heels, sox & steelers
I was just thinking about how awesome Ben was last year. Especially in the Cleveland game when the team needed to drive down the field twice in a row thanks to some incredibly shoddy special teams play. If Ben performs like that again this year, we will have a very intertaining year, to say the least.
I opted to move my workout to tomorrow morning...now I really feel bad - thanks Ryan.
intertaining??
yeesh, the older I get, the worse I spell.
Here is an article from the Tribune Review on the Steelers extending Marvel Smith.
I think it will happen. And it is a good move considering the alternatives.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/...s/
s_567967.html
intertaining??
yeesh, the older I get, the worse I spell.
Cols714 | 05.27.08 - 2:46 pm |
I believe the word you're looking for there, Cols, is worser.
I'm torn on Smith. A few weeks ago, I'd have been dead-set against such a deal. If he is feeling better, maybe it does makes sense. It'd have to be a smallish deal in terms of starting LTs, though. So many questions:
*How will Smith hold up over the '08 season?
*Will Starks be signed to a long-term deal?
*How quickly can Hills progress at LT?
I just don't know that I'm in a rush to re-sign Marvel until I get more evidence that he can anchor LT for 2 seasons, at least.
Health concerns are the main issue. If Smith is healthy, and I know it's a big if, then re-signing him for 3 more years is a good idea.
Ding Dong, the Pantload's dead.
Matt,
You beat me to it. Just added the update. (gets on knees, prays, cries)
I learned of it at the Pens Blog, where some people are of the sentiment that yes, Madden is an "a**hole" (direct quote, but without the stars), but he is not to be taken seriously, he makes no bones about acting like an a**hole, and at least he likes hockey.
I pointed out that, despite the lack of love some Penguin fans feel, most Penguin fans are Steeler fans too. So even if Madden may like hockey and talk about it, it doesn't forgive his attacking the Rooneys or Ward or Bettis, or his general tomfoolery.
Apparently, KDKA led with the story at 11 p.m. too.
They mentioned his crude, sexist, and homophobic humor; calling Myron Cope a drunk; and attacking Willie Stargell.
Other than that, I ask you, what did Madden do wrong??
You know... the funny thing about these articles is the unflattering pictures of Madden that go along with the story... such as here at the PG, for instance, where he looks hungry enough to eat the microphone. (http://post-gazette.com/pg/08149/885330-80.stm)
Yet, in thinking about it, it occurred to me that these might be the *best* pictures of Madden. Yikes.
As both a Pens and Steelers fan, I will not miss this guy one bit, arguments at thePensBlog notwithstanding.
I'm very disappointed to hear that Mark Madden was removed from the airwaves for being a prick. I had always hoped Mark Madden would be on the air long enough to be killed by the methane emited by all his crap.
(Hooray!)
well said
Some good insight over at SCI.com by Wex on the OTA's:
- Limas Sweed is lined up at rush end on the punt return team and may be asked to block punts
- The aforementioned Sweed has never seen snow - he looks forward to playing in it
- LT (sorry Juan) is really fast
- Tony Hills looks like a rookie
Thanks SteelerBill
I like that kind of info.
Does LT look like he's going to start?
Nice win for the Pens... Gonna need a defribulator for our home to watch the whole series...
I did not know this about Faneca:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com...y.ap/
index.html
Today Wex comes to the defense of everyone's favorite punching bag, Sean Mahan.
"If you guys knew Mahan, you'd be pulling for him instead of hating him. He knows he struggled last year, but he's a real team player, a guy who never misses anything, is studious as anyone on the team, never misses a day in the weight room, a guy his past coaches rave about, a guy who's had a lot of tragedy in his life and has never complained..."
I still hate him...
Just kidding, I just wish he was a better player than he is.
James Farrior didn't wow me in his first seasons, but he's done ok.
Oops
Anon up thread was me.
Big Ben says he will try to check down more in 2008 to avoid some sacks. Check it out.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/...s/
s_569892.html
Mahan is a fun punching bag, but I never hated him. (Now watch somebody pull a quote off of SCI about how I wanted to kill and eat Mahan's puppy dog in the wake of some game last year.)
I never root against mediocre guys on my own team unless they are jerks too. I just root for someone better to come along.
In the Trib piece Cols links to, Scott Brown writes: "Roethlisberger had arguably the greatest regular season by a Steelers quarterback in 2007." So my QOTD (or QOTomorrow, since it is late) is: what are the top 5 seasons ever by a Steelers' QB?
The first thing I thought when reading that sentence is that Ben was the only candidate for "greatest regular season by a Steelers quarterback in 2007."
I can't help being such a terrible nitpicker, but I guess I'd just prefer "In 2007, Roethlisberger had arguably the greatest regular season by a Steelers quarterback."
