SteelerWatch

While he's been the target of a few verbal shots this week for the brutal hits he has delivered in training camp, it sounds as if second-year free safety Anthony Smith is growing up and accepting his role in the defense.

As free safety, the NFL equivalent to baseball's center fielder, Smith has a lot on his shoulders.  He's got the most ground to cover on any given play, he has to read receivers carefully and commit to a coverage judiciously and, as the last person between the offense and the end zone, he needs to know when to give up a few yards rather than risking a big play by trying to knock someone's head off.  It sounds like, after the first week of practice and being called out by offensive leader Hines Ward, Smith is grasping the bigger picture.  According to the Post-Gazette:

"The only problem with me and [Troy Polamalu] being in there at the same time is we're both risk-takers," Smith said. "Troy can take a few more [risks]. I take my shots. I have to be smart about it, though."

Asked if it's hard for him to curtail his style, Smith said, "It's not tough at all. You just can't make a big play every time. I try to make as many as I can."

 Smith has become one of SteelerWatch's favorite players because of his big hits and his natural knack for finding the ball.  If he can back that up with his intelligence, it will give the Steelers the best one-two punch at safety in the NFL.

Read the entire article here. 

Four and five wide receivers. Spreading the field. A small, quick running back.

Sound like the finesse-driven Indianapolis Colts? No, it’s your Pittsburgh Steelers.

For a team that has spent decades pounding the ball up the middle and, for the most part, only throwing when throwing was necessary, these terms sound like a conflict of interest — nay! — they sound like oxymorons. The two philosophies just can’t co-exist.

Or can they?

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And then there was One.

A quick glance at the 2006 statistical line of Troy Polamalu shows nothing too significant. 77 tackles, three interceptions, one forced fumble and a sack in 13 games. It’s pretty much par for the course, where he’s concerned. In his first two full seasons as a starter, he averaged 5.9 tackles per game. Last year, he averaged…5.9 tackles per game.

However, if you’ve ever watched other strong safeties in the league, and then watched Polamalu, you immediately see what it is that he brings to the table. He looks like something out of a video game: stops and turns on a dime, runs all over the place before the snap like a player controlled on the screen by some twelve-year-old with a severe case of ADD, and he blitzes when logic tells you he should be covering the pass. And yet, somehow, his instinct for what to do when the ball is snapped is exactly correct an overwhelming majority of the time.

This Samoan Warrior has a way to get in an opposing quarterback’s head — not just to mess with his mind, but to read it. It’s as if “Taz” is controlling the entire game.

And to a certain extent, he is.

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All-time team leader in receptions.  Single-season team record-holder for catches (112) and receiving touchdowns (12).  Three-time team MVP.  Four straight Pro Bowl appearances.  Known as the best blocking receiver in the league — maybe in the history of the NFL.  Super Bowl XL MVP.  700 yards shy of breaking John Stallworth’s 20-year-old team record for most career receiving yards.  The consummate professional.  And he’s the only wide receiver, to my knowledge, who has given a linebacker a concussion.

How do you not put a guy like this in the top two?

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The Steelers have, for decades, been known for their offensive line. Chuck Noll was a big supporter of run-first offense, and his successor, Bill Cowher, didn’t change a thing. Steeler runners have long been comforted knowing their blockers were some of the best in the business. That has held particularly true with the guys who have played since 1998, and they’ve been led by left guard Alan Faneca.

The landscape has changed a bit, though. Faneca is no longer happy with his contract and wants out of Pittsburgh. But, a few temper tantrums this spring aside, Alan has been the consummate professional when it came time to work. That simply underscores his career-long work ethic that resulted in him being named as a team captain three times. The question now, of course, is whether or not a player who has put himself in a lame duck position by publicly stating he does not want to re-sign with his current team should be put in a position of leadership.

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When you think 3-4 defense, you think linebackers.  This is due in large part to Steelers’ defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau and his mid-1990s scheming that spawned the Zone Blitz.

But the true anchor in a 3-4 defense is the Nose Tackle.  Without a good Nose Tackle, a 3-4 defense is going to get beat all the time.  The reasoning is simple: when you have three men on your line taking on five men on the offensive side of the ball, someone has to be responsible for two guys.  If the defensive line can’t occupy the offensive line, there will be no where for those linebackers to go.  The upper-hand just went back to the offense, and before you know it they’re scoring on you at will.

In 325-pound Casey Hampton, the Steelers have one of the best Nose Tackles to come along in the last decade.

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The typical defensive end in the NFL is built for a combination of power and speed. Some lean one way or the other; Dwight Freeny is a speed-rushing defensive end, using primarily speed and quickness to get to the quarterback. Guys like Michael Strahan rely more on power and technique to get into the offensive backfield. And there are beasts like Jevon Kearse who are both fast and insanely strong.

Then there’s the atypical end: a 3-4 guy. Because the 4-3 defensive enjoys widespread adoption in the NFL, most ends are smaller and quicker. But their job is getting to the quarterback; traditionally, in a 3-4 defense, an end exists purely for run defense, and to occupy offensive linemen while the much smaller (230 to 250 pounds), much quicker linebackers attack the quarterback. They’re often huge, tipping the scales at 270 to 300 pounds or more, and they’re strong, too. These aren’t interior, gut-over-the-belt defensive tackles. They’re solid, chiseled and, usually, meaner than hell.

And of all the 3-4 defensive ends in the league, Steeler standout Aaron Smith may just be the best of them all.

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When your starting running back, who posted the sixth-best rushing total in the league last year and added 16 touchdowns to that, is only the sixth best player on your team, you know you’ve got talent.

And it was hard, to some extent, to justify putting Willie Parker this low on the list, just like it was hard to put Ben Roethlisberger all the way down at ninth. Parker could very well be top-three at this time next year, though. For him, there are no nagging doubts; it’s purely a lack of experience that’s keeping him from being any higher on this list.

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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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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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