SteelerWatch

DRAFT POTENTIAL:
- Day 1: IF THEY DO, I’LL CRY
- Day 2: POSSIBLE, BUT NOT LIKELY UNTIL THE VERY END

We’ll make this short and sweet, because there’s 1) not much hope of movement here; and 2) not a whole lot to be said.

Fact #1: Chris Gardocki can be counted on to get the punt in the air without it being blocked. Announcers don’t hesitate to remind us of his half-a-billion consecutive unblocked punts. However, his inability to punt more than about 41 yards on any given try puts the Steelers into a position they shouldn’t be in. Look for the team to possibly pick up a rookie free agent punter, or look to the free agency table scraps near the end of training camp. There’s a history here of making subtle moves just before the season starts, and I expect to see Gardocki on the outside looking in when September rolls around. Getting a punter in the draft will be akin to nailing Jell-O to the wall, though, because there’s only one decent prospect coming out of college, and he’s sure to be snapped up long before the Steelers would be willing to use a draft pick on a punter.

Fact #2: For a guy who has redwood tree trunks for legs, Jeff Reed has always seemed to lack pure leg strength. That said, he has historically been extremely dependable when it comes to field goals. Thus, 2006 may have been an anomaly, but we won’t know for sure until we get a few games into 2007 whether or not Reed’s slump was just an extension of a great team playing poorly as a whole, or if he has really fallen from the top. However, the team may want to at least consider signing a punter (likely as a rookie free agent) who can also handle kickoffs, because a good touchback ratio has always been mysteriously missing from Reed’s resume.

They rarely make trades. Free agents sometimes drop by for a visit, but the Steelers usually bring in guys who fit in more as depth than people who will compete for the starting job.

Consider the last two marquee names to come to Pittsburgh as free agent signings: Charlie Batch and Duce Staley. Batch, once a starter and still viewed by many as a high-quality player who could start for a number of teams, and whose real talents weren’t realized in a dysfunctional Lions organization. Staley, brought in to take up the majority of the carries from an aging Jerome Bettis, suffered an injury that was pretty much inevitable, given his history. That injury, and a number of others, eventually led to his release two seasons later. Between the two, the difference is night and day, but the one common point is that they are the two biggest names to come to Pittsburgh as free agents in recent years — and that’s really not saying much.

The Rooneys built an empire on conservative stability, opting to spot young talent in college rather than pick up another team’s table scraps. Because, in reality, there are three kinds of free agents.

Crash-and-Burners
These guys spend their first two, three or four years with one team, usually with average to outrageously high salaries. They are players who had potential, but either didn’t live up to it or just didn’t fit into the system in which they played. Sometimes you have exceptions, like #1 draft pick David Carr who will probably excel on a team that has some semblence of an offensive line, but more often than not they are the T.J. Ducketts and Ryan Leafs of the world. There’s a reason their team doesn’t want them anymore.

Big Names, Huge Paychecks
Sometimes a player may be a stud, but he’s just not affordable (maybe it’s his money, maybe it’s his ego). Consider this the reason Joey Porter is no longer a Steeler, and why guys like Adalius Thomas, Nick Harper and Leonard Davis will all be with new teams in 2007.

Past Their Prime
Other players are just looking for a place to retire. Unless a team has an immediate need for a veteran — a desperation, if you will — it’s hard to imagine a player in this category being signed. If they’ve been an integral part of their team’s success for a legthy period, they may be re-signed, or offered an extension before they ever hit the market. Otherwise this is usually where journeymen end up, playing only for teams desperate enough to sign them. Jerry Jones is probably wishing he hadn’t given the starting quarterback job to guys like Vinny Testaverde and Drew Bledsoe over the last few years.

