SteelerWatch

Every now and then, saying “I told you so” makes you feel really good.

In Before the Draft: Right Tackle I wished speculated on Max Starks and potential suitors:

There are teams needing major help, like the Arizona Cardinals. As uneven as Starks tends to be, he would certainly be an upgrade for that line.

Now it looks like exactly that may be a possibility, at least if the rumors are true. It seems like there’s also the possibility of this being an April Fools joke, but it seems a little too subtle to fall into that category.

I’ll keep you up to date as I know anything more.

Ed Bouchette over at the Post-Gazette talked to Big Ben and got it straight from the horse’s mouth: he just didn’t play well. Ben says he disagreed with former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt that his play dropped off as a result of the off-field adversity he faced throughout the summer and fall of 2006, and hinted that all may not have been well with his relationship with Whis: “There were a lot of things I didn’t agree with Whis about … “

Normally I’d save this for another time, but I was prodded on by my friends over at the Post-Gazette’s Blog-N-Gold. They are in agreement with a few other bloggers in the nation that 2007 will be Alan Faneca’s last season as a Steeler (a little more link love for my biggest supporters). I respectfully disagree.

Let me get one thing in the open now: I am not a former NFL player. Thanks in part to injuries and part-time jobs, I never played in high school. Thanks to a mom who stunted my growth, I never played in college — unless you count being defensive captain of an intramural team that lost the championship in the final minutes. I don’t have the credentials that some others in the community possess.

However, there are four Steelers who simply cannot go away. I don’t care if you have to cut other starters in order to pay them. Those four are Troy Polamalu, Casey Hampton, Ben Roethlisberger and Alan Faneca. They are the four most outstanding players on the team. No disrespect to Hines Ward — he’s the best receiver on the team, but the depth and future they are building at the position are setting the team up for success in the passing game for years. Losing Ward would be huge, but not as big of a loss to recover from as would be losing one of the aforementioned studs.

Think about it: Faneca is the anchor of the line, especially now that Jeff Hartings has retired. There needs to be a clear-cut leader, to act as the glue that holds any cohesive offensive line together as a single unit. Who is going to play that role without Faneca? Marvel Smith? Great player, but he’s not the leader that Faneca is. And no one in the city of Pittsburgh could hold a straight face if they were told that Kendall Simmons or Max Starks was to be named a team captain. All levels of hilarity, disbelief and pure shock would undoubtedly ensue.

The only hurdle to keeping Faneca around would likely be whether or not Mike Tomlin can win his respect. Faneca was the most outspoken Steeler after Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm left for warmer climes, and it will take some work to make him a believer. But I don’t think he’d want to jump ship at this point in his career — not with the potential for greatness that still exists on this team.

The Steelers didn’t have to deal with another team’s Right of First Refusal this time like they did with punter Andy Lee and the 49ers, and they wound up adding to an offensive line that was suddenly in disarray after years of stability and superb play.

Sean Mahan, formerly a starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at left guard, signed a deal that is, as best as I can tell, worth about $17.5 million and puts him in black and gold until 2011. His versatility will certainly serve to shake things up even more on the line, potentially making it a three-way battle for the center position with heir-apparent Chukky Okobi and Kendall I-snapped-a-little-in-preseason Simmons. Simmons is the one feeling the biggest squeeze, because he will potentially be battling for both the center and right guard positions, as his play in 2006 did anything but guarantee him a spot in the 2007 starting lineup.

To make matters even stranger, Mahan could possibly be considered for right tackle as well, where Max Starks either needs to be benched or to have someone light a fire under his rear. Last season Kendall Simmons was bad. But Max Starks usually made Simmons look like an All-Pro.

A bottle of chianti and some strawberries? Nope, a different kind of tender love. Max Starks and Brian St. Pierre have been offered tenders, meaning the Steelers retain Right of First Refusal for the two players. By offering the tenders, the team has the right to match any offer sheet submitted by another team. If the players sign the tender sheets, they are effectively signed to the amount offered for the season and are no longer available for free agency.

The Steelers may be eligible for compensatory draft picks depending on the amounts offered in the tenders, if they choose not to match the offers made by other teams. Compensation for Starks is a first round pick, while St. Pierre would be worth a 5th round pick. The pick is essentially transferred to the Steelers from the player’s new team, so anyone making an offer to Starks must already have a first round pick available. With the wealth of offensive linemen available in the draft this year, it would be in the team’s best interest to consider letting Starks — the new owner of the Captain Erratic title ever since Tommy Maddox left — go to a new team.

