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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Position battles

I did a radio spot with Greg Linelli today and he asked me about which position battle for the Steelers I am most looking forward to seeing - or at least something along those lines.

To me, I feel the cornerback position will be the most interesting.

Currently, Keenan Lewis is holding down the starting spot opposite Ike Taylor, with second-year players Curtis Brown and Cortez Allen pushing.

One of those three will also serve as the slot corner as well. Brown seems best suited for that position, but Allen's athleticism is hard to deny.

Lewis, however, played very well last season as the third corner and has much more experience than the other two.

Unless Dick LeBeau can come up with a way to get all three corners young corners on the field at the same time, somebody is going to be disappointed.

What position battle are you looking forward to?

@ Speaking of Linelli, he has long been one of the underrated and underutilized radio hosts in the Pittsburgh market.

Soon, he won't be.

Greg is moving on to greener pastures. Good luck to him.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm curious how it plays out if Allen rather than Lewis wins the LCB job. Or Brown. Since I don't think Lewis is suited at all for the nickel job. Seems Allen could play both, and Brown might be able to play both but seems nickel is his better fit. All that leaves me wondering what happens with Lewis if he doesn't win the LCB job. If he is in fact not NCB capable, would he be the 5th corner off the bench? Or would they use him like they did last year and have him come off the bench in nickel, but play outside while whoever wins the LCB moves in to NCB? Lot of pressure on Lewis, as the difference between winning and losing the LCB job could be as many as 900 snaps... in a contract year.

Anonymous said...

Brown is very athletic too just like Allen.

Allen was the only player all year to shut down Gronkowski

Anonymous said...

Can any of these young guys play safety? I'm just not sold on Mundy if and when Troy goes out for a game or two.

Anonymous said...

what a great problem to have! 3 young and athletic CB's battling it out for 2 spots.

i am comfortable with all three of those guys and i don't think it will make that much of a difference regardless of what order they fall.

because of that, i am more interested in the LT spot. can adams earn the nod in training camp? if so, i think it makes the the OL, as a whole, much stronger.

Anonymous said...

I'm most interested in the battle of Mendenhall starting on opening day.

Even tho I think they should wait a few weeks, Mendenhall is already running! and he says he will be ready!

Lance said...

NT battle between McLendon and Ta'amu should be fun to watch. The young corners will also be interesting to watch play out.

I do not think the o-line will be much of a battle, but it will be very interesting to watch play out. I think we will see Adams-Colon-Pouncy-DeCastro-Gilbert very quickly (adams and decastro are already splitting reps after a few days in) I think the real battle is for the back up spots, I can see a couple vets being sent packing. You have Foster, Legursky, Essex, etc. along with other young talent, it should be fun to watch.

alexrkirby said...

I really hope we can cut Scott. 2 Mill is way too much for that guy.

Tim said...

I think it's very generous to say Lewis played very well as the 3rd CB last year. I'm pulling for the guy, but he didn't look so good to me.

Anonymous said...

Dale ... I'm looking for an NFL expert to give me a few tips on watching pre-season football. What to watch for to make the games more interesting, even though the results don't count. This is for a monthly Bud Light newsletter. We can provide links to your blog and help give you more traffic ... If you're interested, drop me a line.

Chris Gigley
Rodale Custom Publishing
cgigley@yahoo.com

test said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tim said...

Man, what a waste DeCastro and Adams are!

Dear God in heaven is that man an idiot. So many reasons, I don't have enough fingers.

Dirt4HOF said...

Ziggy and Heyward could be another interesting battle.

I just saw several reasons that Jay`s blog not being searchable by google could be for the best...
Hey Jay what would you call Spence and Ta`amu? You really need to do more reaserch...

Anonymous Brian said...

Dale -- any guesses / rumors about the likelihood of anyone pushing Foote? I guess I just mean Sylvester, because I doubt a rookie will get much meaningful time at ILB for LeBeau.

I'm hoping at least one (hopefully two) of Hood, Heyward, McClendon, and the rookie NT can play something close to the caliber of Hampton & A. Smith in their primes. If not, the D worries me considering the QBs we face this year compared to the Gabberts of last year.

Dale Lolley said...

Sylvester will get a shot, but Foote's experience will likely win out.