The fact of the matter is that you don’t get more successful by signing players who never lived up to the hype, money doesn’t always translate into success, and putting a long-time veteran into a new system is usually begging for disaster. The Steelers have long looked to the draft for talent, and have had crazy success with it: Faneca, Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger, Heath Miller, the linebacker-du-jour, Casey Hampton, Hines Ward — see a trend emerging here? Sure, there have been numerous draft-day missteps, like passing on Dan Marino and not passing on Jamain Stephens. But more often than not, they’ve made ESP-like calls that have kept them at or near the top of the AFC year after year. They’ve even had the occasional success with undrafted rookie free agents, like Willie Parker and Dan Kreider. By largely avoiding free agency, they’ve kept the team young and free of other teams’ castoffs.

And it’s worked like a charm.

At least one Pittsburgh Team made the playoffs in a season that started in 2006.

The Penguins locked up a playoff berth for the first time in six years last night with a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals, moving their season record to 44-23-10. Stud of the Future Sidney Crosby and the oft derided Michel Oullet each scored once, and Ryan Whitney added two more.

According to Mondesishouse.com, Penguins henchman Georges Laraque dropped gloves with the Caps’ Donald Brashear, in a moment I wish I’d seen because all the other good boxing matches are on pay-per-view these days.

I’ll take this one in stride. I postulated yesterday that I thought Tyrone Carter was on his way out while Mike Logan might be re-signed. Oops.

That said, the Steelers re-signed Carter to a three-year deal, financials currently undisclosed. In 2005, Carter signed a two-year deal worth $1.26 million. My best guess is that the deal’s value is anywhere from $2.5 to $3 million, including as much as a $500,000 signing bonus, putting the salary largely at the league minimum. But my best guess is sometimes way off.

The NFL on Monday awarded the Steelers two additional draft picks (round 4, #132 overall; and round 5, #170 overall) as compensation for last season’s loss of starters Antwaan Randle El, Kimo von Oelhoffen and Chris Hope.

Compensatory picks are awarded based on the net loss of compensatory free agents, with a maximum of four. While the Steelers lost three qualifying free agents last season, they acquired Ryan Clark from the Redskins, leaving a net total loss of two.

DRAFT POTENTIAL:
- Day One: NOPE
- Day Two: IT’S A SAFE BET

In 2005 the Steelers had what was probably the best safety tandem in the league. Always-solid Chris Hope was the starter at free safety, and of course there was the incomparable Troy Polamalu at strong safety. No one plays the position better than Polamalu — period. It was a match made in heaven, thanks to Polamalu’s presence and play near the line combined with Hope’s range and coverage skills.

Then things went awry.

Following the Super Bowl, the face at free safety changed. For four years, Chris Hope was the man, but he left as a free agent for Tennessee, and was replaced by former Redskin Ryan Clark. Clark had acceptable, but certainly not exceptional, numbers in his two seasons in Washington, and the two seasons before that with the Giants. He’s a strong backup and a capable starter, but he wasn’t an ample replacement for Hope, who was quickly becoming one of the best free safeties in the league. Hope played center field like…well…a centerfielder. There were few opportunities for him to defend passes, because no one — no one — threw deep over the middle against the Steelers.

So, when Hope left, the future for the Steelers’ secondary got a little fuzzy, with the acquisition of Clark doing little to clear it up. Even Polamalu voiced his concern, stating that he and Hope played so well together because they knew what the other would do in any situation.

In the draft last year, the Steelers picked up an excellent prospect in Anthony Smith, possibly with the knowledge that their free agent pick-up was less than stellar, at best. He has the kind of range and closing speed that Hope possesses, and even at just 192 pounds, he hits like a brick. In fact, his ability to knock just about any player flat on his back is probably the strongest of his assets. He showed that as a special teams standout in 2006.

That’s not to detract from his abilities in coverage, though. He was used sparingly in coverage until week 13 — possibly because of his rookie status, or possibly because former coach Bill Cowher wasn’t as focused as he should have been — but made his time count once he was on the field regularly. In that stretch he racked up 18 of his 26 tackles for the season and pulled down two interceptions.

