Category Archives: Steelers News

Brett Keisel

Steelers Sign Brett Keisel To 2 Year Deal, Al Lapuaho Waived

Leave a reply

The Steelers have made yesterday’s news official by announcing the signing of Brett Keisel. The financial terms are not available, but it’s a 2 year deal for Keisel. Keisel will travel with the Steelers to Philadelphia on Thursday, but is not expected to play (obviously).

To make room for the signing on the 90 man roster, the team has waived defensive lineman Al Lapuaho. Lapuaho was signed by the team to a futures contract in January.

Keisel says that he’s been ‘training his tail off’ during the offseason. “It means a lot to be back,” said Keisel (via Steelers.com). “There really is no place like here, no place like home. It was tough, just the unknown. For them to give me the opportunity to come back means a lot to me and I can’t wait to get back to work. I still have a little time to not only get to know these men I am going to go to battle with, but just get back into football stuff. I feel great. I have been training my tail off with the thought that I am going to be back. It looks like all of that training has paid off.”

practice squad rules

NFL Practice Squads Have Increased To Ten- Eligibility Rules Change

Leave a reply

The NFL and the NFL Players Association have agreed to expand practice squads for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. The current rules will be reinstated in 2016 if an extension to the new agreement is not made.

Starting at noon on August 31st, teams will be allowed to add up to 10 players to their practice squads, up from 8 in previous years. Here’s a breakdown of the NFL practice squad eligibility rules under the current system from the collective bargaining agreement.

  • To be eligible, a player can not have been on the practice squad for more than 2 seasons.
    • A player may qualify for a third practice squad season if their team maintains no less than 53 players on the active/inactive list at all times.
  • Serving on the practice squad for three or more regular season or post season games constitutes a practice squad season.
  • A player cannot have an accrued NFL season. An accrued season is comprised of having been on the active list during 9 or more games in a season.

The expanded practice squads add a couple new eligibility rules. First, what constitutes a practice squad season has changed. Instead of the 3 game requirement, it’s now 6. Secondly, the additional 2 players who can be added to the practice squad, may have 2 accrued seasons. This is great news obviously, as it allows so many more players to be added to a practice squad who were not previously eligible.

Practice squad players earn a minimum of $6,300 a week in 2014. That’s $107,100 for a player on the practice squad for the full 17 weeks.
Don’t forget- for a player to be placed on a practice squad, he must first clear waivers.

Brett Keisel

Steelers Agree To Terms With Brett Keisel

Leave a reply

The Beard is back. The Steelers have agreed to terms with veteran defensive end Brett Keisel according to multiple reports, and Keisel confirmed the news via his Twitter account. According to sources, the deal is expected to be finalized very soon.

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/501850676541280256

https://twitter.com/bkeisel99/status/501847963434745856

https://twitter.com/bkeisel99/status/501855180376510465

Reports had Keisel headed to Arizona for a physical earlier today, but Keisel obviously never made it there. Shortly after that news started circulating, it was reported by a Cardinals reporter that Keisel declined the invitation to visit the Cardinals.

https://twitter.com/kentsomers/statuses/501834013364219905

 

While stories circulated this spring that Keisel wouldn’t play for the minimum, I still expect his contract to qualify for the veteran minimum benefit. For Keisel, that would be a $955,000 base salary, with a $65,000 signing bonus. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the team offered him slightly more than that though, as there is cap room to allow it.

 

Marcus-Gilbert

Steelers Extend RT Marcus Gilbert

Leave a reply

The Steelers have extending right tackle Marcus Gilbert. The financial specifics are not immediately available of course, but the new deal is for 6 years. Sources indicate that the 6 year deal is for $30 Mil. I wrote recently that his deal should be in the $5 Mil per year range. We’ll have to wait to see what the guarantees are, which is all that’s truly important. This extension makes Pouncey and Gilbert both under contract through 2019.

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/501832537811853312

Gilbert has had his struggles, but he’s definitely shown improvement since Mike Munchak was brought on board. About the extension Gilbert said via the Steelers website, “It means I am locked in hopefully as a Steeler for the rest of my career. It’s a blessing to work for a great organization, the Rooney family, Kevin Colbert and Coach Tomlin. Just to be around in Pittsburgh, where they show you so much love, I couldn’t be happier and in a better place.”

Gilbert is the only lineman who started every game in 2013.

Mike Tomlin

Several Players Ruled Out Or Questionable For Thursday’s Game

Leave a reply

Coach Tomlin addressed the media this afternoon during his pregame press conference. The Steelers have been fortunate on the injury front so far this summer. Here’s a look at the players Coach Tomlin ruled out for Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

TE Eric Waters (Concussion)

CB Shaquille Richardson (Lateral Knee Injury)

OL Cody Wallace (Finger Fracture)

LB Jordan Zumwalt (Groin)

Tomlin also listed LS Greg Warren (Knee) and OG Bryant Browning (Dislocated Shoulder). Warren isn’t expected to return until mid-September and Browning was waived/injured yesterday. He has until 4:00 pm today to pass waivers.

Coach Tomlin said they’d leave the light on for the following players, some of whom will be an 11th hour decision.

S Will Allen (Hamstring)

RB Tauren Poole (Hamstring)

FB/TE Will Johnson (Hamstring)

CB Devin Smith (Hamstring)

There were some players whom Tomlin did not name, but said they’d hold “some other guys” out as they do during this time of year.

Steelers Preseason

Steelers Preseason Game Two: Offense And Defense Snap Counts

Leave a reply

Here are the snap counts for the Steelers offense and defense during Saturday night’s victory over the Bills. The tables below can be sorted by name, position, participation, etc.

OL Wesley Johnson saw a big increase in playing time from last week, as coaches got a long look at him at center.

