The Steelers are officially on summer vacation as the offseason workout program wrapped up and they won’t come back together until reporting to training camp later next month.
Steelers season never really ends for Steeler nation so while the Steelers players get their minds and bodies right to embark on the 2016 regular season we’ll be busy looking for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Saturday, June 18th.
Don’t cross the Moats
Steelers linebacker Arthur Moats has a good feeling about the upcoming season. Rarely does a player say that they think their team is going to suck in the ensuing season but Teresa Varley has Moats’ explanation on why this will be the Steelers’ year.
Unless your season ended covered in confetti whilst raising a trophy you’re never going to be pleased with the way it ended. The only exception probably being if your season ended by being traded away from the Cleveland Browns or something.
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But Moats says that losing to Denver in the AFC Divisional Playoff Game last year and then having to watch those same Broncos win the Super Bowl light a fire under this Steelers team.
"“It lights the fire more. We felt like we should have won it last year. We use it as motivation. We know what we are capable of doing. We know what we can do and ultimately we are going to finish it up this year.” – Arthur Moats"
Re-Fired
Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians seems to be wearing bitter pants about what turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to him in terms of his coaching career. Mike Florio of PFT has Arians’ comments he made to Andrea Kremer on HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel about when he was “retired” from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Seems as though when the Steelers lost Super Bowl XLV to the Packers and Arians’ contract was up he thought it was the best time to ask for a pay raise. That must have been what pissed off the Rooney’s as instead of a raise they announced his “retirement”. He was hired within two weeks by the Indianapolis Colts and took over as interim head coach when Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia.
The Arians dismissal will forever be a stain on the Steelers organization by the way it was handled by ownership because they had every right to say they wanted to go in a different direction and everyone should be able to agree by now that it worked out fine for everyone involved.
Frugal teams
Some teams just seem destined to spend their salary cap like its tax refund season while others try to manipulate the contract numbers so they’re able to spread the money around rather than dish it out to one or two big name players.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler explains that the Steelers and Green Bay Packers rank last in the NFL in guaranteed money for the 2016 season. Everyone seems to be under the consensus that Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome is some kind of magician with what he can do there but the Ravens have over $100 million in guaranteed money.
Next: Maurkice Pouncey had 7 leg surgeries last year
They just released offensive tackle Eugene Monroe after giving him $17.5 million guaranteed money. That is magic to make almost $18 million disappear.