On the other side of the field, not much changed in 2006. Mike Logan still backed up Polamalu, and did it well enough to get by. Logan has never been a standout, and it’s hard to play second fiddle to someone as naturally gifted and intelligent as Polamalu, but he did what was asked of him. Polamalu’s play seemed to be off a little in 2006, due at least in part to a nagging shoulder injury and a concussion that caused him to miss three games. While his statistical output per game was right in line with his previous seasons, he didn’t seem to be able to play the run nearly as well and wasn’t delivering the bone-jarring hits he’s been known for. He made more mental mistakes as well, including two ill-timed personal fouls early in the season.

Now for the future: two safeties are likely on their way out of Pittsburgh. Tyrone Carter and Mike Logan are both free agents, and as of now there has been no sign of interest in them from Pittsburgh — or any other team, for that matter. In all likelihood, one of them will be gone, presumably Carter. Logan may be re-signed for depth if nothing else, but he’s entering his 10th season so his re-signing is a toss-up at best.

On top of that, Polamalu is entering the final year of his contract. At this point, his re-signing needs to become a top priority for the Steelers, as he is the heart and soul of the defense, especially now that Joey Porter is gone. Polamalu is not the type of talent that should be set free under any circumstances.

While Polamalu will in all probability be re-signed before he ever hits the free agency market next year, the immediate need is depth at the position — which is becoming a recurring theme in Before the Draft. A pick for strong safety is likely, especially if Logan isn’t re-signed by draft day. There may also be a few hidden gems among those who don’t get drafted. It’s often hard to gauge the abilities of a safety in college, partly because the position gets the least attention of all on defense, and partly because the offenses in college tend to differ noticeably from those used in the pros, particularly in the percentage of passes made downfield. However, don’t epect a day-one pick at this position; more likely, expect it in round six or seven. There’s just not as much immediate need here as there is everywhere else.

Odd Little Fact: There seems to be a little disagreement on how tall Anthony Smith is. ESPN and CBS agree that he’s 5′ 11″. Rivals.com have him at 6′ 1″ in his college profile. Did all those hard hits collapse his spine a few inches?

As fans and, realistically, outsiders merely looking at the NFL from a very high level, we tend to place blame at the most obvious point of failure. The way we see it, a bad game for a quarterback is just that. If a tailback is held to 2.5 yards per carry, he just couldn’t get to the holes quick enough. The secondary just got walloped; clearly, they were a step behind the receivers.

The problem with that view is we usually don’t get a field-level view of the game, and we can only see what happens on camera. We also tend to follow the guy with the ball, which means we glaze over the finer details — bad blocking, incorrect or sloppy routes being run, no pass rush.

The Steelers faced such problems on both sides of the ball in 2006. Ben Roethlisberger takes the biggest beating in the press, but a lot of it is undue him, and in most cases it’s a result of this same high-level view.

Sure, Ben was way off from his previous two seasons. Whether it really was lingering issues with his physical wellbeing or his confidence, or it was just poor play, the fact remains that he wasn’t close to stellar most of the time. But we shouldn’t use that as a reason to give his offensive line a free pass. The only thing the right side of the line did consistently was miss assignments, and even the left side had more than their fair share of weak moments. Jeff Hartings showed on a regular basis why it was time to retire.

And just think how many yards and touchdowns Willie Parker would have had if the line had been able to open up holes the way we’ve come to expect from them.

Ike Taylor and Deshea Townsend also looked horrible in 2006 and, again, they deserve a good bit of the heat they’ve received since December ended. But without a pass rush, any secondary will look far worse than normal. Consider this: in 2006 the defense had 39 sacks, less than 2.5 per game. In 2005 they averaged almost exactly three per game. While a half of a sack doesn’t seem like much, it can be the difference between forcing a punt and allowing a first down. Oh, and the secondary had more interceptions in 2006 than in 2005. They actually had more big plays during a seemingly bad season than they did during their Super Bowl run.

It’s easy to place blame, but much harder to place it correctly.

Ed Bouchette over at the Post-Gazette talked to Big Ben and got it straight from the horse’s mouth: he just didn’t play well. Ben says he disagreed with former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt that his play dropped off as a result of the off-field adversity he faced throughout the summer and fall of 2006, and hinted that all may not have been well with his relationship with Whis: “There were a lot of things I didn’t agree with Whis about … “

In a word? Dreadful.

