53-man Roster

Well, folks, the Steelers made the final cut-down to 53 players. And, there weren't a whole lot of surprises.

Mr. Drop Foot, Tony Hills, made the team. Bruce Davis made the team, though I'm not sure why, other than the fact that he was a third round draft pick.

Willie Reid and Eddie Drummund, thankfully, did not make the team. Reid has been disappointing Steeler fans since he was selected in the third round in 2006. He always looked like he was going to break a huge play, either catching a screen pass, or on a kick return, or punt return, but was either too hurt or too crappy to make a difference.

And, Drummund, well, he was basically the second coming of Allen Rossum. Since the two guys that are probably going to be returning kicks -- Mewelde Moore on kickoffs and Santonio Holmes on punts -- are going to be doing other things for the team, at least we won't be tying up roster spots on guys that really aren't good enough at what they're supposed to be "specialists" at.

That's the nice way to put it. The not-nice way to put it is that we've had a crappy return team (and, really, crappy coverage units) since Antwaan Randle-El left. I'm not saying that, for a second (or really third) wide receiver, we should have paid him $27 million for six years, but, at this point, with how high the salary cap is, that's actually a bargain. The third wide receiver position and the punt returner would both be set. Going into this season, we really don't have a guy at either job that we can count on. We kept Cedrick Wilson longer than necessary and used a second round pick on Limas Sweed. We also drafted some guy named Willie Reid and kept him way too long.

So... we'd have that going for us. Which would be, ya know, nice.

Heading into the season, that's really the only thing that's troubling me. The return guys and the coverage units are below average, to be kind. With how tough the schedule is supposed to be this year, the fact that Cleveland is improved, and the fact that we're not going to be as good on defense this season as we were last season, we'll need all the help we can get. And we're not going to get it from the kicking game.

A couple of real quick notes about the roster...

It's posted at Steelers.com already: http://news.steelers.com/team/player/.

There are only two tight ends on the entire roster. Two. I'll admit that none of the guys we had -- other than Spaeth and Heath -- weren't anything to write home about and really didn't belong on the roster, but you're kind of required to keep at least three, right? Just in case? With all the talk of getting the tight end more involved, we really haven't all that much... but what if something happens to either of those guys? I guess that, if they get put on injured reserve, we can go back and pick up one of the guys we cut today. Just seems risky.

Dallas Baker made the roster. I have to say that he didn't impress me and, if we're going to go about the business of only keeping guys that belong and not just filling spots because that's how many we think we should have, then Baker didn't deserve to make the team. We should've taken a chance, not kept him, only had four receivers on the roster, and kept someone on defense. I doubt that it's the sort of thing that will come back to haunt us, but you never know.

I know that Batch's injury wasn't season-ending, but putting him on the PUP list might actually be worse for the team than putting him on IR. I like Charlie Batch, he's good for the team and he's great for his home town of Homestead. I just think this was probably going to be his last season with the team anyway. Since we signed Leftwich and think that Dixon is going to be the back-up of the future... why not put Batch on IR, keep Leftwich from looking over his shoulder, and let him hold the clipboard while Dixon gets more comfortable in the back-up role. Ben gets hurt frequently enough that we need someone good, but we don't really need to be three deep at the position. I like Batch more than I like Leftwich, but the fact remains that Batch's contract runs out at the end of the year, he'll be 34 in December, and there's no way we're keeping four quarterbacks when Week 6 rolls around and we have to make a decision on Batch. At that point, logic would dictate bringing him back and either cutting Leftwich or moving him to the third string. Neither of those are valid options, since Leftwich is younger and would take on the back-up role a lot more easily than the third job. Waiting just delays the inevitable and makes the decision that much tougher (and that much more of a dick move). Best to just get it out of the way now.

For the first time since 2005, I like our linebackers. A lot. We don't have a gamebreaker like Joey Porter, Greg Lloyd, Chad Brown, or Kevin Greene -- or really even Levon Kirkland. What we do have is a bunch of really good guys that can all tackle, cover, and rush the passer.

1. Keyaron Fox is a guy that can step in if everyone else in this numbered list goes down. He's also a great special teams guy.
2. Larry Foote is very capable and gives us a lot of options.
3. James Farrior just signed a contract that means he'll retire a Steeler and can still play at a high level on instinct, intelligence, and guts for the next 2-3 years.
4. James Harrison is better than I give him credit for. He's not as great as the other rush linebackers we've had, but he's good enough considering the talent he has around him.
5. Lamar Woodley is going to get better and he's already pretty damn good. If nothing else, he's an improvement over Clark Haggans.
6. Lawrence Timmons is a bad dude and he's going to be great. Yes, yes, I know that I hated this, pick, but I've pretty much hated every first round pick the Steelers made this century. I was an idiot when the pick was made, but I eventually came to my senses. That's where I am now. At this point, though, Timmons is at least very good and can help in a lot of ways -- rushing the passer, dropping in coverage, and laying motherfuckers out in run support. And, in my defense, I liked the Casey Hampton and Kendall Simmons picks outright and I like the Polamalu and Holmes picks, I just thought we traded too much to move up and get them.

We don't have any all-stars, but we do have a number of quality moving parts. If you give Dick LeBeau six good-to-great players instead of two world-beaters and four scrubs, he can do a lot more damage. I'm interested in seeing what he has in store for opponents.

Of course, the quality of our linebackers pretty much debunks my theory that we're switching a Cover 2 this season or next. Or, really, at any point in the near future. But, I'll take great linebackers over being wrong every time.