Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers went back to the future today.   They signed former first round draft pick Plaxico Burress.

Burress was drafted by the Steelers back in 2000.  The 6’5″ wide receiver made his presence known during his sophomore season, when he had over 1,000 receiving yards.

In 2004, when Ben Roethlisberger became the Steelers’ starting quarterback as a rookie, Burress quickly became his closest friend on the team, as well as his favorite receiving target.  Burress left the Steelers as a free agent in Big Ben’s second season, but Roethlisberger was very vocal about his preference for tall receivers.  In fact, it was that preference that led the Steelers to start drafting tall wide receivers like Dallas Baker, Toney Clemons, Fred Gibson, and He Whose Name Must Not Be Spoken (you know who I mean).

Now that I think about it, Ben kinda screwed the team by making his preference for tall receivers known.  But that’s a conversation for another time.

Burress went to the New York Giants when he left the Steelers in 2005.  He played there until he had that unfortunate night club incident that resulted in him shooting himself in the leg and receiving prison time.  When he got out of prison, he signed with the New York Jets, and had a fairly productive 2011 season in which he had over 600 yards receiving, and scored 8 touchdowns.  Nevertheless, the Jets didn’t sign him for a second season.  Instead, Burress sat at home, hoping to be signed by somebody.  Anybody.  And today, he got his wish.

Burress doesn’t have the speed that he once had.  But he’s 6’5.  That’s something that none of the “Young Money” receivers can say.  And we know that it’s a trait that Big Ben likes.  If nothing else, Plax should make a good target in the red zone.

By the way, the Steelers also signed another backup quarterback.   Most fans have probably never heard of him before, so I’m going to leave it that way and not talk about him.  Just know that there’s a new guy on the team who will probably never set foot on the field.

Go Steelers!

Back in 2008, I wrote an article called “Top 10 reasons why “Big Ben” is better than Eli Manning“.  On Sunday, the two quarterbacks meet again for only the third time in their careers.  Each has won once.  So in some ways, this will be a rubber match between the two.

With that in mind, I decided that it was time to once again evaluate which of the two quarterbacks is better at this point in their career.

The first article that I wrote on this topic was meant to be a partially humorous piece.  But this one will be a serious analysis of how the two quarterbacks have played up to this point in their careers.

I’m sure that everyone remembers that both quarterbacks were drafted in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft.  Eli Manning was the first player picked, San Diego Chargers QB Philip Rivers was drafted 4th, and Ben Roethlisberger was drafted 11th.  The class was further strengthened by the fact that Houston Texans QB Matt Schaub, who has also had an excellent career, was drafted in the 3rd round by the Atlanta Falcons.

There is no doubt that Big Ben’s career got off to a much better start.  He led his team to 13 straight wins as a rookie.  He lost to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship that year, but he went on to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory the following year.

Meanwhile, Eli Manning struggled early on.  He didn’t become a starter until the 10th game of his rookie season.  He ran up 6 straight losses before finally winning the final game of the season.  Even the New York media and fans began calling Eli a “bust”.

As their careers have gone on, both players have established themselves as solid NFL quarterbacks.  There are no longer any questions about whether either of them deserved their first round draft selection.  Big Ben has led his team to three Super Bowls, winning two of them and losing once to the Green Bay Packers.  Eli Manning has appeared in two Super Bowls, and won each time.  Combined, the two quarterbacks have appeared in 5 of the 9 Super Bowls that have taken place since they entered the league.  That’s an incredible record for two incredible quarterbacks.

But the question still remains, which quarterback is better?

So let’s take a look at their career statistics.  Eli has run an offense that passed more often than Ben’s.  Eli has attempted almost 700 more passes than Ben.  But despite that, Eli has only thrown for 1,314 more yards.  He’s averaged 7.1 yards per completion, compared to 8.0 yards per completion for Ben.  So Eli has thrown more times for more yards than Ben, but Ben has thrown longer passes on average.  More importantly, he has a higher completion percentage despite throwing more long passes.

