Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

This is part 9 in our position-by-position review of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.  If you haven’t read the previous installments, please click below:

If you haven’t read Part 1 (offensive tackles), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 2 (guards), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 3 (centers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 4 (tight ends), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 5 (wide receivers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 6 (running backs), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 7 (quarterbacks), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 8 (nose tackles), click here.

Next up, we’re going to look at the Steelers defensive ends.

Brett Keisel

Brett Keisel was the most productive of the Steelers defensive linemen in 2011.  He had one of the best seasons of his career in 2011.

He has become a fixture on a defense that is consistently among the best in the NFL.  That says a lot about Keisel.  Particularly since he was a 7th round draft choice, from a school that is not a football powerhouse.

But despite Keisel’s skills and dependability, he’ll be 34 years old next season.  The Steelers are beginning to realize that keeping aging veteran players hinders the team’s ability to groom future stars.  So it will be interesting to see how often the team substitutes Cameron Heyward in for Keisel next season.

Ziggy Hood

When Aaron Smith went down with an injury in 2010, Ziggy Hood replaced him, and the defense actually became better.  Based on that, I was certain that Ziggy would enter 2011 as the starter for the Steelers at the position.  But instead, Aaron Smith resumed his role as starter.

But just like in 2010, Aaron Smith went down with an injury in 2011, and Ziggy Hood replaced him as the starter.  And once again, the defense got better when Ziggy took over.

2011 was Ziggy’s best season, as he recorded personal bests in just about every statistical category except sacks.

Ziggy will only be 25 years old next season, and he’s still learning how to play the position.  So I think that the Steelers are set at left defensive end for a very long time.

By the way, there has been talk of playing Ziggy at nose tackle if Casey Hampton doesn’t recover from his injury quickly.  I don’t want to see that happen.  Ziggy is just finding his groove as a defensive end.  He needs to stay there.  In my opinion, the Steelers should draft a nose tackle, or find one in free agency.  Ziggy Hood should only be used there in an emergency.

Aaron Smith

As mentioned earlier, Aaron Smith began 2011 as the starter, but he suffered a neck injury, and missed most of the season.

2011 was the 4th season in the past 5 years in which Aaron Smith missed significant time due to injuries.

Following the 2011 season, Smith decided to announce his retirement.  He has been a role model as both a player, and as a citizen.  He has been one of the most consistent players in Steelers history.

Thanks for the memories, Aaron.  Steeler Nation loves you!

Cameron Heyward

Cameron Heyward didn’t get a lot of playing time during his rookie season, but he looked good when he did get in the game.  He even managed to get his first NFL sack.

The coaches are very high on Heyward.  As mentioned above, I hope to see him substitute in for Brett Keisel more often this season.  I think that it will give Heyward more experience, and it will keep Keisel fresher as he gets older.

Despite having two young players to man the position for the future, and a veteran starter, the Steelers still lack depth at defensive end.  Al Woods spent most of 2011 on the Steelers’ practice squad, and he’ll be given a chance to make the team in 2012.

But the Steelers still need more depth at the position.  Al Woods is unproven.  And if Ziggy Hood has to spend some time at nose tackle, that will deplete the depth at defensive end even more.

I won’t be surprised if the Steelers draft a college defensive tackle in April’s NFL draft.  They typically select college defensive tackles with the hope of converting them to 3-4 defensive ends.

 

 

This is part 8 in our position-by-position review of the 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers.  If you haven’t read the previous installments, please click below:

If you haven’t read Part 1 (offensive tackles), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 2 (guards), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 3 (centers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 4 (tight ends), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 5 (wide receivers), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 6 (running backs), click here.
If you haven’t read Part 7 (quarterbacks), click here.

Now that we’ve finished reviewing the Steelers’ offense, it’s time to take a look at how the defense did in 2011.

The first position that we’re going to look at is the anchor of a 3-4 defense; the nose tackle.

Casey Hampton

Hampton has started at nose tackle for the Steelers since 2001.  During that time, Hampton has been one of the premiere nose tackles in the NFL.  He’s played in 5 Pro Bowls, and started on three Steelers Super Bowl teams.  He was also named to the Steelers’ 75th season all-time team.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end.  2010 and 2011 have been the worst two consecutive seasons in Hampton’s career.  He’s made fewer tackles during the past two years than he has during any other 2 year stretch in his career.  Even 2001 & 2002, Hampton’s first two seasons in the NFL, were more productive.

