Tonight's the Night

Well things are getting a bit desperate. The Superbowl Champs are fortunate to have played the one playoff team from last year that is arguably worse than they have been - the Titans.

And a big thank you to New England!

A win tonight puts the Steelers back in control of their destiny [sweep the cravens and they have the advantage over the Balts]

Defense needs to step up - they have not looked good the last two weeks.

Steelers 24 - Bolts 14

Looking ahead...

So Don Banks thinks Ben's "problem" will prove a distraction.

I have a different point of view. My gut is that this is one more incentive for Big Ben to take a step forward and join the QB elite.

With 2 Superbowl rings - but no Superbowl MVP - on his resume Ben's on a similar career path as our other QB hero in Pittsburgh. Bradshaw had two rings with basic workmanlike efforts in his first two Supers.

Ben has yet to have a great Superbowl - although I would have given him the MVP last year for the two throws at the end of the game.

Catching TB in SB victories is one goal that he has time to accomplish - but he will have to work hard to get two Super MVPs like Bradshaw.

The Nevada incident could be one more incentive to get focused and get better - after all
only one active QB has more rings than Ben - and he can pull into a tie with Brady this year if things go well.

QB's 2009

So one of the things that needed fixing once I resurrected this blog was the QB ratings - going into this season here are how I see them. The first number is meant to be the value to the team - contribution to winning - the second is a more subjective estimate of how valuable the QB might be to a fantasy owner - some interesting differences...

1. Brady-1
2. Brees-2
3. Palmer-3
4. Rivers-5
5. P. Manning-4
6. Rothlesburger-10
7. Warner-6
8. Hasslebeck-7
9. Cutler-8
10. Farve-12
11. Flacco-13
12. Cassell-9
13. Pennington-11
14. Orton-12
15. Quinn-10
16. Eli Manning
17. Edwards
18. Collins
19. Girard
20. Garcia

Pro Football Talk is Wrong - and ESPN WAS right!

I had to revive this old puppy today - and promise to keep it moving forward. Minimum of one Steeler post a day - and more than one post a day if the Pirates, Panthers, or Pens inspire me.

The good news is that I will have time to do what I am promising. I was until today a regular reader of the sports blog PFT.COM - or Pro Football Talk. Like many pro football fans I had discovered the site during the infamous Chad Johnson melt down in the locker room during the playoffs following the 2005 season.

PFT had access to a source for their story that proved to be right - and many main stream sports media outlets felt a bit burned by a West Virginia attorney who ran his web site as a hobby.

Since then Mike Florio has risen to be an almost main stream media star himself - recently his site became part of the NBC Sports family and it seems to have beefed up its editorial staff a bit as part of that move.

I have been a pretty loyal reader of PFT over the last three plus years and while I cringe from time to time at some the more sophomoric stuff that shows up on the site, I confess to have found the site amusing if not always informative.

At times Mike pushes his own personal agenda to the edge - a while back he and I went back and forth over the contract Ben Rothlesburger signed with the Steelers that locked Big Ben up for the forseeable future at a price just down the salary tree from the likes of Peyton, Carson, and McNabb. I contended that this was a smart move - that there were not that many true franchise QBs out there - but Floria became obsessed with the idea that in signing Ben the Steelers had made the decision to let a pro bowl guard - Alan Faneca sign elsewhere.

He even went as far as to suggest that Ben had been greedy in signing his deal - that a true team leader would have sacrificed to keep a key team mate. I thought that Florio had some sort of axe to grind against Ben and specifically asked him to share what exactly his problem was.

Fast forward to our most recent Ben in the news incident. PFT was among the first to report the civil lawsuit. In fairness Mike did a very balanced job of pointing out that this was a civil matter - that no criminal complaint had been filed and that the young lady involved might have some issues.

But what makes a site - or a blog is not just the posting. In the case of PFT they have had a very high energy comment section - with folks jumping in and "trash talking" based on the article.

To say that some of these comments are asinine would be being to complimentary. What I realized this week in reading the mostly juvenile giggling of fans of other teams that these were people who actually enjoy the troubles of others - these folks just love it when a hero is found to have a flaw - and are willing to dispense with such trivial things as the truth - or the other side of the story - or the need to wait for confirmation before trying to humiliate a human being.

A side bar to this story was the decision by ESPN to not cover the story - which our friend Mr Florio felt compelled to rant about - something I did not quite understand until I realized the Floro and his followers want not only humiliation - but validation of that humiliation by everyone around them.

ESPN took the position that until some confirmation was offered - some validation of at least some part of the story, that it was not a story. This seemed to me to be based on three pretty basic principles.

1. We are dealing with a human being here - one with relatives and one with a reputation and we can wait for confirmation of the accusation before we begin talking about the "story". If the story is true - we have plenty of time to drag the fallen hero through the coals.

2. That this incident was different in important ways from others - it was a civl lawsuit which was filed over a year after the alleged rape. There was no other evidence or support - no police report - no affadavits from witnesses or friends confirming the incident. It is sad but true that it is entirely possible this whole thing is just a figment of this woman's imagination.

3. It is not unreasonable given both 1 and 2 above to wait for some formal response from the accused.

Unfortunately ESPN cratered and got in line with the rest of the media Wednesday evening.

The final straw for me was a post today by Florio reporting that none of Ben's sponsors had dropped him as an endorser. Now I may be wrong but this seems to me to be an odd definition of the news. By this standard we could also report that we have no reason to believe that Ben raped anyone today - or that the President did not beat his wife or children today.

