Onward we go with our player by player look at the Pittsburgh Steelers 2012 Free Agents as I do a complete breakdown of their 2011 season and look ahead to their pending 2012 free agency situation. The post we finish out the Steelers restricted free agents with tackle Jamon Meredith. Please check out the links at the bottom to the other free agent player analysis already completed. Next up in the series will be the Steelers unrestricted free agents. Player: Jamon Meredith Position: Tackle Experience: 3 Years Free Agent Status: Restricted 2011 Salary Cap Hit: $600,000.00 (estimated) 2011 Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers right tackle Marcus Gilbert announced today on Twitter that he will undergo shoulder surgery Wednesday morning. Gilbert noted that he had been playing with the injury all season. It is unclear which shoulder Gilbert will need to get fixed at this time. Gilbert was the Steelers second-round pick out of Florida in the 2011 NFL draft and started 12 regular season games this past season at right tackle after starter Willie Colon went down week 1 against the Baltimore Ravens with a triceps injury. Gilbert played just over 900 snaps for the Steelers including the playoffs during Read more [...]

Pittsburgh Steelers rookie tackle Marcus Gilbert said tonight on a live Spreecast video chat that he was told by the coaching staff during his exit meetings that that there is a "strong possibility" that he will be flipped over to left tackle next season. Gilbert started 14 games at right tackle for the Steelers in 2011. This news is not very surprising considering that Willie Colon is expected to return from his triceps injury suffered week 1 against the Baltimore Ravens to be the Steelers starting right tackle. Colon signed a 5-year, $29 million dollar contract late last July and reportedly 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 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 Pittsburgh Steelers announced today that rookie right tackle Marcus Gilbert was voted the teams 2011 Rookie of the Year and inside linebacker James Farrior won the Chief Award for his cooperation with the local media. Gilbert was drafted by the Steelers in the second round this past April out of Florida and started 13 games at right tackle this season. Gilbert was thrust into action as a starter in week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks after starter Willie Colon was lost for the season in the opening game against the Baltimore Ravens with a torn right triceps. Center Maurkice Pouncey won the Read more [...]

Several Pittsburgh Steelers players will have cameo roles in in the newest Batman movie, Dark Knight Rises, that was filmed in Pittsburgh. A member of the Steelers ownership group, Thomas Tull, is the film's executive producer and a football game scene was filmed at Heinz Field for the movie. Wide receiver Hines Ward is one of the many Steelers players that have a cameo in the football game scene and Ward has surfaced in the latest leaked trailer for the film that you can see below. Ward is running into the endzone with the football as the ground collapses behind him and he turns around to see Read more [...]

The official game release is up for the Steelers week 12 Sunday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs, and as always it is loaded with great information, stats and milestones. Head coach Mike Tomlin resumed his normal Tuesday press conference yesterday as the Steelers returned from the bye and Tomlin also resumed his normal guest spot on Sirius XM Radio as he joined Adam Schein and Rich Gannon. Tomlin updated them on the status of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and told them how he went about watching the Chiefs game on Monday night against the Patriots. Chiefs head coach Todd Haley held 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 [...]

The Steelers 2011 bye week is right around the corner in week 11 and what a welcomed sight it will be. Every team goes through injuries and the Steelers certainly have had their share of them this year with the lines and linebacker position taking the hardest hits thus far. As the Steelers head into their week 10 against the Bengals, they will likely do so without their sack leader LaMarr Woodley. Tomlin tried to paint an optimistic picture today during his press conference, but I do not see Woodley returning until after the bye with the bad hamstring injury. I suggested just after the injury Read more [...]

It pains me to see Steelers defensive end Aaron Smith limp off into the sunset now as he likely will do now after being placed on injured reserve yesterday with a bad foot, but there are not many of us who did not see this coming based on his recent injury history and inability to stay healthy an entire season. I think even General Manager Kevin Colbert knew the extreme risk involved in keeping Smith along with his high 2011 cap charge this season, but he chose to do it anyways. Colbert is great at what he does, but this decision will not go down as one of his top ten best, regardless of how Read more [...]

Week 4 has come and gone and below is the offensive line report and breakdown for the Steelers week 4 Sunday game on the road against the Houston Texans. As I always like to warn, this grading is done on a play-by-play basis and a good or bad is given on every play. I always caution that it is impossible to know what the assignment on every play is. Thanks to nfl.com there are coaches tape views on several big plays and it makes it much easier to see things from that angle than normal TV camera views along with replays from behind the line of scrimmage. The Steelers offense as a whole gave up Read more [...]

It has been quite a day for Steeler Nation. This morning came the announcement that linebacker James Harrison will be lost for several weeks with a right orbital fracture and tonight it got even more interesting as there is a report out now that Max Starks visited with the Steelers this evening and could be re-signed to the 53 man roster as early as tomorrow. Gerry Dulac reports tonight that if Starks is indeed re-signed it would be for depth purposes and that he is not being brought in to be an immediate starter. That may indeed be true, but it also could be that he needs a week or two to get Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 25 of The Terrible Podcast is up and David Todd is back with me today. Apologies for the schedule change this week and we will be coming at you this Thursday and Friday as opposed to our normal Wednesday-Friday schedule. Thursday we expect to have Tennessee Titans beat writer Jim Wyatt as our guest. As it turns out, maybe we should wait until Tuesday every week because Mike Tomlin broke some big news today at his press conference on the South Side this afternoon. As you might imagine, Steeler breaking news on Tuesday is generally not good because it is almost always injury-related. Read more [...]

The newest PDF gameday release for the Sunday game against the Houston Texans is up now and these always make great pre-game reading. The latest offering from Dejan Kovacevic is about the slow start to the season by linebackers LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons. I wrote after the Willie Colon injury that the Steelers were not likely to sign back Flozell Adams partly because of salary cap room and his high demands. Ed Bouchette blogged this morning that is likely indeed the case as well. John McClain wrote in the Houston Chronicle this morning that the Texans are soft both mentally and Read more [...]