Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark was on NFL Total Access Monday evening to serve as a guest analyst and late in the show he sat down with Lindsay Rhodes, formerly known as Lindsay Soto, to talk about the ongoing Bountygate situation. Rhodes asked Clark if he was interested to see how the New Orleans Saints will be punished and Clark replied, "I am. I've actually have been very involved. Obviously through Twitter, I said something that kind of ruffled some peoples feathers. So I am definitely interested to see how its handled. Obviously with Roger Goodell making player safety his legacy, Read more [...]

NFL Insider Jay Glazer reports Saturday night on Twitter that he is hearing that when the 2012 salary cap is set on Monday it'll be right around $120.6 million, which would make it $225,000 more than the 2011 cap number. Teams also should be able to roll over their remaining cap space from 2011 as well, but in the case of the Pittsburgh Steelers that equates to just over an extra $500,000. So in essence the Steelers will be initially working with a cap number of roughly $121.1 million. The league is also allowing three, $500,000 credits in 2012 on three veteran players with 5 or more seasons that Read more [...]

By Cian Fahey Leadership is a vital part of sports which does not appear on the game film or statistics sheet. Leadership is something which transcends through a whole club or franchise from the top to the bottom. However, leadership is also something that is needed at every level for teams to be successful. The New England Patriots are the perfect example of a team with leadership that transcends through the whole organization. In New England, Robert Kraft has learned over the years to lead by example opposed to cause friction with his coaches. Bill Belichick is undoubtedly a leader because Read more [...]

As the Bounty Gate story continues to play out, one Pittsburgh Steelers player has made it known that he will be real interested to see the stance the league takes towards the New Orleans Saints and current St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, as linebacker James Harrison took to his Facebook page on Sunday to say, "We'll see how concerned the NFL is about player safety when they decide what the punishment for the saints is." Harrison polled his followers and friends at the end of the post with the question, "What do u think it should be?" Harrison, and all of the Steelers Read more [...]

By Jeremy Hritz The tradition and history of the Pittsburgh Steelers and their success at the position of linebacker is unmatched and envied throughout the National Football League. Over the last several seasons, James Harrison, Lawrence Timmons, James Farrior, and LaMarr Woodley have manned an impenetrable run defense and an aggressive, pressure-producing pass rush. In 2011, injuries hampered the pass rushing effectiveness of Woodley and Harrison, while age limited Farrior’s abilities to not only stop the run, but also to be functional in pass coverage. Larry Foote at times alternated with Read more [...]

Yet another young draft hopeful that has been linked to the Pittsburgh Steelers for some time now is linebacker Dont'a Hightower from the University of Alabama. The linebacker group was center stage Saturday at the 2012 NFL combine, along with the defensive linemen group, and Hightower got his turn to talk to the media in the afternoon. During his media session Hightower said he measured in on Saturday at 6 foot 2 and weighed 265 pounds. He announced that he hopes to run a 4.6 in 40-yard dash when he takes the field Monday at Lucas Oil Stadium according to Scott Brown from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Hightower Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have yet to finish solving all of their salary cap problems as they march forward to the start of the new 2012 league year and already Steeler Nation is worried about 2013. The worries are centered around all of the contract restructuring that has been done over the last two seasons. Since the 2011 season ended the Steelers have restructured the contracts of LaMarr Woodley, Lawrence Timmons, Ike Taylor and Willie Colon. These restructures consisted of base salary money being converted to signing bonus and prorated out over the remaining years left on each of the players Read more [...]

I am a big fan of Pat Kirwan and he chimed in Saturday on the Mike Wallace pending free agency and how teams might be interested in signing him away if he is tendered at just a first round level. David Todd and I covered the Wallace situation quite extensively in the latest episode of the podcast and here are my thoughts of how the Steelers could fit Wallace and the franchise tag underneath the cap initially until a longer term contract is reached. Former Steeler Jeremy Staat leaves today on a bicycle trip that is scheduled to last 100 days and cover more than 4,000 miles. The trip will take Read more [...]

Since my last post on Mike Wallace, as it relates to trying to protect him via free agency, I have had a few questions about how the Steelers can possibly fit Wallace underneath the cap by the start of the new league year if they indeed were to place the franchise tag of $9.4 million on him. Let's assume that the Steelers tender all of their other restricted free agents and exclusive free agents except for Jamon Meredith at the lowest levels, which I fully expect they will do, and assume they give Wallace the franchise tag that is estimated to be about $9.4 million. With the current players Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is reporting early Wednesday morning that that the agents of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and linebacker James Harrison have both said that their clients are agreeable to restructuring their contracts before the start of the NFL's new year to help the team get in compliance with the salary cap. March 13th is the magic date that the Steelers need to be in compliance with the cap and it has long been speculated that both Roethlisberger and Harrison would be potential restructure candidates. Both restructured their contracts prior to the start of Read more [...]

This time of year I always get quite a few questions and comments about the Pittsburgh Steelers salary cap situation. Many are confused as to what a restructured contract is, and many view it as a pay cut. In light of the most recent restructures that the Steelers have done, I thought now would be a good time to try to help clarify a few things in relation to that topic. Let us start with the contract that LaMarr Woodley, who was the first player announced as having his contract restructured, signed before the season started last year. The contract was a 6 year, $61.5 million deal with a $13 Read more [...]

The second annual "Shear Da Beard" charity event took place on Thursday night at Diesel Club Lounge as Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel and his father, Lane Keisel, both had their beards sheared. The event packed in friends and fans that paid $25.00 a ticket to view the beard cutting and partake in food, drinks and live music. There was also a live auction and all of the all proceeds from the event will be donated to cancer programs at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh UPMC. The live entertainment was provided by Donnie Iris and the Chris Higbee Project. When it got down to beard Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers have already made a solid dent in the 2012 salary cap problems that they faced heading into the offseason, but there is still a lot of meat left on the bone that needs to be chewed off. The release of Bryant McFadden and Arnaz Battle on Wednesday, combined with the expected contract restructures of LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons, instantly slashed almost $15.25 million off of the 2012 cap number. Currently I have the Steelers 2012 cap number at just shy of $129 million with the players currently under contract and the current dead money. That number does not include Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and safety Ryan Clark did not hold back their thoughts after the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants this past Sunday in Super Bowl XLVI, as both took to Twitter to pile on the Patriots after their loss. Harrison first let loose with a tweet that said, "Told you, cheaters never win!!!!!!!!!" and that prompted a tweet from Clark that read, "0-2 post spy gate! Just saying!!" It has been a big non-story ever since the Super Bowl ended but it has prompted a response now from Patriots linebacker Dane Fletcher which read, "Hilarious how some Read more [...]

The New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI and not only was the Pittsburgh Steelers fan base happy with the Patriots failure to capture their 4th Super Bowl championship, but so were a few Steelers players as both safety Ryan Clark and linebacker James Harrison let their thoughts be known about the Patriots on Twitter. Harrison was the first to pile on with,"Told you, cheaters never win!!!!!!!!!" and followed it up with, "Lol, I'm sorry I couldn't help it!!!" Told you, cheaters never win!!!!!!!!!— James Harrison (@jharrison9292) February 6, 2012 Clark Read more [...]