Tag Archives: Doran Grant

Scouting for Steelers: Defensive Backs II

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Continuing with yesterday’s post, here is the information for the second half play. But first, here are the DB snap counts, from Dave Bryan of Steelers Depot:

  • Montel Garner: 41 defensive snaps, 3 ST snaps
  • Sean Davis: 40 defensive snaps, 10 ST snaps
  • Kevin White: 32 defensive snaps, 10 ST snaps
  • Al-Hajj Shabazz: 32 defensive snaps, 7 ST snaps
  • Shamarko Thomas: 31 defensive snaps, 11 ST snaps
  • Donald Washington: 30 defensive snaps, 7 ST snaps
  • Doran Grant: 26 defensive snaps, 5 ST snaps
  • Jordan Dangerfield: 15 defensive snaps, 12 ST snaps
  • Jacob Hagen: 15 defensive snaps, 7 ST snaps
  • Robert Golden: 15 defensive snaps, 2 ST snaps
  • Mike Mitchell: 15 defensive snaps
  • William Gay: 15 defensive snaps
  • Ross Cockrell: 14 defensive snaps
  • Ray Vinopal: 12 defensive snaps, 4 ST snaps
  • Julian Whigham: 12 defensive snaps, 2 ST snaps

That’s a lot of defensive backs. It’s easy to see who the Steelers are envisioning as starters among the vets. And speaking of veteran players, one question I had, since I barely knew some of these names, is who is a vet and who’s a newbie. The answers are:

  • Donald Washington: 4 years
  • Doran Grant: 2 years (sort of)
  • Jordan Dangerfield: 1 year
  • Montel Garner: 1 year
  • Jacob Hagen: 1 year
  • Al-Hajj Shabazz: 1 year
  • Ray Vinopal: 1 year
  • Kevin White: 1 year
  • Julian Whigham: Rookie

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Scouting for Steelers: Defensive Backs

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via Steelers.com

I’m focusing on the defense because I’m hoping that most of what we’ve seen from the offense isn’t what we will be seeing with the actual first team on the field. And since the defensive backs are probably the position group that has generated the most angst (I’m guessing TE is a distant second) it’s worth having a look.

As I discovered, it can be pretty hard to figure out who lined up where and who was actually on the field. So I’m just going to approach the group as a whole, making some assumptions about who was likely to have been playing, based upon when the front-line starters mostly packed it in.

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Random Post-Training Camp Observations: The Lombardi in August

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QBs

Charles LeClaire photo

by Ivan Cole

Some of us Steelers Nation folk who live in the Washington DC metro diaspora have found much amusement over the years as we have watched Washington fans celebrate capturing the Vince Lombardi Trophy in March. They have declared all sort of aggressive maneuvers, thus assuring themselves possession of that silver trophy and ignoring certain obvious realities. I would quickly add that followers of other teams do it as well. Many of the chronically clueless of Steelers Nation often lament the fact that Pittsburgh seems relatively uninterested in this sort of exercise.

But before we pat ourselves on the back for our wisdom, we might meditate upon the habit of doing something very similar in July/August. They don’t give out the Lombardi in August either. Or in September for that matter. There are things such as key injuries to concern ourselves about in preseason and the first quarter or so of the regular season, but for me the story doesn’t really begin until sometime around Columbus Day. And there is still plenty of mystery to deal with even then usually. So, while there are interesting issues afoot, forgive my relative lack of angst short of Labor Day.

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A Few More Thoughts on Steelers/Lions

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via Steelers.com

Friday night as I wrote my post I didn’t really even use the quite detailed game notes I made, thus leading to attributing DHB’s touchdown catch to Xavier Grimble. I decided that despite my reluctance to relive that game, I should really go through and see if there is more to glean from the game. So here goes.

The two guys who lined up in the endzone to take kickoffs were Sammie Coates and Fitzgerald Toussaint for the first half and Levi Norwood and Daryl Richardson for the second half. Many of the kickoffs were not returnable, although a couple in the second half were rather short. Whether that was by design or because the rookie kicker was nervous, I don’t know.

