Advertisement

Don't Blame Butler for it

By Ed Bouchette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 8 years ago

Good September morning,

Some Stuff:

--- The way the Steelers are dealing away picks, it will be a short third day of the draft next spring. They have traded away their fourth (or fifth) for Brandon Boykin and their sixth for Josh Scobee. They did not lose much in free agency so there won’t be much compensatory return, if any.

--- People already are blaming Keith Butler for the poor defensive play in the preseason. Chuck Noll in his prime could not have done a better job with what they have had in the preseason.

--- The real problem for that defense is the preseason is coming quickly to a close and the real games begin when all those big plays will count.

--- Someone asked me for a surprise player from this summer for the Steelers. I was at a loss. Rookie Anthony Chickillo had a good first week and was made out to be the next Joey Porter but he now looks like he is practice squad material. There were no surprises from training camp or the preseason. No pleasant ones for them anyway. The surprises came in the other direction – that Cortez Allen has not asserted himself and that they needed to find two kickers, a backup quarterback and a veteran cornerback during the preseason.

--- I can never remember two kickers injured in the preseason. Never.

--- Jacksonville, where there has not been much good news lately, at least got a little lucky when the Jaguars traded Scobee for a sixth-rounder. They were going to cut him anyway. The Steelers could have waited and picked him off waivers but they must have felt that someone with a higher waiver claim would have grabbed him.

--- It’s not so much the four-game suspension Martavis Bryant received that has the Steelers worried, it’s that he already has failed four drug tests since – we must assume – the combine before he was drafted. The next failure brings a 10-game suspension, which is why, as Gerry Dulac reported, the Steelers drafted Sammie Coates in the third round this year.

--- As part of their moves yesterday, the Steelers placed rookie cornerback Senquez Golson on injured reserve, officially ending his season that unofficially ended with that shoulder surgery. They also placed kicker Garrett Hartley on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. Hartley could be released when that hamstring heals.

--- By placing defensive end Niko Davis and tight ends Cameron Clear and Ray Hamilton on the waived/injured list, they will return to the Steelers IR when they are not claimed by another team and if the Steelers do not reach injury settlements with any of them.

--- What the Washington Redskins have done at quarterback is yet another cautionary tale for the Steelers and their fans: Just because you draft a quarterback high does not guarantee future returns. They paid a heavy price to move up to No. 2 in the 2012 draft to select Robert Griffin III. Yesterday, they announced that Kirk Cousins beat him out to start the season for them. “It’s Kirk’s team,’’ Redskins coach Jay Gruden said.

--- It is assumed that at some point over the next several years, the Steelers will draft Ben Roethlisberger’s replacement. Maybe they will, but no one should assume that there will be a seamless transition there.

--- The three best transitions I have witnessed at quarterback during my time covering the sport came in San Francisco when Steve Young replaced Joe Montana, in Green Bay when Aaron Rodgers replaced Bret Favre and in Indianapolis when Andrew Luck replaced Peyton Manning. Two are in the Hall of Fame, Favre will go in next year, Manning will go in his first year and Rodgers looks headed there as well. In all three cases, the veteran quarterback left or was traded to play elsewhere.

There are many more cases where the transitions were more unseemly, like the one with the Steelers from Terry Bradshaw to Cliff Stoudt/Mark Malone/David Woodley and the lesser transition from Neil O’Donnell to Mike Tomczak/Kordell Stewart/Kent Graham.

--- Chat today at 1:30 p.m. Send any Ask Ed questions to ebouchette@post-gazette.com