Thanks for the memories you crazy son of a bitch.
Oh boy, where do I even start. This may be the toughest State Of The Steelers Address that I have ever had to write. Free-Agency is upon us and I don’t remember the last time I have felt this uneasy about the future. It seems as if we are losing key veteran players at almost every position and if I know The Rooney’s like I think I do, we sure as shit won’t be replacing them with big name free agents. It’s a double edge sword and tho it can be frustrating, the discipline our front office shows year after year is quite extraordinary. As much as I would love to see us re-sign certain players for big money, I find comfort in the fact that no one player will ever be above the system. Pittsburgh is one of the few teams that will never ever be held hostage by a big name superstar. I’m looking at you Darrelle Revis. This off season seems to be a little different tho. It is obvious that we have begun the rebuilding process and there are so many question marks at so many positions it literally makes me nauseous. One thing I can tell you tho is this, we will always be competitive and we will always win on draft day. Let’s just take a quick gander at a couple of positions where we are losing key players and also some of the possible moves we can make to compensate for these losses.
Wide Receiver- It is obvious that Mike Wallace is a huge loss. It is well documented that I hate Wallace and I think we should have let him hold out last season, for several reasons. I feel like if we would have just let him watch football from his home last season, his stock would have dropped and we would have had the last laugh. Although, he will most likely be signing with Miami and my prediction is that his career will end just like Yancey’s did when he dipped out looking for those greener pastures. In turn, we will indeed have the last laugh. Whether I like Mikey or not I can’t dispute the fact that his speed alone stretched the field, drew double coverage and opened things up for the real Young Money Crew to do their thang. Mikey will be missed for those specific reasons but I’m telling you, with Sanders, Antonio, J-Clutch and Heath, we still have a very potent and able core moving forward. Sexico will most likely return and that should give us an edge in the redzone as well. Two free agents that I think would be worth lookin at would be Steve Breaston and Teddy Ginn Jr. Neither are big time ball players by any stretch but they also have been a product of their respected/shitty systems and At times their terrible QB’s. When Breaston had a stud throwing to him he produced. It’s as simple as that. May be worth a look as lkng as Ben is at the trigger. Basically what I am saying is this- fuck you Mike Wallace. Have fun in South Beach. You will have plenty of time to work on your tan during your extended off season.
Running Back-Things are very shady at the Running Back position in Pittsburgh right now. Nobody is 100 percent certain what Rashard Please Don’t Drop The MendenBall is going to do but most speculate he will not be wearing Black and Gold next year. To say his career has been a disappointment thus far would be like saying Big Ben doesn’t like to fuck college broads in narrow spaces. I remember when we drafted Mendy I said to myself that this was the dude. He was the future. He has all the assets. Don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that we never did take full advantage of the bros skill set but he was a huge disappointment nonetheless. There were times that I would have literally paid Arians good moneys to just throw Mendy the screen pass. If he lands in the right system he could easily be a top 5 back. But for some reason we never gave the kid the ball outside of the tackles. We didn’t utilize his speed nor his ability to mull mother fuckers over in the open field and that my friends is a travesty.
With Mendy gone, that leaves us with our two obvious “feature” backs- Dwyer and Redman. I love both of these guys. Dwyer-AKA-The Mini Bus is as tough as they come when he is actually on the field and Redman is a fucking Rhinoceros. However, neither seem to be able to stay healthy. Very frustrating. I thought with Chris Rainey’s emergence, he would be an excellent compliment to two power backs. Unfortunately he is more concerned with beating the shit out of tricks than focusing on becoming a millionaire and a champion. I’m pretty sure that I am the only person that feels like this was a huge loss tho. It’s almost as if everyone thinks that depth at the RB position is no longer a vital part of winning a Super Bowl. I agree that The NFL is slowly becoming a passing league but just like The Wildcat and running QB’s I think this is just a fad that will eventually run its course. Having said all that, there are two free agents out there that would look perfect in Black and Gold. Those two being Ahmad Bradshaw and Stevie Jackson. Obviously I would prefer the latter but both would be a huge addition and ensure a healthy rotation of RB’s for the foreseeable future. Also, I believe we would be able to acquire either at a reasonable price. Even tho Ahmad is a top guy I feel like he has his issues with staying healthy as well and that could lower the price on him at the end of the day. Another problem with Bradshaw is that he doesn’t like to practice. That may have worked for him in NY but it would never fly in Steeler Country. When I say he doesn’t like to practice I mean he literally did not practice as a Giant. As far as Steven Jackson goes, damn…just too good to be true. I won’t even let my mind go there but i will say this; Jackson has made a ton of money and maybe, just maybe he would be willing to sacrifice money for rings. After-all, The Bus came from The Rams and that worked out pretty good for us, didn’t it?
I only covered a couple positions on this blog and tomorrow I will be posting the second part of this blog. I will outline the defensive side of the ball. From losing James Harrison to talk of letting Keenan Lewis go, things aren’t looking so hot for the Steel Curtain next season. One other thing I will be talking about will be the back-up QB position. This is something we absolutely must address this off season as well. I love Chuck and Byron is a gamer but neither are really cutting it anymore.
The future is looking a little crazy but if there is one thing I have learned about the Steelers is that we will always be ok. The powers that be are God Damn deadly in the war room. For every James Harrison there are three more being bred as we speak. Hungry and waiting for their opportunity to shine.
Remember, tune in tomorrow for part two.