Another key measure of quarterbacks is how often they throw interceptions.  Eli Manning has thrown more interceptions than Big Ben, but that’s not a fair comparison since he’s also thrown more passes.  But if we look at each quarterbacks interceptions as a percentage of their total pass attempts, Big Ben definitely comes out on top.  Eli Manning has thrown interceptions on 5% of his pass attempts, while Ben has thrown interceptions on only 3% of his passes.

In the statistic that is supposed to measure the quality of a quarterback, QB rating, Big Ben wins by a large margin.  Roethlisberger’s career QB rating of 92.8 is a full 10 points higher than Manning’s 82.6 career QB rating.  This year, Roethlisberger has a 101.4 QB rating, compared to 89.1 for Manning.  In fact, Roethlisberger has had a better QB rating than Manning in 6 of the 9 seasons that they’ve been in the league.

Another advantage that Ben has over Eli is his ability to run the ball.  Ben has made a career out of extending the play.  He has a level of mobility that Eli just doesn’t have.  While neither quarterback has been Michael Vick, Ben has run for far more yards than Eli.  Eli has only 372 rushing yards in his career, while Ben has rushed for 989 yards.

In fact, the only statistic in which Eli Manning is clearly superior to Ben Roethlisberger is in his ability to avoid sacks.  Big Ben’s tendency to try to extend the play has led him to take an inordinate number of sacks.  He’s taken over 40 sacks in 5 of his 9 NFL seasons.  Meanwhile, Eli Manning has never taken 40 sacks in a season.  In fact, he’s only taken 30 sacks in one season during his career.  In total, Ben has taken 327 sacks compared to only 200 sacks for Eli Manning.

If winning championships is the true measure of a quarterback, then Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning are two of the best of their time.  Both men have won two Super Bowls.  So in that regard, they’re equals.  But by just about every other measure, Ben Roethlisberger is the better quarterback.

These two quarterbacks are in the prime of their careers.  They both still have plenty of time to lead their teams to more Super Bowls.  So this argument will continue until they’ve both retired and we can look back at their careers in their entirety.

But at this point in their careers, I think the data is pretty clear.  Both are good quarterbacks, but Big Ben is better.  Ben is bigger, stronger, faster, and he’s accumulated better statistics throughout his career.  Some will disagree with me, but I find it hard to make a case for Eli Manning.  In my opinion, Ben is definitely the better of the two.  In fact, it’s not even close.

After naming their 53-man roster yesterday, the Steelers announced the names of the 8 players who have been signed to their scrub list………errrr, I mean “practice squad”.

Each year, teams scramble to see which players they can sign to the  practice squad.  Practice squad players have the privilege of never actually getting into a real NFL game, yet still drawing a paycheck from an NFL team.  What could be better than that?

This year’s list of scrubs includes wide receivers David Gilreath and Toney Clemons, offensive linemen John Malecki and Ryan Lee, tight end Jamie McCoy, linebacker Marshall McFadden, safety Damon Cromartie-Smith and cornerback Josh Victorian.

Many fans were surprised when the Steelers only named 4 true wide receivers to their roster.  Chris Rainey is a utility player who can play running back, wide receiver, kick/punter returner, and special teams, but he’s not a true wide receiver.  However, none of the other wide receivers in training camp distinguished themselves enough to actually earn a spot on the roster.  But I thought that Gilreath was the closest to making the team.  After him, I thought that the Steelers would have signed Derrick Williams instead of Toney Clemons.  But apparently they saw more promise in Clemons.

You won’t be hearing much about these 8 players for the rest of the year.  But for today, they’re newsworthy.

Go Steelers!

Today was cut day.  All 32 NFL teams have until 9:00p.m. to announce their 53-man roster.  The Steelers wasted no time announcing theirs.

There were a few surprises, but for the most part, everything went as most fans probably expected.

The biggest surprises were that they cut Trai Essex and Jeremy Kapinos.  Essex has managed to hang onto a position for years, despite his obvious deficiencies.  I guess that position flexibility outweighs overall ineptitude.

One move that may have come as a surprise to some, but not to me, was that they chose to keep Charlie Batch.  Batch clearly outplayed the much younger Jerrod Johnson during the preseason.  And his knowledge, experience, and leadership made him an easy selection, despite his age.

