special teams

this is something we have not covered much this offseason. how good will they be?

the ??????:

we will lose over 1,000 yards by brown not being the returner this year.

we lose the punter we drafted.

our kicker seems quite iffy at times.

we may lose allen or lewis off of the coverage units. who will be the gunners and are they any good at it? there will be some new faces on this squad and the return squad.


the fixes: maybe.

rainey as the new return man. he does put the ball on the ground from time to time though.

we have a pretty good guy that's filled in very well for a couple of seasons. we have a legacy good young leg thats going to give him a run for his money though.

i hope squeezem has his head on and heinz field is becoming more comfortable to him. i also hope we only need him for extra points and kickoffs. raying:

oh and our aging longsnapper mr.warren has some veteran competition in camp this year.

i just hope we are not really good on O and D only to struggle on this part of the game.

 

If we can find a way to keep marquis maze on the roster, he is a dynamic punt returner. Spence will be great on special teams as well as brown. rainey and maze could both be dangerous returners. I just wish we had a kicker.

 

I agree the loss of Brown could potentially be big. But I also think that our ST unit has been one of the more quiet improvements in the last few seasons.

Rainey could well be an answer. Let's hope this is one area where a comparison to Stefan Logan is, in fact, fair.

I'm not overly concerned about Suisham - as I've said before, I'm disappointed there wasn't more competition brought in, but at the moment it's not a position worth breaking the bank for.

 

Bring in Jeff Reed I heard his interested in coming back.

 

I have no confidence in Suisam. I wish there were more options. Skippy coming back wouldn't do much to ease my doubtness either.

ST coverage however has been significantly improving the past two years. I do give props to that.

 

Aye - while I'm all for loyalty, there are some folks who were moved on at the right time.

 

I am very concerned with our kicking game. How can a team that has won
six superbowls cannot find a competent punter, place kicker? Shame on you Steelers.

 

what's wrong with our punter? he did as good if not better then the guy we used two draft picks on. nothing against sep, but this kid kapinos has done a good job for us two different years. i have no complaint about his services. we got very lucky in him being our option and now our punter.

 

Don't you know? He's from Penn Sate and everything from that University is rotten to the core right now.

Seriously though, I agree. Kapinos is not a problem.

 

Don't you know? He's from Penn Sate and everything from that University is rotten to the core right now.

Seriously though, I agree. Kapinos is not a problem.[/quote:lpt98xaj]

i thought he went to pitt. shows what i know.

 

The loss of Brown will probably hurt on special teams, but we're not going to lose 1,000 yards. That's nuts. I think what you mean is, we won't have a 1,000 yard returner. Whoever replaces him could wind up with 800 yards. That's a loss of 200, not 1,000. And frankly, Rainey could turn out just as good as Brown in that role. He won't have the offensive chops Antonio does, but if he's going to be good at anything, it'll be running around like crazy in the open field. He's unproven, but I'm excited about him. Sanders I think could do alright on punts, but I think having him do kickoffs will result in a big dropoff. I hope Rainey excels there.

I always liked Sep more than Kapinos, but Kap should still do fine. He's been solid every time we've needed him. I'm not worried. If the new guy beats him out, even better.

I am worried about Suisham, though. He looked awesome his first year here, and crappy his second. I hope he gets his head straight. Right now my confidence level is pretty low.

I expect we will lose either Lewis or Allen as gunners, but the other one could definitely stay. We'll have two starting CBs with another one getting significant playing time. Curtis Brown could also be the 3rd guy. Regardless of how the defense shakes out, after Ike we have 3 CBs. 1 of them starts, the other 2 can be gunners. And I like all 3 at that spot. Not sure I see the problem here. There could also be a dark horse in the running, like Rainey, Cromartie-Smith, Frederick, or even Clemons.

Greg Warren is only 30. Is that old for a long snapper? I don't think he ever had a bad snap, either.

Overall, I like our depth players. We have great special teamers running around like Mundy, Worilds, C. Brown, Cromartie-Smith (I'm guessing), possibly Baron Batch, and probably Sean Spence. We could lose Battle and Will Allen and I'll be fine. I'm really not worried about anything here, except our kicker.

 

alot depends on who starts as far as the coverage units. redman will be out and maybe sanders if wallace isn't back. foote if sly beats him out. pope. will johnson?? raying: clemons?? cotchery?? there could be quite the turnover of guys.