“Big Snack” is now 34 years old.  His best years are behind him.  He no longer collapses the pocket the way he once did.  More importantly, he suffered an ACL injury at the end of the season.  It has yet to be seen how a man of his age and size will recover from such a serious injury.  Moreover, Hampton has never been known for his off-season conditioning.  So I doubt that he’ll work himself back into playing condition the way that a younger, more fit player might.

I’ve been saying for the past 3 years that the Steelers needed to start grooming Casey Hampton’s successor.  They never did that.  And now, they may not have any other choice.

Chris Hoke

Chris Hoke joined the Steelers the same year that Casey Hampton did.  And he served as Hampton’s backup for that entire time.  And like Hampton, time has caught up to Hoke.

Hoke is 35 years old, so he’s actually older than Hampton.  And because of that, Hoke has chosen to retire.

Hoke was a capable backup to the very end.  Mike Tomlin likes to say that, “The standard is the standard.”  Well, no player lived up to that saying better than Chris Hoke.  The defense never missed a beat when Hoke came into the game.

Thanks for your contribution, Chris.  Steeler Nation appreciates it.

Steve McLendon

Steve McLendon is a gritty young player.  I actually like what I’ve seen from him thus far.

But the reality is that McLendon is not a long-term solution at nose tackle.  At 280 lbs., he’s just too small for the position.

In a 3-4 defense, the nose tackle is usually the heaviest man on the defensive line.  Yet Ziggy Hood, Brett Keisel, and Cameron Heyward all weigh more than McLendon.  So did Aaron Smith.  And Casey Hampton actually outweighs him by 45 lbs.  And that’s according to Hampton’s “official” weight.  We all know that Hampton really weighs more than that.

So the Steelers are left with an aging veteran nose tackle who suffered a major injury, and a young backup who is actually too small for the position.

It’s becoming clear that nose tackle is a glaring need for the Steelers.  In fact, it may actually be the team’s top need this off-season.  Perhaps this will finally be the year that the Steelers draft one.

Hmmmmmmm, that sounds familiar.

The Turk has made several more visits to the Steelers.

Yesterday, the team cut veteran wide receiver Hines Ward.  Today, veterans James Farrior, Aaron Smith, and Chris Kemoeatu were added to the salary cap casualties.

Most fans thought that Aaron Smith would retire anyway.  He has sat out a portion of the season with injuries in 4 of the past 5 years.  Smith turns 36 in April, and the combination of age and injuries probably made his retirement inevitable.  Nevertheless, it’s difficult to see him go.

Like Smith, James Farrior was a stalwart on the Steelers’ defense.  He was a defensive captain, and he called most of the defenses.

Farrior, who is 37 years old, spent his first 5 seasons in the NFL with the New York Jets, and the past 10 seasons with the Steelers.

Farrior split time with Larry Foote last year, and fans have said that he looked visibly slower for the past three seasons.  So his release also didn’t come as a surprise.

Chris Kemoeatu’s release will probably be received differently than Ward’s, Smith’s, and Farrior’s were.  While the latter three were long-time fan favorites, and contributed greatly to the Steelers’ success, Kemoeatu was more of an enigma.

Kemoeatu is a massive guard who replaced Alan Faneca when he signed a free agent contract with the New York Jets.  I had very high hopes for Kemoeatu.  But those hopes were quickly dashed.

Despite his size and speed, Kemoeatu developed a habit of making costly mental mistakes.  He could be counted on to jump off-sides, hold his opponent, or get an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  And it always seemed to come at the worst possible time.  We expect boneheaded mistakes from rookies, but they’re not acceptable from veterans like Kemoeatu.

Eventually, the Steelers coaching staff reached the same conclusion that I had reached years ago; Kemoeatu had to go.  He was benched during the 2011 season, and now he’s been released from the team.

These are sad days for the Steelers, but they were inevitable.  The team was $25 million over the salary cap at the beginning of the off-season.  So they not only had to get under the salary cap, but they also had to free up cap space to sign Mike Wallace and any rookies or free agents that they acquire through the draft or free agency.

With the cuts and salary restructuring that the Steelers have done, they have shaved $37 million from their salary cap.

Now they need to sign Mike Wallace to a long-term deal.