The Steelers on Thursday signed the six-year vet for the 2007 season. He will likely compete for the number two spot behind Willie Parker against Najeh Davenport and possibly Verron Haynes, if he can successfully recover from a knee injury suffered last season.
What does Barlow bring? For starters, a love for the team. he grew up a fan of the Steelers and idolizing Hall of Famer Franco Harris. He also brings a lot more skill than he’s show in recent years. His best season was 2003 when he went over 1,000 yards rushing as a backup to Garrison Hearst in San Francisco.
While he’s about 30 pounds shy of former RB Jerrome Bettis’ wrecking ball-like size, Barlow is likely to serve at least on third downs. Injuries last season to both Haynes and Davenport resulted in Parker shouldering more of the load, particularly on third downs, than the team would have preferred.
The gang over at the PG are running an article right now about two sets of Personal Seat Licenses that went for auction in bankruptcy court yesterday and pulled down more than 38 G’s between them. For those of you who are unfamiliar, PSLs essentially give you the right to buy season tickets for those seats for life, as long as you buy every year. You can even pass them to other people if you kick the bucket. For that price they’re undoubtedly good seats, to be sure.
But there’s one season ticket-holder who may have taken his love for the game — and our beloved Steelers — to a new level. I present Michael Sparrow:
“If I ever get married, I’d create a prenuptial agreement in regard to my Steelers tickets. And no, I’m not kidding.”
In March I reported that DeShea Townsend — the Steelers’ uber-shyguy and about as violent as Mahatma Gandhi — was being charged with assault after being involved in a fight. He ardently opposed the charges, saying he wasn’t a participant, and he has now been exonerated.
According to the Baltimore Sun, four of the six witnesses said he wasn’t involved; the other two weren’t sure.
The judicial reprieve means that Pittsburgh will remain free of felonious footballers. I’m trying to come up with a shot at Baltimore (former home of Jamal “Smoky” Lewis and current home of Ray “Got Away With It” Lewis) and Cincinnati (home of the NFL’s felon du-jour) but there are so many jokes in my head right now that I can’t settle on one. We’ll just Mad Lib this thing and let you fill in your own:
I got ________ed (crime) by __________ __________ (name of Raven or Bengal) and all I got was this lousy SteelerWatch shout-out.
Update: I give you exhibit A: Sepulveda punts 51 yards and then beheads the returner.
I’ve seen it all over the Web since Sunday. Steeler fans worldwide are in an uproar about the team taking a punter — a punter! — with their fourth-round pick. Not just a fourth-rounder, though; they traded away a sixth-round pick to move up in the round! Utter heresy, if you ask many of the faithful.
Ladies and gentlemen, it was an excellent pick.
The myth is that special teams should be a draft-weekend afterthought. Kickers and punters should be relegated to rookie free agents, some say. But consider this: a full one third of the average team’s yardage in a given game comes from special teams. Punters don’t directly score points under normal circumstances, but they essentially play both offense and defense. Accurate punters with strong legs can automatically turn the field-position struggle against an opponent by pinning them near their own goal line. With help from the defense, the offense can then have better starting field position on their next posession.
But the Steelers got more than a punter with Dan Sepulveda. They got a guy with amazing accuracy, a strong leg, the rare gift of punt backspin and a specialist with the mind and tenacity of a linebacker.
And look at what he replaces. Chris Gardocki’s season average last year was 41.3 yards, well below the league average. He managed just 16.9% of his kicks inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. Only because of his gift for hang time was the net average 36.7 yards. Sure, he’s never had one blocked, but he didn’t do a lot to help the defense with field position. He’s old, well past his prime, and he needs replaced. Sepulveda, one of the top two punters in college last year and two-time winner of the Ray Guy award, gives them a lot more help in the field position battle, and his raw abilities at the position give the team improved accuracy and will likely translate into their opponents starting many more drives deep in their own side of the field.
When your next best option is a 37-year-old journeyman whose only claim to fame is that he was able to get short kicks off before they were blocked, then yes, it’s worth a fourth-round pick.
The Steelers have released tight end Tim Euhus, possibly indicating that third round draft pick Matt Spaeth is close to signing with the team. In his brief stint with the team, he played one game (the 2006 season opener versus Miami) and was inactive for three more.
The team added a huge weapon (literally, the dude is 6′7″ and 267 pounds) on Saturday when they drafted Spaeth. New offensive coordinator Bruce Arians later voiced his desire to better utilize a three-tight-end set with current starter Heath Miller potentially split out as a slot receiver. With two tight ends with great receiving skills, decent speed and a lot of heft to toss around, the door is now open for more creative use of the traditionally run-oriented set.
Filling the third tight end spot in the set is long-time Steeler Jerame Tuman. Tuman is used primarily as a blocker due to his less-than-adequate receiving abilities and the speed of, well, there’s no real speed there to speak of. Which doesn’t speak too well to the abilities of the newly unemployed Euhus.
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