The Good News, and the Tragic News

The offseason is a very long time, and our admiration knows no bounds for those bloggers who are creative enough to come up with semi-intelligent posts when there really is not much happening. Today there are a couple of things worthy of a mention.

The first, and potentially good, thing is that the Steelers' 2009 draft choices are getting some love from the "experts." Specifically, our friends at Pro Football Weekly are predicting good things for Ziggy Hood, Kraig Urbik, et al. Rookies who contribute? A very good thing indeed.

The tragic news of course is the death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair. In our lifetimes he may well have been the toughest quarterback ~ both physically and in terms of trying to beat ~ the Steelers have ever faced. In seventeen career games against the Steelers (including playoffs) Mr. McNair had most impressive numbers: 283 completions on 442 passing attempts (a completion percentage of 64.03), 3,250 passing yards, 363 rushing yards, 23 touchdowns passes (16 interceptions), and 3 rushing touchdowns. His career quarterback rating against the Steelers was 88.339. By way of comparison, his career completion percentage against all opponents was 60.1%, and his quarterback rating was 82.761.

Steve McNair was a great athlete and, based upon the testimonials pouring in, he was an even better person.

Rating the Wide Receivers

During this interminable lull in actual football we look for nearly anything to sink our teeth into; and the good folks at The Sporting News have helped out by coming up with a ranking of NFL wide outs.

Larry Fitzgerald at #1? No big surprise there, but what bothers us is that Hines Ward came in at #18 behind such luminaries Terrell Owens (#6), Braylon Edwards (#7), and Chad Johnson (#16). Potential and physical skills mean only so much in professional sports ~ production is what counts, and Hines Ward is a superior receiver (and team player) to any of those three.

The Rooney Family is #1

Sure it has been awhile since we have posted anything; but really whose fault is that? After all, if the National Football League would just play year-round we would have no problem finding something to read about much less write about.

In any event, our good friends at Sports Illustrated have identified both best, and worst, owners in the four major professional sports. Naturally our attention is focused almost entirely on the National Football League; and we are happy to report that the Rooney Family, fresh off its sixth Super Bowl championship, came in a at #1.

Also of interest is the fact that three of the four teams in the AFC North are represented in the rankings, with Baltimore owner Steve Bisciotti coming at #5 amongst the best owners and Mike Brown, the Cincinnati owner, coming in at #4 amonst the worst.

Personnel News Dominates

Naturally last weekend's draft dominated the news, and with so many media outlets covering what has become a circus we did not feel inclined to get into a "blow-by-blow" reportage of what we (and, probably, you) were seeing on the NFL Network/ESPN. However, with Tuesday's news that Larry Foote is soon to be an ex-Steeler (a rumor that was floating around during the week leading up to the Super Bowl) we decided to add our two cents to everything going on.

So far as Mr. Foote goes, like many of you we are a bit nervous about turning over the starting position to Lawrence Timmons. There is no doubt that Mr. Timmons showed flashes of brilliance during the 2008 season (and he may be the fastest player on the roster), but we just do not see him as an inside linebacker. If LaMarr Woodley had not performed at a Pro Bowl level last season we would wonder if there were not plans to move him inside and Mr. Timmons outside. Then again, how many times does Dick Lebeau have to dazzle us with his genius before we all just relax?

As for the draft . . .

1. We just want it noted for the record that we were one of the first "media outlets" to report on Frank Summers (a.k.a. "Little Bus") as a potential late round pick for the Steelers. The young man has an interesting story (not the least of which is his dyslexia), one that involved going to Cal, redshirting, being placed on academic probation, leaving Cal, being offered a scholarship to play at USC but choosing UNLV instead. The folks at Pro Football Weekly like his size and his hands, but rated him as someone to be signed after the draft because of his lack of burst and inconsistent blocking.


2. It speaks to how little we know about player evaluation that A.Q. Shipley lasted until the seventh round. We were impressed by his work at the Combine, he was well-regarded by NFL Network's resident expert Mike Mayock, and was described by Ourlad's Draft Service as a "[t]ough and intense player." Mr. Shipley has the fundamentals to be a serviceable offensive lineman in the NFL; and that fact makes this a terrific pick for the seventh round.


3. We should know better than to doubt Kevin Colbert and the scouts of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but we are very dubious about the choice of Ra'Shon Harris in the sixth round. He certainly has good size ~ 6'3", 312 pounds ~ but Ourlad's rated him near the bottom of available defensive tackles (a score of 3.49, which in their system is indicative of a player who has some potential but is also borderline). Additionally, Pro Football Weekly in their very critical analysis indicated that Mr. Harris has "[q]uestionanle work habits."


4. Conversely, we like the choice of Keenan Lewis in the third round. On the field, Ourlad's describes him as a "[g]ood man to man cover corner with long arms . . . Can . . . drive quickly on the ball in the air." Pro Football Weekly sees him as a below average tackler who lacks toughness (ouch!). Off the field Mr. Lewis and his family have a pretty compelling story, having been displaced from the home in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

The Steelers have their minicamp next weekend, and then "organized team activities" (OTA) May 19-21, May 26-28, June 2-4, and June 9-11. With so much activity on the horizon we believe that there will be more personnel moves in the offing.

Getting Draft Ready: Who is best?

Lost in most mock drafts is just how good any one player is irrespective of their respective positions ~ i.e. is Alex Mack/Max Unger/Ebeb Britton the thirty-second best player available or just the player that best fits the Steelers' needs, or both?

A nice resource that came our way today is the Super 99 Ranking from the Sporting News. The rankings, which include 40-yard dash times, performance in the bench press, and other Combine-ish metrics; have USC quarterback Mark Sanchez as the best player available ~ and Matthew Stafford at #9.

As for players mentioned as being of interest to Pittsburgh, the highest rated player known to be on the Steelers' draft board is Alex Mack (Center, California) who comes in at #18, which would make him quite a value if available at the end of the first round. D.J. Moore, the cornerback out of Vanderbilt is #27; Ebben Britton, tackle from Arizona is #61; and Max Unger, center from Oregon, is #65.

Getting Draft Ready: The Draft Bible

Like all of you, we are always looking for new mock drafts to satisfy our "need" for information about how the Steelers will use their picks in the upcoming NFL draft.

We came across NFL Draft Bible recently, and love its format.

Rather than simply predicting a particular player at a particular point in the draft the folks behind Draft Bible provide information about previous drafts ~ i.e. the player choices that worked out well (e.g. Ben Roethlisberger) and those that were not quite as . . . inspired (e.g. Ricardo Colclough) ~ as well as team's five-year record, and (most significant in terms of the draft) the team's areas of need and the players who will best fill those needs.

The site is as close to comprehensive as a single page can be; and, overall, a great resource

The 2009 schedule is up!

The schedule for the 2009 regular season schedule has been released and posted to your favorite Pittsburgh Steelers blog.

The thing that most immediately jumped out at us is that the Steelers have to wait until week eight for their bye week ~ this after having had the bye in week six the past two seasons and week four during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Indeed, the 2009 bye week is the latest since the 2004 season when Pittsburgh had week seven off, a season in which the Steelers went 15-1.