I don’t think we can win a Super Bowl with this offensive line.

I say this, knowing that I said the exact same thing last year.

Guys, some quick thoughts:

- Stefan Logan could very well have made this team as the KR/PR last night. Smoking Joe may very well have gotten a place on the pracitce squad tonight. The kid has put 2 out of 3 punts on the ground. Tomlin can’t trust him at this point. S. Logan saves you a roster spot if he can be your KR/PR and cover kicks. He has to prove he can cover kicks, but the guy is hungry and looks like a football player to me. Smoking Joe, you can get better on the practice squad.

- Arians never tried to run the ball tonight. The OL looked pretty bad. However, you got to give props to D. Legursky, who started at LG in the place of Chris K. He did a pretty good job on Haynesworth because I didn’t even know he was on the field in the first quarter. He’ll make this team and is definitely more stout at the line of scrimmage than D. Stapleton. I saw him locked up on Haynesworth during one pass rush and he didn’t give an inch. This dude is pretty strong, too.

- Ziggy had a good game, showed a lot of explosion and speed; R. Harris did a couple of good things but he wasn’t as noticeable as he was this past week. Still saw him pushing the pocket a few times. I’d keep him over Nick Eason.

- Let’s hope Dixon isn’t seriously hurt. At least we found out that Mike Reilly can take a hit. Now whether he can play QB is another issue.

- If Sweed catches 2 out of every 3 passes, but Mike Wallace catches everything that is thrown to him and is the fastest person on the field, how soon before Wallace is pressing for that no. 3 role? Not long. Steeler fans, Mike Wallace is a football player who is not afraid of the bright lights. All he does is get open and catch the ball. Now, can any of our QBs consistently get him the ball when he’s open?

- Keyaron Fox and Donovan Woods are ready for the regular season. Lawrence Timmons needs to get ready. I saw him run around a couple of blocks tonight. Lebeau won’t stand for that.

- The top 6 CBs on this team are Ike, Gay, Townsend, Ratliff, Lewis and Madison (purely as the no. 1 gunner on special teams). If S. Logan does make this team, then you are probably keeping only 3 safeties, and has R. Lewis or Mundy done enough to beat out Tyrone Carter? Up to this point, that might be doubtful.

- This is the type of game that has to have Tomlin fuming. Too many penalties, the other team controlled the line of scrimmage, the team didn’t even try to run the ball, Reed missed 2 field goals and coverage teams had a couple of great individual plans but weren’t consistent. I think Arians wanted to see if T. Hills could be that swing tackle on game day. The resounding answer to that experiment was no. Jason Capizzi is the swing tackle with D. Legursky the 7th active lineman on game day who will swing between C/G.

- This game made it easy for the Turk to start doing his thing. Some players did a good job of cutting themselves (Bruce Davis) and one went a long way to earning a roster spot (Stefan Logan). For those who say there isn’t a roster spot for S. Logan, who are you kidding? The Steelers haven’t had a threat like that in years and, until this OL plays better, this team will have to play the field position game. Logan stays. Who agrees?

Looking forward to seeing more of Frank Summers this pre season. I think he’ll be a great addition for 3 rd and 3 or 4 and goalline situations. let medenhall run straight, willie outside and hit em with the tank in short yardage.i also heard he can catch. just a thought there bruce!

Right now there’s an interesting decision to be made about the receiver rotation. Hines and Santonio are the starters, obviously, and McDonald and Wallace work very well out of the slot. So when we go to the 4-wide package, we can do one of two things: bump Hines inside and play Sweed at WR or keep Hines and Tone outside and bring in McDonald and Wallace. Sweed did have some good moments last night and he continues to improve, but I agree with Truth: Wallace is more game-ready right now. So I suspect we’ll see a lot of him and McDonald in the slot and Sweed on the field (initially) in very specific situations: goal-line being one of them, and perhaps on the weak side of a Trips set when defenses roll their coverage to the strength and they can get him matched up one-on-one and see if he can make big plays. But in the regular rotation I don’t think he’s as dependable as Wallace and McDonald seem.

Also, did anyone notice Ziggy Hood’s hand placement vs. the o-lineman he beat for his sack? It was beautiful. He punched him in the breastplate with his outside hand and then used a textbook rip move to get around him. He looked like a ten-year vet doing it. No wonder Kiesel and Aaron Smith have been raving about how quickly he’s picking things up…

(p.s. — Commish, I agree with you about Tank: right now I’d take Redman over him in a heartbeat. If one has to go between Redman, Logan and Tank, I think it’s Tank)…

QB - Batch looked like Ben on one play when he shook off Orakpo and kept the play alive. Dixon is showing that he can make some plays (both with his arm and on foot). Would be interesting to see if they are considering any Wildcat plays for him. Wonder how serious the injury is though? Hope it’s minor because I was expecting more from Reilly. Right now, he seems to be less of a potential PS prospect but rather just a camp arm.

