Rookie Martavis Bryant missed his second consecutive day of practice for the Steelers on Thursday due to an illness. Bryant hasn't been active yet this season, causing some to wonder about his progress.
But the No. 5 receiver spot - which is currently being handled by Darrius Heyward-Bey, is one that needs to perform a lot of special teams duties. That's not Bryant's strong point at this time.
He'll be down again this week.
More troubling was a hamstring issue that forced No. 2 receiver Markus Wheaton to be limited on Thursday. If Wheaton is unable to play, that bumps everyone else up a spot behind Antonio Brown.
@ This leads me to Justin Brown.
As regular readers of this blog know, I've been high on Brown since late last season when I noticed him making a lot of plays in practice.
He continued some of that into the offseason and won himself a spot on this team.
Once the regular season began, he was holding down the No. 3 receiver spot because A. the Steelers liked his blocking, and B. because Lance Moore was hurt.
But Moore has been back the past two weeks and has seen just 15 total snaps. Fourteen of those came last week against Tampa Bay, while Brown got 46 snaps.
Sorry, but that should be reversed.
I get the fact that the Steelers like Brown's blocking. That's fine.
But the position is called wide receiver, not wide blocker.
And then there is this. Brown was on the field for 27 passing plays last week and caught one pass for five yards, dropping a potential touchdown on third down - though the DB made a nice play on the ball.
Moore was on the field for nine passing plays and made a 12-yard catch on his only target.
Moore has to get increased playing time, though the injury to Wheaton could facilitate that.
@ Dick LeBeau's record against rookie quarterbacks since he returned to the Steelers in 2004 is 17-2. And Ben Roethlisberger didn't start either of the two games the Steelers lost during that stretch.
That means Roethlisberger is unbeaten against rookie QBs.
they will miss wheaton.
ReplyDeletethey may have a great record against rookie QB's, but this team isn't good enough to just start putting checks in the win column. they have played one complete game so far this year.
With the condition of this defense the only way i see winning games until maybe the second half of the season is possessing the ball for 35+ minutes and scoring 27+ points. The defense is not going to save the game late. The offense needs to think score, all the way to the end. No more trying to run down the vlock.
ReplyDeleteThey need to put Jacksonville on their heels early and not let them gain confidence. Let Ben use his weapons in Heath, AB and Moore to move the ball right out of the gate. When Jacksonville adjusts to that, start pounding them with Bell and Blount. Keep our struggling defense off the field.
ReplyDeletethe days of the steeler's defense targeting 17 points or fewer per game are gone. I think it's more realistic they're gonna be in the 20-24 point range as an average.
ReplyDeletethe final 8 games of last year they gave up an average of 20pts. while scoring an average of 28pts.
this season they are averaging about 24pts. for offense and defense. it should be no surprise their two wins this season are when they have scored 30+ points.
full disclosure - these figures do not take into account special teams scores, defensive scores, short fields, etc. I didn't feel like taking time to break it all out and figure they offset each other in the end anyway. take it for what it's worth, I guess.
the steeler's game plan going forward should be score, score, score and don't stop until clock runs out.
I'll just leave this here and let people make their own conclusions.
ReplyDeleteLawrence Timmons - $11 million - the highest salary cap hit league wide at ILB.
Jason Worlids - $9 million - the 6th highest salary cap hit league wide at LB.
Heath Miller - $6 million - the 6th highest salary cap hit league wide at TE.
Ike Taylor - $7.6 million - the 9th highest salary cap hit league wide at CB.
Troy Polumalu - $6.3 million - the 8th highest salary cap hit league wide at S.
Didn't Ike take a pay cut?
ReplyDeleteWhat's Ben's, Brown, Bell and Mitchells numbers?
How may years did we have those players at below market rate?
ReplyDelete~SBK