Beer We Go Steelers

The Steelers brought back 3rd down back Mewelde Moore. Mewelde is an excellent 3rd down back and will most likely battle for that spot. He came back at the right price and does everything that you need from a 3rd down perspective.  

Willie Gay is a “Jeckyl and Hide Cornerback”. He is a solid nickelback but not much more. The Steelers dramatically need to upgrade their Cornerback play. Only Ike Taylor could claim to have a “good year” last year. Both Gay and starter Bryan McFadden were basically abused to the tune of 70% passes completed on their side of the field. Teams would literally abandon the run and start trying to bomb the defense. This is a make it or break it year for Gay.

The wild card in this is Keenan Lewis who also is a bubble guy. He physically has the tools and is getting the experience. Look for him to push Gay and McFadden hard.

Big Willie Colon a New York native and Hofstra graduate is returning to the Steelers this year. Colon took less money to stay with the Steelers. Unfortunately that meant Flozell had to go. Flozell did a good job last year and was a major reason the Steelers were able to hang tough with a banged up line.

Starks was a starter and has had some of the strangest contracts in Steelers history.  This included being the highest paid player in Steelers history at one point. He has done a good job and I think they will have him back at a reduced cost.

The Steelers should look outside the organization for help and sign them ASAP. The line looks thin again with Flozell and Starks being gone. This has been a glaring issue for the Steelers since the departure of Alan Faneca and the retirements of Jeff Harting and Marvell Smith. I am hoping Marcus Gilbert can step in and be the next Joe Thomas!

Also, Randle El is out again. This was a move that everyone figured on, with the development of the Steelers young receivers this was inevitable. Randle El was one of my favorite players because he was very exciting and he did an awesome job running the Steelers gadget plays.

The PPG is reporting that Ike Taylor has resigned, the Steelers will make it official on Friday. He has been steady and played well over the past decade.

Also returning is Shaun Suisham who did a good job filling in after Skippy was sent packing. This fills a glaring need, Suisham is a good signing because he is a passable kicker and we know he can kick at Heinz field. It would have been hard to upgrade on this one and the Steelers got it right.

The Steelers also brought in a punter Aaron Bates to compete with Jeremy Kapinos and the often injured Dan Sepulveda. This looks like an insurance policy as Sepulveda has been on IR twice in three years and Kapinos was passable but not exceptional last year.  

The next target is the O-Line. The Steelers need O-Line help in the worse way and have shown interest in brining back both Willie Colon (YEAH HOFSTRA) and Flozell Adams who played well last year. Getting both would be a good stop gap move and I would move Colon inside to Right Guard. Colon is probably on the move.

The NFLPA ratified the new CBA deal yesterday, bringing labor peace to the NFL for the next ten years.  

Let the madness begins!

The Steelers will open camp this Thursday at St. Vincents. They will be holding a practice without pads on Friday and a practice Saturday with Pads. Here is the list of rookie free agents from the Post Gazette:

I would like to see some of these guys stick, but it is highly unlikely!

What will be fun to watch is the madness that will be this week.

Teams need to sign free agents this week as opposed to the four months they usually have. While this is going to be hell for GM’s, I think it will be awesome for fans! I am very excited, I think there will be a host of bargains to be had as well!

Stay tuned…

The lockout is over and a new collective bargaining agreement should be done by this afternoon! After the NFLPA nearly botched this whole thing, it looks like they are about to bring this in for a landing!

They need the players ratification that for some reason DeMaurice Smith didn’t have lined up. The economics of the deal were worked out more than a week ago. 

That included how the more than $9 billion in annual league revenues will be divided (about 53 percent to owners and 47 percent to players over the next decade; the old CBA resulted in nearly a 50-50 split); a per-club cap of about $120 million for salary and bonuses in 2011 — and at least that in 2012 and 2013 — plus about $22 million for benefits; a salary system to rein in spending on first-round draft picks; and unrestricted free agency for most players after four seasons.

Look for a whirlwind to begin this week. The best analogy I heard is, this is like merging Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter into one day!

Teams need to sign free agents and open camps THIS WEEK!!! While this is not ideal, I think it is going to be a hell of alot of fun! Keep your eye on BWG and I will do my best to stick with it giving our analysis.

Top Priorities:

1. Getting either Ike or another CB signed!

1a. Signing Woodley!