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.

The Steelers moved early on Najeh Davenport, signing him to a two-year contract that will pay him $2 million, including a $405,000 signing bonus. This should squash John Clayton’s annual assertion that the Steelers will once again sign T.J. Duckett to fill the void left a year ago when Jerome Bettis retired. Davenport played well in the system last year before being injured, and figures to play a more prominent role this season, if he can stay healthy. Which, of course, seems to be a lofty expectation for him. Here’s hoping some Iron City Beer will help beef up his relatively fragile frame.

In part one, we took a look at the overall make-up of the position as it currently stands, with an analysis of Hines Ward and Cedric Wilson, 2006’s official starters. Today we’ll look at emerging stars and the immediate and long-term future of the group.

Santonio Holmes came up big in 2006. On a team that focuses on running and generally makes use of experienced players over rookies, the youngster really made an impact. His 49 catches and 824 yards put him second on the team in receiving behind perrenial number-one target Ward — and 3.6 yards more per catch. He was regarded entering the 2006 draft as the best receiver, but the knock on him was that it was a draft that was especially thin at the position. Still, he managed great numbers for a number-two receiver in a run-oriented offense. He also returned punts, but while he did return one for a touchdown, he did fumble several of them away. That combined with some rare off-field problems with the law, put a damper on an otherwise-stellar season for the rookie that included a season-capping 67-yard overtime touchdown against the Bengals in the season finale.

Nate Washington also put up numbers that statistically looked good in his third season, looking more and more like a viable third option. However, the one statistic not commonly reported is dropped passes, and Washington had more than his fair share in 2006. He largely made up for it with his insane 17.8 yards-per-catch average on 35 receptions, four of which went for touchdowns. Washington is an exclusive-rights free agent, but his impact on the team in 2006 — and the fact that his salary under a new contract would undoubtedly be less than what Cedric Wilson is due to receive if he isn’t cut — will probably put Washington on the field in black and gold at least for one more season.

Given more pressing needs on the offensive line and at outside linebacker, the Steelers likely won’t take a receiver until at least round three — which is a shame, given the outstanding talent available. However, the Steelers’ front office and Personel Director Kevin Colbert excel at finding talented bargains, as is evidenced by players like running back Willie Parker (undrafted free agent), among others. One unlikely option would be dangling some trade bait — say, Joey Porter — in front of the New England Patriots to snag one of their two first-round picks and pick up either South Carolina’s Sindey Rice or Washington State’s Jason Hill. Rice is just outstanding, but has inexplicably been predicted to go very late in the first round on almost every draft board. And Hill? All he does is run the 40 in 4.32 seconds.

Two to three years from now it’s a safe bet to assume this group of receivers will be led by Santonio Holmes, probably across the field from Nate Washington and some mid-round 2007 draft pick in the slot. Holmes has the speed and the hands of a number-one option with no fear of going across the middle of the field, and just needs to get his head more in the game to go to the top tier. Washington has an unnatural ability to make the nearly impossible catches, but seems to lose focus when the ball hits him in the numbers. If those issues can be corrected, the Steelers have the makings of another Ward/Randle-El combination on their hands.

DRAFT POTENTIAL:
- Day 1: ROUND 3 OR 4
- Day 2: ROUND 5 IF NOT DAY 1

Wide Receiver is a difficult position to analyze in a single post, so this is going to be split into two parts. it’s the only position besides the offensive line — which is actually thee positions — where there can be five on the field at one time. But at times there can be as few as one. It’s a position where depth is extremely important, in part because of the numbers required but also because teams often only keep a single big-play receiver on the roster. A gifted receiver can be a coach’s dream, but also his nightmare. See Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Chad Johnson for a few examples of top-tier players who can polarize an entire nation.

The Steelers’ depth at the position cannot be understated. Right now, the receiving corps. consists of Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes, Cedric Wilson, Nate Washington, Willie Reid, Lee Mays, Sean Morey, Rasheed Marshall and Walter Young. Ward, Holmes, Wilson and Washington combined for all but four receptions credited to the entire group, but expect the distribution to change a little in 2007. New offensive coordinator Bruce Arians has plans to utilize four-wide-receiver sets more often, taking advantage of historically run-oriented first and second downs to try and spread defenses out. And with only one of those players — Ward — absolutely guaranteed to start in 2007, training camp is going to be a very active time for the group.

