Steelers Move Up, Set at End, Schedule Request

The NFL free agency period is in full swing and you can bet that we won’t miss a beat of Steelers coverage. While the Steelers are releasing players, signing free agents, restructure and extending contracts and re-signing their own free agents we’ll be busy looking around for mentions of your Black & Gold. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Thursday, March 26^th.

Steelers Compensatory Pick Changed

Tuesday evening it was announced that the Steelers were awarded a compensatory draft pick in the 2015 NFL Draft in the 7^th round based on their free agency from last year. Teresa Varley explains that the NFL has corrected that to a 6^th round pick. Instead of the 252^nd overall pick the Steelers will get the 212^th overall pick as extra.

Compensatory picks are awarded to teams based on their previous year’s free agency period and are disbursed at the end of the third through seventh rounds. Because the Steelers were so active in last year’s free agency, they only received one compensatory pick.

Certainty amongst uncertainty

As ESPN’s Scott Brown points out, there is a lot of uncertainty on the Steelers defense. Anyone who is actually paying attention will see that Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin are very much aware and acknowledge that. One area of the defense where there is certainty, however, is on the ends of the defensive line.

Two starting spots that are firmly secure belong to Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt. Heyward has emerged through the last two seasons as a foundation for the unit and Tuitt has a chance to thrive in his second season in the NFL.

Tuitt started the final four games of the regular season after Brett Keisel tore his triceps. Brown points out a play last season that revealed Tuitt’s potential when he crushed Jamaal Charles from behind after he caught a screen pass and caused a fumble in a Steelers 20-12 win over Kansas City.

Combine that with Heyward taking on the role of leader of the defense and the defensive line has a bright future, according to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

"“Cam Heyward is the core central leader to our defense and a good one. He’s a good player. He’s got good football character. He’s hard-working. He’s a good communicator and he’s vocal. It’s been fun to watch him ascend over his years with us to that role. I look forward to him continuing to grow in that role.” – Mike Tomlin"

West Coast Trip

The Steelers made a formal request to the league in terms of when their west coast games get scheduled for 2015. They requested that they play San Diego and Seattle in back-to-back weeks so that the team can remain on the west coast for a week. Seems like a reasonable request. Steelers President Art Rooney II apparently isn’t confident the league will go for it because they are jerks and the reason why we can’t have nice things. That’s upsetting.

Art Rooney not confident league will grant request of playing back-to-back weeks in SD and Seattle. Would stay on west coast for the week.
— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly) March 25, 2015

Next: Tomlin Wants Steelers Defense to Dominate Again

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