Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

Guard may be the most uninteresting position on a football team besides long snapper.  So many people thought that I was crazy when I said that guard is the most important need for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the upcoming draft.  But I stand by that statement.

The Steelers are weaker at guard than they are at any other position.  The only position that even comes close is nose tackle.  So the team needs to be looking very carefully at the guards in this year’s draft class.  And fortunately, there are a lot of good ones coming out this year.  Let’s take a look at a few of them, starting with…….

David DeCastro – Despite not being the biggest guard in this year’s draft class, David DeCastro is universally seen as the best.  He’s surprisingly athletic, and he excels  when asked to pull.  That’s what separates him from the standard “road graders” at the position.

If a team is looking for a guy who can excel in both run blocking and pass protection, then DeCastro is the guy.  And if all of the stars align properly, there are actually  some scenarios in which DeCastro could fall all the way to the Steelers at #24.  It’s not likely, but it could happen.

Cordy Glenn – If you want a big road grader, then Cordy Glenn is your guy.  He’s 6’5″, and weighs 345 lbs.  That’s a lot of beef.

The problem with Glenn is that some teams are projecting him as an offensive tackle.  Offensive tackles usually get drafted higher than guards.  Just think back to what happened to Branden Albert a few years ago when teams started thinking that he could be an offensive tackle.

But Cordy Glenn is a guy that I’d love to see lined up between Marcus Gilbert and Maurkice Pouncey.  Or I’d love to see Isaac Redman running for 1 yard behind Maurkice Pouncey, Cordy Glenn, and Willie Colon on the right side.  But regardless of which side Glenn lines up on, Ben Roethlisberger’s jersey will stay much cleaner because of his presence.

Kevin Zeitler – This is the guy that Steelers fans should be studying.  He’s very likely to be available at the #24 draft slot, and if he is, the Steelers may take him.

Frankly, I wouldn’t be completely happy with this pick.  Zeitler is a solid player who doesn’t excel at anything.  He reminds me a bit of another Wisconsin guard that the Steelers drafted a few years back.  Does anyone remember who that was?

Amini Silatolu – Silatolu is guy who could be a pleasant surprise for a team if they don’t draft him too high.  He’s a big Polynesian who played at a Division II school.  Therefore, he’s untested against top-rated competition.  But the Steelers thought enough of him to fly him into Pittsburgh for a visit, so they obviously like something about him.

His brawler disposition, combined with his tendency to hold, reminds me a bit too much of Chris Kemoeatu.  But as a 3rd or 4th round pick, I’d be happy with the selection.

Brandon Brooks – The Steeler brought him into Pittsburgh for a visit, so I have to assume that they’re considering him.  The kid is big.  I mean REALLY big.  He’s 6’5″, and weighs 350 lbs.

He played both offensive tackle and offensive guard at Miami (OH).  The Steelers love position versatility, so that’s bound to work in his favor.  He’d be a steal in round 4.

Senio Kelemente – He played left tackle at Washington, but I think he’ll have to move inside in the NFL.  He’ll need to gain weight, but his experience at left tackle helped his quickness.  He’d look nice playing right guard for the Steelers.  And I’d REALLY like him if the Steelers could get him in the 4th round.  I like him less if he’s drafted earlier than that.

Lucas Nix – Sometimes what you need is right in your back yard.  That may be the case with Pitt’s Lucas Nix.  He got injured and missed 5 games last season, but I’m sure the Steelers’ scouts still have him on their radar.

We’ve already ranked the Steelers draft needs.  If you haven’t read that article, click here.

Now it’s time to talk about some of the players that the Steelers may potential select in the upcoming draft.

In our ranking of the team’s needs, I stated that I thought that offensive guard is the most important need on the team.  However, I believe that the most pivotal need may be at nose tackle, so I’m going to start by talking about players that we might select there.

Let’s start with……..

Dontari Poe – Readers who read the comments on this blog know that I lived in Memphis for most of this century.  I am a huge Memphis Tigers fan.  I follow them very closely.   So I was surprised when there was widespread demand among Steelers fans for the team to select Dontari Poe in the 1st round if he’s available.  I don’t know many Memphis fans who thought that Dontari was a 1st round pick when we were watching him play.

I understand that Poe did great at the NFL Scouting Combine.  However, players don’t do bench presses during NFL games.  Nor do they run around cones.  Nor do they do vertical jump.  Nope, what they do is play football.  And I’ve watched Dontari Poe play football.  And never in my wildest imagination would I have believed that he’d be a top 15 NFL draft selection.  In fact, I probably would have been shocked if anyone had told me that he’d be selected before the 3rd or 4th round.

