I posted a while ago about how the Steelers could possibly have some salary cap wiggle room with linebackers LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons because of the way that their new contracts were structured. It seems like the Steelers did not wait though to just work with the roster bonuses as Brian McIntyre reports that the Steelers have restructured the contract of Woodley to lower his 2012 salary cap charge from $11.5 million to $4.94 million. Reportedly they lowered the base paragraph 5 number of Woodley from $3.4 million down to $700,000 and paid the difference of $2.7 million along with the Read more [...]

By Jeremy Hritz It’s never too early to talk about the NFL Draft, and it’ never to early to speculate about the direction that the Pittsburgh Steelers will go in the first round. While the needs on the offensive line are well known, there are some other positions that need to be considered with the 24th overall pick. The pundits have wasted no time in showcasing their 2012 Mock Drafts on espn.com and nfl.com. In looking at those projections, the following seven players have surfaced: Safety, Mark Barron from Alabama Defensive End/Tackle, Fletcher Cox from Mississippi State Guard, 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 [...]

When you look at the daunting salary cap issues that the Pittsburgh Steelers have facing them in 2012, there seems to be some wiggle room on at least a couple of the high priced contracts of linebackers LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons and it comes as a result of how the new contracts each signed prior to the start of the 2011 season were structured. In 2012 Woodley has a $5.5 million roster bonus due to go along with his $3.4 million base salary and his amortized portion of his signing bonus which is $2.6 million. His 2012 cap hit is currently scheduled to be $11.5 million. The Steelers 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It is the final game of the 2011 regular season for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they look to beat the Cleveland Browns before they head into the playoffs. A Steelers win combined with a Baltimore Ravens loss or tie against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday would give them the AFC North title along with a first round bye. As I do every week, here are my 7 things to look for against the Browns as the Steelers look to finish the regular season at 12-4. Also included is my score prediction for the game. Healthy Hillis - Last week St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson ran for 103 yards on 24 carries Read more [...]

I have tracked the TOX stat all season long as it relates to wins and losses every week in the NFL as I love the stat. Half of that stat revolves around explosive plays, plays of 20 yards or more, and the ability of teams in the NFL to not only create them on offense, but not allow them on defense. Many have criticized the Steelers run defense all year long, especially how it relates to allowing explosive runs this year. The defense allowed just 1 run last year of 20 yards or more and this year they have allowed 7. That might seem like a big deal, but it really isn't when you factor in that 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 [...]

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 Pittsburgh Steelers coverage stats for their week 16 Saturday shutout win against the St. Louis Rams at Heinz Field. 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. The pass defense in this game was as close to perfect as it gets and the longest completion of the 9 by Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens was for 17 yards and 12 of those 17 came after the catch on the pass to running Read more [...]

Although the play did not end in a sack, it was fun to watch Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison almost get a sack of Rams quarterback Kellen Clemens by using left tackle Adam Goldberg to do it with. Below is the breakdown of the play in pictures that shows just how strong Harrison is. Remember that Goldberg goes about 6'7", 305 lbs and Harrison around 6'0", 242 lbs. Roughly 7 inches and 63 lbs difference in the two. The situation is a 3rd and 7 from the rams 40 yard-line with 5:36 left in the first half. The Steelers are in their nickel defense and will rush 5 on the play as linebacker 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 [...]

Below are the Pittsburgh Steelers coverage stats for their week 15 Monday night loss against the San Francisco 49ers. 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. Keep in mind that the Steelers do play quite a bit of zone coverage, so the coverage stats are not really reflective of play. 49ers quarterback Alex Smith had only 3 completions in this game that were thrown more than 10 yards Read more [...]