QB Charlie Batch

Despite generating a lot of excitement when he was drafted, due to his size and speed, the Steelers also cut rookie wide receiver Toney Clemons.

So the Steelers’ 2012 roster is as follows:

Quarterbacks (3):  Ben Roethlisberger, Byron Leftwich, & Charlie Batch.

Running Backs (6):  Rashard Mendenhall, Isaac Redman, Jonathan Dwyer, Baron Batch, Chris Rainey, & Will Johnson

Offensive Linemen (9):  Max Starks, Willie Colon, Maurkice Pouncey, Ramon Foster, Marcus Gilbert, Mike Adams, Doug Legursky, David DeCastro, & Kelvin Beachum.

Wide receivers (4):  Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Jericho Cotchery

Tight Ends (3):  Heath Miller, Weslye Saunders*, Leonard Pope, and David Paulson

Defensive Linemen (7):  Ziggy Hood, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, Al Woods, Steve McLendon, Cameron Heyward, Alemeda Ta’amu

Linebackers (9):  LaMarr Woodley, Larry Foote, Lawrence Timmons, Chris Carter, Brandon Johnson, Stevenson Sylvester, Adrian Robinson, James Harrison, Jason Worilds.

Cornerbacks (4):  Ike Taylor, Keenan Lewis, Cortez Allen, Curtis Brown

Safeties (5):  Troy Polamalu, Ryan Clark, Ryan Mundy, Will Allen, Robert Golden

Kicker:  Shawn Suisham

Punter:  Drew Butler

Long Snapper:  Greg Warren

Injured Reserve:  Sean Spence

Note:  Weslye Saunders is not technically on the team because he is suspended for the first 4 games.  When he comes back, David Paulson will probably be moved to the practice squad.

To paraphrase the Apollo 13 astronauts, “Pittsburgh, we have a problem”.

Our problems is 6’4″, weighs 225 lbs., and goes by the name “Brady”.

That’s right, I’m talking about Tom Brady.  You know him, don’t you?  He’s the pesky New England Patriots quarterback who has an annoying habit of beating the Steelers.

I once wrote an article called “I hate Bill Belichick“.  That article was the inspiration for this one.  You see, I do hate Tom Brady.  Hate, hate, hate!

I’ve never actually met Tom Brady.  He’s never caused me physical harm.  He’s never insulted my mother.  I’ve never heard him refer to anyone using a racial slur.  He doesn’t kill kittens or puppies.  As far as I know, he’s a decent guy.  But I still hate him.

The reason that I hate Tom Brady has nothing to do with anything that he’s done to me personally.  Rather, it’s based on what he does to my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers; he beats them.

Tom Brady is 6-1 against the Steelers.  That means he’s beaten them 86% of the time.  $#@&^%#!!!!!!!!

Brady has beaten the Steelers in New England.  And he’s beaten them in Pittsburgh.  He’s beaten them in the regular season.  And he’s beaten them in the playoffs.

The guy I hate.

Brady has thrown for over 2,000 yards against the Steelers.  He’s tossed 14 touchdown passes against them.  And while throwing all of those passes, he’s seldom been sacked or intercepted.  See why I hate him?

The last time the Steelers faced the Patriots, Brady threw for 350 yards.  He tossed 3 touchdown passes during that game, and he ran for a 4th TD.  Grrrrrrr!!!  I’m getting mad just thinking about it.

As much as it hurts to admit it, Tom Brady is one of the most cerebral quarterbacks in the NFL.  He dissects defenses the way high school biology students dissect frogs.

Under Brady’s leadership, the Patriots have scored 30 points or more in 13 of their last 14 games.  The Patriots are ranked 1st in the NFL in passing offense, averaging over 350 yards per game.  So I’m sure that it’s not just Steelers fans who hate Brady.

But it’s the Steelers who have to face Brady this weekend, so our hatred probably runs deepest right now.

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I’ve come up with the only logical solution to the problem.  Tom Brady must die!

Now where did I put my friend Vito’s telephone number?  He’ll handle this problem quietly, and permanently.

Go Steelers!