RB Nice to see Fast Willie turn the corner. His speed to the outside will be key (especially with the way the OL looks right now). Mendy had a few nice runs and that must continue since he needs show that he can run with intensity every time he’s out there. Would have liked to see more of Redman as others have mentioned. Also, shame that Tank was hurt because he needs to get out there and show what he can do if he is to make the final roster. C.Davis made a decent block on Willie’s TD, but that’s about it. Vincent hasn’t shown enough to keep even on the PS this year.

WR – Holmes looks like he’s going to pick up where he left off in the SB, he will be Ben’s playmaker. To me Mike Wallace is the #3 right now, he runs the routes and makes the catches. Sweed was a bit of a let down after a good showing in the first game with a drop and some lazy routes. McDonald is a nice insurance policy to have as a #5 WR. The other receiver battling for a spot really haven’t shown much….Baker, Nance, Williams, Grisham, Black. Grisham seems to have a lot of heart though, not sure if that translates to the PS or not though. Maybe Nance is the guy for the PS again.

TE Heath is Heath. Not much else to get excited about here. Did notice that DJ was in the backfield to block on a play with the 1st team. Haven’t really got a good look at him running routes though.

OL Yikes! Looking a bit like last year when we struggled. Altough the first unit was OK considering. I think maybe Essex will end up with RG job even when Stapleton comes back. Legursky has been a suprise for me, better than I expected but he did have a bad shotgun snap. Shipley holds his own and at this point looks better to me than Urbik who really hasn’t shown that much for a high pick. Hills was abused by Orakpo and just looks awkward out there. Right now, he’s a liability at LT. Wouldn’t put him on the 53-man, maybe PS if that. Parquet got hurt but he hasn’t shown much either. Foster and Capizzi might be the best bet to be the backup OT’s but they haven’t shown that much either. All in all, OL still looks to be the weak spot on the team right now.

DL – Not bad, although the Skins first unit moved the ball on them, and later the 3rd unit was pushed around. Ziggy is the real deal and he has a nice motor. I think he’ll get into the rotational when the season begins.

LB – See above about Skins moving ball. To me Fox and Woods really stood out and established themselves as the backup ILBs. Woods even had that crushing hit on STs that Thiesmann credited to Timmons. At OLB, not seeing much from the backups….Frazier, A.Harrison, Davis, Bailey. Worries me a bit about depth going into season. Korte had a nice pic at the end of the game but probably not enough to keep him on the team. I think he’s the better of him and Schantz though.

DBs – I saw some good hitting out there, which is nice to see in the pre-season. I think Gay has shown that he can handle the starting job. Ratliff made a nice play on the pic, and I think he can be a decent nickle. Wonder if Townsend’s time is up, he looks like he’s getting by on instinct but not sure if that’s enough. Burnett and K. Lewis haven’t shown a whole lot in coverage, although I didn’t see any stupid mistakes either. Mundy hasn’t distinguished himself as a S, but again, he hasn’t made any big mistakes. Richardson looks like he can’t handle NFL level play in coverage at S. Thought, I saw Roy Lewis playing some S too in additon to CB. He throws his body around and plays with heart, but not sure if that’s enough.

ST The standout here of course was Logan. The was the best KR/PR performance I’ve seen from a Steeler in a long time (other than Holmes). To me if he can constently give us good field position (at least better than what we’ve had), that’ll be a big key to helping our O. I think he will make the 53man as our KR/PR unless he looks horrible in game 3

Okay….seen half this game thus far. Here’s the most relevant questions, IMO.

1. Will L.Timmons step it up against the run. Skins had about 60 yards rushing on that first series…check out Simmons being:
a. Outta position
b. Running around the action
c. Getting knocked flat on his ass
Hope he plays a bunch next game…hope we’re not watching him get his ass kicked on September 10th vs. TFF Lendale White, et al.

2. #3 WR: Sweed had the drop early, but made some catches. McDonald hangs onto the ball. Wallace hangs onto the ball AND has the jets. Wonder if we might see some variety in the #3 slot, whereas last year it was all Nate.

3. CB: Willie Gay!! Seeya BMac…won’t miss ya. Ratliff had a nice play on the pick. How many CBs we keep?

4. OL: Still hard to believe Steelers won a SB with this bunch.

5. WHOSE contract gets worked out, if any, in the remaining couple of weeks???

All, Logan making this team isn’t going to impact what they do at the running back position. It will more so impact the LBs, DBs, and OL. I think the simplest way to look at this is that he just took Joe Burnett’s spot on the 53-man roster as well as being active on game day.

- I think Logan will be worked in a little more on special teams during the next couple of games to see how much he can contribute there. I noticed Ratliff played gunner on the punt team and did a better job of it than Burnett. So, to begin the season the gunners will be A. Madison and Ratliff. Pretty good, I think.

