Steelers Sign a QB, Troy’s Issues, Free Agency

The NFL free agency period is set to begin soon and you can bet that we won’t miss a beat of Steelers coverage. While the Steelers are looking to sign free agents, restructure and extend contracts and re-sign their own free agents we’ll be busy looking around for mentions of your Black & Gold. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Saturday, March 7^th.

Steelers Sign Boyd

The Steelers made a quarterback signing this week. Not the one we’ve been waiting for but still intriguing nonetheless. According to ESPN’s Scott Brown the Steelers signed Tajh Boyd to a one-year contract on Friday. Boyd was a sixth-round draft pick by the New York Jets last year out of Clemson.

Boyd can be reunited with one of his Clemson receivers in Martavis Bryant and the move could mean that Landry Jones might have some legitimate competition for the third spot on the depth chart. Jones was a fourth round draft pick by the Steelers in 2013 but has yet to dress for an NFL game. The Boyd signing could be a bit more than just another arm on the roster for OTA’s and camp.

Troy has issues

There certainly can’t be enough columns written about the career of Steelers safety Troy Polamalu. Even without any kind of official announcement of either his release or retirement, everyone has to get in their sentiments about him and the situation he’s currently in.

Dejan Kovacevic of DK on Pittsburgh Sports wrote an excellent profile about the reality of Polamalu’s decline and how DK feels, after covering him for so many years, that he’s sure Troy will hang them up before putting on another team’s uniform or being released. It’s been sad to watch Polamalu try to make the flying leaps over the line of scrimmage he used to be able to execute with perfect timing fail and draw penalties.

Kovacevic also mentioned that Troy had issues with the team. That he “wasn’t wild about the attitudes of some of the younger players.” He also mentions that Troy felt that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin wasn’t doing enough to protect the Steelers brand in the way those younger players were handled I assume. Cue the Tomlin haters who will now throw the obvious decline of Polamalu’s production out of the window and suggest that he’s leaving the Steelers because Tomlin “lacks discipline.”

I find it really rather difficult to digest that the Steelers locker room lacked leadership and discipline with men like Troy, Ben Roethlisberger, Ike Taylor, Brett Keisel, James Harrison, etc. in the room. What the hell are those guys doing when these younger guys are displaying such awful attitudes? The narrative that the Steelers “lack discipline” rears its head whenever there is a loss to an inferior team, or to excuse something else that is going on.

What FA’s to keep?

The PPG’s Ed Bouchette went quickly through the Steelers’ list of free agents as negotiations can officially (and legally) begin as of today. He suggests the Steelers should still try to sign Jason Worilds to a long-term contract, but face the reality that it might not happen. He thinks players like Arthur Moats, Brice McCain and James Harrison should be signed already.

Next: Steelers Defense: Help Wanted

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