In my opinion, Poe is a risk as a 1st round pick, and he’s a HUGE risk as a top 15 pick.  But he certainly has potential.

Josh Chapman – Chapman reminds me of a young Casey Hampton.  He’s “too short” for the position, standing only 6’1″.  He comes from a dominant program.  And he’s a proven run stuffer.

Chapman played nose tackle for the national champions.  He was coached by Nick Saban.  Nobody has to guess whether he can play in a 3-4 defense.  He’s already done it.

Unfortunately, he suffered an ACL injury, and that’s caused him to drop in draft ratings.  With Casey Hampton already recovering from an ACL injury, some might ask, “why would the Steelers select another nose tackle who is also recovering from and ACL injury?”  But remember, he played through the injury.  He only missed one game due to it.

Picking Chapman in the 3rd or 4th round will prove to be a steal.

Hebron Fangupo – The Steelers had Fangupo in Pittsburgh for a visit already, so they’re obviously considering him.  Like Josh Chapman, he’s a bit short, standing only 6’1″.  But I believe that leverage is a big part of winning at the line of scrimmage, and the low man usually wins.  So I don’t have an issue with a player being a little short, if he’s also strong and athletic.  Fangupo is very strong, and reasonably athletic.

The problem that I have with Fangupo is that he’ll be a 27 year old rookie.  I want somebody who can man the position for the steelers for the next 10 years (like Casey Hampton did).  With Fangupo, a team will likely only get 5-6 years out of him.  Hampton is only 34, and he’s looked old for the past 3 years.  So in 5 years, Fangupo will already be the age where Hampton showed noticeable aging.  I’m going to assume that it will take him at least 1 year to learn Dick LeBeau’s defense.  That means the Steelers would only get 4 good years out of him.  That’s a problem.

Akiem Hicks – Hicks is another potential nose tackle that the Steelers brought to Pittsburgh for a visit.  Hicks is large and athletic.  But he will definitely be a project.

After being heavily recruited by LSU coming out of junior college, he lost his eligibility due to recruiting violations.  He was forced to go north of the border and play for Regina in Canada.  So he has very little playing experience, and even less against top rated talent.

He has the girth to be an effective NT, but he also has the athleticism to move outside and play 3-4 defensive end.  He played both defensive end and defensive tackle in college.

Alameda Ta’amu – Ta’amu is a big-bodied samoan who is also thought of as one of the top NT’s in this year’s draft.  However, the Steelers didn’t bring him in for a visit.  He put up decent number at a good program.  From that standpoint, he may be ahead of everyone but Josh Chapman.

Nicolas Jean-Baptiste – He’s not getting as much coverage as some of the other potential draftees at nose tackle.  But he’s among the most ready of the group.  Like Chapman and Ta’amu, he played in a good conference, and faced  reasonable competition each week.  The Big 12 will never be confused with the SEC, but it’s probably better than the Big East or the Conference USA.  And it’s definitely better than playing for Regina in Canada (see Akiem Hicks).

In a shocking move, new Dodgers owner Magic Johnson has offered Steelers’ wide receiver Mike Wallace a 10-year contract valued at over $200 million.

As you may recall, Johnson recently made headlines by paying over $2 billion to buy the Dodgers.  Magic and his partners were in a bidding war against themselves, since there didn’t appear to be any other bidders who were willing to come anywhere near what Johnson and his partners paid.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban considered buying the Dodgers in November, but he backed away from the deal when Dodgers owner Frank McCourt said that he was seeking between $1 billion to $1.2 billion for the team.

Having outbid all real or imagined competitors, Magic has now started trying to upgrade his team.  His first move as the new owner was to offer a huge contract to Mike Wallace.

When asked about the contract, Magic replied, “After paying $2 billion, $200 million seemed cheap”.

“Have you seen that guy run?”, said Johnson.  “We expect to save salary in other places by having Wallace play all 3 outfield positions by himself.”

Dodgers outfielder Mike Wallace

When reminded that baseball rules require the team to have 3 outfielders, Johnson replied “I’m a basketball guy.  What do I know?”

Johnson said that he expects Mike Wallace to bat lead-off for the Dodgers.

“With his speed, even a routine single will be stretched into a triple.  We expect our run production to increase dramatically.”