What makes it newsworthy to report "no news" today.

Well I guess it comes from having fill up a blog and keep your new partners happy.

Then to make things worse, I go to the comments section and we have a couple of the Mensa members who make up Florio's finest trying to win the "best asinine post of the day" contest.

So long winded way of me getting this off my chest. I won't close with wishing Florio the best - he and others who revel and wallow in the bad news that comes along are sad pathetic creatures. Get a life - do something to make the world a bit better - and too help out someone who needs your help.

The Geek

Well OK - I put way too much importance on the center

As I watched the late first round unfold and Mack and Wood both come off the board - 21 was way too high for Mack, and then 28 for Wood - which is probably about right I was wondering what things were like in the Steeler war room. My guess is that the Parish trade was being tweaked and negotiated with the Bills - but since they could not pull it off, the Bills filled a need. I am sure that the Steelers would have had some condition in the Parish deal to "protect" Wood.

From the PG this morning it sounds like the Steelers move quickly to plan B. Hood was a great value with the 32 pick - should be a starter in two years or less - and will play a ton this year in the rotation. If you have watched the Steelers these last few years, it is a bit of an oversimplification to call them a 3-4 team. I have seen them in a lot of 2 down lineman sets - and in four and even five at times. It will take time for Hood to pick-up the two-gap system, but he would appear to have both the desire and the ability to do so.

The second round had to be crazy - Ed B was surely lobbying hard for Fili - and I would wager that the Steelers tried hard to trade into the middle of round two for a shot at him - he would have given them a new, younger corp of d lineman to built on - much like the Timmons-Woodely pair did for the linebackers. They no doubt considered Unger a viable option if he fell to them at 64 - but doubt they tried to trade up for him.

So now they have 3 of the next 32 picks - don't be surprised if after the overnight analysis they have a target and try and package two of their third rounders to move into the top half of the round - there last two in the round would be enough on the point chart to move to the top of the round - and the 2nd and third could move them up and bring back a late 4 or early 5.

Of course they could just take the three players that fall to them - there are a ton of future NFL starters - and a few future stars left on the board - trick is figuring out which ones they are :-)

Will be tuning in early - don't want to miss the fun.

Mack - Unger - Wood

So draft day is finally here and the Steelers find themselves in a great position - if drafting 32nd is ever great. The first part of the good news is that their first rounder will cost them less than any other!. The second is that they have no real "needs" for the coming year - so they can consider developmental prospects. Third, if they want an interior offensive lineman it is very likely that they will have three great options - each has showed up on a number of mock draft boards and all should be starters in the NFL for years to come.

There is however, a need for some caution. Kevin Colbert seemed to reflect this in his statement that he would like to go "three for three" in his top three choices. Twelve players have expiring contracts that will need to be addressed after this year and a good draft would make some of these twelve expendable.

In addition, others have noted the very real aging problem on the D-Line - none of the starters are under 30 and Hampton is one of the 12 expiring contracts.

So what sort of strategy would make sense? The first step could be to trade back a few picks from #32 (assuming that their is a willing buyer). The goal would be to acquire the currency that would make improving the current draft positions in rounds two and three possible. For example a trade back four spots should net them a late fourth or early fifth. The second step would be to use this pick and their current fourth to move up their current #2 and current #3 about 6 to 6 slots in round 2 and 8 to 10 in round 3. .

Depending on who is on the board their current 2nd and two fourths (current and acquired) could allow them to move up to the mid fifties from their current 64 slot.

In any case they will have options - no pressing need makes that possible.

Here are my three round picks for what they are worth...

Unger - taken at 36 or 37
Fili Maola - will have to trade up to get him - but he could be Hamptons backup
Dion Butler - a wide out to develop...

Pretty Impressive

So the Pens get an early goal - bit of a break and manage to keep the pressure on the Flyers - nice win and should provide some momentum - but still looks like 6 or 7 game series.

I have got some catching up to do...

Normally I spend a bit more time following the Penguins - but this year has been frustrating - watched a good bit early and was disappointed in how they played. When they changed coaches I actually got a bit angry - thought the players were more the problem than the coach.

But tonight all is forgiven - will be wearing the Crosby jersey and hoping for a miracle run.

Go Pens!

Time for some draft speculation

In some ways the Steelers can look at this year as playing with house money. They get Mendanhall back from his injury and a chance to see what Limas Sweed can really do. So the draft can address needs that will be emerging - not currently existing...

So the mocks that have them taking one of the top centers are probably spot on - a number of good choices - which might be an opportunity to trade back and still get one of the centers - Unger, Mack and Wood (Kiper is slotting in Wood) are all about equal - and if all three are on the board the Steelers could trade back.

Another option is to pass on the top three and pickup one of the two next highest rated centers - Caldwell from Alabama or Luigs from Arkansas. Both of them are sound and could be an option if the Stillers want to develop someone for next year - not looking for an immediate starter.

A lot might depend on what is on the board at 32 - if one of the top corners falls it might be logical to snap him up and get the center in round 2 or 3.

The one need that I think will occupy at least 3 pick will be the defensive line. The Steelers have the benefit of not looking for the prototypical prospect - although a BJ Raji would be a great fit.

Also watch Harvin - the grass issue is not a biggie - we have dealt with Santonio after all - but if he is on the board the temptation to try and fix the return game will be huge.