Landry Jones saw a big dip in time under center this week from week 1, but was the number 2 QB after Ben Roethlisberger left the game.

Steelers Snap Counts- Offense

[wpdatatable id=13]

On defense, S Troy Polamalu and LB Ryan Shazier saw their first playing time of preseason, and both hit the ground running with 37 snaps. LB Howard Jones saw a significant increase in playing time, as did CB Brice McCain.

DE Brian Arnfelt and DE Nick Williams both had their playing time reduced this week, while DE Josh Mauro’s went up.

Steelers Snap Counts- Defense

[wpdatatable id=14]

James Shaw

Steelers Sign OT Pocic, CB Nunley; WR Shaw Cut, OG Browning Waived

Leave a reply

The Steelers have made some roster moves this afternoon. The team has released WR James Shaw who was signed a couple weeks ago. OG Bryant Browning, who dislocated his shoulder in Saturday night’s game, has been waived/injured.

With the available roster spots, the team has signed OT Graham Pocic and CB Dayonne Nunley. Pocic is listed at 6’7, 310 lbs. He was an undrafted free agent out of Illinois who was signed by the St. Louis Rams last year. The Bears signed him in July, but waived him August 10th.

Nunley went undrafted out of Miaimi OH and was signed by the Chargers. He recorded 11 interceptions during his career with the Redhawks. Here are his performance numbers from his Pro Day this spring.

Height: 5084 Weight: 188
40 Yrd Dash: 4.55
20 Yrd Dash: 2.58
10 Yrd Dash: 1.56
225 Lb. Bench Reps: 17
Vertical Jump: 34 1/2
Broad Jump: 09’07”
20 Yrd Shuttle: 4.29
3-Cone Drill: 6.69

The Steelers and Bengals were the only two teams in attendance for his pro day.

Steelers preseason record

The Preseason Drought Is Over- Steelers Win 19-16

Leave a reply

In a dramatic ending to a game that looked certain to end with a check in the L column, the Steelers defeated the Buffalo Bills 19-16. Here’s how the exciting finish played out.

The Steelers got the ball back after a Buffalo field goal tied the score 16-16 with 2 minutes left. Gradkowski’s first throw found Kashif Moore to the right for a gain of 12. With a 1:18 left on the clock on 3rd and 5, Gradkowski couldn’t find an open man and scrambled for 9 yards and the first down.

With 49 seconds left on the Steelers 49, Gradkowski drops back and throws to Martavis Bryant, who’s fingertips send the ball high and into the arms of a Bills defender. After the interception, the Bills had the ball on their 29 yard line with 43 seconds remaining.

The first pass resulted in a nine yard gain. Terence Garvin came up with a big sack on the next play, taking Tuel to the ground for a 3 yard loss. On 3rd down with 31 seconds left, Tuel dropped back only this time to be sacked by Vic So’oto. Tuel fumbled the ball and Howard Jones recovered it and ran it to the Bills 1 yard line.

After a failed run up the middle by Gradkowski, Shaun Suisham kicked the game winning 20 yard field goal with no time remaining.

We sometimes joke around about preseason wins being meaningless, and in some ways they are, but man it feels good to end the preseason drought. The Steelers haven’t won an exhibition game since August 30th, 2012. Let the wins continue.

Steelers preseason record

Heinz Field

Steelers Vs. Bills Inactives; Ryan Shazier To Play

Leave a reply

The team has released their list of “inactives” for the Bills game. The following players are not playing tonight for the Steelers.

S W. Allen, CB D. Smith, CB S. Richardson, FB W. Johnson, LB J. Zumwalt, LS G. Warren, TE M. Spaeth and LB J. Jones.

LB Chris Carter is expected to start in place of injured Jarvis Jones. Ryan Shazier is also expected to play tonight, which is a nice surprise, as he’s been nursing a bruised knee and hasn’t fully practiced since sustaining the injury.

Being inactive tonight really doesn’t bode well for Shaq Richardson and Jordan Zumwalt.

The following players are inactive for the Bills:

K D. Hopkins, CB L. McKelvin, S J. Meeks, LB T. Powell, G C. Williams, TE T. Moeaki, and WR M. Goodwin.

Steelers TV Coverage

Steelers Vs Bills TV And Radio Coverage

Leave a reply

The Steelers host the Buffalo Bills at Heinz Field tonight, with a kickoff scheduled for 7:30 est. Here is a list of the local TV affiliates who will be broadcasting the game live.

In Pittsburgh and surrounding areas:

Commentators: Bob Pompeani, Edmund Nelson
KDKA (CBS/2 – Pittsburgh)
WTAJ (CBS/10 – Altoona)
WLYH (CW/15 – Harrisburg)
WKBN (CBS/27 – Youngstown OH)
WQCW (CW/30 – Charleston WV)

In Buffalo or surrounding areas:

Commentators: Ray Bentley, Steve Tasker
WKBW (ABC/7 – Buffalo)
WHAM (ABC/13 – Rochester)
WTVH (CBS/5 – Syracuse)
WBNG (CBS/12 – Binghamton)

If you aren’t in range of any of those stations, the game is streamed live via NFL’s Preseason Live web or mobile app.

On the radio, WDVE 102.5 FM  and WBGG 970 AM broadcast the game live. You cannot listen to the games online however, at least, not without some hoop jumping. The audio from last week’s game was supposed to be streamed live on the Steelers site, but there was no audio. If you have Sirius radio, the Pittsburgh broadcast is on channel 824.

If you need any help viewing or listening to tonight’s game, you can always ask in the forum. We have lots of resourceful and knowledgeable members who can help with finding a way to watch or listen. Go Steelers.