SteelerWatch

Letting go of Joey Porter wasn’t something most of us wanted to see, but we all expected it at least to some extent. But Mike Tomlin and the rest of the Steelers’ coaching staff made a huge mistake yesterday in letting Verron Haynes go.

No, really. It was dumb.

Re-signing Najeh Davenport was a big deal because the team desperately needed to go into the season with a one-two punch in the backfield. As much of a gem as Willie Parker turned out to be, he just doesn’t have the size we need for short yardage. It’s not what he does and, when he was originally tried out in the starting lineup at the end of the 2005 season, it’s not what he was ever intended to do. That’s why Davenport was here to begin with.

But Haynes is a talented back who made an impact. His 4.2 yards-per-carry average is outstanding for a third-down back, and he had the best hands in the backfield. He played well on special teams, he hit hard, he was fast and, if Parker and Davenport are the one-two punch, he was the left hook opponents never saw coming.

But more than that, he was good depth at an important position. Now if Davenport winds up injured — and he will wind up injured, it’s just a question of when — we’re back to relying on a single back. That is, of course, unless the team makes an offer to John Kuhn, which makes my whole argument largely a moot point. But signing Davenport makes that possibility a lot less likely.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 am and is filed under My Opinion, Offense, Contract News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.