- I doubt if the team would cut Urbik (3rd round pick), so I could see them carrying 10 OL (unless they put Stapleton on the PUP list to begin the season). Legursky will make this squad. He’s been one of the most pleasant surprises during training camp, along with Wallace and R. Foster. And he’s that swing G/T until D. Stapleton is healthy. From what I’ve seen of Legursky, I think he is better than Stapleton. He doesn’t get bullied and bullrushed like Stapleton does. He’s pretty strong at the point of attack.

- Bruce Davis still hasn’t show enough to stick. If you read the interview on Steelers.com, Tomlin said Patrick Bailey made this team last year because he was dominant on special teams during training camp, and carried that over when he was activated from the practice squad to the regular squad during the season and continued on into the playoffs. That doesn’t sound like someone who is going to get cut to me. Bye-Bye Bruce Davis.

- As far as LB depth, if Woodley or J. Harrison has to miss a game, then more than likely L. Timmons will probably play the outside with K. Fox taking his spot on the inside. A. Frazier will rush some on passing downs and Donovan Woods can play OLB & ILB. Plus, A. Harrison will always be around if he’s cut. That is a worst case scenario. Let’s hope Woodley and J. Harrison stay healthy for the whole year.

- This game really helped separate some people and made some decisions easier. If I’m Joe Burnett, I’m feeling kind of sick right now.

 - My bad on that. You made an interesting point with A. Madison, but I think Tomlin will want him as his no. 1 gunner (and returning leading special teams tackler) come game time vs. Tennessee. I believe that Burnett can be put on the practice squad. Burnett isn’t competing against Madison. I think he’s competing against Stefan Logan as the team’s top punt returner (that was the only way that he was going to make this team and be active on game day and he might have lost that competition).

- Tank can’t make the club in the Tub. Hope his hammy heals up quickly so that he at least can have his shot on the field. I still believe he or Redman will make this team, and right now, that player is looking like it’ll be Redman.

- You have to like what D. Johnson showed on special teams and his blocking. I don’t know if McHugh is that good on special teams, but D. Johnson is going to have to knock him out to win this match (meaning he’s going to have to clearly play better than McHugh and gain Tomlin’s trust to do the same on gameday. He got some of his shots earlier this week, so that is a good sign.

- I still don’t trust Sweed. Some of his drops are the kind of catches that are needed on third down to keep the chains moving. I’m telling you, Mike Wallace is coming for that spot. I think they will keep McDonald, which will give them 5 WRs and 1 KR/PR/WR on the squad. Remember, this team only has 4 WRs active on game day so Logan will probably get some time the next couple of weeks learning some slot WR routes in case one of the top 4 (Ward, Holmes, Wallace, Sweed) are injured during a game).

- I think Nick Eason got the message with Sonny Harris’ play this past week, but there is NO WAY that the Steelers can or should cut Harris. Even Wex mentioned in a Twitter that he doesn’t think Harris would make it to the Steelers practice squad without someone scooping him up. He has better mobility than Eason, plays stronger on the field, is a better pass rusher and is stout at the point of attack. When you guys watch him play next week, watch how he gets his hands on the OL, finds the ball and drives him back or disengages to either burst toward the QB or find the running back. I like really like this kid, along with Ziggy. They’re doing a good job of using their hands in the trenches. Heck, even that McClendon kid isn’t bad. He’ll be on the practice squad.

- I still think Jason Capizzi is a little better than most people have given him credit for here. The reason why he isn’t as recognizable as some of the other lineman is because his man isn’t the one making the tackles or hitting the QB, and he isn’t the one jumping offsides or holding. He’s always had the tools, but he needed to improve his strength, learn to play more than LT and gain the trust of the coaching staff. I think he’s done that. I’m starting to think that if he or R. Foster ever get a shot to start that they might not give it up that easily.

- Our special teams this year could end up being pretty special. Sepulvada is punting like an All-Pro, J. Reed is J. Reed, and our coverage teams could be as good or a little better than this past year because of the experience factor. The wildcard is the returners, and you have to feel better about that with Logan’s performance.

I bet U before the end of the year that M. Wallace will be the 3rd WR in this offense. He’s just a more consistent WR than Sweed is right now, and for a rookie to have that over a 2nd year player, either the rookie is special or the 2nd year guy hasn’t lived up to his billing. In this case, I think it is a combination of both.

I wonder why is it so difficult for Sweed to catch a pass near the sidelines? Anything near the sidelines and the ball goes “Clank!”, right off his hands.
Now, on the other hand, if we can just get a QB that can get Wallace the ball without underthrowing him ….

DT4L, he’s going to get underthrown a lot. Even Ben is guilty of under-throwing deep balls. That was one of Nate Washington’s weak points, he rarely outfought a guy for a jump ball even though he was faster, taller and had longer arms than most DBs. This is not an offense built around pretty plays that are perfectly executed. It’s a Bruce Arians’ offense. When Ben needs to make something happen he goes into the huddle and says: “Broken play, on one”.