BTSC Steelers Daily Six Pack-Tuesday Edition

I like Ike as much as the next guy, but 4.18? I really just don’t believe that number. If I’m not mistaken, that would be the fastest 40 EVER at the combine… ever. He’s fast, no doubt, but not that fast. Pro day stop watches are notoriously generous, and in my opinion that is most likely the case here. I’d be interested to see what teams had him running. Admittedly I did not read the full article, so I may be speaking out my arss on this one. If I’m wrong I’m wrong.

Shenanigans. Sorry Ike.

..Taylor still gives up a 10 yard cushion to most WR though.

..Mike Wallace ran the fastest 10 and 20 yard splits at the combine. That is huge. Faster than anyone I could find from last year’s tests as well. Not sure about long term. (1.43 10), (2.45 20). He was significantly faster off the line than Heyward’Bey or Macklin.

You guys are in for a treat seeing Mike Wallace this year and year’s to come. He is truly a game breaker and has good size at 6’0’’, 200 lbs. with the physique to put on 10 to 15 pounds easy. I know he ran a 4.33 at the combine (Heyward-bey beat him out by running a 4.30, 40) but Wallace is a better football player than DHB and played against better competition in the SEC for 4 years.

This guy is going to make everyone here say “Nate who?” Remember, you heard it here first from the DaTruth. Drinkyourmilkshake and Blitz will vouch that I was the first to put this guy in a mock draft here on this board, and I had him going to us in the third round because of the great fit he would make for us as a WR/KR/PR. I would have been ABSOLUTELY sick if he would have went to the Ravens.

He, Burnett and hopefully a healthy Sepulvada should immensely improve our special teams play next year. And it’s great knowing that people are sleeping on the best draft so far in the Tomlin era.

Thanks, man. People are going to look back on this class in 3 years and say, “Damn, the Steelers Put it Down once again!”

….Wallace college numbers. Comparitively speaking, Mike actually did better as a junior and soph, than in his senior season. As a senior he had Javon Snead at QB, who could actually throw the ball downfield. Prior to that there was a rotating carousel of QBs who couldn’t. As a soph, he led the team in catchs (24) and yards (410) by a fair margin. That was an indication of how bad the team’s passing attack was. But in his final season he got the great majority of his catchs and yards in the last half of the year (along with all of his touchdowns) when he finally got in tune with the new system and new QB. Kent Austin, the Rebels OC under Houston Nutt acknowledged that it took half a season for them to be able to take advantage of Wallace’s talent. He said that Mike could have had a huge senior year under most conditions.

He had 180 total yards in the Cotton Bowl compared to 30 for Mike Crabtree, and despite being a late addition to the Senior Bowl, managed another 60 odd total yards and a long TD. In the All Star games most players only get half the snaps or less compared to conference games. Double his numbers and you get 4 catchs, 80+ yards, and 2 TDs against some of the best players in the country.

…Heyward-Bey managed 4 catches and 42 net yards in the “Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl” vs. Nevada……:)

Doesn’t have quite the same cachet.

..if you put any stock in what Mel Kiper says, he called Wallace the most underrated receiver in the draft back in late March, and included him among a half dozen players he thought were the best day 2 prospects.

I heard somewhere that Ike asked Dion Sanders to review his technique from this year, and Dion told him to send him game tapes and he’d do it. That’s pretty impressive that he would go that length, and that he wouldn’t be too proud to ask. I was also impressed that Dion agreed to do it. Can anyone there ask Ike about the result?

Guys, check this out:

James Harrison Contract Details

Posted by ESPN.com’s James Walker

A couple weeks ago, we explained that some league insiders were scratching their heads about how the salary-cap strapped Pittsburgh Steelers worked out a massive six-year, $51.175 million contract with Pro Bowl linebacker James Harrison this offseason.

Finally, the AFC North blog has the details.