2. Offensive line help

3. Another running back to help Rashard! (Tiki Barber come on down)

Ben Roethlisberger got married this weekend! Every member of BWG nation is hoping this will curb Ben’s “night life”. The security was indeed tight as even Ambassador Rooney had to show his ID. The attendee list was the Who’s Who, of Steeler Nation, including Silverback James Harrison. I hope this squelches anymore rumors about the rift! Only Captain Tailgate was not in attendance as he usually gets drunk and throws potatoes salad at these types of affairs. (Ask former Rams Quarterback Marc Bulger!)

The affair was held at the famous convention center and he hosted over 600 guests!

We at BWG wish Ben and Ashley the best of luck!!! Unfortunately I believe his honeymoon will be at St. Vincent’s, as Labor peace should be here today!

All is forgiven buddy!!! Alright maybe our devotion to the Steelers has gone too far now.

Here is the text of the PR guys, I mean Silverback’s apology:

“I’ll start by offering my apologies for some of the words that I said during the four days in May that Men’s Journal was invited to my house to discuss what the NFL has recently been portraying as their attempts at ‘player safety’ rules and regulations, and to cover my everyday workout routine.

“I did make comments about my teammates when I was talking about the emotional Super Bowl loss, but the handful of words that were used and heavily publicized yesterday were pulled out of a long conversation and the context was lost. Obviously, I would never say that it was all Ben’s or Rashard’s fault that we lost the Super Bowl. That would be ridiculous. Both Ben and Rashard are great players and great teammates. Clearly the entire team bears responsibility for the loss, me included. It was a team effort and a team loss. My teammates know me well, and hopefully understand the things I said were not meant to accuse them of the loss. We all have discussed several things that went wrong in the Super Bowl since that day. What I do apologize for and take full responsibility for is for speaking in such a candid manner to someone outside the team.

“I also need to make clear that the comment about Roger Goodell was not intended to be derogatory against gay people in any way. It was careless use of a slang word and I apologize to all who were offended by the remark. I am not a homophobic bigot, and I would never advocate intolerance of gay people.

“As far as the photo that was shown on air yesterday, collecting guns is a hobby of mine, and I advocate the responsible use of firearms. I believe in the right to bear arms. I like to go to the shooting range. I like to hunt. I like to fish. I could just as easily have posed with my fishing poles but it obviously wouldn’t be an interesting picture for the magazine. I am not promoting gun violence by posing for that photo. There are also other photos in the magazine story that were not shown on air yesterday – including me with my sons, with my mom and as a kid.

“Unfortunately, the above items and other comments have detracted from the original purpose of the story – a position I have been advocating for some time now. If player safety is the NFL’s main concern, as they say it is, they are not going about it in an effective manner. There’s nothing about extending the season or issuing exorbitant fines on defensive players that makes any shift toward the prevention of injury to players.

“I believe that the league may have been feeling increasing pressure about injuries and concussions last year, and that they panicked and put rules in place that weren’t fully thought out. I’m not advocating more flags and fines, I’m just saying that the current rules are not completely fair, and I don’t believe in the way that the league is handling their position as overseer of the NFL and the well-being of its players.

“As far as the character and reputation hits I may suffer as a result of my comments in the article, I’ll take those hits and more if it brings increased attention to the re-examination and installation of rules and regulations that would create a REAL impact on player safety.”

  Doing their best impersonation of the division rivals Bengals and Ravens, the Steelers again have had another tumultuous offseason.  Let’s try and look back at the parade of events.

-Hines Ward wins “Dancing with the Stars”, which was a great distraction for a bad offseason, then gets a DUI last week. Honestly, reserve judgement on this as I have a feeling we aren’t getting all the facts.

-Rashard Mendenhall goes wild on Twitter. Hitting on such great topics as Osama Bin Laden might have been misunderstood.

-Lamar Woodley kills Joe Flacco basically providing bulletin board material for the year.

-Lastly, Silverback, our beloved Silverback lights up the Commissioner in a magazine article. You have read several articles on this by now for sure. I would defend Silverback to the end and the fines last year were 90% bogus. We all know it, but calling out the Boss was a joke. Worse was calling out his teamates. That is not the way Steelers do things.

I am extremely disappointed in Silverback for this one.

