Monthly Archives: September 2015

steelers inactives

Steelers Snap Counts Versus New England

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Here is the player participation data for the Steelers offense and defense from last night’s game in Foxborough. As you can see from the table below, the offensive line remained intact for the entire game. Villanueva was used mainly as a blocking TE (eligible receiver) in goal line situations.

Darrius Heyward-Bey was in for a whopping 43 plays. More action than he’s seen since week 13 of the 2013 season. Tyler Murphy was in for a handful of plays, and recorded his first career reception.

Pos. # Name Snaps
LT 68 Kelvin Beachum 73
LG 73 Ramon Foster 73
C 72 Cody Wallace 73
RG 66 David DeCastro 73
RT 77 Marcus Gilbert 73
QB 7 Ben Roethlisberger 73
TE 83 Heath Miller 73
WR 84 Antonio Brown 68
WR 11 Markus Wheaton 66
HB 34 DeAngelo Williams 62
WR 88 Darrius Heyward-Bey 43
TE 89 Matt Spaeth 24
FB 46 Will C. Johnson 9
WR 16 Tyler Murphy 7
RT 78 Alejandro Villanueva 5
FB 45 Roosevelt Nix 5
HB 13 Dri Archer 3

On the defensive side of the ball, the Steelers mixed things up quite a bit. The division of labor was spread across the outside linebackers, but James Harrison saw the most playing time among them. All of the safeties played, though Shamarko Thomas saw very little time on defense. For whatever reason, CB Brandon Boykin did not play last night.

Pos. # Name Snaps
ILB 94 Lawrence Timmons 61
SS 20 Will Allen 58
ILB 50 Ryan Shazier 58
CB 22 William Gay 56
CB 41 Antwon Blake 56
LE 91 Stephon Tuitt 54
RE 97 Cameron Heyward 51
FS 23 Michael Mitchell 46
OLB 92 James Harrison 36
CB 28 Cortez Allen 32
OLB 95 Jarvis Jones 26
OLB 48 Bud Dupree 26
FS 21 Robert Golden 25
NT 90 Steve McLendon 24
OLB 55 Arthur Moats 20
NT 62 Daniel McCullers 13
RE 93 Cam Thomas 13
ILB 98 Vince Williams 5
ILB 57 Terence Garvin 5
SS 29 Shamarko Thomas 5
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Steelers Won’t File Formal Complaint To The NFL About Headsets

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The Steelers are not planning to file a formal complaint to the NFL regarding the problems with their headsets during last night’s loss to the New England Patriots.

It was being reported earlier by various media outlets that the Steelers were planning to file a formal complaint about the communication issues, but according to Steelers PR man, Burt Lauten, this is not the case.

“We have provided information to NFL representatives regarding issues that occurred Thursday night at Gillette Stadium with our coach-to-coach headset communications system,” Lauten said in a statement. “The problem was addressed during the game and we did not have further problems in the second half. We did not file a formal complaint, nor do we plan to do so.”

Here’s what coach Tomlin had to say about it after the game.

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According to Chris Adamski of the Tribune, after the Steelers notified league personnel, the NFL determined that the entire Steelers coaching staff could not communicate. According to Bob Labriola, the headsets issue was intermittent.

“Strangely enough, whenever an NFL representative proceeded to the New England sideline to shut down their headsets, the Steelers headsets cleared. Then as the representative walked away from the New England sideline, the Steelers’ headsets again started to receive the Patriots game broadcast.”

This might explain some of the head-scratching moments we saw last night.

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NFL Security Investigating Steelers TE Coach For Allegedly Assaulting Patriots Fan

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jamesdaniel

NFL security is investigating Steelers Tight Ends coach James Daniel for allegedly assaulting a Patriots fan during half time last night according to ESPN.

Daniel allegedly was witnessed yelling at a Patriots fan on the way back to the lockers at halftime, and was allegedly seen kicking the fan in the back of the leg. When Daniel made his way back to the field at the end of half time, NFL security and local law enforcement were waiting for him. When confronted about the incident, Daniel allegedly began to yell at the police officer.

NFL security, which did not witness the exchange with police, interviewed Daniel afterward about the entire incident, according to ESPN. A Steelers spokesman acknowledged that the team was aware of the situation and that they were investigating the matter.

Update- Ben Volin of The Boston Globe reports that, contrary to ESPN’s report, NFL security was not waiting for Daniels when he returned to the coaching booth and that NFL security did not speak with him regarding the matter after the half.

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Steelers Fall To Patriots 28-21

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The Steelers lost to the Tom Brady led Patriots tonight in New England 28-21. At times it looked like game was within reach of the Steelers. Other times, it looked like a blowout wasn’t far away. This is a game the Steelers could have, no- should have won. Pittsburgh left a lot of points on the field tonight, and that is something you cannot do against the Patriots.

There were lots of self-inflicted wounds tonight. Too many to list really. It ranged from unnecessarily getting cute on the opening drive when the offense was cutting through New England’s D like butter, to stupid holds that ended up being drive killers. Switching sides for a moment, you’ve got perhaps the biggest offensive weapon in the league (Gronkowski) going completely uncovered somehow. Later, he’d somehow be matched up one on one with Terrence Garvin in the endzone. Garvin did seem to be wanting a time out, and rightfully so, as that matchup is a touchdown every time.

