FAN: And We Miss You, Sean Morey

This is a short, but great article and really speaks to what's so special about our Pittsburgh Steelers. If you think I'm not serious about missing Morey, just go up to the "Search This Blog" area and enter "Sean Morey". Told you so. Good Special Teams coverage is an art and Sean and Chidi were very good at it.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Well, Tomlin seems to have watched some game film as he's bringing Chidi Owuoma back for another year as a Special Teams Specialist. It doesn't hurt that in a pinch he can play DB just enough that he doesn't kill you. Sean Morey, however, had the hatchet dropped on him and was quickly gobbled up by Arizona. Probably a decent move for them as they need kick coverage help. Sometimes the Steelers only want 5 receivers on the team and it hurts when one of them is a liability but is kept around for Special Teams purposes. I like Morey, but Tomlin is banking on a defensive rookie being able to do what he does well. Plus, it will save cap money this year. I'm glad Chidi is back and I still can't believe they released him last year knowing the Pats like to sign our casualties to get a knowledge dump.

Trading Up Again

The Steelers traded up today to take Santonio Holmes in the first round with the 25th pick which they acquired from Denver for their 1st, 3rd and 4th round picks. In reality, since we had four 4th round picks - the cost wasn't that steep. I'm glad they took Holmes instead of Moss, but I really didn't expect them to take a receiver. Man, was I wrong. They took ANOTHER receiver in the 3rd..and he's a smurf...but should be a great punt/kick returner. That's why I like Holmes instead of Moss with the first pick. I didn't want the "Moss type" receiver who tends to be a little small and soft. Also, with Hines not getting any younger, it will be nice to have a 1st round stud ready to take over when Hines hangs them up. Big Ben deserves a stable full of weapons. All that being said, I still think Quincy Morgan could have started at the #2 receiver position! I guess they really liked this kid to trade up for him and look what happened the last time they traded up for the first pick (Polamalu). So "Yikes!" we now have way too many receivers on the squad. Will Cedrick Wilson find himself unemployed at the end of camp? The 3rd pick of the day, Reid probably assures Lee Mays will not make the team in camp. I don't know what they're going to do with Sean Morey. They resigned him and I love his tenacity on Special Teams. If we continue to run the ball well next year, can you imagine trying to scheme against a running attack of Willie Parker, Hines Ward underneath, Holmes going long and Heath Miller running down the seam? Wow. More on the draft after I have time to digest it all. I've already read some complaints from some boards I read about the 2nd pick. His official draft write-up suggests he won't be drafted but signed as a free agent! That's certainly not very comforting. Hopefully next year with the defense still signed and skill players on offense - we'll go back to drafting trench warriors.

Whew, Ike Staying!

The deadline passed for another team to make an offer for Steelers restricted free agents Ike Taylor and Sean Morey. Now, it's imperative that the Steelers lock up Ike for the next 4-5 years. With Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu roaming around in the secondary - youth and speed are not a concern. The only snag we could hit is if Ike's agent talks him out of taking the Steelers offer this offseason in hopes of landing a huge payday next year as an unrestricted free agent. The Steelers, of course, will try to get him for less than market value - hoping he'll take the smaller contract so he can get his hands on the signing bonus right now. The only upside for Taylor doing that is he gets to bank the money today instead of next year. It also protects him to some degree if he sustains a serious injury this year. He'll already have his signing bonus. I hope he doesn't gamble and he takes the Steelers offer, counters once, and then signs the Steelers second offer sheet. Everyone's happy with that ending. I was happy to see Sean Morey remain a Steeler also. $722,000 is a lot of money for a Special Teams player - but he is usually the first person down the field and unlike a lot of people with that distinction - he makes the tackle at least 30% of the time. I think he's valuable in that regard and one of the reasons special teams has gone from bad to good over the last 2-3 years. Signing him away from the Eagles was superb scouting in my opinion. Man, I can't wait for the draft. It's good knowing that we don't have a glaring weakness.