Below is the defensive participation chart for the Steelers fourth and final preseason game Thursday night versus the Panthers. The final preseason game is usually used to look at the bottom end of the roster and this game was no different for the Steelers as they rested several veteran starters like Aaron Smith, James Harrison, James Farrior and Troy Polamalu. Injured cornerback Ike Taylor sat out again as did Bryant McFadden. Jason Worilds saw extensive work at both right and left outside linebacker spots as he logged a team high 59 plays on defense. Mortty Ivy saw 47 snaps and Ryan Munday played Read more [...]

Mike Tomlin held his post-game press conference following the Steelers 33-17 win over the Carolina Panthers Thursday night on the road in Charlotte. Tomlin said in 47 seconds that he was impressed by the effort tonight and virtually came out of the game injury free. Tomlin said he exercised caution with all of the players that were nicked up with minor injuries as he wanted to take a look at unproven players tonight anyways. Tomlin said he acknowledges that they go to Baltimore next week. This was the shortest Steelers post game presser ever. Enjoy! Below is the audio of the press conference. [audio:http://www.steelersdepot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/tomlin-panthers-post-game-press-conference.mp3] Read more [...]

Sure it's only preseason and the stats are pretty much useless, but they are fun to look at nonetheless. Below are the Steelers preseason stats rushing and passing stats through the first 3 preseason games that are broken down by offense and defense for your viewing pleasure. They include direction, number of plays, average gain and the NFL rank in the preseason for each. These stats will be part of the weekly post-game content you can look forward to this preseason on the site. The only thing that sticks out in these meaningless stats is the deep middle passing by the offense where the Steelers Read more [...]

These are pretty much meaningless stats during the preseason, but they are fun to watch week to week as the Steelers progress through the preseason. Below are play direction stats from the Steelers first preseason game Friday night against the Redskins. The thing that sticks out the most is that the Steelers did not run to the left side any on Friday night. Now they of course are a right handed running team and they only ran 18 times on the night with 2 of those times being Dennis Dixon scrambles. We should see a few runs to the left this week mixed in. As far as the passing offense went, 16 Read more [...]

While the Steelers did not perform well as a team Friday night against the Redskins, the offensive line was not awful as a whole. There were some bright spots in the blocking game. Below is the offensive line breakdown and blocking report of the wide receivers, tight ends and running backs. The big concern heading in was the play of left tackle Jonathan Scott and the return of Willie Colon. Both only saw 12 plays worth of action and both were pretty much flawless in both the running game and the passing game. Colon was damn near dominate and shows no ill effects of his Achilles injury. Chris Read more [...]

The Steelers got their preseason off to a rocky start Friday night as they lost 16-7 to the Redskins at FedEx Field. Starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger played just one series and went 2 or 3 for 22 yards and dinged his hand and hip in the short time. Second year wide receiver Antonio Brown was one of the lone bright spots for the Steelers as he caught 4 balls for 64 yards. Running back Isaac Redman scored the Steelers lone touchdown on a nice 22 yard inside run that included a nice downfield block by Brown. Redman finished with 42 yards on 5 carries. The Steelers suffered a few early Read more [...]

Below are the players that will not dress for tonight's first preseason game as the Steelers take on the Washington Redskins on the road at FedEx Field. Head coach Mike Tomlin ruled out 7 players on Wednesday and a few more are likely to sit as well. Keep checking back up until game-time as I will be updating this list if more names are announced as being inactive. Check back after the game for a full recap of the game and my post-game notes and observations. TE Eugene Bright ILB Mario Harvey G Chris Kemoeatu WR Emmanuel Sanders CB Cortez Allen CB Bryant McFadden CB Curtis Brown S Will Read more [...]

Friday is finally here. Can you believe it? Steelers football is back and tonight the Steelers take on the Redskins in their first game of the 2011 season. Once again I will be doing my 7 things to watch segment before each and every game as I tell you the things that I will be paying close attention to. It is so easy during the preseason to just point to all of the draft picks that will play, but that is too obvious. Of course we all will be watching the new toys over the next few weeks, but Friday night we will likely only see 4 of the 7 in action Friday night. The roster is littered with undrafted Read more [...]

The Steelers released their 2011 preseason schedule today along with the other 31 NFL teams and their two home games are against the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons. They open up the 2011 preseason on the road against the Washington Redskins and end the preseason on the road against the Carolina Panthers. The Thursday night game against the Eagles on August 18th appears to be a nationally broadcast game on Fox Sports, while the other 3 games will be televised locally in Pittsburgh on KDKA. The times and dates for the three games to be televised on KDKA have yet to be finalized. 2011 Read more [...]

The Steelers beat the Carolina Panthers 19-3 in the 4th and final preseason game of the 2010 season, but may have lost quarterback Byron Leftwich in the process. Below are my notes and nuggets I kept on the game along with my observations. I have much more coming on this game and am working through the night. These are initial reactions of mine as I am about to watch the game a second time and begin working up tape selections. Below are the notes I compiled throughout the game. remember these are initial reactions one time through the game. Byron Leftwich injury looked like a whip to the knee. Read more [...]

Thursday night the Steelers play the Carolina Panthers in the fourth and final preseason game of the 2010 season. Per my normal routine, I have listed below 10 things to look for Thursday heading into the game. Manny Time On Returns? - According to head coach Mike Tomlin, rookie wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders will get his turn to show what he can do in the return game. Manny better be perfect, because any bobble might allow Tomlin to give Antonio Brown or Stefan Logan the remaining reps. Also just because Tomlin said that was the plan, means absolutely nothing. The Amazing Crezdon - 2 years Read more [...]

I just made it through the 8th time of watching the Steelers game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. This time I wanted to focus in on rookie running back Jonathan Dwyer on plays that he did not carry the ball on. I will state that on one of the carries, it appeared he went the wrong way causing quarterback Byron Leftwich to completely spin making the hand-off. It could of been designed, but I do not think so. If you have the game recorded, watch it. These 7 plays in this video clearly show that Dwyer is no where close to knowing the details, the plays and how to chip and block in the NFL. I Read more [...]

A reader emailed me this afternoon and wanted to know of the 75 players on the active roster, which ones are eligible to be signed to the practice squad and what constitutes eligibility. First we go to the NFL rules on this: What makes a player eligible for an NFL practice squad? (a) The practice squad shall consist of the following players, provided that they have not served more than two previous seasons on a Practice Squad: (i) players who do not have an Accrued Season of NFL experience; and (ii) free agent players who were on the Active List for fewer than nine regular season games during Read more [...]

The Steelers trimmed down to 75 players on Tuesday morning and now will need to cut 21 more by September 4th. Why 21 and not 22 you ask? This is because quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will be moved to the reserve/suspended list, so technically that will not be a cut. I have listed 10 players that will likely be seeing the Turk soon and 16 players who could be considered on the bubble right now in my opinion. None of these are locked in stone mind you and this list is for entertainment purposes only, so no one get your feelings hurt until the cuts are made as ANYTHING can happen in these final days Read more [...]

Attached is the defensive player participation chart for all plays on Steelers defense in the week 3 preseason game versus the Denver Broncos and does not include penalties considered no plays. You can follow along play by play withe the gamebook here. Please make sure to credit us if you lift this information. The thing that sticks out the most on defense this week is just how late Joe Burnett is getting into games and also Sunny Harris only getting 8 snaps. I think both of these players are sitting squarely on the bubble at the moment and need strong games versus Carolina. CLICK ON THE IMAGE Read more [...]