Keisel, Hood or Woods?

Good morning,

The discussion of whether the Steelers should keep LaMarr Woodley or Jason Worilds continues (Kevin Colbert says they can keep both, which is fantasy), but there is another on defense that has not been as hotly debated.

Brett Keisel, Ziggy Hood and Al Woods all are defensive ends, all will become unrestricted free agents March 11. If all three leave, the Steelers will be left with Cam Heyward and Brian Arnfelt as their only defensive ends from 2013. There also is Nick Williams, their seventh-round draft choice last year who spent his entire rookie season on injured reserve.

Surely, they would not be comfortable with that outcome and would like to sign one or two of their three impending UFAs at the position. But which one or two?

Keisel has the best resume and played the best of the bunch last season. But he will turn 36 on Sept. 19. Do you offer him a one-year deal at the veteran minimum, a Charlie Batch-like contract known as the veteran “minimum salary benefit.’’ As such, Keisel could receive $955,000 in salary but count only as much as a second-year player’s minimum salary of $570,000 under the salary cap. The team also could pay him a bonus of no more than $65,000 under that benefit, but his cap hit would rise to $635,000 if they did, and Keisel would earn a total of $1.09 million.

Ziggy Hood, in his fifth season with the Steelers, earned a $715,000 salary last season and counted $2,990,860 against their cap, according to sportrac.com. Al Woods counted $630,000 in salary and cap hit.

Woods began his NFL career as a fourth-round draft choice by the new Orleans Saints in 2010 from LSU. He has bounced around since then, never sticking with the Saints but playing for Tampa Bay in 2010, the Steelers and then Seattle in 2011 and finally the Steelers the past two seasons. He played all 16 games last season with two starts and two sacks.

Ziggy Hood, of course, was their first-round draft choice in 2009 who has not lived up to their expectations. But he was a starter since 2010 before he lost that job to Heyward last season, when his starts dipped to seven but he played in all 16 games with three sacks.

Because of his experience and his resume as a first-round pick, I would expect Hood to attract more interest in free agency than Woods. I would not expect the Steelers to make Hood an offer until perhaps he hits free agency, and then only if he receives no big offers elsewhere.

Woods is a more intriguing prospect. If you believe in the ratings of Pro Football Focus, that site gave Hood its lowest overall rating of any of their defensive players – minus 14.0; the lowest of any of their defenders against the run – minus 7.5, and their lowest rating of any of their players in pass rush – minus 10.6.

Woods, who played in roughly one-third of the plays as Hood, came in at 0.9, plus 2.6 and minus 0.8 on those three ratings.

Make your choice. Try to sign one, two or ignore them all?

--- One more thing:

Quietly, LaMarr Woodley has become quite the philanthropist in his hometown of Saginaw, Mich. Woodley recently contributed $175,000 to Saginaw County and the Dow Event Center, the site of many community activities there. Last year he donated $60,000 to the Saginaw Public School District to cover ‘pay to participate’ athletic fees, free annual football camps, ‘First Impression’ back to school events, Thanksgiving giveaways, Heroes for Kids programs, continued support for Saginaw High School and several donations to other local organizations.

--- Onto your questions:

--- YOU: I enjoy reading your blogs. Why do the teams dress only 48 players instead of all 53? How did that rule start? Why have those 5 people on the 53 man roster if they cannot play?

ME: I get this question often through the years and have answered it many times. First, there are 46 players allowed to dress and play in games, not 48. The roster is 53, so seven players are made inactive 90 minutes before kickoff, cannot dress and cannot play that day. Many people are confused by this rule, but here is how it came about.

In the “old days,’’ before free agency and the expansion of rosters occurred in the early 1990s, there were more liberal rules involving players going on injured reserve. Putting a player on injured reserve in the 1980s did not mean he would be out for the season. They had various rules, but as I recall a player on injured reserve would have to be sidelined 4-6 weeks and during that time, the team could add a player to its roster, which varied between 45 and 49 in the 1980s. In 1991, they decided to expand the rosters to 53 and change the IR rule – a player placed on IR had to miss the rest of the season.

Because of that rule, players with injuries that would keep them out, say 4 weeks, no longer would go on IR, the team presumably would carry them until their return. But because of their injury, it effectively reduced the team’s available players from 53 to 52 or fewer, depending on how many players were hurt.

NFL owners decided it would not be fair for a team with 53 healthy players to be able to use all of those players in one game if their opponent had, say, five or six players unable to play because of injuries, thus reducing their roster to, say, 47. So, in conjunction with the new IR rules and the expanded rosters, they decided to make a game-day inactive list. That list now stands at seven.

I hope that clears it up. Here is a chart of how the roster limits have changed through the years from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Scroll down to “Week 14.’’

--- YOU: What is LeBeau going to do with Polamalu ? When playing Polamalu as the 5th linebacker there was a huge hole in the middle of the field, we saw how that worked out. Polamalu as popular as he is can't cover receivers any more, see Packers super bowl and his tackling is suspect see Dolphins game. I see him more as a situational player rather than a 5th linebacker or safety.

ME: Dick LeBeau used Polamalu closer to the line more often last season. He has used him there in the past but not as much as he did in 2013. In some defenses, strong safeties do play close to the line of scrimmage. It was LeBeau’s idea to defend against the run and the shorter passes. It may not have been the strategy that did not work out as much as the defense overall is not as good as we’ve become accustomed to seeing.