Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers seem to be addressing their primary needs in the draft.  First they selected a linebacker, then a running back, and now they’ve taken a wide receiver.

The Steelers took Oregon State wide receiver Markus Wheaton with their third round pick.  Wheaton is a 5’11″, 185 lb. wide receiver who has speed to burn.  Wheaton is among the fastest receivers available in the draft.  In addition to playing football, he also ran track for Oregon State.

Much like former Steelers receiver Mike Wallace, Wheaton is more of a straight line runner.  He is best on fly patterns.  He isn’t as effective running underneath routes.

WR Markus Wheaton

Wheaton has very good hands, and he can make all of the catches.  If you put the ball in the air, he’s likely to catch it.  But he’s going to need significant work on his route running at the next level to really take advantage of his speed and good hands.

As a senior, Wheaton had 91 receptions for 1,244 yards and 11 touchdowns.  He is the Beavers all-time record holder with 227 catches.

Oregon State plays a quick-hitting passing attack that gave Wheaton plenty of chances to catch the ball.  This experience should fit in well with Todd Haley’s offense.

Markus Wheaton

Wheaton’s primary weakness is his size.  He’s thin for an NFL player, and that can be an issue in absorbing punishment, and breaking free from physical cornerbacks.  But Wheaton has shown improvement each year at Oregon State, and I expect the improvement to continue in the NFL.

We all knew that the Steelers needed a running back.  But most probably didn’t expect them to bypass Eddie Lacy and Montee Ball to draft a different running back.  But that’s exactly what they did.  The Steelers selected Michigan State running back Le’Veon Bel in the second round.

Bell is a big back.  In fact, at 6’2″, 245 lbs., he’s huge.  And he runs like it.  He’s a downhill runner who isn’t going to amaze anyone with his speed.  And he doesn’t have a lot of swivel in his hips, so don’t expect to see the type of shiftiness that we used to see from Jerome Bettis.  But he did lead the nation in yards after contact, so that counts for something.

Despite not making people miss, Le’Veon did make a name for himself by hurdling a few tacklers.  In fact, that might be his most elusive move.  But make no mistake, he is not an elusive runner.

Bell hurdles tackler

 So if he’s not particularly fast or elusive, why did the Steelers select him?  The answer to that is simple.  Bell is effective.  He led the Big Ten in rushing as he ran for 1,793 yards in 2012, and averaged 4.7 yards per carry.  Just to be clear, that’s more yardage than Montee Ball, who played in the same conference.

Bell also probably appealed to Todd Haley because he has reasonably soft hands.  He caught over 30 passes each of the past 2 seasons.  That will fit in well in Haley’s scheme.

Bell is also very effective as a blocker.  He’s able to take on linebackers, and he can drive a cornerback or safety into the ground.  That should help keep Ben Roethlisberger’s pads a little cleaner.

It should be noted that Bell was voted Most Valuable Player by his teammates.

Frankly, he isn’t that different from Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman.  I would have expected the Steelers to take a speed back to add a change of pace.  So it’s not clear what this means for Dwyer and Redman.

Overall, this is a good pick.  Bell isn’t an electric runner, but he is a workhorse who can take a lot of punishment and keep on ticking.  Steeler Nation is going to like him.

With the 17th pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, the Pittsburgh Steelers select…….Jarvis Jones, outside linebacker from Georgia.

With that announcement, the celebrations began in my home.  Jarvis Jones was the player that I was hoping the Steelers would get.

Jones is a 6’3″ linebacker who led the nation in sacks (14.5), tackles for loss (24.5), and forced fumbles (7).  Who do those statistics remind you of?  That’s right, James Harrison, the man that Jarvis will be trying to replace.

Jarvis Jones doing what he does.

Some have questioned Jones because of a neck injury that he suffered while playing with USC as a freshman.  Jones was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, and he wasn’t cleared to play for USC.  However, Jones transferred to Georgia, and their medical staff cleared him to play.  Since then, he has totally dominated the SEC.

The Steelers know about his neck injury, so their medical staff must have cleared him too, or they wouldn’t have selected him in the 1st round.

The thing that excites me most about Jones isn’t the tremendous sack numbers that he’s put up over the past 2 years.  Rather, I’m most excited about who he put them up against.  There is no doubt that the SEC is the best conference in college football.  They are the closest thing there is to the NFL.  Yet, Jones was a man among boys in the SEC.

Jones does it again.

Some will point out that he ran a slow 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine.  Personally, I place no stock in 40 times.  The quarterback doesn’t line up 40 yards from the linebacker.  So why is a 40 time relevant?  James Harrison didn’t run a fast 40.  Neither did LaMarr Woodley.  And they’ve both proven to be effective at getting to the quarterback.

