Steelers lose Smith, add Harris
As if playing without Troy Polamalu weren’t enough, the Steelers were dealt an even harder blow. Defensive end Aaron Smith has been lost for the season.
Smith suffered a shoulder injury in Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions. Yesterday, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin announced that Smith’s injury “might be significant”. After being evaluated, it was discovered that the injury was a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Smith has been placed on injured reserve and will be lost for the remainder of the season.
Smith is a quiet, unassuming player who seldom draws attention to himself. Yet he may be the best player in the league at his position. Smith is second on the team in sacks with 2. He also leads the team in quarterback pressures. But his real strength is in stopping the run. Smith is virtually unmovable on the left side of the Steelers’ line.
Steelers DE Aaron Smith
While he doesn’t receive the attention that Troy Polamalu does, Smith’s loss may be more significant than playing without Polamalu. For starters, when Polamalu went out, we knew that he would be coming back in “3 to 6 weeks”. However, Smith has been placed on the injured reserve and won’t be returning this season.
The last time Smith was injured, the defense saw a precipitous drop in their effectiveness. In 2007, Smith tore his bicep and was lost for the last 3 games of the season. Prior to the injury, the Steelers’ defense was #2 against the run. After Smith was lost, the defense allowed opponents to rush for over 157 yards per game.
The team will try to replace Smith with a combination of 1st round draft pick “Ziggy” Hood, Travis Kirschke, and Nick Eason.
To bolster their depleted defensive line, the Steelers have signed Ra’Shon “Sonny” Harris from the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad.
Ironically, the Steelers tried to sign Harris earlier this year when the Panthers cut him. However, Harris chose not to sign with the Steelers, and he re-signed with the Panthers because he felt he had a much better chance of making the 53-man roster with the Panthers. How quickly things change.
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I agree with what you wrote in that Aaron Smith is highly underrated but one thing I would like to add is that I think the national media does not understand his importance to the team the same way that real fans of the team and local media do. And that was spot on to go back to the ’07 season and show the drop off in the production by the defense.
There is however, a bit of a positive in all this which is the fact that we drafted a d-line man in the first round of this years draft. Now I’m not sure if he’s ready to start right away but he is certainly going to get more playing time than if Aaron had stayed healthy.
Also lets all take note now that Coach Tomlin will be praised as a genius if Ziggy Hood comes in and eventually starts playing like his first round draft status suggests.
1Yes, its a bad thing for the Steelers to lose a truly underrated player like Smith. He is the best at his position for the 3/4. I do hope Kirschke is up to playing the rest of the season. He played great last year in spots and his back wasnt bothering him. And we get to see what Hood brings to the table. That is the silver lining to this black cloud.
2Benny,
I think it is amazing how little recognition Aaron Smith gets for what he does. But the media likes statistics, and 3-4 defensive ends don’t generate gaudy statistics. So Aaron Smith goes unnoticed, even though he may be the best DE in Steelers history.
I definitely hope that Ziggy Hood proves that he was worthy of a 1st round pick.
3Mark,
You bring up a great point. Travis Kirschke didn’t play that well last time Smith went out, but last season both he and Nick Eason played tremendously well each time they were called upon.
I actually think that the 3-headed committee of Kirschke, Eason, and Hood will surprise everyone and play very well in Smith’s absence. Perhaps they won’t be as good as Smith (but who could be?), but they will make us all proud.
4