Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Carolina Panthers in their final preseason game of the 2009 season by a score of 21-10.  However, winning or losing was the least of coach Mike Tomlin’s concerns.

With final 53-man rosters due to the NFL on Saturday, Tomlin and his staff have some very tough decisions to make.  The players who hadn’t yet secured a place on the Steelers’ roster had one final opportunity to do so.  The NFL is a “what have you done for me lately” league, and this game was the ultimate example of that.

Because the goal of the game was to evaluate players who were “on the bubble”, Tomlin barely even played most of his starters.  Instead, players like Mike Reilly, Justin Vincent, Keenan Lewis, Ryan Mundy got to show their stuff.

“I don’t make the decisions,” said Tomlin, “They make the decisions by how they play.”

The player who did the most to help his cause was Stefan Logan.  On his first and only punt return of the game, he returned the ball 80 yards for a touchdown.  Welcome to the Steelers, Mr. Logan.

Others who helped their causes included Isaac Redman, Keenan Lewis, Ryan Mundy, and Arnold Harrison.

Isaac Redman led the team in rushing with 79 yards on 12 carries, while also scoring a touchdown.  He averaged an impressive 6.6 yards per carry.  He also fought for some tough yards on his touchdown run.  Redman ends the preseason as the Steelers rushing leader and touchdown leader.  Not a bad resume to leave for the coaches.

Rookie cornerback Keenan Lewis also helped himself.  Lewis had been very impressive at Steelers training camp, but hadn’t shown as much during the first 3 preseason games.  However, in this final opportunity to shine, Lewis led all tacklers with 10 tackles while also adding 2 passes defensed.

Second year safety Ryan Mundy also helped his cause.  Mundy had 5 solo tackles and one assist.  But much more important than the tackles was the fact that Mundy intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown.

“Any time you run one back, that gets your attention” Tomlin said.

Linebacker Arnold Harrison helped his cause by doing a very good imitation of James Harrison.  He recorded a sack, forced a fumble, and recovered the fumble, all on the same play.  He also combined with Ryan Mundy to stop the Panthers on a fourth and one play.

One player who could have done more to help his own cause was rookie RB Frank “the Tank” Summers.  Summers only gained 4 yards on one carry.  However, Summers does benefit from the fact that he had several nice blocks, and he is a good special teams tackler.

The Steelers don’t have much time before their first game, since they kick off the NFL season next Thursday against the Tennessee Titans.  Thus, coach Tomlin said that he is going to announce his final roster at a press conference today at 4:00 PM.

We will all be waiting anxiously to see who makes the team.

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September 1, 2009
By Donald Starver

Among the many things that you generally find along the sidelines of a typical NFL game, I think the Steelers are going to need to add another; surgeons.  I can’t see any other way to insure the health and safety of our $100 million franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Perhaps I’m being a pessimist.  I really don’t mean to see the glass as half empty.  But I just don’t see any other alternative.

The Steelers announced that guard/center Darnell Stapleton was being placed on the injured reserve list.  Stapleton had arthroscopic surgery on his knee in early August, but his knee has not responded as expected, so he was placed on IR and will miss the entire 2009 season.

So an offensive line that was already one of the most porous in the NFL is losing one of their starters.  That can’t possibly be a good thing.

Stapleton, an undrafted free agent out of Rutgers, moved into the starting line-up last year when Kendall Simmons injured his Achilles.

Prior to injuring his Achilles tendon, Simmons was one of the most criticized of the Steelers’ offensive linemen.  In his last 1.5 years with the Steelers, Simmons looked more like a matador than an offensive lineman. Nevertheless, prior to Simmons’ injury, Stapleton had not been able to displace him.

When he finally did replace Simmons, Stapleton did a solid, but unspectacular, job.  He was part of an offensive line that gave up 6 billion sacks (at least it seemed like 6 billion).  That performance definitely didn’t inspire great confidence in Steelers fans.

Now, with Stapleton out for the year, he is going to be replaced in the starting line-up by Trai Essex.

Essex, a 5th year pro out of Northwestern University,  is a career backup who has never been able to break into the starting line-up despite high expectations when he was drafted.  In fact, the veteran Essex couldn’t beat out the undrafted Stapleton when a position finally did open up.  Now it appears that injury, rather than merit, will finally make Essex a starter.

So if I follow the progression properly, the Steelers will be starting a career backup who couldn’t beat out an undrafted free agent who couldn’t beat out a player who looked more like a matador than an offensive lineman.  Perhaps I misunderstood Darwin’s theory, but it appears that evolution seems to be working in reverse when it comes to the Steelers’ offensive line.  The weak are getting weaker.

As an indirect result of Stapleton’s injury, Doug Legursky will probably make the Steelers’ 53-man roster.   More reverse evolution.

I am always reminded by certain fans that the Steelers offensive line was good enough to win the Super Bowl.  However, for some reason that just doesn’t leave me with a great deal of comfort.  Heck, the Ravens won the Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer playing QB, but I still think they would have gladly replaced him with Dan Marino if they could have.

So now the Steelers will enter the 2009 season with Max Starks, Chris Kemoeatu, Justin Harwig, Trai Essex, and Willie Colon protecting Big Ben.  The optimist in me hope that this group will finally prove to be a unit worthy of a Super Bowl champion.  But the pessimist in me thinks the Steelers had better start interviewing surgeons.

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