Steelers MMQB: NFL Offseason News
By Kim Myers
Apr 26, 2012; New York, NY, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers fans from left Yusuf Cawthon , Joseph Cawthon , James Hatcher and Zach Cawthon pose for a photo before the 2012 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
What We Learned This Week in the NFL Offseason:
- Oakland’s Terrelle Pryor to be cut if not traded
- Harbaugh Bowl for preseason
- Offseason workouts begin this week for the rest of the league
- Steelers bad at drafting?
Pittsburgh native and Oakland Raider QB Terrelle Pryor is looking to be a starter which means his days in Oakland are just about done. The Raiders traded for Matt Schaub earlier this offseason and they don’t even view him as viable backup to Schaub, nor does Pryor want to be in that position. Bad part for Pryor is that no team is likely to give up any draft picks in a trade for him considering that inconsistent is pretty much the token term used to describe his playing style in the NFL. He should try to land somewhere in the NFC East where he can try to run 93 yards on Ryan Clark twice a season; that should improve opinions about him.
The Harbaugh brothers are planning on holding some joint scrimmages with their teams prior to their preseason meeting in early August. Jim Harbaugh apparently lost the coin toss and he will travel his 49ers to Maryland to practice and scrimmage against John’s Ravens before their official preseason game. Obviously this means that their practices and scrimmages will be televised along with the preseason game because the league just can’t get Harbowl references, even if this one is meaningless. I’m sure if any of us coached an NFL team and had a brother coaching another team we’d do the same thing, so I can’t exactly hold it against either of them, but they are extra douchey so we can always hold that against them.
Nineteen teams with join the previous seven teams in the offseason workout programs on Monday with the rest of the league beginning on Tuesday of this week. The offseason workout programs for teams with new head coaches began two weeks ago. This is Phase 1 of the offseason workout programs which entails conditioning work and physical rehabilitation, per the CBA. No helmets are permitted and quarterbacks can throw to receivers as long as the receivers aren’t covered. So basically the NFL players are going to run some suicides and play some catch. And the rest of us continue to starve for football.
Mark Kaboly of the Trib explained how the Steelers are one of 8 teams in the league with no remaining players from their 2009 draft left on their roster. Does this mean the Steelers drafted badly? Not necessarily. There are a handful of players from that draft class who are starting for other teams around the league. Ziggy Hood, Kraig Urbik, Mike Wallace, and Keenan Lewis, just to name a few are all still very much active in the NFL and can’t really be considered to be “draft busts” even though they are no longer with the team who drafted them. Ideally, a team retains their talent from the draft classes but the Steelers have a long standing tradition of not paying big money contracts and players like Wallace and Lewis were definitely out for inking themselves to a big money contract once eligible. The Steelers haven’t had wildly successful drafting or player development recently but maybe the offseason which saw the largest number of unrestricted free agents signed since Kevin Colbert became GM in 2000, along with a strong draft class, could turn the consecutive 8-8 seasons around.
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