Steelers football blog

Steelers need Sweed to improve

Of the many pointers Limas Sweed got from Hines Ward during his rookie season, one should have stood out above the rest.

It came after Sweed made a choppy cut rather than a sharp one in practice, and it happened right near All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu. Ward told Sweed he had tipped off that he was going right instead of left.

Had it had been a game, Ward said, Sweed would have gotten leveled — and possibly left the field in an ambulance. Talk about impressing upon someone the importance of crisp route running. And as Sweed relayed the anecdote, he made it clear that Ward wasn't exaggerating to make a point.

"I wasn't the best route-runner," Sweed conceded of his rookie season, in which he had just six receptions for 64 yards and a memorable drop against the Ravens in the AFC title game. "I wasn't the best coverage-reader. Those are things I have to work on." Continue

Can Harrison improve on last years performance?

A group of NFL referees visited Steelers training camp this past week to address rules changes for the upcoming season.

James Harrison asked the officials about a long-standing rule that has always been open to interpretation. The All-Pro outside linebacker specifically sought clarification on holding — and whether it is, in fact, holding when an offensive lineman effectively clothes-lines Harrison as he is rushing the quarterback.

"The ref told me if he has his arm around me, and my feet are past his feet, then it's a hold," Harrison said. "We'll see if that's called. Sometimes, they call it, sometimes, they don't. They can't catch everything."

Harrison may have made the issue somewhat of a moot point considering that little held him back in 2008. Harrison set the team's single-season sack record on the way to NFL Defensive Player of the Year honors, and his Super Bowl heroics helped the Steelers win a sixth Lombardi Trophy. Continue

Timmons excited to start at ILB

The Steelers are replacing a Foote with a freak.

Lawrence Timmons, the former first-round draft pick, is embracing a new role as a starting inside linebacker for the NFL's top-ranked defense.

Timmons, in his third year, is taking over for departed veteran Larry Foote.

"It's just playing football, that's all," Timmons said after practice this week. "I want to get better and work on all facets of my game and try to learn as much as possible."

The 6-foot-1, 245-pound Timmons played in all 16 games last season, starting two, and he filled the stats sheet.

The former Florida State star was one of only two players — LaMarr Woodley was the other — to record at least one sack, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Continue

Early concerns with Steelers' secondary

Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau won't say so, and cornerback Ike Taylor will not admit it, but it's apparent things are different in the Steelers' secondary during training camp.

More zone defense is being played and the number of big pass plays allowed is higher than you would expect from the Steelers.

Of course, it is only the first week of camp. The Steelers play their first preseason game next week against the Arizona Cardinals at Heinz Field.

Bryant McFadden left as a free agent for Arizona, and veteran Deshea Townsend hasn't practiced much during the first week of training camp. Third-year cornerback William Gay is entering his first season as a fulltime starter, leaving Taylor as the only returning corner with more than a year of starting experience. Continue

Vick rumors at Steelers camp

Two quarterbacks were among the topics that just about every arriving Steeler was asked about Friday at St. Vincent College in Latrobe.

The players strongly, if predictably, backed Ben Roethlisberger, who was recently accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit. Meanwhile, coach Mike Tomlin didn't rule out the Steelers having an interest in Michael Vick, who is a free agent - and is free again after serving a two-year prison sentence on dog-fighting charges.

Rumors swirled about Vick meeting with the Steelers Friday. And they were fueled in part by a caller to a Pittsburgh radio station who claimed to be a cab driver that had driven the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback from the airport to the team's South Side practice facility.

There is no indication that the Steelers met with or worked out Vick yesterday, and Tomlin said, "I'm in Latrobe and everybody else in our organization is." Continue

Tomlin tries not to rush Timmons

here was one drawback to the basic defensive plan the Steelers used in their second preseason game in Toronto, and it wasn't the ease with which the Buffalo Bills went up and down the field. It was that Lawrence Timmons nearly didn't get on the field until the second quarter.

That is not likely to happen when the Steelers play in Minnesota Saturday night, a game in which the starters typically see their most playing time in the preseason and the coaches sometimes trot out an extra wrinkle or two. Continue

Black and golden opportunity

As a rookie, Jeremy Bloom admittedly did the one thing coaches tell players not to do during training camp. He took a head count, crunched the numbers and wondered if there would be a place on the team for him, because the players in Philadelphia's camp far exceeded the available roster spots. Two years later, the Steelers wide receiver/return specialist is not nearly as fazed by the amount of competition he encounters in the NFL. Continue

Taylor turns to receiver for tips

Ike Taylor has made six interceptions since becoming a starter in 2005. The Steelers cornerback said that total should be closer to 25. "At least eight a year," Taylor said of how many interceptions he could have made the last three seasons.

Exaggeration or not, Taylor went on the offensive to correct perhaps the one thing that has prevented the sixth-year veteran from taking the next step in a solid career. In an effort to improve the hands that have too often failed him, Taylor crossed over, if only briefly, to what has to be considered the dark side for defensive backs. Continue

Steelers' No. 1 pick comes up short in drills

The first week of his first NFL training camp ended with a thud for Rashard Mendenhall. The glitzy, high-profile rookie, the first running back drafted in the first round by the Steelers in 19 years, received his welcome-to-the-NFL moment yesterday afternoon before family and friends.

There were several moments, actually. The first two came when the first-team Steelers defense stuffed Mendenhall on the initial live goal-line drill of training camp, with the offense snapping the ball just inside the 2. The third came when he was stopped short again on the seventh and final play. Continue

Ward remains 'heartbeat' of Steelers offense

Call him small, call him slow, call him (gasp!) a possession receiver. Draw a connection between the 32nd birthday he celebrated in March and the career-low 10.3 yards he averaged per catch last season. Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward thrives on doubt. He needs to be questioned. He needs to be dissed. He needs to be reminded that he is neither the biggest guy nor the fastest guy -- and not exactly the youngest, either. Continue