Author Archives: Steve Alan

About Steve Alan

Steve, known by most as TTF, is owner of TheSteelersFans and administrator of the best Steelers message board on the net. Big fan of strong coffee and hardcore Steelers fan from womb to tomb.

Steelers Veterans Hold Team Meeting

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The Steelers vets called a team meeting today to discuss ways to right the ship after starting the season 0-2 for the first time since 2002.

Ben Roethlisberger spoke about having this meeting yesterday on The Fan morning show. He called the group of veterans “the 08’ers club”, and said that the main purpose was to talk about providing leadership to younger players and to make sure they know that this isn’t the Steeler way, and that it’s not acceptable.

Ben also fielded questions about being 0-2, the Bengals game, Fernando Velasco, Markus Wheaton, and more.

You can listen to the interview below:

Steelers Sign CB Devin Smith To Practice Squad

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The team announced that they have re-signed CB Devin Smith to the practice squad. Smith was originally signed by the team in August and released during the final preseason roster cuts. He was then signed to the practice squad, but waived a few days later.

Smith (5’10” 182) was released in August by the Cowboys, who originally signed him as an UDFA in April. He was not invited to the Combine, but ran a 4.49 40yd at his pro day at Wisconsin.  Smith was viewed as a nickel corner by scouts, and was said to be a strong Special Teams player who could fill in at Safety.

Steelers Wednesday Practice Participation Report

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First and foremost- Heath Miller participated fully for the first time since December. Heeeeeeath. OK, now that I got that out of the way, here’s the full list from today’s practice:

Did Not Participate:

Cortez Allen, Brett Keisel (calf strain).

Limited: 

Le’Veon Bell (foot), Jarvis Jones (heel).

Full:

Curtis Brown, Steve McLendon, and Heath Miller.

Barring a setback, it is a very real possibility that Heath Miller is on the starting lineup against the Bears Sunday night.

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Bettis: “I’d Blow Up The Offense”

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During his regular appearance on ESPN earlier, Jerome Bettis talked about the Steelers problems on offense, and what he’d do to fix them.

“If I was Mike Tomlin…the first thing I would do was address the offense, and I would blow up the offense.”, Bettis said. “I’m going to go with this no huddle offense, because … I want to keep the ball in the best player’s hand, and that’s Ben Roethlisberger.”

He goes on to talk about the importance of the no huddle and the difficulty the offensive line is having. Ultimately, the Bus says there’s cause for concern, but not panic. You can watch below.

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Steelers Cut Shayne Graham, Sign Green From Practice Squad

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The Steelers announced that they have released PK Shayne Graham today. The team has also signed CB Isaiah Green from the practice squad. Graham was signed last week as a precaution to fill in for Shaun Suisham. Suisham injured his hamstring before the Titans game last week, but returned to full participation by the end of the week, and played for the entire game last night against the Bengals.

Graham earned $55,294.00 for his time on the roster last week.

Inactives For Steelers Vs Bengals

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No real surprises on the inactive list for tonight’s game.

For the Steelers:

Le’Veon Bell, Cortez Allen, Heath Miller, Landry Jones, Shayne Graham, Curtis Brown and Cody Wallace. Shaun Suisham will be kicking tonight.

For the Bengals:

CB B. Ghee, G M. Pollak, RB R. Burkhead, WR D. Sanzenbacher, T T. Hawkinson, TE O. Charles, DE M. Hunt.

Steelers Vs Bengals Injury Report

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For the Steelers-

OUT: Cortez Allen, Le’Veon Bell and Heath Miller.

DOUBTFUL: Curtis Brown.

PROBABLE: Shaun Suisham and Steve McLendon.

As I mentioned yesterday, Cortez Allen being ruled out comes as no surprise as he hasn’t participated in practice all week. Curtis Brown is somewhat of a surprise, since he was reported to have been a full participant yesterday.  William Gay will take his place, with Shamarko Thomas seeing time in the Nickel.

For the Bengals-

OUT: CB Ghee and G Pollack.

DOUBTFUL: S Miles.

QUESTIONABLE: T Whitworth.

 

Friday Practice Participation Report

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The participation report looked better today than it did yesterday. Here’s the rundown:

Did not practice: Cortez Allen and Le’Veon Bell

Limited: Heath Miller

Full Participation: Steve McLendon, Shaun Suisham, and Curtis Brown.

We’ll have an extra day of practice this week due to the Monday night game, so the Friday participation rule won’t hold true. Having said that, I wouldn’t expect Cortez Allen to play Monday night.

McLendon and Suisham were limited on Thursday due to hamstring injuries, and Curtis Brown was out with an illness. All 3 were reported to have returned to full participation during Friday’s practice.

Thursday Practice Injury Report

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The following players did not participate in practice today: CB Cortez Allen, CB Curtis Brown, and RB Le’Veon Bell.
Steve McLendon, Heath Miller, and Shaun Suisham were limited.

Allen is still recovering from an ankle sprain he suffered during the Titans game. Curtis Brown missed practice due to illness.

McLendon is said to have a hamstring injury.

Steelers Salary Cap & Steelers Contracts | Heath Gets Restructured

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Update- See all of the Steelers contracts and Steelers salary cap related news here:  Steelers Salary Cap

The team restructured Heath Miller’s contract yesterday to free up cap space for recent signings. Going into Tuesday, the Steelers only had approximately $1.5 million in available cap space, so the team really had little choice but to restructure after getting hit by the injury tsunami on Sunday. None of the three players who required surgery this week had split contracts that would provide cap relief to the team in case of injury.

$3,187,500 of Heath’s $5,162,000 2013 base salary was converted into a prorated signing bonus. The move freed up just under $1.6 Mil of cap room this year. Heath’s salary cap numbers for 2013 and 2014 are as follows:

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Here are the financials for the signings the team made this week:

Base Salary Cap Number
Jonathan Dwyer~  $630,000 $592,941
Fernando Velasco~ $715,000 $522,353
Shayne Graham~  $940,000 $522,353

The three signings combined cost the team $1,637,647, so before restructuring Heath Miller’s contract, the signings were not possible. As of right now, the team has $1,385,253 in salary cap space, and that includes restructuring Heath.