Steelers Checking Out Waynes, Archer’s Role, No Hurry

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 Friday, March 20^th.

Steelers at Michigan State Pro Day

Since the Steelers didn’t make any moves on the available defensive backs in free agency, the draft has become a whole lot more important than it already was. The Steelers brass was present at Michigan State’s pro day to check out cornerback Trae Waynes, according to ESPN’s Scott Brown. Only problem there is, so was every other team in the NFL.

Waynes is projected to be the top defensive back in the draft and ranked 16^th overall in the draft by ESPN’s draft gurus Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay. The Steelers have the 22^nd pick and aren’t likely to have a shot at Waynes without trading up. The last time the Steelers traded up for a defensive player in the draft was 2003 when they moved out of the 27^th spot to No. 16 to take Troy Polamalu.

Haley has patience for Archer

Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley has chosen his hill to die on. Well, it’s not that dramatic, but he has proclaimed that he’s not ready to give up on last year’s third-round draft pick RB/WR/KR/Inactive List Headliner Dri Archer. Mark Kaboly of the Trib explains that in Haley’s conference call with Steelers Nation Unite, he expressed intent on giving Archer more game time and patience to adjust to the speed of the NFL.

"“The important thing is that we do have a role for him if he is going to have a helmet on Sundays and he gets five and six touches a game. Any of those plays he has the chance to take it to the house with that speed. Let’s just have a little patience and let him continue to develop, and we will definitely have a plan to get him touches throughout the season.” – Todd Haley"

Hopefully Haley is working on some kind of plan to achieve a wide open field in front of Archer for said touches, so maybe he has a chance to move the ball forward.

Deebo can wait

Gerry Dulac of the PPG suggests that the Steelers didn’t enter into the pass rusher section of the free agency market after Jason Worilds announced his unexpected retirement because they already have a backup plan in place. Dulac suggests the team is intending on re-signing James Harrison, but not any time soon.

The plan would be to sign Harrison in the late summer, so he can avoid having to participate in OTAs and most of training camp. Since Harrison has already announced his intention on playing in 2015, they can be sure that this time around he’ll be in better shape than last year when they signed him out of retirement. So far, Harrison hasn’t signed with any other teams so you never know, there might already be an agreement in the works.

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