The future — beyond 2007 — needs to be figured into the Steelers’ immediate plans. Hines Ward will be entering his 10th season come September, and the Super Bowl XL MVP is coming off a season in which injuries became far more common than he’s become accustomed to in his career. He was forced to sit out two games in 2006 — twice what he had missed in the previous eight seasons combined — but his production still managed to fall pretty much in line with his numbers from the previous five seasons. However, his salary cap numbers are beginning to reach the level that most people would consider “astronomical” for people not named Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. He’s due just short of $6 million this season, and by 2009 that number will be approaching $9 million. Not one Steelers fan would want to see Ward become a cap casualty, but given his price and age two years from now, it remains a possibility.

Here and now, it’s a safe bet to assume Cedric Wilson will be let go. He’s due $500,000 as a prorated portion of his signing bonus and a base salary of $1.9 million. Cutting Wilson means the team is stuck with his signing bonuses of $500,000 in both 2007 and 2008 counting against the cap, but that’s a far cry from the $1.9 million they’d save.

Those two aside, the money for the remaining receivers is astoundingly low, so it’s a pretty good assumption that all will return. The group has two wildcards: Washington and Reid. Washington had an acceptable season for a fourth receiver, with 35 catches and four touchdowns. Reid spent most of the season injured, so the jury remains out on him.

In Part 2, we will take a closer look at Santonio Holmes, make some predictions about the team’s future at Wide Receiver and examine other changes we can expect come September.

DRAFT POTENTIAL:
Day 1: NOPE. NO WAY, NO HOW.
Day 2: POSSIBLE, BUT UNLIKELY

Tight ends are a valuable asset in this league. They make great targets on trick plays, they serve at times as an additional offensive lineman, they can draw linebackers away from screens, they can receive screens, and if they’re fast enough they can even be downfield threats (see Steelers’ secondary enemy numero uno, Baltimore Raven Todd Heap). No other position is used with such versatility, and yet no other position that regularly handles the ball gets so little attention from the public — or opposing defenses.

That means good skills and diversity is important. The Steelers have rediscovered the usefulness of the position over the last two seasons with the arrival of Heath Miller. Combined with Jerame Tuman, they offer the same sort of one-two punch delivered by Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis during the 2005-06 Super Bowl run — albeit, not to the same extent, but similar nonetheless.

While he’s definitely no burner, Heath Miller is deceptively fast for his size. His height and long legs give him a slow, long stride similar to that of former NFL running back Herschel Walker, or the great Jim Brown. That doesn’t play to his advantage when trying to juke a defender, but let’s be honest here: when is the last time you saw a tight end run an out-and-up? Oh, and he is a mere 6′5″ and 256 pounds.

On the other side of the coin there’s Jerame Tuman. While ever so slightly smaller than Miller (6′4″, 253 pounds), Tuman is a considerably better blocker but lacks the speed and hands that Miller posesses. Tuman has been a member of the Steelers since his rookie year, signed as an undrafted free agent. He took over the starting job after former standout Mark Bruener left, and since the arrival of Miller has worked very well as the other bookend when the Steelers line up in a two-tight-end formation.

The team re-instated the tight end position as a large part of their passing offense when they signed Miller, who is known for his ability to make tough catches. While Tuman is capable of playing as a receiving tight end, his strong point is, without a doubt, his well-honed blocking skills.

With the two-tight-end sets so prominent in the team’s playbook, the team needs at least a third tight end on the roster. They signed former Buffalo Bill Tim Euhus on Feb. 15, shortly after signing undrafted rookie Jon Dekker to the practice squad. What either of them are capable of remains to be seen.

With much more pressing needs at offensive line, cornerback and outside linebacker, the only position likely to get less attention in the draft than tight end this year is quarterback. Free agent options look great if you want a starter, but the Steelers have two solid performers with experience. Expect the team to pick up one of the lower-rated free agents near the end of the summer, or possibly sign an undrafted rookie free agent. They need depth at nearly every position, especially when looking beyond 2007, so a position with four options available is likely to get shuffled to the back burner.