When told that Wallace hadn’t played baseball since little league, Johnson said, “How hard could it be?  Michael did it.”

Had Wallace signed with another NFL team, the Steelers would have received a 1st round draft pick as compensation.  However, because he signed with a baseball team, the Steelers will receive no compensation.

When asked about losing Wallace, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said, “We were aware that Mike was considering an offer from the Dodgers.  We’ve already signed former Steelers wide receiver Limas Sweed to replace Wallace.”

Tomlin didn’t appear to be concerned by Sweed’s previous struggles.  Tomlin said, “Limas is a man, like the other men, on our team composed mostly of men.  He understands that the standard is the standard”.

Wallace was not available for comment, but the latest post on his Twitter account probably says it all.  He tweeted only one word; “Ka-ching!”

Editor’s note: 

Editor’s note #2:  We thought that the wink above, and the content of the article would make it clear that this is a joke.  But some have mistaken it for a real news event.  So this is our official disclaimer that this is a late April Fools joke.  We apologize to those of you who thought that the Steelers were losing Mike Wallace.

We’re 2 weeks away from the 2012 NFL Draft.

It seems as though every website has a mock draft.  The internet is littered with them.

So rather than do a mock draft of my own, I’ve decided to do a contest to see which of my readers has the best handle on the draft.  I’ll also be offering a prize to the reader who scores the most points in this draft contest.

The prize will be a copy of Pittsburh Steelers – The Complete Illustrated History, by Lew Freedman.

The grand prize

“Pittsburgh Steelers – The Complete Illustrated History” is accurately billed as a “comprehensive history of the NFL’s most successful team.”  It’s one of my favorite books about the Steelers, and it’s a must-have for any Steelers fan.

The rules of the contest will be as follows:

1. Do a complete 32 team mock draft for the first round (include all 32 teams, not just the Steelers).
2. Pick who you think the Steelers will pick in rounds 2-7.  So it will be a Steelers-only mock draft for rounds 2-7.  Do not guess any other team’s picks for rounds 2-7 except the Steelers’.  This is about the Steelers.  We don’t really care who any others teams pick in rounds 2-7.
3. Pick all 10 players who you think the Steelers will pick. Remember, the Steelers have four 7th round picks.
4. Each correct answer for other teams’ picks will be worth 1 point.  Each correct answer for a Steelers pick will be worth 2 points.  However, if you correctly pick a player taken by the Steelers, but pick him in the wrong round, I’ll award you one point for that pick.
5. The person with the most points wins.
6. In case of a tie, the person with the most correct answers on Steelers’ picks will win.
7. If there’s still a tie after the tie-breaker, then I’ll do a random drawing to select the winner.

I know that there are a lot of knowledgeable Steelers fans out there, so I’m anxious to see who will win.

In order to prevent people from copying other people’s answers, DO NOT submit your entries as a comment to this post.  Instead, e-mail your entry to the following e-mail address:

admin@steelerstoday.com

Only e-mailed entries will be accepted.  Besides, do you really want other people copying your winning entry?

Only one entry will be allowed per person.  So if you send in more than one entry, I’ll only accept the first one that I receive from you.

The deadline for submitting your entry is midnight on April 25th.  But please try to get your entries in earlier than that.

The winner will be announced right here on Steelers Today following the draft.  Good luck!

Apparently, Kevin Colbert woke up from his nap.

After being completely silent for most of free agency, the Steelers made two signings in two days.  Yesterday they signed free agent tight end Leonard Pope, and today they inked a deal with their own free agent wide receiver, Jericho Cotchery.

The new deal will keep Cotchery with the Steelers for two more years.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Depending on whether Mike Wallace remains with the Steelers, and whether Emmanuel Sanders can remain healthy, Cotchery could be anywhere from the #2 receiver to the #4 receiver next year.

After Hines Ward was benched during the 2011 season, Cotchery became the Steelers’ #4 receiver.  However, if another team signs Mike Wallace to the mammoth free agent contract that he’s been seeking, Cotchery could move up in the pecking order.  And if Emmanuel Sanders continues to have foot problems, Cotchery could rise even more.

But regardless of where Cotchery ends up on the depth charts, his return is sure to make Ben Roethlisberger happy.  Big Ben started to develop nice chemistry with Cotchery late in the season.  So he’s certainly going to be happy to have his most seasoned wide receiver back in the fold.

The Leonard Pope and Jericho Cotchery signings were both good moves by the Steelers.  Now if they’d only sign Mike Wallace to a long-term deal…….