But in no instance did any returner for the Steelers get the ball past the 22 yard line. Since a touchback is placed at the 25 yard line, it will be surprising if many teams opt for returns when the ball enters the end zone. UNLESS, that is, you have a guy like Detroit rookie seventh-round pick Dwayne Washington, who took it to the house last night. I feel fairly confident in stating at this juncture that the Steelers haven’t found someone like that yet.

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Some Thoughts on a Rather Uninspiring Preseason Game 1

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Gene J. Puskar/AP photo

Steelers/Lions is in the books, and the usual stuff happened.

Bruce Gradkowski got injured (hamstring) after a three-and-out and a drive featuring two first downs. He played a total of ten snaps. Hopefully it’s not a big deal, but I wrote “out for the season” in my notes. We’ll see.

An offensive lineman got injured, and although he walked off the field by himself it didn’t look great. It was Brian Mihalik, AKA Alejandro Villanueva 2. He is another defensive lineman cut by the Eagles, signed by Pittsburgh, and converted to an offensive lineman. As it happens, he’s also 6’9″. Weird.

Ross Ventrone left with a hamstring injury, the same thing that got him cut last season.

It was that kind of night.

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Developing the Talent: Carnell Lake, Part II

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image.jpegThe previous post was getting unwieldy, because there is a great deal to talk about in terms of both Lake and the coaching job he has done so far. In the first post we looked at Lake’s first season (2011) which represented a high point for the secondary. It’s been mostly downhill since. According to Football Outsiders, the 2012 team dropped to No. 15 in the league, the 2013 team was No. 19, and the 2014 team was No. 30.

But guess what? Last season they finished at No. 13, despite not starting a single defensive back who ranked higher than No. 24, according to Pro Football Focus, among players with enough snaps to be ranked. The highest-ranked corner was Ross Cockrell, at No. 27. The highest-ranked safety was Mike Mitchell, at the afore-mentioned No. 24. They considered Antwon Blake to be essentially the worst corner in the league (and much of Steeler Nation would agree with them, I expect.)

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Steelers ‘X’ Factors for 2016: Defense

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Matt Freed—Post-Gazette

by Ivan Cole

Here’s Part II of my off-season speculations. (For Part I click here.) As noted in the previous article, the rules are simple:

The players I select could be in the conversation as key factors in the team’s success, but are probably not at this time. They can be anyone from established superstars to non-drafted newcomers (admittedly a tougher call, but a good part of the fun). This exercise is undertaken with the understanding that injuries and unanticipated personnel moves could radically alter the assumptions and landscape of the discussion, and that the conversation will evolve as the season progresses and more information is forthcoming.

As usual, please feel free to add your thoughts below. Read more

Turnovers, Takeaways, and the Steelers 2015 Draft

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via WTAE

by Rebecca Rollett

Back in 2012 I read the following comment in an article by John Dudley of the Erie Times-News: 

Through six weeks [of the 2012 season] the Steelers rank dead last in the league in takeaway-giveaway ratio at minus-10. The offense has turned the ball over 12 times and the defense has forced only two turnovers, one interception and one fumble. They have ranked lower than 24th in turnover ratio only once in franchise history, when they finished 27th in 2006.

This seemingly innocuous quote inspired a ridiculously long series of articles, bristling with statistics and game recaps. It did not, however, result in the Steelers improving in this category.

By 2013 this was old news. The Steelers just weren’t taking the ball away nearly enough. Part of the problem was perhaps that the bar was set way too high in 2010. The Super Bowl team had a +17 ratio of takeaways to turnovers, which was the highest by far in the past 10 seasons, and good for No. 2 in the league.

I thought it would be interesting to revisit this issue in light of some of the guys the Steelers drafted in 2015. But I also thought it might be instructive to compare what was happening with the Steelers with the rest of the league. First, though, let’s look at the Steelers from 2005—2014. Read more