Mike Tomlin and crew cut the roster down to 53. They chose to keep both Carey Davis and Gary Russel which means Verron Haynes was cut. Also cut was backup center Chukky Okobi, who simply made too much money to be sitting around as a backup. I'd be willing to bet that both of these guys end up in Arizona sooner rather than later. Of the draft picks, McBean, Stephenson and Baker didn't make the cut. These guys will likely end up on the practice squad. Brian St. Pierre did make the cut even though we found out he was eligible for the practice squad. There are a few other good practice squad candidates that were cut including T Jason Capizzi and CBs Anthony Madison and Jovon Johnson.
All in all nothing too suprising. I like Haynes but Parker and Davenport are gonna be the guys on 3rd down so why do we need a 3rd string 3rd down back? Both Davis and especially Russel have shown alot of promise and I am glad Tomlin didn't just automatically defer to the vets like Cowher seemed to do. The other side of this is we will probably be looking through other teams cuts and probably pick up a player or two like we did with Davenport last year. Anyone you would like to see? I would not be suprised at all if we picked up someone on either the offensive line or defensive line. One intriguing choice would be Kimo von Olhoffen who is likely going to be cut from the Jets.What do you guys think?
Update [2007-9-1 19:45:57 by schnifin]: According to the Steelers website we also released Marvin Philip (who was hurt on Thursday) to make room for Allen Rossum, a veteran return man/cornerback from Atlanta. I'm disappointed that Willie Reid hasn't panned out as many of us thought he would but give Tomlin credit for going out and addressing a need. This does seem to leave us awfully thin at center though.