Monthly Archives: January 2014

Rumor: Kirby Wilson A Possible Candidate As Titans Offensive Coordinator

Add another Steelers assistant coach to the list of rumored potential Tennessee Titans coordinators. Jason La Canfora says he’s told that Steelers running backs coach Kirby Wilson is a possible offensive coordinator candidate in Tennessee.

https://twitter.com/JasonLaCanfora/statuses/423122838095400960

Kirby Wilson was rumored to be the next in line to replace Bruce Arians before he was hospitalized from burns he suffered in a house fire. While it does seem to come out of left field, it doesn’t seem quite as far fetched as it would have a year ago. Recent reports indicated that Wilson was involved in offensive game planning this past season.

Nonetheless, Wilson has no NFL experience as an offensive coordinator. With Whisenhunt’s status climbing to near iconic levels recently, it would stand to reason that he could have his pick of the top available offensive minds. While it is a bit of a head scratcher, stranger things have happened.

Losing Keith Butler To Whisenhunt Seems Unlikely

There have been stories circulating suggesting that the Steelers may lose LB Coach Keith Butler when Ken Whisenhunt landed a head coaching job. It was just announced that the Tennessee Titans have hired him as their new head coach, but the likelihood of him luring Butler away from the Steelers is small. Let’s take a deeper look at why it isn’t very likely.

Gerry Dulac of the Post Gazette writes, “There is a good possibility Whisenhunt will try to hire Steelers linebackers coach Keith Butler as his defensive coordinator, something he tried to do in 2007 when he left the Steelers to become head coach in Arizona.”

There’s a long history of teams (namely the Cardinals) seeking permission to interview Butler, and ultimately being denied by the Steelers brass or spurned by Butler himself. He was a candidate for the Colts defensive coordinator position two years ago, but reportedly changed his mind the day before the interview after meeting with Art Rooney II and Coach Tomlin. According to Jerry Dulac at the time, he and the team made a gentleman’s agreement in 2009 making him the next defensive coordinator when(ever) Dick LeBeau decides to hang up his clipboard. If that was indeed true, it can be safely assumed that Butler isn’t going to leave now after waiting this long. The end is certainly almost here. Dick LeBeau will be 77 this year. Having said that, it should come as no surprise that a gentleman’s agreement in the NFL doesn’t amount to much at the end of the day.

Ultimately though, Butler is a 3-4 guy and the Titans are predominately a 4-3 team. The Titans defense was formidable last year. It’s not as though they struggled and are in need of a complete overhaul. The contracts of both defensive coordinator Jerry Gray and senior assistant Gregg Williams expired last week though, so the Titans will need to find a defensive coordinator. Will Wiz want to scrap the 4-3 when the pieces are there and working? Furthermore, will he want to take a chance again on a positional coach who hasn’t been a defensive coordinator in the NFL? These questions may be moot if the Steelers decide (as they have done in the past) to decline requests to interview him.

There are  a lot of candidates in the pool for Whiz to consider, and as Mike Silver said today, Whiz was reportedly discussing options with San Diego assistants recently. Butler isn’t the only guy he knows.

 

Antonio Brown Named To 2013 PFWA All-AFC Team

The accolades continue to roll in for Steelers star wide receiver Antonio Brown. The Pro Football Writers of America announce that he has been selected to their All-AFC team.  Cleveland’s Josh Gordon was the other AFC receiver who was selected.

This is the cherry on top of what was an amazing season for Brown. He finished the season with 1499 receiving yards, breaking Yancey Thigpen’s single season record that stood for 16 years.  Brown was named team MVP for the second time last month. He was also named 2nd team All Pro, selected to the 2014 pro bowl, and chosen by ProFootballFocus to their All Pro team as well.

Chiefs Sign DeMarcus Van Dyke To Futures Contract

The Kansas City Chiefs have signed former Steelers CB DeMarcus Van Dyke to a reserve/futures deal.

The Steelers originally signed Van Dyke back in September of 2012, where he saw limited participation as a special teamer. He was back with team in training camp this year, but was ultimately waived/injured due to a nagging hamstring injury.

The Steelers re-signed him in November, but released him a few weeks later to make room for the signing of offensive linemen.

Report: Omar Khan Interviewed With Dolphins

Reports are coming out indicating that Steelers Director of Football & Business Administration, Omar Khan, had his interview with the Dolphins today. ESPN writer Scott Brown reports that he interviewed with the team today, and that his was the first, though, reports from earlier in the day state otherwise.

Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald reported that Arizona’s Jason Licht was the first interview of the day. Salguero also reports that Cleveland Browns assistant GM Ray Farmer is the leading candidate. The Dolphins have been busy today interviewing and lengthening the list of candidates.

So far, Miami has 7 candidates by my count, and have expressed interest in Ravens assistant GM Eric DeCosta, though it’s rumored that he declined. The team released a statement yesterday that would seem to address some of the concerns I noted yesterday, though I still don’t think Khan winds up there. Stranger things have happened, though.

Steelers Sign WR Jasper Collins, S Jordan Dangerfield

The Steelers have signed wide receiver Jasper Collins and safety Jordan Dangerfield to reserve/futures contracts.

Jasper Collins is a 5’10”, 190 lb receiver out of Mount Union college. The same small school that produced Pierre Garcon. Collins was undrafted and signed by the Dolphins last spring, though he was waived/injured during training camp. Later he was signed to the Browns practice squad before going back to join the Dolphins on their scout team.

I watched some of Collins tape last year. He is undersized, and will mainly see activity in the slot. He has fluid hips and is capable of explosiveness, though as with many undersized receivers, he struggles in press coverage.

Jordan Dangerfield is 5’11”, 199. Dangerfield also went undrafted last year. He was signed by the Bills and was released at the end of their training camp.

Jerome Bettis and Kevin Greene Named Finalists For Hall Of Fame

Jerome Bettis and Kevin Greene are among the top 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame- class of 2014. Both players were finalists last year, but did not receive the 80% vote necessary to be selected. The Bus is the only eligible top ten rushing running back not in the Hall of Fame.

The class of 2014 Hall of Fame inductees will be selected and announced on February 1st.

Report: Dolphins Requested To Interview Omar Khan

Adem Schefter reports that among several other candidates, the Dolphins have in fact requested the Steelers permission to interview Omar Khan.

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/421400098115829760

As I posted earlier, this doesn’t concern me. We will have to wait and see if the Steelers grant them permission, and if he does in fact attend an interview with the Miami Dolphins.

Steelers To Interview Shaun Sarrett To Replace Jack Bicknell Jr.

The Steelers will interview offensive assistant Shaun Sarrett for the offensive line coaching position, according to Jerry Dulac of the Post-Gazette. Sarrett is the guy you see occasionally working with the linemen in pictures from Steelers practice. He was hired by the Steelers as offensive quality control coach in 2012. Before being hired by Pittsburgh, he coached at Duke, where one of his duties was assistant offensive line coach.

Dulac implied recently that Sarrett was preforming many of  Bicknell’s duties, and other media sources claimed that Bicknell had seen a reduction in his coaching responsibilities.  While other reports indicated that it was not true, the announcement of this interview does imply that perhaps there is some truth to it.

Omar Khan As Dolphins GM Is Very Unlikely

It wouldn’t be January without Steelers salary cap guru Omar Khan being mentioned as a possible GM candidate somewhere. It seems that like clock work, Steelers fans, bloggers, and media members start speculating about who might covet Khan to replace a recently fired GM. (More certainly, a blogger writes an article around a beat writer’s speculative tweet.)

In the last few years Khan has been in the race for various general manager positions including teams like Seattle, St. Louis, and the NY Jets.  It’s no secret that Khan has aspirations to be a GM somewhere, but the idea that Khan would be interested in the position in Miami is very hard to believe. The Dolphins have earned a reputation for having a hostile and restrictive work environment. We’re not talking about bullying in the locker room here, we’re talking about office politics, power battles, and struggles for control.

The team and former GM Jeff Ireland reportedly “agreed to part ways” after a six year tenure. It’s probably the first time that I can recall hearing of such a parting. Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero wrote a very telling article on the rather bizarre and hostile structure of the Dolphins management hierarchy, and it suffices to say that Khan, who was promoted to the Steelers Director of Football & Business Administration last year, wouldn’t be quick to return a call from Ross and company.  Here’s a quote from Salguero:

…the same way star head coach candidates avoided the Dolphins like the plague in 2012 because Ross went looking with a general manager he wanted to force on people, now the Dolphins could lose out on a star talent evaluator because that person must accept getting aboard a ship Philbin and Aponte are already trying to navigate.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are another team who are on the hunt for a general manager, so who knows, perhaps we’ll hear Omar Khan’s name in headlines soon. Don’t forget that the Steelers hired Samir Suleiman last spring. The move at the time was interpreted by many to be a safety net, should the Steelers lose Khan to a GM position in the future. Suleiman has years of experience with contract negotiations and salary cap management during his tenure with the St. Louis Rams.