Steel Balls

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I’m no expert on the draft. In fact, I’m pretty much always wrong. I don’t follow college football very closely and pay little attention to these issues until the draft rolls around. In other words, at best my opinion is a gnat’s eyelash away from completely worthless. But that won’t stop me from posting an article on the subject anyway.

Based on history, my expectation is that the Steelers will effectively position themselves with pre-draft signings in order to avoid having to pick a particular position, and thus will be able to pick best available player from a pool of several positions of need. It seems clear that the majority of their picks should be for defense because they have so many areas to improve on that side of the ball, but even so the first pick could go either way. My guess is they will take the best available player from TE, WR, CB, OLB, and possibly DL.

I thought it would be fun to look at who might be there at spot 15 from among that subset of positions. For this exercise, I like to use WalterFootball.com as they do a pretty nice job of living and breathing this stuff year round. They usually summarize players in each category by indicating which round they feel the player will fall. If they feel the player will fall in the early part of the first round, they will indicate that the player is likely a “top 20” pick, for example. For our purposes we can consider players listed as likely first round, or as likely top 20, but of course it’s possible or even probably that one or more “likely top 10” picks will fall to the Steelers, as this seems to happen annually.

I’m only providing a partial snapshot of the information from WalterFootball.com. If you want to read more about these players, go directly to that site.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Stumble, fall, then stand

Welcome to the offseason

Hope springs from the draft

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Read the rest of this entry »

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There once was a team in twenty-thirteen
Their name was the Steelers and winning was their dream
They dropped four out of the gate
Lost their own fate
Who wants to be on my shuffle-board team?

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The outlook wasn’t brilliant for Steeler Nation that day;
The score stood 24 a piece, with but one drive left to play,
And then when Chase Daniel got the first, and next play did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few fans watched TV in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, if only KC could get a field goal whack at that –
They’d put up even money, now, with KC playing flat.

But yards needed KC, 50 or more it would take,
And then Chase Daniel was a passing and the handoff was a fake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of KC getting off the mat.

But McCluster caught a spiral, to the wonderment of all,
And McGrath, the third tight end, held on to the next ball;
And when time out had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Chase Daniel near midfield and Steeler fans could now be heard.

Then from Steeler Nation throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
Now knocked opportunity and Charger fans just sat,
For KC kicker Succop, was about to end all that.

There was ease in KC’s manner as Chase Daniel stepped into place;
There was pride in KC’s bearing and a smile on Chase Daniel’s face.
And when, responding to opposing cheers, he lightly took the snap,
And 24 yards down the field Hemingway penned the final slap.

The Chargers defensemen were on him as he rumbled along the dirt;
And Steeler fans applauded as we wiped sweat upon our shirt.
Then while the writhing defense lined up for the next hit,
It was 1st and 10 for KC and, at the 31 yard line they did sit.

And now the leather-covered football no longer through the air,
And KC stood a-watching, we can kick it right from there.
But Knile Davis the runner ran twice and hardly sped-
And now third down we did see, “Wildcat” the announcer said.

From the benches, filled with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
What is this shouted someone off in Steeler land;
This player from KC has never thrown the football from his hand.

With a smile Andy Reid new that KC’s play had shown;
His running back was standing in the backfield all alone
He signaled to the center, and once more the football flew;
But KC they had done it, and the ref signaled first down too.

“Field Goal!” cried Steeler Nation, and echoes answered that;
And one sideline look of KC’s kicker, Steelers fans nervous sat.
They saw the three plays run as were told, the time running out,
And they knew that KC would set this up with one last final time-out.

The fear was gone from KC’s kicker, it is now all upon his feet;
He taps the ground now confidently with the toe of his right cleat.
And now the snapper snaps the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Succop’s blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining still;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts will fill,
And somewhere men are laughing, and children smiling bright;
But there is no joy in Steeler Nation — KC’s kicker was wide right.

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Looking back at our  predictions for 2013, I think we can say we’re pretty smart, but not as smart as we like to think.

As a group, we picked the Bengals to take the division, followed by the Steelers, the Ravens, and the Browns. We nailed that one.

Our individual results were not so accurate, however.

Nobody picked the Steelers to finish 8-8. Nobody. Given that we like to think of ourselves as Steelers experts, clearly we’re a bit deluded about that. The closest were bills and jeffmi who picked the Steelers to go 7-9. [Edit: it seems that malsor did make an accurate prediction of 8-8 although it was late and therefore not in my summary table. However, he only gets partial credit for victory because he also predicted 6-10, plus a whole bunch of other stuff of mixed accuracy, depending on this and that and the other thing. Next time, the rule will be to go with one prediction and one only.]

One person, mwalsh, accurately predicted the Bengals to finish at 11-5.

Four people accurately predicted that the Ravens would end up at 8-8: copanut (I blush), steeltyke, mack, and tompaulbillybob.

Nobody accurately predicted the Browns would win only 4 games. The closest were jamesh and steeltyke who picked them to win 6.

Let’s see if we can do better for 2014. The early betting line has the Steelers going 19-0, baby.

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These are some of the best things about the 2013 season:

• Big Ben and Troy Polamalu both played 16 full, healthy games and were as impactful as ever in their careers.
• Antonio Brown proved he is worthy of his contract.
• Le’Veon Bell showed why he was an excellent draft choice.
• The offensive line finally got it together and played credibly.
• Several players emerged into playmakers, including Cameron Heyward and Jason Worilds.
• The coaching staff, front office, and players remained focused and never gave up despite the dismal start. Indeed, they only grew stronger.
• Todd Haley and Ben seem to be on to something.
• Ben and Antonio are proving to be as good a tandem as any in recent memory, with the kind of chemistry we used to see with Ben and Hines.

Some other things for which I am grateful:

• Every game was meaningful and the Steeler season relevance extended, ever so briefly, beyond their final game.
• Although finishing at 8-8, I feel much better about this season. The 2012 edition ended in futility, while the 2013 edition ended with three credible wins.
• It wasn’t the Steelers’ kicker in a Steelers game who failed to kick a routine field goal in ideal conditions and thereby ending the Steelers season. That would have been much worse.
• The Ravens not only went from champions to a team missing the playoffs, but actually completely fell apart to end their season, finishing with two dismal losses and a raft of questions on both sides of the ball.
• The Ravens finished in third place, behind the Steelers, but the Steelers will get a better draft position.
• The Ravens are stuck with a ridiculous contract for an above average quarterback who reverted to his more mediocre self.
• Ray Rice seems to have lost it.
• The Browns are still the Browns – yet another coaching change is on the way.
• I don’t know what Goodell will do about the threatened draft penalty (but given the Ravens shooting themselves in the foot, plus the egregious failure of the league’s officiating forcing the Steelers out of the playoffs, there should be no penalty), however the Steelers should be in position to have a lot of decent picks from the upcoming draft.
• The Beard went out strong with a couple of excellent games (assuming he doesn’t come back).
• The team has evolved from the immaturity and selfishness that had become more common the past couple of years.
• We have a good group here at Steel Balls.

What did you think was the best thing emerging from this season? Vote below. If you have other items to add, please post a comment.

[poll id=”14″]

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