Let me be the first out the door with a quickie mock draft. As always, I expect to be 100% wrong (although last year I got one pick right and at least one other where I was way more right than the Steelers). I post this anticipating humiliation and without the benefit of a lot of inside info, without any idea of what might happen in free agency, or, let’s be honest, without much in the way of football knowledge.

It’s easy to say the Steelers need to pick a cornerback high in the draft, but I and most fans have been saying that for three years. It’s even more true now, what with Cortez Allen’s failure to launch and the ineffective season offered by aging Ike Taylor. Yet, the Steelers are in big trouble at outside linebacker with Worilds not exactly posting Hall of Fame results and perhaps pricing himself beyond his proven value in free agency, and with Jarvis Jones yet to prove he can hold down the position and remain healthy. They also need to resign Arthur Moats who can provide solid depth and rotation. If the Steelers fail to sign Worilds, OLB will certainly be an even higher priority and will almost certainly result in some kind of free agent signing.

Although tight end is not an emergency need, the Steelers do need to begin developing a replacement for Heath Miller. The emergence of a legitimate backfield receiving threat in Le’Veon Bell along with the development of a great receiving corps has reduced the pressure to have a first round caliber receiving tight end. Still, they should look for a strong prospect with solid hands and good blocking potential in the mid rounds.

Mike Mitchell hopefully will improve at free safety, but even so there is a need for depth at the position and an eventual replacement. An additional option at running back would be welcome, to supplement Josh Harris and Dri Archer in the backup role. Some competition would be welcome at punter, although the Steelers rarely spend a draft pick on a kicking position. Offensive line depth is always welcome as well.

I am going with the following positional choices (w/ updates 3/22):

1. CB
2. OLB
3. CB
4. TE
5. OT
6. RB
   • 6c – OLB
7. P

The Steelers should also get a late round compensatory pick, but for the purposes of Mock Beta I will ignore that.

Here are my specific player choices (w/ updates 3/22):

Read the rest of this entry »

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UPDATED. SEE BELOW

http://www.gq.com/sports/201502/roger-goodell-season-from-hell?currentPage=1

THE ARTICLE IS 3 PAGES. CLICK ON THE ARROW ADJACENT 1 OF 3 AT THE BOTTOM OF THE 1ST PAGE.

So large is Kraft’s sway with Goodell that one veteran NFL executive likes to call him “the assistant commissioner.”

Goodell said. “When we met with Ray Rice and his representatives, it was ambiguous about what actually happened.”

Within days, a lengthy ESPN investigation all but called him a liar. According to the report, not only did Rice tell Goodell exactly what happened inside that elevator….

…the nonstop drumbeat of bad news added up to a growing sense that Goodell and his owner bosses are tone-deaf to the issues that plague the NFL—and on the wrong side of history to a rising generation that increasingly sees football as too violent, too regressive, and too money-driven…

It’s also an open secret in league circles that some owners, especially Woody Johnson of the Jets, resent the preferential treatment Goodell is perceived to extend to his inner circle. (As the football world waits for the commissioner’s decision on whether to punish the Patriots for Deflategate, many are wondering how his relationship with Kraft will affect Goodell’s ruling.)

[The Ray Rice episode] reinforced a pattern that comes up again and again when you look at Goodell’s commissionership: When he’s reacting to PR crises and disciplining players, his judgment is poor. But when he’s negotiating on behalf of his owner bosses, Goodell almost never loses.

Tagliabue sees Goodell’s laser focus on profit and his combative stance toward players as key parts of the problem. “If they see you making decisions only in economic terms, they start to understand that and question what you’re all about,” he said. “There’s a huge intangible value in peace. There’s a huge intangible value in having allies.” As for his relationship with his protégé, Tagliabue says, “We haven’t talked much since I left. It’s been his decision. Bountygate didn’t help.”

Epilogue: The author has written an addendum to the original article.

http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2015/01/robert-kraft-roger-goodell.html

While reporting the piece, I heard many stories of Kraft receiving preferential treatment. One executive noted how Goodell seemed to jump to answer his cell whenever Kraft called. “Sure there’s special rules,” one league source said. “It’s the unwritten secret.” At a golf tournament last year, one source told me, Kraft is said to have called NFL headquarters and requested to be interviewed on the NFL Network. Within minutes, NFL producers in the broadcast truck were told to put Kraft on television. “Nobody else would have pulled that card,” the source said.

Kraft was reluctant to talk to me while I was reporting. One person close to Kraft told me that he was tired of being Goodell’s defender in public. The truth, of course, is that Goodell works for him. However Deflategate unfolds, the commissioner will need to tread carefully. His job security has always depended on the support of the 32 owners. And Kraft, a savvy billionaire who turned a $172 million investment in the Patriots into a $2.6 billion empire, appears to want to remind the commissioner that he is nobody’s assistant.

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Finishing in second place but having an inferior draft position versus the first place team.

+1

And so ends another season in less than perfect fashion. The glass is not half full, but it’s a long way from empty, and closer to half full than the last two years combined.

Let us be grateful for the many positives of the 2014 edition of the Steelers. Here are some of them off the top of my head.

• The Steelers reclaimed the division crown.
• Despite the above, the Steelers will have better draft positioning than the Ravens and possibly the Bengals.
• The offense has grown to the brink of greatness and has not yet peaked.
• Elements of the defense solidified although much work remains to be done.
• One Hairball is gone from the league.
• Although they won, the Ravens continue to suck. Suggs is still butt ugly and stupid as dirt.
• Andy Dalton… enough said.
• The Factory of Sadness remains the destination where high draft picks go to die, and Comedy Central of the NFL.
• We are one year closer to the end of Tom Brady’s career. Please, god, let it happen soon.

Please add your positives. There will be plenty of time for whining and hand-wringing later.

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42 Years Ago Today

Watch a nice take on the play: http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/pittsburgh-steelers-immaculate-reception-franco/njY5L/

Sure looks to me like it hit Tatum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMuUBZ_DAeM 

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Hey, we’ve been asking that question all year, as it seems the Steelers can shine one week and stink the next.  But perhaps it’s time to give credit where it’s due. Through 15 games, the Steelers have never had a losing streak longer than one game. Meanwhile they’ve had two 3-game winning streaks and with a final victory over Cincinnati they could push the current streak to 4 games. They are 7-2 in their last 9 games and have had only one truly putrid performance in that span, versus the Jets.

Although this more stable and positive period has more or less coincided with the resurrection of James Harrison, perhaps greater credit goes to the solidification of the offense and stabilization of what had been a horrid defense (and now is approaching sort of average). The biggest variable during this period has been the play of Ben Roethlisberger.. In their current configuration, the fate of this team is tightly tied to Ben’s performance. If he is hot in the playoffs, they can have a good run.

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