As for sitemail. Couple of quick things. I have over 3500 emails to review and I am doing my best to review EVEYONE of them. Contrary to popular belief I will post negative things about the Steelers or the blog if they are written in coherent or somewhat coherent sentences. So blast away!

GET A LABOR DEAL DONE ALREADY!!!

Hey everyone, I have been running wild lately in my real world. Here are some quick hits.

-God Bless John Henry Johnson. I often describe Steeler history as two phases BC and AC. Which my Mom finds somewhat offensive for some reason, it stands for “Before Chuck” and “After Chuck”/(Chuck Forward). John Henry was a bona fide Steeler star and like the predecessor’s of the Steeler dynasty, he represented a certain toughness that despite few wins people understood Pittsburgh to be. He was the leading rusher of the Steelers and just absolutely was a hammer out of the backfield. In the words of the Bus, “Smashmouth Football, Pittsburgh Style.”

-Labor peace may be coming to a team near you. There were some optimistic reports today about it. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED!!! 

-Plaxico Burress is out of the “tank” and looking for a job. I really wanted to write something about this in more detail. Plex if you have been living in a bubble, shot himself, then lost his contract worth millions and millions of dollars and then had the priviledge of being a guest of my home state NY where he was in prison for over two years. I REPEAT FOR SHOOTING HIMSELF.

My sincere hope is that he gets his life on track and resumes his career. I always liked him and I still believe he has some good football left in him. I am looking for him to land in Philly(YUCK) or Chicago.

-The Bruins who are on the verge of winning the Stanley Cup stole one our songs as their anthem.”Black and Yellow,” by Allderdice High School graduate Wiz Khalifa. This further proves my theory that nothing good ever comes out of Mass. Look at their teams The Red Sox who are the epitome of evil, the Patriots who I can pretty much assure you are Satan’s favorite team and now the Song Stealing Massholes Bruins.  

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UePtoxDhJSw   BTW I like the original better!

-I don’t believe Khalifa is related to Pirate “Legend” Sammy Khalifa.

I first and foremost like and respect the local Pittsburgh media and love the Post Gazette by far.  Last week they were dead wrong in characterizing James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley’s comments. I write to Gene Collier pretty regularly and Ed Bouchette both of which always take the time to respond.

I like Ron Cook and I am sure he doesn’t appreciate being taken to task by a hack like me but I felt it needed to be said. He never responded and I will post his response if he lets me. The local Pittsburgh media didn’t do anything to defend the Steelers last season when there was about a three week period where the refs were flag happy. So we are clear I was a journalism student so in no way do I feel they should have “cooked” a story or made something up. I just think the facts got lost in the shuffle and even though this blog is meant to report facts we understand it is skewed towards the Steelers. We never pretend it isn’t.

I do think the facts though warrant what we were saying.

Here is the letter I wrote recently on behalf of BWG NY:

Mr. Cook,

You are 100% right in that you can’t fight the NFL as the players are about to find out in an all too painful way. But, having your opinion and expressing it was 100% right of Harrison and as of this second he has no obligation to the NFL as he is a locked out employee not receiving  any type of compensation from the org. While his choice of words was not something I would have chosen, I have no problem with him expressing it.

I emailed Gene Collier last year and as the local media I thought you guys should have “protected” Harrison in every possible way without losing journalistic integrity. There were at least a dozen more hits more ferocious than Harrisons that weren’t flagged for 100K. Half of his fined plays didn’t even draw a penalty! How would you not feel persecuted.

Also, let’s be honest everyone knows that this rule has something to do with Harrison. If you are denying that you are kidding yourself. The most fined player in the league obviously had something to do with this. AKA the Hines Ward Rule, Mel Blount rule.

You were way off about the Super Bowl too, in no way can you lay that blame at Harrison’s feet or Woodley, for that matter and I contend that they were the two best linebackers on the field in that game! The stats prove that to be true. If the Steelers could have held onto the football they would have won. Heck one less turnover and they would have won. A healthy Troy Polamalu and they would have won.

There were several weeks that the refs over officiated the games. Go back and watch the films. (It’s not like we will have anything else to do soon.)

I respect your writing and I admire it very much. But you are dead wrong here! DEAD WRONG!

Sincerely,

(BWG NY)

….

As for Calling it the Steeler Rule or the Harrison Rule, you know what, we wear that as a BADGE OF HONOR!!!!