SteelerWatch

Four-three. Three-four. Two-five?

The folks at the PG are reporting that defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, master of making quarterbacks spend their day wondering, “where dey?” plans to use defensive end Brett Kiesel as more of a roving linebacker than a player with his hand on the ground.

LeBeau’s mastery of the zone blitz is unparalleled. That’s understandable, considering he invented it. But now he’s taking it to a while new level by potentially having a defensive end drop into coverage on running backs and tight ends, or blitz from the outside, or blitz from the inside, or make sno-cones for the refs.

This is exactly what the team needed to do: switch up a defense that, while dominant over the last ten years, had become stagnant and predictable. By creating movement before the snap — something that had been mysteriously missing last season, due in part to the injuries sustained by Troy Polamalu and also in part to former head coach Bill Cowher’s disinterested attitude — they will create more opportunities to confuse opposing offenses and put more pressure on the quarterback.

Read the whole article here.

Will the Steelers re-sign Alan Faneca?

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Well, it looks like we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. Left guard Alan Faneca and strong safety Troy Polamalu — two of the four players SteelerWatch has named indispensable — will participate in the minicamp that begins today. Also joining them will be Clark Haggans, who missed the voluntary workouts to be with his wife and new child.

While Polamalu had been excused from voluntary workouts last month due to personal reasons, some speculated it was because of frustration over non-existent contract negotiations. For Faneca, though, there was no speculation. Plain and simple, he wants his new contract.

While he has been frustrated over the Steelers passing on former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt former offensive line coach Russ Grimm in favor of new head coach Mike Tomlin, Faneca has been involved in stagnant contract negotiations. Not playing in his favor is the fact that the team prefers youthful players while the bruiser is a nine-year veteran. As offensive linemen go, he probably only has three more Pro Bowl-caliber years left in him, but is likely seeking a contract that will keep him in black and gold for the remainder of his career — five years or more is a safe wager. While the Steelers don’t have much proven talent in reserve on the line, they truly are loaded with big, young bodies. They have guys like Chukki Okobi, Marvin Philip, Chris Kemoeatu, Trai Essex and some new draft picks and rookie free agents waiting in the wings. And don’t forget the signing of Sean Mahan this off-season.

I feel that Faneca is blowing the situation out of proportion, given the massive turnover in the coaching staff. Under the old regime, the starters in good standing generally received a contract extension a season before their contract expired. however, with a mostly new coaching staff, the new group most likely wants to see who steps up before making any new, long-term commitments. That’s especially understandable when talking about a guy who has nine pro seasons under his belt.

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.

The Steelers (finally) made a second unrestricted free agent signing this year, inking former Cleveland Brown Nick Eason to a one-year deal. The defensive tackle will add some depth to a talented, but shallow, group that includes current starters Aaron Smith (re-signed this year) and Brett Kiesel.

The urgency of signing a DT for depth was exacerbated last week when UFA Rodney Bailey was signed by the Cardinals, adding to the former members of the family who have already made their way to Arizona — including former Offensive Coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, who filled the head coach position that was left vacant when Dennis Green was fired after the 2006 season.

The contract is believed to be for the league minimum.

Head coach Mike Tomlin recently poured out his corner-lovin’ heart about highly paid 2006 underachiever Ike Taylor, who late last season became former coach Bill Cowher’s whipping boy. Used largely as the scapegoat for a defense the underperformed as a whole — in fact, it could be argued that the secondary was actually the best part of the entire unit — Taylor was benched for the final few games last season, making way for Bryant McFadden, who will likely bump fellow cornerback Deshea Townsend from the starting lineup.

The story here isn’t Tomlin’s admiration of the still-capable prospect; Tomlin was a secondary coach in Tampa Bay and defensive coordinator in Minnesota last season, so he knows a thing or two about coaching cornerbacks. And we all know that, while Taylor had a bad season last year and has even been derided here on SteelerWatch for his lack of quality play in 2006, he’s more than capable of shutting down the best receivers in the league and has the afterburners to roll with the fastest guys in the league — should he actually choose to use that speed.

No, the story here is that Tomlin’s show of affection essentially rules out the cornerback position for a draft on day one. SteelerWatch’s favorite player in the draft is Darrelle Revis, inarguably the most exciting defensive player to watch last year. While there are more pressing needs than cornerback in Pittsburgh, I certainly hate to concede that they will have to skip over Revis, and that such a talent could fall into the hands of a potential opponent. Possibly even the New England Patriots, who have two picks in the first round and could use someone to play beside or behind current franchise player Asante Samuel.

Now I’m seriously bummed out.

For anyone doubting the Steelers’ ability to build the team through the draft, just consider this statistic: seven of their last nine first-round draft picks are still with the team — and all are starters. They are Santonio Holmes, Heath Miller, Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, Kendall Simmons, Casey Hampton and Alan Faneca. Three are All-Pros (Polamalu, Hampton, Faneca) and three more are virtually a lock for the Pro Bowl eventually (Holmes, Miller, Roethlisberger).

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.

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?

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.

The Steelers retained some depth at cornerback today, re-signing cornerback Chidi Iwuoma to a one-year deal. Iwuoma played with the team from 2002 to 2005 before being cut prior to the start of the 2006 season. He was re-signed in December and played in two games before a wrist injury landed him on injured reserve for the the remainder of the season. He’s been largely used as a special teams player.

Details of the deal aren’t yet available but the contract may be worth the veteran minimum of $595,000.