Heath Miller Injury

While I'm sure it was talked about a lot on here, I had been out of town when Miller was injured in week 16, and with the holidays and what-not, I never really read a lot about how serious the injury was/is. It still irks me that they released such a promising TE in saunders, who was snatched up by Indy so quick his head probably is still spinning.

One of the mock drafts I saw showed us taking a TE in round 1, which sickens me to think of with all of the other glaring needs we have. We had a solid TE in saunders for next to nothing (UFA), front office dropped the ball big time by cutting him and keeping someone like Pope

 

I hope and pray we dont waste a 1st rounder on a TE with so many needs on thisteam!

 

We won't take a TE at 17... way too high. I could see it if Ertz is there in the 2nd though.

 

i'm warming up to the idea of the next good TE if it's a big part of haley's offense. it's a very good weapon as we saw last year.

heath was a game changer for us in this offense. finally i might add. we saw how well he was used and we do use alot of two TE sets.

i like the kid from ND. he is a play maker and a difference maker.

now i know we have other needs, but maybe not as glaring as we think. we have beachum to try at G. the rest of the line has new players also ready to step in. we have two starting wr's ready to take the field. JH has not been cut so, it's not like we don't have guys ready to step in at that spot. ILB is a need, but there just isn't one worthy in the first. we need a safety for depth only. we have corners. we need rb's but again not much first round worthy.

most positions we just need depth at, so if a TE will help us, why not? if it helps the offense, why not?

alot just depends on who's at 17 when we pick. a first rounder should be a huge difference maker and with heath most likely not starting the season and only has a contract for a couple of years left, maybe it is a good and worthy move. possibly a great value pick for our offense moving forward.

let's face it heath tore up his knee bad and isn't getting younger. we will never replace the player he is, but we have to start with a good one if we are to try, and it's a bigger part of this offense then ever before. as i said we saw what heath could do in this offense, and if two heath's can lift it that much more, is it a bad pick?

 

We drafted a TE last draft as in Paulson, he looks promising, maybe this is the blessing he needs to get more time out there, on the Pitts staff it seems the only way our young talent gets a shot to prove they can play is if somebody gets hurt.

 

I don't see Paulson as a dominant TE by any stretch, but I do think they can use him more going forward. That being said, I think we need a new TE soon, either in this draft or in the upcoming draft. I don't know who is out there who can be a stop gap till Miller gets back, but we need something for the long term as well.

 

Heath is 30 years old (which surprised me, i feel like we just drafted him). However TE is a position where guys can likely last longer than a RB or WR... Especially because speed has never really been Heath's strong suit. He's similar to Hines in that he uses his head and precision to get open more than his physical assets.

That being said it wouldn't be a bad thing at all to grab a TE to pair with him if it fits the range. I don't see Eifert being there in the 2nd round... But Ertz might be. If you like Heath, you'll like Ertz, they're very similar in that he's a very good all around TE, but isn't exceptional at one thing. He is fast enough, but not fast, very good hands, good route runner, good blocker, etc.

 

for a Heath or Gronk? Not too high

 

i like escobar in the 3rd
kelce sims fauria in the 4th
lutzenkirchen and stoneburner in 6th
there are a lot of good te in this draft

 

Ahhhh but heath and gronk arent in this draft

 

Maybe Ray Ray will hook Heath up with some of that antler juice.

 

We probably have more positons to fill in this draft, than any since the 80`s...
We are still not sure how many of our UFA`s, will be back, but it looks like very few...
I absolutely HATE that Heath tore up his knee as bad as he did late in the year against Cincy, but it is what it is...
He might be a bit "old", in NFL terms, but I would bank on him making a complete recovery, and still having a minimum of 3 or 4 productive seasons left in him, just because of his work ethic.
As has been mentioned, he is more in Hines`s mold, of not needing speed to get open, but just being an all around producer, that can block, catch the ball reliably, and get those all important "Yards after catch".
Will he still be able to do that after this injury, at his age?
I sure hope so.
I would be willing to gamble on it.
Out of all our needs, I tend to think finding a runningback to replace Mendy, will be one of our higher priorities.
(Assuming he`s gone next season, and I tend to think he is, although my crystal ball has been wrong before.)
Here is a good article about our options, going into this draft.(Sorry if a lot of this has been posted in other threads, already, but I haven`t been here much, recently, and this is the first thread I have read.)
http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/3508772-74/steelers-running-draft#axzz2Mobsa5py
The runningback they are talking about (Lacy), sounds pretty decent, although I don`t know anything about him other than what I read in that article.
Sounds like we should have several options available by our pick, and I`m not sure that we need a tight end more than any of the other choices.
Partially because I am counting on Heath to come back in 2014, if not this year, and partially, because I think the way Haley uses a tight end, he doesn`t have to be "GREAT", just, reliable to catch the ball in the flat, and gain a few Y.A.C., Heath can do more than that, but that should be all we really need, to keep moving the chains, which seems to be Haley`s focus.
Edit...
And after re-reading the article I linked to, I think replacing Troy and Clark, have to be high on the list, also, although, I haven`t seen any "can`t miss" safety`s name`s being thrown around on the sports networks...

 

Kevin Colbert said he doesn't know if Miller will play this season. They will draft a TE we don't have any depth behind Paulson. That sucks for Miller he was having his best season and made the Pro Bowl before his injury, he was the only consistent player on offense.

 

I don't see how can make any fair assessment of paulson either way. He was a rookie last year and moved up to the number 2 tight end and bumped Saunders off the roster that to ke says something is there. All the coaches and heath are very high on this kid. Playing for Oregon you know he can catch and be a difference maker. Just my thought

 

One guy the Steelers should look at, and he may not even be drafted is Mike Shannhan out of Pitt, he played WR at Pitt but he put on 15 pounds and is going to try to play TE in the NFL. If he isn't drafted would be a great Free Agent signing to see how he would work out at Training camp.

 

we will not only be down one TE next year but two. heath and pope. we only have paulson,mccoy and pianalto here right now, none of which block like heath. that's the part we will miss the most. remember our rookie getting pushed back and the ball bouncing off his hind end into the EZ for a TD on a bubble screen attempt?

 

If the Steelers pass on this guy, then shame on them.
This kid is going to play for someone in the NFL. I just hope
it is for his/ our hometown team

 

I think we need another TE. Especially in the red zone. A big athletic guy to give us a matchup advantage. Plus Heath might be a cut in the next year or two because of salary. Paulson is a back up type player. Need those type of players, but he is not going to lead us to Super Bowl.