Monday Morning Notes

by Blitzburgh on Jul 7, 2008 12:26 PM EDT Comment 20 comments

A few things to start off the week. A quick housekeeping note, I suppose, might be in order. This will be my last week at my job. What's that mean? Time to clean up all those loose ends I left unattended while bringing you Steelers commentary :) So, keep the fan posts section rocking and we'll see what shakes out on my end as the week progresses.

* More impressive offseason preparation from James Farrior. James, Santonio Holmes, Ike Taylor, and Bryant McFadden are all utilizing their pre-camp time at the Tom Shaw Performance Enhancement Camp. Farrior, who is 33 years of age, understands what he needs to do to keep up with the younger players chomping at the bit to get their opportunity:

"It's the Fountain of Youth down here," said Farrior, at 33 the second oldest player on the Steelers. "This is probably the biggest key to my offseason and my training program, as far as me playing at a high level. A guy my age, it takes a little bit extra. You've got to do a little bit more, work a little bit longer, just to keep up with the younger guys."

I got to say, I sure like that four of our very best players are leading the way in terms of preparation.

Oh, here's one other worthwhile quote from that article from Holmes:

"It gives you a totally different mind-set because you know you're coming out here with about 15-20 other guys from different teams in the NFL that want to compete a lot harder than you.

"When you have teammates, throughout practice you're gonna get that urge to take a step back," said Holmes, who also led the Steelers in receiving yards and touchdowns in 2007. "You don't want to hurt your teammates. You don't want to go too hard. But down here, you're going to get guys working at 100 mph every time."

* Our first rookie to sign! Tony Hills, the 4th round OT selected out of the University of Texas, will receive a signing bonus of $304,500, and his three-year deal with pay him league minimum base salaries of $295,000, $385,000 and $470,000. Hopefully Mendenhall, Limas, Bruce Davis, Ryan Mundy, Mike Humpal, and Dennis Dixon will follow suit soon before camp opens on July 27th.

* Good, I'm not the only one who thinks Mewelde Moore will make a huge impact this year.

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haha

I was just about to write a fan post about that. It’s good to see Holmes backed up his complaint by working his tail off harder than at OTA’s. One more thing from the article:

Tom Shaw, the guy they’re training with gave a list of the things each of the guys are working towards: Holmes is “trying to strengthen his hamstrings and his (quadriceps) and his hip flexors, so he doesn’t have leg problems”, Farrior is trying to extend his career by “decreasing body fat, [while] maintaining his explosive power and maintaining his speed”, BMac is “looking to start” and “become a millionaire this year”, and Taylor is working on his hands, among other things. It’s good to see that all the players and their trainer have a realistic view of what they need to do to improve as football players.

This is more of a long shot, but another link I found was an interesting article (the site may be down right now) on Chris Gocong of the Eagles. It’s looking like he’s more of a 3-4 OLB than a SAM LB in the 4-3, but that’s where he’s playing right now. The article makes it seem like he could be cut in the next few years if he doesn’t improve. I think he’s someone to keep an eye on in the future, because he could be a very good rotation guy for our pass rush and would still be young and probably cheap. Also, I don’t want New England to get him, because they’ll probably turn him into an Pro-Bowler.

by BadMaafala on Jul 7, 2008 1:01 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Mewelde Moore

Barring injury do you see him getting enough touches to play a big role? I’m curious how they will split time between Parker, Mendenhall and Moore.

by schnifin on Jul 7, 2008 3:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

good question

Last year Parker got all the carries, but part of the reasoning there was that Davenport was our second back, while rookie Gary Russell was the 3rd. There really wasn’t great depth. There’s no way Parker eats up as many carries this year (I’ll guess about 280), with Mendenhall as a very talented but young back, and Moore as a do-it-all back. This isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. A few years ago, we had a veteran (Bettis), a young talent (Parker) and a well rounded 3rd down back (Haynes), and they all got decent playing time. It’ll be a similar situation this year, only Moore is a good PR and could return kicks as well. As that link said, Moore looks like Kevin Faulk, and he could be that one guy that you just can’t seem to keep track of on 3rd down. He may not put up big numbers (65 carries, 35 receptions), but he could have a significant impact in that respect.

by BadMaafala on Jul 7, 2008 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

is it possible

that Pro Football weekly was citing BTSC when it said “Moore looks like Kevin Faulk, said a veteran Steelers observer”. A few of us a few months ago mentioned he could be a Kevin Faulk like player for us….

by TheMostViolentTeam on Jul 7, 2008 4:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

haha

I hope so. Time to pick up your royalties, Blitz?