Here are the key points:

- Harrison received a $10-million signing bonus up front and a $2.555-million roster bonus for this year.

- Harrison’s base salary in 2009 is $800,000.
In 2010, which could be an uncapped year, the contract gets tricky as Harrison’s base salary drops to $755,000. But he also has a reporting bonus of $2.8 million.
In 2011, Harrison’s salary jumps to $3.66 million and includes $900,000 roster bonus.
In years four, five and six Harrison’s salary balloons to $5.315 million, $6.32 million and $7.325 million, respectively.
Our analysis of Harrison’s contract is he will be a Pittsburgh Steeler for at least the next three years. Once year four comes around, Harrison will be a 35-year-old linebacker, and the team will have to gauge his level of play at that point versus the increasingly high salary.

My thought is that Harrison will see only about 4 years of this 6-year deal. By that time, Woodley would have been paid and the Steelers will have some more LBs in house to take over his spot. A win-win contract for both parties — Deebo gets his paper and the Steelers get a LB in his prime for the next 4 years. Interesting to see how they will approach the other extensions.

Thoughts?

Maryrose, I don’t have statistics to compare the two to show their similarities or differences. Reid was primarily used as a running back at Florida State until his senoir year when he was switched to WR. Wallace has always been a WR.

I kind of go off what I see in a player live during a game or on film. I can usually pick up on a few things to see whether the player has the potential to be a baller, or not. I’ve noticed that Wallace doesn’t struggle to catch the ball like Reid did, as a receiver and as a returner. He really tracks the deep ball well.

Besides the hands part, the other biggest difference I think is that Wallace can provide something right now for this Steelers offense that Reid never did — a legitimate deep threat. I watched the Senior Bowl and noticed right off that Wallace looked a lot faster than the other players around him. In the next couple of plays, he runs right past the corner and catches a bomb for a TD on a difficult over the shoulder catch.

Wallace at 6’0, 200 lbs, is bigger than Reid was and still has a lot of potential to get bigger and stronger (when you see his guns and his calves, you’ll see what I’m talking about).

The bottom line is that we still need to see what he can do in a Steelers uniform on the field. But from what I’ve seen of him, I believe the Steelers got a good player who is only going to get better. In fact, when H. Ward finally retires, I think the starters will be Wallace and Santonio, and not Sweed and Santonio.

…from a statistical perspective, Wallace outperformed Reid at every combine event, except the short shuttle where their numbers were equal. Mike was 2" taller, 12 pounds heavier, and a year younger when he took the tests.

Wallace and Reid are two entirely different kinds of athletes with Wallace a much more legitimate prospective WR. Kent Austin is an outstanding coordinator who I expect will someday be in the NFL. He was a head coach and offensive coordinator in the CFL after a successful playing career there. If he is high on Wallace then it’s just another positive piece of news. He does seem to have a Steeler-type of character, and Sweed is much the same. Let’s hope they both learn to hang onto the football. I will say though that I think pure speed is the most overrated aspect of being a wide receiver. Knowing how to use your speed, the footwork to get separation out of breaks, understanding the routes of other players and the secondary coverage, body positioning, leap timing and pure good hands are all much more important than running a sub 4.40 40. From what I’ve seen of Wallace he is a very good athlete but a raw WR. His hands are OK, not great. He is strictly a KR guy, not a PR. He has the ability to make a single cut and blast into the lane and outrun tackling angles. If the blocking isn’t there, he isn’t going to do it on his own. We have to see if he can hang onto the ball when he gets hammered, which he will since the NFL has changed the rules on the number of blockers that can be used in a wedge, one of the dumbest rule changes I’ve ever seen. They were worried about the safety of wedge busters, so let’s see how many KR get hurt instead. In any event, I don’t expect to see Wallace in many passing plays this season unless there are injuries. There is enough depth that he can get his feet wet returning kicks and learn the dozens of little details that have made relative slowpoke Hines Ward a likely future Hall of Famer.