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 [...]

The week 14 offensive line breakdown report for the Pittsburgh Steelers win over the Cleveland Browns is now complete and overall it was not a bad performance by the group. The 6 penalties were of course the down points, but overall the pass protection was pretty solid on the night and they run blocking was above the line sans the 4 plays down at the Browns goal-line. Here we go with a look at the performances. TOTAL POSPLAYER PLAYSGOOD BADGOOD % SP H TETrai Essex 330 100%00 0 CMaurkice Pouncey 24231 96%00 0 LTMax Starks 58535 91%01 0 Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cleveland Browns 14-3 Thursday night at Heinz Field and here are some of my post game observations after going through the game again. Lawrence Timmons bit hard on the play action on the early long completion to Evan Moore and never recovered in coverage. On the second big completion to Josh Cribbs, Troy Polamalu guessed wrong and Cribbs was wide open on the seam route. It was James Harrison that prevented Colt McCoy from getting into the endzone for the touchdown that was overturned after McCoy was clearly down. Harrison fought off his block to get a foot. Read more [...]

The 2011 state of the offensive line was never one that any of us felt totally good about heading into the season outside of center Maurkice Pouncey and right tackle Willie Colon, but after 3 games now, the best way to describe it is by saying it is a hot mess. Something Steeler Nation has grown accustomed to over the years. The Steelers lost Colon for the season in the week 1 loss to the Ravens, but at least rookie Marcus Gilbert was ready to jump in at right tackle. Gilbert really has played above the line in his two starts, but is a ways away still from filling the Colon shoes. To make matters Read more [...]

Week 2 is almost here as the Steelers take on the Seattle Seahawks tomorrow at Heinz Field. The final injury report of the week was released on Friday and I will now take my weekly stab at the 7 man inactive list for this week. The official inactives will be released 90 minutes before kick-off and I will have those posted on site immediately after they are announced in the press box. QB Dennis Dixon - It looks like Mike Tomlin likes to dress an extra special teams player with the new rule that allows 46 players to dress on Sunday. Last week 3rd string quarterback Dennis Dixon was inactive and Read more [...]

I have been asked quite a bit why the Steelers have not re-signed Flozell Adams back after right tackle Willie Colon was lost for the season this past Sunday and the simple answer is there just is not enough cap room to meet his likely salary demands. I finally cleared up my 2011 salary cap numbers following the final cutdowns and prior to the new contract signed by Troy Polamalu, the Steelers were roughly $2.23 million under the cap. The new official contract numbers have yet to surface, but it figures it would only slightly increase or decrease his original 2011 cap hit of $8.595 million. The Read more [...]

Well it did not take long for the Steelers to make a decision on injured right tackle Willie Colon today as he was placed on injured reserve this afternoon following his morning triceps surgery and free agent tackle Jamon Meredith was signed to the 53 man roster to take his place. Meredith, who is 6 foot 5, 312 lbs, played under Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler when both were with the Bills. The Steelers also had worked out formers Seahawks tackle Ray Willis on Tuesday, but opted to sign Meredith instead. Meredith only has 4 career starts to his credit in the last 2 seasons after he Read more [...]

Mike Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference that the Steelers would work out a few tackles today and Scott Brown now reports via Twitter that Ray Willis and Jamon Meredith are being worked out today. Willis was selected by the Seahawks in the 4th round of the 2005 NFL Draft and played his college ball at Florida State. He started 26 games for the Seahawks at both right guard and right tackle over 5 seasons. He measures in at around 6 foot 6 and just over 300 lbs. He signed with the Dolphins after the lockout ended, but was released before the season started. Meredith was drafted Read more [...]

Day ten of Steelers training camp is in the books and if you missed the day nine recap of the Friday Night Lights session you can read it here. Steelers.com also has some video up now from the Friday night practice at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. Pat Kirwan And Tim Ryan of Sirius NFL Radio were also at practice last night and Kirwan has his Steelers report up on NFL.com. Peter King was at camp Saturday and here is an interview with him. On to the Saturday practice on a soggy day back in Latrobe. Before you read farther, I suggest you listen to the post practice report called into me by Read more [...]

Jim Wexell is reporting via Twitter that Steelers left tackle Jonathan Scott has been carted off during the Steelers Saturday afternoon practice with a left foot injury. Scott was just recently re-signed as an unrestricted free agent after the Steelers released left tackle Max Starks due to salary cap purposes prior to camp starting. Scott took over the left tackle spot for good last season after Starks was lost for the year with a neck injury mid-season. He originally signed a one-year contract with the Steelers last offseason after playing in Buffalo under Steelers offensive line coach Sean Read more [...]

Day two of the Steelers 2011 training camp is now in the books and here is a recap with links for you in case you missed anything. First I invite you to listen to today's episode of The Terrible Podcast as it is jammed full of info and views of David Todd and myself, following the recent moves and going-ons. Thanks for listening. The day started off with a not so surprising bang as Flozell Adams was released. Adams become expendable after the Steelers came to terms with Willie Colon and Jonathan Scott on Thursday. Adams will save $5 million against the cap and there is no dead money involved. After Read more [...]

DVE reporter Mike Prisuta reported via Twitter this morning that offensive linemen Doug Legursky and Ramon Foster will battle during training camp for the starting right guard spot according to Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler. Foster ended the season as the starting right guard after Trai Essex and Legursky both made starts there early last season. Prisuta also reports that defensive end Aaron Smith said he is healthy and that he'll assume a back up role if that's what Steelers want him to do, without issue. Prisuta added that Smith will open camp as the starting left defensive end. Read more [...]

NFL.com recently did a post on the most penalized teams of 2010 and as you can see by their results that the Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers were the worst in the league in accepted penalties. If you are curious about the Steelers regular season penalties, they were flagged 124 total times with 101 being accepted. I knew that the Steelers offensive line had been flagged quite a bit in 2010 so I wanted to see where they ranked in comparison to the other 31 teams and their offensive line penalties, so I compiled all of the offensive Read more [...]

I was asked last night by a reader of the site via email how much the Steelers would save should they cut left tackle Max Starks prior to the start of training camp in attempt to free up money to pay either free agent cornerback Ike Taylor or get a long term deal done with franchised linebacker LaMarr Woodley. The short answer to the question is around $3.25 million dollars in 2011. Starks signed a four year, $26.3 million contract back in June of 2009 of which $10 million was reported to be guaranteed money. It is believed that the contract was structured to pay Starks $8 million in signing Read more [...]

A little over a year ago the Steelers drafted Tennessee tackle Chris Scott in the 5th round of the 2010 NFL Draft with hopes he could provide some depth at both the tackle and the guard position. Offensive line coach Sean Kugler said immediately after the selection that Scott is a physical player that has some position flexibility at both the tackle and guard position. Kugler noted that Scott, who was primarily a left tackle at Tennessee, could also play on the right side as well. The position flexibility that Kugler mentions stems from the fact that Scott broke into the Volunteers lineup at the Read more [...]