3 Years Free Agent Status: Restricted 2011 Salary Cap Hit: $525,000.00 2011 Season Breakdown: Legursky was a very busy guy in 2011 for the Steelers. He started the season as the starting right guard after getting the job late in the preseason as Chris Scott, Tony Hills and Ramon Foster failed to nail it down. He started the first three games 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 [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2011 season will be remembered as an injury plagued one and the offensive line certainly had their fair share of them. In the 17 games the Steelers played this past season they started 10 different line combinations due mostly to injuries as the table below shows. Offensive line coach Sean Kugler broke his personal best this year with starting line combinations as he used 9 different offensive line combinations in his final year with the Bills. Here is a rundown by game of the musical chairs on the offensive line. Week 1 - Against the Ravens the starting 5 left to Read more [...]

Gerry Dulac reports this morning via Twitter that Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey will not play Sunday against the Denver Broncos in the AFC wild card game after aggravating his left ankle in practice this week. Pouncey injured the ankle Pouncey in the home win against the Cleveland Browns in week 14 Browns and missed the next two games as a result. He returned to the play this past Sunday for the regular-season finale in Cleveland, but suffered a setback at practice Wednesday when he aggravated the injury. He did not practice on Thursday as a result. Pouncey's injured left ankle Read more [...]

The week 17 offensive line breakdown report for the Pittsburgh Steelers win this past Sunday against the Cleveland Browns is now complete and overall it was a very solid game for the offensive line as everyone scored 90% or higher. The Browns really did not get that much consistent pressure on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and there front 4 were very inconsistent at defending at the point of attack. Here are the scores and a recap of each lineman. TOTAL POSPLAYER PLAYSGOOD BADGOOD % SP H LGChris Kemoeatu 75714 95%.51 0 LTMax Starks 82775 94%02 1 Read more [...]

Mark Kaboly is reporting this afternoon via Twitter that Pittsburgh Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey might not be able to play Sunday against the Denver Broncos in the AFC wild card due to his bad left ankle. Kaboly reports that Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians said today that he is concerned that Pouncey won't be able to play Sunday because he felt sore after the practice on Wednesday. Kaboly quoted Pouncey as saying today, "I'm sore. My ankle isn't feeling right." Pouncey originally suffered a high left ankle sprain against the Cleveland Browns in week 14 and it forced him to miss Read more [...]

Below are the offensive personnel packages, play counts and participation chart for the Pittsburgh Steelers week 17 win on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns. It is not surprising that Hines Ward saw 26 snaps in this game as they looked to feed him the ball to get him to his 1,000th career reception. Emmanuel Sanders saw 23 non-penalty snaps in his return to action. Rookie running back John Clay received extra playing time due to the early ACL knee injury to Rashard Mendenhall, and saw 15 non-penalty snaps. Personnel wise we saw the return of the 0 personnel grouping this past week with 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 take on the Cleveland Browns today in Cleveland at Cleveland Municipal Stadium as the Steelers look to move to close out the regular season 12-4. Ben Roethlisberger will get the start today at quarterback and Maurkice Pouncey will get the start at center. The Steelers will dress three quarterbacks today. Chris Kemoeatu will start at left guard and Jason Worilds will start at left outside linebacker. The Steelers ruled out two players on Friday and below are the rest of the 7 inactive players today on the inactive list released 90 minutes before kickoff. Steelers RB Mewelde Read more [...]

The week 16 offensive line breakdown report for the Pittsburgh Steelers win this past Saturday against the St. Louis Rams is now complete and overall it was a pretty solid performance as everyone scored 86% or higher. The Rams run defense was pretty poor and the Steelers unit was able to push them around on quite a few plays and even get second level blocks on their linebackers, including James Laurinaitis. TOTAL POSPLAYER PLAYSGOOD BADGOOD % SP H RT/TEMarcus Gilbert 220 100%00 0 CDoug Legursky 220 100%00 0 C/LGTrai Essex 51465 90%01 0 Read more [...]

Ed Bouchette reports this afternoon that a few more Steelers players were named as 2012 Pro Bowl alternates on Tuesday. We already knew that outside linebacker James Harrison was named a first alternate for the AFC at outside linebacker and that free safety Ryan Clark and outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley were also named as second alternates. Bouchette reports now that left guard Chris Kemoeatu, cornerback Ike Taylor and defensive end Brett Keisel were named a third alternates and inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons was named a fourth alternate four the AFC squad. The Kemoeatu selection is a Read more [...]

Below are the offensive personnel packages, play counts and participation chart for the Pittsburgh Steelers week 16 win Saturday afternoon against the St. Louis Rams. Participation wise, Hines Ward saw an increase to 16 non-penalty snaps this week, 7 more than last week. 5 of those 16 came in the last 6 offensive plays of the day. Newly promoted rookie running back John Clay saw the field 3 times on Saturday and carried the ball once for his first NFL touchdown on his first NFL carry. Starting center Doug Legursky left after just 2 plays with his left shoulder injury and Trai Essex slid over Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the St. Louis Rams 27-0 Saturday at Heinz Field and improved their record to 11-4 on the season. I have made it back through the game again twice and here are my further observations from the game not included in the regular game recap. The opening stop of Rams running back Steven Jackson by Troy Polamalu, as he blew by the attempted block of wide receiver Danario Alexander, set the tone for the type of day he would have. Polamalu finished the game with 6 total tackles, second most on the team. he was all over the field Saturday. Ike Taylor would have had the Read more [...]