Continuing on with our player by player look at the Pittsburgh Steelers 2012 Free Agents as do a complete breakdown of their 2011 season and look ahead to their pending 2012 free agency situation. The post we focus in on restricted free agent safety Ryan Mundy. Please check out the links at the bottom to the other free agent player analysis already completed. Player: Ryan Mundy Position: Safety Experience: 3 Years Free Agent Status: Restricted 2011 Salary Cap Hit: $525,000.00 2011 Season Breakdown: The Steelers former 2008 6th round draft pick was very reliable in 2011 as he was 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 [...]

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 [...]

Below is the defensive participation chart for the Pittsburgh Steelers week 15 Monday night game versus the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park. The Steelers were in their base defense a whopping 48 of the 61 non-penalty plays Monday night against the 49ers. 8 times they were in nickel, 3 times in dime and 2 times in goal-line. In the dime, linebacker Lawrence Timmons was the linebacker off the field. Both Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark were pulled very late in the game and that is how Ryan Mundy and Will Allen got their snaps. Stevenson Sylvester was also in for the final 2 kneel downs Read more [...]

The Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 9-3 on the season with their 35-7 thrashing Sunday of the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field. I have gone through the game a second time and here are my notebook observations from the game. The Steelers special teams were very special indeed on Sunday. Rookie Cameron Heyward really sparked things on the block of the early field goal attempt and fellow rookie Curtis Brown had two nice solo tackles and assisted on another. You can see why he was touted as such a good special teams player at Texas. Stevenson Sylvester caused the fumble that was recovered by Emmanuel Read more [...]

During the Steelers bye week I have had several request to start looking forward to the Steelers 2012 draft and while I think mock drafts are pretty ludicrous to throw out there right now with 6 weeks left in the 2011 season and the bowl games yet to be played, I will wet your appetite with what I see as the possible needs for the Steelers based on what we have seen through the first 10 weeks to go along with the impending potential 2012 salary cap challenges I wrote about earlier in the season. I take my mock drafts pretty serious, as you have seen over the years, and have quite a bit of scouting Read more [...]

Below is the defensive participation chart for the Steelers week 8 game versus the New England Patriots this past Sunday. The Steelers were only in base defense for 9 non-penalty plays against the Patriots and goal-line once. 7 of the first 8 plays were base with the rest being dime with Cortez Allen which was for 18 snaps and the big nickel dime with Ryan Mundy for 23 snaps. Cameron Heyward only saw 4 non-penalty defensive snaps as once again Ziggy Hood and Brett Keisel got the majority of the work on the defensive line. Chris Carter saw 22 snaps once LaMarr Woodley left with his injured Read more [...]

I have gone back through the game to do my initial breakdown and start some charting. Here are my expanded observations not mentioned in the game recap of the Steelers week 7 win over the Arizona Cardinals. What can you say about Mike Wallace that has not already been said and seen on tape? It amazes me how teams continue to give him free releases and fail to bracket over the top with a safety at times. The long touchdown Sunday was classic miscommunication it seemed and blown assignments mixed with Richard Marshall biting on play action. The Cardinals should have taken a timeout there as it Read more [...]

Below are the individual coverage stats and totals from the Saturday night preseason game against the Atlanta Falcons. The top table is by play and consist of which Falcons player was targeted with the pass, the yards gained on the play and the yards after the catch the receiver had on the play. Also included is the number of pass rushers the Steelers used on the play and if they blitzed or not on the play. I have included the down and distance as well as well as the direction of the pass. There were five plays where it was impossible to tell who really had coverage as three of those were running Read more [...]

The Steelers got back on the right track Thursday night at home as they defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-14. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was 8 for 12 on the night for 125 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ben led the Steelers on two 14 play drives on their first two offensive possessions. The touchdown tosses were to Antonio Brown and Hines Ward. Byron Leftwich chipped in a 20-yard touchdown pass to new receiver Jerricho Cotchery. Cotchery chipped in one other catch to end with 49-yards receiving. The offense was 10-17 on the night on 3rd downs and put up 403 total yards. The Steelers starting defense Read more [...]

Tuesday marked the final practice at Latrobe as the Steelers will break camp on Wednesday in preparation for their second preseason game against the Eagles on Thursday. Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor underwent successful surgery today to repair his broken left thumb suffered last Friday against the Redskins and he anticipates returning before the Steelers play the Ravens in week 1. Mike Tomlin held his weekly news conference today and ruled out Taylor, Emmanuel Sanders, Chris Kemoeatu, Bryant McFadden, Cortez Allen, Mario Harvey and Crezdon Butler for the Thursday game. Eugene Bright remains Read more [...]

The Steelers got back to business on Sunday after their 16-7 loss Friday night to the Redskins as they held a morning and afternoon practice on Sunday. Here some notes leading up to practice today. I have both the offensive and defensive participation charts up from Friday night as well as the offensive line and blocking report from the game. I also totaled up the coverages from the game as well. Former Steelers special teams ace Anthony Madison has signed with the Lions. Chris Kemoeatu was activated from the active PUP today and that leaves only tight end Eugene Bright on the list. The 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 [...]

It was pretty uneventful day news wise on Wednesday, day 7 of Steelers training camp, but there still was a little to talk about. First off, for everyone still interested in former kicker Jeff Reed, I told you yesterday that he was visiting the Seahawks and today it was announced that he was signed by them. This means that Skippy is set to return to Pittsburgh week 2 when the Steelers host the Seahawks. I suspect he will get an earful from a portion of Steeler Nation. Rookie undrafted tight end Weslye Saunders joined David Todd and I for a mid morning interview and you can listen to that Read more [...]