For a team that dropped $22.5 million on a five-year contract at the position, the output clearly didn’t equal the input in 2006. Ike Taylor seemed to be a step behind his 2005 performance, in which he was only beat for big plays a single time (80-yard touchdown from Peyton Manning to Marvin Harrison in a Monday night matchup). In 2006, Taylor was regularly beat like a bad dog, and his counterpart on the other side of the field, Deshea Townsend, spent a lot of time chasing open receivers as well. Between the two of them they registered a mere four interceptions and 23 passes defended.

It got so bad that the highly-paid weirdo — that would be Taylor, and you’ll understand the reference if you ever hear him talk about the childhood training regiment his uncle devised for him that included being dragged around his yard at 2:00 a.m. — was benched in favor of second-year player Bryant McFadden, arguably the best corner on the team.

Not what you expect for more than $3 million.

It didn’t help matters that up-and-coming Ricardo Colclough (can anyone explain to me how you get “Coakley” out of that?) went down with a season-ending neck injury during the bye week. Of course, losing a player to a non-football, non-contact injury served as a microcosm of the team’s season that went from bad to good to downright strange from the bye week on.

So consider for a moment what they had to work with by the time week four rolled around: two underachieving starters and a player with 13 career tackles entering the season at nickel back. Then throw in Anthony Madison, who wasn’t even activated until after the fourth game when the team had already fallen to a 1-3 record, and undrafted free agent Javon Johnson, who only played the final two games of the season, and you’ve got the makings of one of the weakest units in professional football. Combined, the cornerbacks accounted for just seven interceptions.

The question isn’t what to do. The answer to that should be obvious to anyone with a pulse. The real question that needs to be asked is: Where do you start?

They have limited speed and their tallest corner is Ike Taylor at 6-feet, 1-inch. Only McFadden has shown to have enough speed to keep up with the faster receivers in the league, and only Townsend has more than four years of experience in the league — and he’s about to play his 10th year, which means he’s probably in decline at this point.

The first place to start is in the draft. Thats really the only place to start, because any player worth anything in free agency has already been signed. So what do they do? They clearly can’t draft three cornerbacks because there aren’t enough picks in the draft for that. They have depth concerns just about everywhere else, though, which means they just need a lot of picks. It’s the whole rock-and-a-hard-place dilemma.

They could alleviate a lot of issues by trading down in at least one round to get more picks. Because of the wealth of good players available early in this year’s draft, they could trade down in the draft without a huge loss of talent. If they could make a trade down for a lower team’s first- and third- or first- and fourth-round picks, they could use those picks to take Penn State’s Paul Posluszny at linebacker and use the extra pick to add quality depth elsewhere. The keyword is quality, because numbers are not the problem.

With good starters just about everywhere else on the team, especially with the recent signing of OL Sean Mahan to bolster the right side of the line, the concerns are largely about depth anyway. That could move cornerback to the top of the list of concerns, so we could see the team use the first-round pick on University of Pittsburgh CB Darrelle Revis, Aaron Ross of the University of Texas, or maybe even Arkansas’s Chris Houston, who recently ripped off a 4.32-second 40-yard dash time and claims to have run a 4.34 40 in plain clothes in high school. He doesn’t bring any more height than the team already has, but he brings speed that hasn’t been here since the days of Rod Woodson.

The bottom line is this: the position has been shaky for years, but 2006 exposed additional weaknesses that Mike Tomlin will need to address in April.

It hasn’t been but a week since the 49ers matched the offer sheet sent to Andy Lee by the Steelers, and they’ve already managed to woo away another potential Steelers, this time unrestricted free agent linebacker Colby Bockwoldt.

Bockwoldt, largely used in his career on Special Teams, had been a starter in New Orleans in 2005 before spending last season with the Tennessee Titans.

Because they were unable to sign Bockwoldt, the Steelers are now likely to fill their linebacker needs via free agency.