Anyhow, I have to admit that without looking at stats on pro-football-reference or something I'd be hard-pressed to talk about Steeler QBs regular season statistical achievements. And I'd also have to admit that while I remember something of Bradshaw's play from the seasons when I was 5, 6, and 7 years old (meaning 1977-1979), I can't say I was really in tune with completion %s or TD/INT ratios back then.
[Pause.] So, now having looked it up, Bradshaw was 1st team all-pro in 1978, but his numbers for the regular season look good if not great by modern standards: 28 TDs (to lead the league), 20 INTs, 56.3%, 2915 yards, 7.9 YPA, and an 84.7 QB rating. He beats 2007 Ben in just one category, by 0.1 YPA.
Without doing so much research, I'd guess O'Donnell in 1994 or 1995, Kordell in 1997 or 2001, or even T-Gun in the first half of 2002, pre-paralysis, would have to be in the running, but they all kind of pale in comparison to BR.
But how do these compare to vintage Bradshaw when you factor in the post-seasons TB had? He had a pretty good 1978, for example. Seems almost like "greatest regular season" is a backhanded compliment.
Anyway, other than those guys, it seems like a pretty small universe to pick from -- unless someone can remind us that Malone or Bubby really snuck one lights-out year in there.
Bobby Layne, for example, was an All Star in 1959 for the Steelers, though he tossed 20 TDs and 21 picks and completed just 47.8%. Such a different era.
The AFC North Four Downs is up at FO. Although I think the post-draft Four Downs is always the weakest for FO (they do stats, not so much scouting), it's always a good read.
The thing about Four Downs is that it isn't really intended to tell hardcore fans of a team anything new about that team - it's a summary piece, and I'm not going to reveal some great new insight in 800 words.
Anything you take away from it is likely to be about our divison rivals. For what it's worth, I think this year's going to be really close between us, Cleveland and Baltimore. Cincinnati are rebuilding - I'm guessing 4 or 5 wins and even money on Marvin Lewis being fired.
Ilanin
Oh yeah, I totally enjoy the four downs series and was waiting for this one to come out. I wasn't criticizing you or any of the FO peeps, just making an observation that the post draft ones are the weakest, which makes sense.
In the comments, someone makes the point that maybe Mendenhall makes more sense in trying to help the running game rather than paying for expensive linemen.
Can a great rb make a line look better?
> Can a great rb make a line look better?
Sure. But they're rare, the Adrian Peterson-caliber RB who can hit the home run but will also take what you give him, or even make an extra yard or two on his own. FWP is not going to do the latter, so hopefully we've just drafted AD-lite. Actually, if we haven't, the pick was a waste for a first-rounder.
ELSM -- I think I turned everyone else off to you QOTomorrow with my rambling.
The problem is normalizing for era. What you would be looking at is value added, relative to a replacement level player. If we normilzed the stats, I would bet TB YPA go down slightly, his completion percentage goes up, TD's up and interceptions down. The exact opposite for Ben... and Ben would win because he would have an absurd YPA (the most important stat for a QB in my book)
Ryan,
In your recent article about Madden's dismissal posted on AOL's site, you noted that he refused to comment about it.
That's no surprise, particularly among people employed in the media. If they make a comment their employer finds in anyway not to its liking, the remainder of their unpaid contract can be suspended. Payments aren't usually doled out in a lump sum, but instead are paid periodically. Why? That way the employer still has leverage on its dismissed employee and can stop payment if the employee says or writes anything that might embarass the boss. The employee has little recourse.
When it comes to his money, even Madden isn't dumb enough to take that chance.
Need something to take the foul taste of octopus away. On the QOTD, I think one of Kordell's seasons should make it the top 5. Despite his flaws, there are a lot of numbers that were outstanding when he was under center: winning %, time of possession, turnovers, team rushing, first downs, etc. Because he wasn't a conventional QB, had some bad picks in AFCCGs and wasn't a great leader, he gets dismissed too easily.
When FO did the 100 best quarterback seasons of all time (they did this in 2004), Bradshaw's 1977 came in at 98th. He wouldn't be in the top 100 any more because Peyton Manning puts up a top 100 season every freaking year and then there was Tom Brady's 2007 as well. Normalised to a 2004 offensive environment, FO projected Bradshaw 1977 as:
275 of 459 for 3986 yards, 27 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
(Roethlisberger 2007: 264 of 404 for 3154 yards, 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions)
Bradshaw probably has the slight edge. Of course, if the playcalling geniuses ever noticed how much better the passing game was than the running game, perhaps it would have been different.
Men...
Check out Juan in this video (right hand side 'Linebacker Drills') looks like Ben has competition:
http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/
...dex.html#page=5
Commenting by HaloScan
