Steelers cut Reed
In a surprise move, the Pittsburgh Steelers have cut kicker Jeff Reed.
Reed has been on the hot seat for a while with the Steelers. He has had a series of off-field incidents that caused fans to question whether he was a “Steeler-type” player. But Reed’s accuracy at Heinz Field, which is a very difficult place to kick, always caused the Steelers to turn a blind eye to Reed’s “indiscretions”.
But after having a very poor season kicking the ball, the Steelers seem to have had enough of Jeff Reed.
Reed missed a 26 yard field goal against the New England Patriots, and then blamed the miss on the terrible turf at Heinz Field. That was apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Steelers brought in former Washington Redskins kicker Shawn Suisham for a tryout, and signed him soon thereafter.
“At this point, we thought it appropriate to make a change”, said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.
So as quickly as that, Jeff Reed is out and Shawn Suisham is in. What do you think about that, Steelers fans? Leave a comment and let us know your reaction to the move.
I feel that it was the wrong move for the steelers . I believe that they should have build him up instead of getting rid of him . I was the game Sunday night all the way from Atlanta GA and to see all the fans walk out on the team it was heart breaking . I can see why he would be upset , I know that Reed has missed a lot of field goals but I think he was just going through a slump . I can see reed going to the bengals and kicking the winning field goal against us . We will see how the fans feel then , as a fan since I was 6 years old I feel that erions needs to go , every team in the NFL can call our plays they know what we are going to do . Let Ben call his own plays , it works for Brady , they trust their QB . and if tomlin doesn’t start showing some emotion for his team fire him to .
1It was uncertain whether Reed would be back next year even before he started missing FG’s. It was fairly certain that Reed would not be back next year before he missed a 26 yard chip shot. It’s not like he had four years left on his contract; he was already on the way out. Getting rid of him sooner rather than later gives us a chance to try and stop the bleeding, as it were.
It’s not often you see kickers make great comebacks after terrible seasons. When a kicker loses his edge, he’s usually done. Jeff Reed isn’t exactly the emotionally stable sort of guy you would expect to be able to regroup and return to form. In fact, he gives every indication of being on a downward spiral, and it makes sense for the Steelers to part ways now before he drags them down with him.
2About damn time! And not soon enough!
3I’m surprised they did it now, but I was in favor of letting him go at the end of season anyway. I liked Reed, thought he did a great job, in a real tough stadium. But he seemed to have lost it this year. He may do fine elsewhere, but I can see why they cut him. Tomlin doesn’t over react to things, so I’m confident this is the best thing to do for the team.
4I think Reed has been given many chances and had he made some of the field goals in games they lost….by 3 points things would be different.
5This surprises me a little, I thought they would wait until the season was over. My fear is a new kicker might have trouble mastering kicking at home. No doubt a change had to be made sometime, GO STEELERS!
6So Jeff Reed is gone. He was way too erratic this season. Well, it’s an opportunity for a young kicker to prove his mettle and kick for the…
…wait. They signed Shaun Suisham?!?!? SON OF A….
Seriously, Suisham has been bounced around the Cowboys and Redskins for a reason. He just isn’t very good. This is like when Sepulveda was injured and we had Mitch Berger and his physics-defying awfulness. I expect the Steelers to do what they did with Sep and grab a kicker in the mid-late rounds of the draft.
7Dan, I was with you until you said that we should take a kicker in the draft. Please don’t do that. We have enough significant holes without using a mid-rounder on a kicker.
8This is another bizarre personnel move by Tomlin/Colbert. Maybe Reed was much more of a whiner and a distraction than we realize. (Hard to believe though because ‘players’ usually ignore kickers anyway.) Back to Dan’s point–why bring in one kicker and sign him. Bring in a few; try them out. See how Reed responds. This knee jerk reaction (ala dumping Holmes for a 3rd rounder) is never good. Talent-wise, once again, we just got weaker.
I’m not a huge Reed fan but we would be disingenuous if we didn’t acknowledge that he is better than any unemployed kicker out there. My friends always say that the coaches know more than us (that’s what they told me when we waived Gibson) so we have to trust them. As coach Tomlin says, “It’s not personal, we are in the results business.” I will wait and place my trust in results then.
John#21,
What? You don’t think we should use our first round pick on a kicker next year?
Reed has been a tremendously successful kicker for the Steelers. But something was going on this year that fan weren’t aware of. How else do you explain his low field goal percentage? I don’t know if he was mentally not in it because the Steelers didn’t give him the big contract that he had hoped for, or if there was something else going on with him. But he definitely was not the same player. The Steelers coaches get to see him in the locker room, and perhaps they thought he was becoming a distraction. I’m not sure, but I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep on this one.
BTW, the Steelers brought in 3 kickers yesterday. Suisham wasn’t the only one who got a tryout. But he was the winner of the competition.
9I didn’t say that they “should.” I think that they will though. Remember, Sep was a 4th round pick. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar thing happen.
10I believe I said in the offseason to cut him and I got shot down by many. So we tagged him and gave him a couple mil only to cut him now and still have to pay his butt. Good job Tomlin/Front office!
Oh and much as I dislike Reed these days (starting last year) I will say it again Arians is the biggest problem we have (outside of hospital bills). How can we continue to put up with him sending wideouts to the sidelines when the middle of the field is wide open? He sends everybody to deep! With this o-line we have now Ben has about 2 secs to get rid of ball and they are running 5 sec routes! It is so ridiculous.
We run NO screens, quick slants, button hooks, dump-offs. And to top it all off it was reported that Arians said when discussing o-line health that it didn’t matter who was in there that they were going to do the same thing. Really?! Well, sir, you are an idiot! He has no idea what it means to adjust. I’m past being fed up with this man and everyone who backs him including ownership, Tomlin, and/or fans.
What was becoming a viable running game has went down the toliet! Nothing has changed, nor will it. I’m too mad to continue this now!
We can’t move the ball so we fire a kicker. Maybe since we had defense trouble this week we should fire Mike Wallace.
11Thanks Dan! I hope we can find a kicker some other way. I was happy when they picked Sepulveda – But he has failed to impress the way I had hoped.
12Tony had some great points–have we (BA!!) forgotten the basics of Offense? How to slow down an attacking D? How to stay committed to the run w/out signaling to the world, “Here comes a run!”
The Bleacher Report had an interesting article about suggested changes for the 2011 Steelers. Interesting read-most of which I agree with. I also saw that SI has the Steelers as the ‘Team most likely to fade.’ I say we show them all! We play better being the underdog. No more talk @ the Steelers as the best team in the NFL. No more talk-period. Time to do it on the field!
Not surprised Skippy was cut. His weak kickoffs were tolerable as long as he was accurate on fg attempts. Whatever happened to Vanderjack, by the way? Not sure Suisam is the answer…Heinz a super tough venue. We’ll see. Why is Wm. Gay still on team? It seems like he can’t get beat enough.
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