Category Archives: Steelers Players and Coaches

But, But, But…T.J. Watt?

Posted on by 4 comments

Screen Shot 2017-05-03 at 5.12.29 PMThe post title is not because I feel this way. I think I made my feelings clear when he was my Round 1 pick in Momma’s Mock Draft. But not everyone likes the pick as much as I do, and those who don’t have plenty to say about it.

I suppose part of the point of being a sports fan is to be passionate about your team. But I’ve always wondered if having a passion for something automatically makes you stupid. One would certainly get that impression from some of the things you hear on sports radio (mostly, although, alas, not exclusively from the fans) and particularly in the comment sections. Read more

Why I Still Love Football – and the Steelers

Posted on by 5 comments
james conner

Jarrad Henderson, USA TODAY Sports

A week and a half ago I wrote one of my patented Momma’s Mock Drafts.  I was out of town from the Monday through Wednesday before the draft, so I wrote a post encompassing Rounds 4-7, planning to then publish Rounds 1-3 on Thursday.

Strangely, I returned to discover no trace of my Round 4-7 post, and had to incorporate what I could remember into a 7-round draft on Thursday. One of the problems with this was that I had such a great ending for the Monday post. It didn’t fit in the middle of a 7-round draft, though, so I axed that part of it, with the intention of expanding upon the idea. Read more

Having Some Fun with the 2017 Steelers

Posted on by 7 comments
Holba Harvey Clemons 2_1493511882905_9324529_ver1.0 (1)

Most Likely To Succeed?

by Ivan Cole

Okay. The draft picks have been made, the undrafted free agents signed. There remains a lot of wiggle room, but the ingredients for what will evolve into the 2017 edition of the Pittsburgh Steelers are mostly in place.

This means for us cranky old traditionalists that a portion of our annual descent into fake football is coming to an end. We will still have to endure the nonsensical exercise in declaring winners and losers, and I am certain that somewhere out there in cyberspace someone is, as you read these words, gracing us with an Early Bird 2018 Mock Draft. But, otherwise, (it’s a little too early for fantasy) we are in a lull where we can luxuriate in speculating about things that hew somewhat closer to the reality of things.

Obviously, we are still a long way from knowing the exact configuration of the members of the roster and their roles, but a lot of the storylines, challenges and quirk potentials are in play. Here are my first thoughts. Read more

A Long Lingering Look at the Steelers’ First Round Draft Pick

Posted on by 3 comments
tempap_270569848115-nfl_mezz_1280_1024

via Steelers.om

How can I help taking a long lingering look? The Steelers, to Momma’s tremendous excitement, picked her No. 1 BLA choice for the first round, T. J. Watt..

Fortunately for me, Momma, and the Steelers, Watt is more than a pretty face. A lot more. I may joke around about the “Best-Looking Player Available,” but what I really love is a high character guy. And if he is also chock full of football smarts, why would you hesitate?

There’s a lot of talk today about the players the Steelers passed up, most notably Reuben Foster. But given the difficulties they’ve encountered recently, how on earth could they take a chance on a guy with a failed drug test – at the Combine?

Actually, I’ll tell you how they could do that, because they actually did about five years ago. You all remember the story, I’m sure. Mike Adams from Ohio State was well up their draft board, by all accounts, although no one ever knows for sure. Then he failed the combine drug test, and came right off the board, until Adams drove to Pittsburgh, basically demanded an interview, and begged for another chance. They gave it to him. And I’m sorry to say it didn’t turn out well.. I don’t know about y’all, but I would be rather hesitant to dive into those waters once again. Read more

A Quick Look at the AFC North 1st Round Picks

Posted on by 9 comments

TJ WattThis really will be a quick look, and furthermore it is live as of 11:00 pm. The picture will go up when I know who the Steelers have picked. With any luck I can use one of the pictures already in the archives from my mock drafts.

More thorough analysis will come when the excitement dies down. (And for that matter it’s pretty hard to “analyze” a draft pick before several years are up.) But we can’t just abnegate our responsibility as a fan base, which is, of course, to decide, based upon the draft picks, who is going to win the Super Bowl. So here goes: Read more

Happy New Year 2017

Posted on by 6 comments

img_0653by Ivan Cole

The new league year began about a month ago, but there is really no rush to focus on what’s to come. The Steelers have, typically and predictably, moved slowly and unspectacularly in free agency. With the draft and subsequent signing of undrafted free agents still a few weeks away, there are huge outstanding question marks concerning the pieces the team must try to piece together for a championship effort in 2017. We also will continue to be subjected to major spasms of MSU, with the major focus now upon these endless and idiotic mock drafts. [Editorial alert: several of those endless and idiotic mock drafts will be going up on this august site beginning Wednesday, and I have developed a new and even more pointless metric to add to the usual Best Looking Player Available mocks…] But the end is, mercifully, in sight. Time to take stock and begin to look forward. Read more

Pittsburgh’s Goin’ to the Super Bowl: The Inside Scoop

Posted on by Leave a comment
IMG_1755.JPG

A.P. Photo

The final position I’m going to cover in this series is the inside linebackers. In theory I ought to address the tight ends and the kicking team, but the former was at least touched upon in the receivers post and the latter lacks drama at the moment, thank heavens.

One of the biggest questions this off-season, which has now been answered, was what was going to happen with the Lawrence Timmons situation. It’s interesting that I find myself thinking that Timmons to the Dolphins was probably a good outcome for everyone. He gets more money than the Steelers were willing to give him, the Steelers have Vince Williams, who has played reasonably well (or better) when called upon, and there is still the possibility of picking up a young guy to complement Ryan Shazier, who is rapidly becoming a star in the interior. Read more

« Older Entries