Some scouts and fans prefer to draft based on potential.  They weigh Combine results heavily.  That’s why guys like Dion Jordan, Ezekial Ansah, and Barkevious Mingo were picked ahead of Jones.  All of them ran very fast 40 times, and so teams are drooling over their potential.  Personally, I don’t place much faith in potential.  I prefer to place my faith in proven results.  And Jarvis Jones had more sacks last year than Dion Jordan, Ezekiel Ansah, and Barkevious Mingo combined.  That’s right, COMBINED!  The same was true last year too.

I can think of a lot of things that the Steelers could have done in this draft that would have been dumber than selecting the best sack artist in the entire draft.  Nobody else even comes close to Jone’s sack totals.

Another sack by Jones.

In addition to leading the nation in several statistical categories, Jones was also an All-American, and a finalist for the Butkus, Benarik, Lobardi, Nagurski, and Lott awards.

In my opinion, the draft couldn’t have started any better for the Steelers.  I can’t wait to see who they draft in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

Go Steelers!

Is it just me, or are the Steelers becoming more and more nostalgic each year?

In recent years, they’ve brought back former players like Bryant McFadden, Larry Foote, and Plaxico Burress.  Earlier this month they brought back William Gay.  Now they’ve added another former player who wasn’t outstanding during his first tenure with the team.

According to ProFootballTalk.com and ESPN, the Steelers have signed Matt Spaeth, who was recently released by the Chicago Bears.

Neither the Steelers official website, nor the two major Pittsburgh newspapers have reported Spaeth’s signing, so there is a possibility that all of the details haven’t been worked out yet.  But it appears likely that Spaeth is rejoining the Steelers.

Matt Spaeth

Spaeth spent his first 4 seasons with the Steelers before leaving as a free agent to join the Chicago Bears.  Spaeth never established himself as a consistent starter with either team.  Moreover, despite being 6’7″ tall, Spaeth has never been much of a red zone threat.  He has a total of 8 touchdowns during his 6-year NFL career.  He has never scored more than 3 touchdowns during a single season, and he only did that once (during his rookie season).

Spaeth is an adequate blocker, but he isn’t as good in that department as either Heath Miller or David Johnson.  So it would appear that the only reason the team brought him back is because of familiarity and the fact that Heath Miller is likely to miss the first few weeks of the season while recovering from an injury.

Friday came to an end, and it turned out to be a day of defections from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Three players signed contracts with new teams on Friday, Keenan Lewis, Ryan Mundy, and Willie Colon.  Lets take a look at each of these signings, and discuss what it means for the Steelers.

Keenan Lewis
Starting cornerback Keenan Lewis was the one free agent that I was most hoping would decide to stay with the Steelers, but that didn’t happen.  Lewis signed with his hometown team, the New Orleans Saints.

The disappointing part of Lewis’ departure is that the Steelers could have kept him if they wanted to.  But they didn’t even make him an offer.  He didn’t get an offer last year when he was a restricted free agent, and he didn’t get an offer this year as an unrestricted free agent.  The Saints ended up stealing him for a price that will only count for $2.2 million against their 2013 salary cap.  That’s very cheap for a starting NFL cornerback.

In my opinion, Lewis is more of a philosophical loss than any of the other players.  The Steelers drafted Lewis, and he struggled for his first three years with the team.  But it all finally came together for him last year, and he emerged as a starter.  But now that he’s become a viable player for the Steelers, they let him leave for another team.  NFL teams can’t afford to invest time and money into grooming young players only to see them leave once they’ve become a finished product.  Now that Lewis is 26 years old, he is in his prime playing years, and the Steelers won’t get to reap the benefits of their investment into his development.  Hopefully, this isn’t a pattern that we’ll be seeing very often with young players.

Ryan Mundy
Mundy has been a mediocre backup for the entire time he’s been with the Steelers.  He never even came close to becoming a starter.  Moreover, he never did anything that couldn’t have been done by any random undrafted free agent.  So losing him is not a big loss for the Steelers.

Mundy signed with the New York Giants today, but other than his wife, I don’t think anyone really cares.

Willie Colon
Colon is also going to New York.  Only he won’t be joining Ryan Mundy on the Giants.  Instead, Colon signed with the New York Jets. 

I had been suggesting that the Steelers should move Colon to guard for years, and then last year they finally did, and he was great in the position.  The problem was that Colon just couldn’t stay healthy.  He missed 36 games over the past 3 years.  And made a fortune while missing all of those games.  So he can afford to sign for the one year, $1.2 million contract the Jets gave him. 

Others to watch
We’ll be watching anxiously to see which of the other former Steelers will be signing with new teams.  Rumor has it that James Harrison has had some very fruitful conversations with the Baltimore Ravens, who have lost 3 linebackers since the Super Bowl.  I would hate seeing Harrison wearing purple and black.  I’d also hate to see the Steelers have to face him twice per year.