SteelerWatch

Few players on the field get as little recognition as a fullback. That effect is exaggerated on teams that have a wealth of talent at tailback. Thanks to the solid play of Jerome Bettis, Willie Parker and anyone else who has suited up and stepped into the backfield for the Steelers — except, of course, Richard Huntley and Amos Zeroue — fullback Dan Kreider has spent his seven-year career amassing a game worth of statistics.

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SteelerWatch keeps expanding to give you everything you need in one stop. Now on SteelerWatch: The SteelerGear store! Find your favorite player’s jersey — current, or old-school. Also look through the DVD collection and, a must for every die-hard, tailgating accessories.

You can get there by clicking here or by clicking the link below the featured product in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Tight ends haven’t played a very big role in Steeler football since the days of Eric Green. After he left, they were used primarily as decoys and extra blockers. But the arrival of Miller signaled a gradual change in that philosophy, which has now culminated with the departures of Bill Cowher and Ken Whisenhunt. Known more for his receiving abilities than his blocking, Miller came in as a perfect complement to run-oriented Jerame Tuman. Two seasons later, Tuman is the complement.

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The Post-Gazette has posted the just-released training camp schedule.  There’s nothing out of the ordinary, with two night practices two closed practices.  Everything else is wide open , with all daytime practices running from 2:55 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Training camp  begins July 23, with the first practice July 24.

Now be honest. You just looked at that headline and your jaw hit the floor. “Our franchise quarterback, only the ninth-best player on the team?!” I mean no disrespect, folks. It’s just a simple fact that Roethlisberger is a great game manager, but until he proves otherwise, he’s just not one of those “top-five” quarterbacks in the league. He’s not Peyton Manning, he’s not (this hurts to say) Tom Brady. Yes, he posted a phenomenal record in his first two years, but he slipped a lot last year. Part of that was due to the injuries from the motorcycle crash. But there are too many unknowns to rank him any higher.

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I’ll be honest with you up front: the top nine were easy to pick. It was that tenth spot that was tough. Marvell Smith has been great, but he slipped a good bit last year. Anthony Smith will be on this list for years to come, but he hasn’t had the playing time to date that can show the kind of consistent play needed to make the cut. Same goes for Brett Kiesel, Nate Washington and Bryant McFadden. Even Ike Taylor fell out of favor at SteelerWatch after last season. Chances are he’ll be here next year, but this is a list of who is the best going into training camp.

Santonio Holmes had his work cut out for him last year. Your top draft pick always will,but he had the added weight of being regarded by most as the
best receiver in the 2006 Draft. Had they said he was the best punt returner in the draft, we likely would have lynched the football “experts” by week five.

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To borrow a descriptive phrase from my “sports mistress” — auto racing — we’re in the home stretch.  Two weeks from today, the players and coaches will take to the field at St. Vincent College for the first training camp session.  Or, to put it in football terms, consider the next 14 days to be the first of two bye-weeks this year.

To celebrate the fact that we’re also less than a month away from the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, which should go pretty well since Ohio is the Steelers’ stomping ground away from home, we’re giving you our thoughts on the guys we consider to be the top ten Steelers currently on the roster.  Picking an all-time team would just be too hard — we’d get hung up helplessly at linebacker.

So sit back and enjoy the countdown.

One of the most obnoxious things about trying to find information about any subject with a search engine is the link that seem good, but ultimately have nothing at all to do with what you were trying to find.  Looking up Steelers information is no exception, because every sports site on the planet that covers the NFL has every single team in its keywords — which means you will likely find every single page of that site when you search.

I give you SteelerSearch.

Sure, it’s Google.  But it’s a “special” kind of Google search.  I decide what sites get added to the indexing, so you can be sure you are getting relevant information when you search on our beloved Steelers.

The current list of sites is small, but all the big boys are there.  If you would like to recommend a site, just send an email to steelerwatch@bfmn.net and I’ll look it over.  If it fits the very loose criteria (i.e., it must contain substantial Steeler info/news/opinion, or must have a major NFL section if it’s a large national media outlet like Fox Sports), I’ll add it to the list.

Please do not submit any sites that are currently listed under The Nation Speaks on the right-hand menu.  Those sites are in automatically.

Spread the word!

The NFL Network is showing the Steelers-Browns 2003 playoff barnburner for the eleventeenth time this week, and I can’t help but watch.  So it’s the 4th quarter with the Browns up 33-21.  There’s about 5:20 left, and the Steelers just forced a Kelly Holcomb incompletion on third-and-three.  Greg Gumbel chimes in, “…the Steelers would love to be the first team to block a [Chris] Gardocki punt.”

Augh!

Training camp is just around the corner — less than three weeks away now. Will you be one of the fans to make the pilgrimage to St. Vincent College? Place your vote!