Honestly, the outlook for the defense doesn’t look as bleak as many would have believed. There is work to be done for sure, and there were definitely some head scratching calls and miscommunications tonight. Don’t get me wrong, there were times when the secondary looked lost, and Tom Brady might have been doing a crossword once or twice during that franchise record 19 straight completions. At the end of the night, Gronkowski scored 3 touchdowns and the Steelers D managed to hold the Patriots to just 28 points. It wasn’t all bad. Jarvis Jones looked improved. Shazier blew up a run play or two. Brady got sacked twice, once by Will Allen.

I can’t explain the strange rotations we saw tonight, however. It seemed like Butler was throwing in every combination of personnel he could think of (including Robert Golden who covered Rob Gronkowski). Brandon Boykin did not see the field on defense, though, and on one play, the Steelers only had 10 men in on the play (Cortez Allen didn’t make it I believe).

The bigger problem though, was scoring for the Steelers. Newly acquired kicker Josh Scobee missed not one, but two of his first attempts tonight. The first was wide right from 44 yards. The second also wide, this time from 46. I’m not sure Suisham would have made those in the wet conditions either. Darrius Heyward-Bey had a free touchdown come to him as he sat on the side of the endzone waiting for it, but part of his foot was out of bounds.

DeAngelo Williams was a beaming bright spot on offense. He ran all over the Patriots tonight totaling 127 yards on 21 attempts for a 6.0 yards per carry average. It was his first game over 100 yards since 2013.

Ben Roethlisberger made his 159th career start tonight surpassing Terry Bradshaw for the most as a Steelers QB.

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Patriots Inactives For Tonight’s Steelers Game

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Here is New England’s inactive list for tonight’s game against the Steelers.

C Ryan Wendell, DE Trey Flowers, RB Travaris Cadet, S Tavon Wilson, DL Khyri Thornton, DE Rufus Johnson and CB Justin Coleman.

With Wendell out, the Patriots are likely going to be starting a rookie UDFA at center tonight. This will be a big factor in tonight’s game. Hopefully one that the Steelers defense can capitalize on.

Steelers news

Steelers Inactives Vs. Patriots

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The Steelers have announced their inactives for tonight’s game against the New England Patriots.

QB Landry Jones, WR Sammie Coates, CB Ross Cockrell, G Chris Hubbard, TE Jesse James, DE L.T. Walton and DE Caushaud Lyons will not get a helmet tonight.

Mildly surprised that Sammie Coates isn’t active, but no big surprises on the list.

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Report: Steelers Have Added LB Anthony Chickillo To The Practice Squad

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The Steelers have reportedly added LB Anthony Chickillo to the practice squad as expected.

https://twitter.com/Rand_Getlin/status/640997525504200704

 

As reported earlier, Chcikillo went unclaimed through waivers, so the Steelers were free to add him to their practice squad. There hasn’t been an official announcement by the team, so there’s no word yet as to who will be released to make room for his signing.

If I had to guess, I’d think Shayon Green would be the likely candidate.

Steelers news

Doran Grant And Anthony Chickillo Have Cleared Waivers

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As I expected, CB Doran Grant and LB Anthony Chickillo have cleared waivers.

https://twitter.com/BCTBradford/status/640980834439327744

https://twitter.com/JFowlerESPN/status/640980121877282817

I expect Chickillo will be signed to the practice squad today. Grant, however, isn’t such a slam dunk. While teams aren’t lining up to place him on their 53 man roster, there will likely be some suitors trying to add him to their practice squads. We’ll see if the Steelers can add him to theirs soon.

David Decastro contract

Steelers Restructure Lawrence Timmons

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The Steelers have restructured Lawrence Timmons’ contract today. $6.63 Mil of his $7.5 Mil salary salary was rolled into a signing bonus. The move adds apx $3.32 Mil in cap space for this year.

His 2015 cap hit drops from $12.5 Mil to $9.25 Mil, but his 2016 cap hit rises from $11.8 Mil to $15.1 Mil. After this move, the Steelers should be sitting with around roughly $5 Mil in salary cap space.

The team was doing pretty well avoiding restructures this off season, but injuries have forced their hand.

Steelers Preseason

Steelers Make Several Practice Squad Moves

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The Steelers have been busy retooling their practice squad this morning. The team has added five new players to the squad, and released 5 others to make room. Here’s the list of signings.

TE Xavier Grimble,

OT Matt Feiler

RB Fitzgerald Toussaint

WR Isaiah Burs

C/G Barrett Jones

To make room for the signings the team released these five players.

TE Harold Spears

WR Jarrod West

RB Dominique Brown

OT Antonio Johnson

OL Reese Dismukes

After these moves, the Steelers currently have 3 players on the practice squad who spent the entire preseason with the team. The flurry of moves is an indicator that the team recognizes that they’ve lacked talented depth. I expect the team to make even more practice squad moves in the near future.