by BadMaafala on Jul 7, 2008 5:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Only a matter of time

Soon enough we’ll be the one respected “source” for all things Steelers. Then we’ll get Blitz some locker-room access for the inside scoops, free tickets for all regulars and ok… I’ll slow down and stop dreaming now.

by Chicago Steeler on Jul 7, 2008 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hey guys

Can’t promise I’ll get to it, but we have Wexell cued up for later in the week. Anything you would like to ask?

by Blitzburgh on Jul 7, 2008 5:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Wexell Q ideas

Feel free to use all or none of these ideas:

You could ask him if there’s any news on the signing front, especially with Sweed and Mendenhall.

I’m interested to see if he thinks Stapleton could push Simmons or the centers for a starting spot this year or basically any impressions of Stapleton he has (beyond his weight).

I can’t remember if he’s already answered this question, but you could ask him about the return game. Any chance they keep a 6th WR as an RS, will ‘tonio actually return any punts/kicks this year, Willie Reid’s chances, Marion, Bloom, etc.

Has Ryan McBean recovered from his injury? What’s the general feeling about him? Could he contribute this year?

by BadMaafala on Jul 8, 2008 10:26 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Rookie FAs

I would be curious about an update on any rookie FAs that are impressing. It sounded like Clement was making some noise earlier.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Jul 10, 2008 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Steelers for Sale?!?

Your Monday Morning Notes missed the biggest story of the day, as reported in the WSJ. Evidently, the Rooney’s have shopped the team to outside buyers since some of the siblings want to monetize the team and believe they will get a higher price from an outsider than from Dan—the only Rooney in the third generation who wants to keep it in the family. Not sure what this means, but it would be a very, very, very sad day if someone else (e.g., Mark Cuban) ended up buying this storied franchise.

by ec on Jul 7, 2008 6:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

wow

That sure is the headliner. Too busy to have gotten to anything today, but I will certainly read the article and touch on it later. I will quickly say that if Cuban were to buy the team, that would not be a bad thing whatsoever. We’ll touch on this later, but this would be far better than being bought by a group of investors where decision making would be quarrelsome, or by some corporate entity that’s more interested in the bottom line than in winning games.

by Blitzburgh on Jul 7, 2008 6:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ownership groups

I can tell you that you don’t want that, based on the mess in the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers. Both are owned by the same group, and one of the owners tried to stop the team from signing Joe Johnson to the Hawks. Then, the other owners took it court. Not a pretty picture.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Jul 10, 2008 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yea

I was thinking about the Atlanta teams when I said that. Heh, total mess down there.

by Blitzburgh on Jul 10, 2008 5:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hard to hope

It makes it hard to have hope when the ownership group seems so messed up. It’s like the joke down here when Atlanta got a WNBA team, the reason was so there would be a team with more empty seats than the Hawks.

by WolfpackSteelersFan on Jul 10, 2008 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

bah

I think it is pretty clear from

http://news.steelers.com/article/91693/ and
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3477065

that Art 2 and Dan just want to transfer shares from Art Jr. (and maybe some others) to comply with NFL regulations. Ideally the shares will go to other Rooney’s, but even if they get sold to an outside source it isn’t like the whole team is getting sold here guys…

by steelguy99 on Jul 7, 2008 6:54 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The impact of training camp

Hey there all you Steelers fans. Get ready for a great start to the season. News like this about OTAs and Training Camps are the best sign we could have for a great start to the season.

Hey Coach,
Please be sure to keep the competative feel throughout the season so that our guys don’t get too comfortable. AND WORK THE SPECIAL TEAMS for GODs sake!!!

by vogelson on Jul 7, 2008 9:55 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would think

NFL players would not want much to do with the phrase “performance enhancement”

Go register. Or else.

by Skin Patrol on Jul 8, 2008 8:29 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

3 Signings so far

Hill, Dixon and Davis have all signed.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/s_576455.html

by BadMaafala on Jul 8, 2008 8:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

#1 and #2

I imagine the deals with #1 and #2 are taking a bit longer to hammer out. For some reason they are probably going for more than the base salary :)

by steelguy99 on Jul 8, 2008 10:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Trib-Rev Article

They ran another article specifically about Holmes here:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_576644.html

It’s pretty encouraging on top od the previous article. It says he’s gained a little weight (up to 198 now!) and he’s working on precise routes and attacking the football in the air. He also says he’s focused on getting to the Pro Bowl this year. Sounds like a good plan.

by BadMaafala on Jul 9, 2008 9:27 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs