"It's time to put the hay in the barn"

Holy cow, last night's wannabe Steelers-wannabe Panthers sham pre-season finale scrum was dreadful to watch. There were lots of empty seats, but anybody who actually sat through that charade should have been paid to watch it, not the other way around. It's amazing the NFL gets away with it.

Antwon Blake struggled vs. the Panthers.

It's hard to read too much into the performance on the field. A lot of the guys who played won't be in NFL uniforms next week. The guys in Steelers uniforms last night got beat by guys like Philly Brown and Fozzy Whitaker. Let's get real.

The next round of cuts shouldn't be too hard in most cases. It's time to end the Mike Adams experiment. And, do Steelers really need more than two quarterbacks on the active roster to start the year?

There are other concerns, of course. These new free-agent signees won't get cut, but to be honest, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls don't see what Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin saw in off-season additions Cam Thomas and Mike Mitchell.  Neither has shown much this camp or in the pre-season games. With Brett Keisel's recent arrival, where does Thomas fit on the defensive line? The run defense has looked awful all pre-season, and Thomas was supposed to bolster it. He's looked slow, fat and a pushover. Mitchell may be able to hit, allegedly, but he can't tackle, apparently; and he takes bad angles in pursuit -- which he seems to be doing a lot (chasing down guys already past him).

Not encouraging.

After the game, Coach Tomlin said, "We’re very much still a team in development like all teams are.  I think you’re kidding yourself if you think you’re a finished product this time of year. We’re going to continue to put the hay in the barn."

Let's hope this team somehow gels before the season opener vs. Cleveland at Heinz Field. Last year, the Seelers lost the season opener at home vs. Mike Munchak's Tennessee Titans, and then proceeded to lose the next three games.

The Steelers weren't ready to start the season last year, and they don't look ready now. It's time to put the hay in the barn.

Shish kabobs aside ...

The Cambod-ican Kitchen

With two weeks to go until the NFL Draft, it is most definitely not cool that Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert has the distraction of possibly being called to testify in the trial of Mike Adams the three idiots imbeciles thugs hapless losers morons men accused of attacking offensive tackle Mike Adams.

It's not cool that Mike Adams put Colbert in this position. Never mind that Adams got punched and stabbed, and, as such, is the victim. Adams's poor decision-making put him standing stupid and drunk at 3 a.m. outside the "Cambod-Ican Kitchen" on the South Side. And now Kevin Colbert is dragged into it during key preparation time for the draft. If that's not a "distraction," what is?

Nothing good happens after midnight, eh, Mike?  Was the restaurant's self-proclaimed "Cat on a Stick" worth it?

Then again, maybe Colbert's involvement at this point will have no effect on the Steelers' draft preparations and decision-making. After all, Mike Tomlin says he's the one who makes "easy draft-day decisions." Was it Tomlin's decision to draft Adams? Or was it Colbert's?

If Tomlin makes the easy draft-day decisions, who makes the difficult decisions?

What's Left Unsaid ...

We'll find out soon enough.

But the following paragraph, below, caught our eye. It's from Adam Brandolph's article about the trial scheduled to start on Tuesday for three men accused of stabbing Steelers' tackle Mike Adams last June.

"Lawyers for the three men claim Adams lied about the incident — telling police the men tried to carjack him — because he was already on thin ice with the team after testing positive for marijuana at the NFL Scouting Combine before the 2012 draft. The lawyers said Adams had a blood alcohol content of 0.18 percent, more than twice the legal limit, when he parked his truck near the men, got out of his truck and started a fight."

That's it? That's their defense? The lawyers' defense argument will be that Mike Adams started a fight with three guys? ... at 3 a.m. on the South Side?

That doesn't sound even remotely credible. Surely they're going to claim something else, right? ... you can see where this is going, right?

As if anticipating the possible need for reputational damage control and trying to get in front of it, Steelers.com published a puff piece last week about Adams striving to "rebound" from being demoted last year.  Incredibly, Teresa Varley, who wrote the piece, mentioned not a word about Adams getting stabbed in the abdomen at 3 a.m on June 1 on the South Side.  Not a word, as if the incident and the injury had no effect on his lousy play early last season.

All of which begs the question, "What really happened that night?"

We'll learn soon enough. Or not.

Mike Munchak: A superb hiring

Icy rivers, but a warm reception
in Pittsburgh for Mike Munhcak

When the Tennessee Titans fired head coach Mike Munchak on Jan. 7th, it came as a surprise to 'most everybody. Munchak had middling success in Nashville, but the Hall of Fame offensive lineman is generally well-regarded and highly respected across the NFL.

His name came into play immediately as a job candidate for head coaching vacancies in Detroit and Cleveland, where he interviewed. Both franchises went with choices that must have left their fans underwhelmed: Jim Caldwell in Detroit and Mike Pettine, the former Bills and Jets defensive coordinator, in Cleveland.

When Munchak came available, some fans and bloggers in Pittsburgh immediately put forth his name as a potential offensive coordinator for the Steelers, never mind that Todd Haley already holds that job.

At the time, it seemed a stretch to think Munchak would actually agree to take on the lesser, more focused role of offensive line coach. Yet here he is: Munchak is now Pittsburgh's offensive line coach.

This can be only a good thing.  Before being promoted to head coach in Tennessee, Mike Munchak had exceptional success coaching the Titan's offensive line.

Some people have wondered aloud whether adding another former head coach to the staff, the team's third, would potentially have Mike Tomlin looking over his shoulder. That's not going to happen.

We'll be more interested to see how the relationship between Haley and Munchak unfolds, and to what extent they stay on the same page.

One thing for sure: Munchak is the most accomplished offensive line coach the Steelers have had in years, maybe ever. His presence can only help the woeful running game and pass protection schemes. How much he will help to develop some of the players remains to be seen, but that is up to them more so than him. If Marcus Gilbert and Mike Adams don't have the commitment or the talent to be effective offensive tackles in the NFL, this will be the year decisions on them will be made.

One other thing: Hopefully, Munchak will help the Steelers be better prepared to open the season than they have in recent years. His Titans beat the Steelers at Heinz Field to open the 2013 season. His team was ready to play and, clearly, the Steelers weren't anywhere near ready to play -- until nearly mid-October.

That's mainly on the head coach, however, and for now, all Munchak really has to do is improve the offensive line. It's a good bet he will.

The Curious Case of Rashad Butler and Offensive Line Roster Machinations

We're just curious: What in the name of Levi Brown happened with offensive tackle Rashad Butler? Is he a Steeler or not?*

Ray Mansfield: Where's a guy like the
Ol' Ranger when you need him?

You remember Levi Brown, don't you?  The Steelers actually traded for Brown in early October after it had become clear that Mike Adams wasn't up to the job of starting left tackle, never mind that Brown himself was about to be cut by the Arizona Cardinals after having proved that he wasn't up to the job of starting left tackle for the team coached by Bruce Arians, the former Steelers' offensive coordinator who is once again in the running for NFL Coach of the Year, an award he won last year. And how's that for a run-on sentence?

You'll recall that a few days after joining the Steelers, Brown reported triceps discomfort in warm-ups immediately before the Jets game and was subsequently placed on injured reserve -- without having played a snap for the Steelers. Joey Porter's Pit Bulls suspect that Brown was injured before he even arrived in Pittsburgh, and that the team should have never allowed him to pass a physical. We have no way of knowing that, of course; it just seems an eminently possible scenario, and we have a suspicious nature borne of life experience.

Flash forward to the loss in Baltimore on Thanksgiving night, when the team lost half its offensive line to injuries of varying severity. Four of the eight offensive linemen on the active roster went down with injuries that game: tackle Mike Adams (ankle), guard David DeCastro (foot), tackle Kelvin Beachum (sprained knee) and, most seriously, center Fernando Velasco (Achilles), whose season ended.

That left us with Cody Wallace, Guy Whimper, Marcus Gilbert and Ramon Foster as the only "healthy" offensive linemen on the active roster.

Right Tackle Charlie Bradshaw, 1967

In the wake of all that, the Steelers last Saturday signed two players who had been sitting around waiting for calls: Rashad Butler, a journeyman tackle whom the Browns released on Nov. 5, for crying out loud, and Eric Olsen, a center waived by New Orleans at the end of training camp.

Over the weekend, then, Butler showed up (or did he?) and almost immediately left the team "for personal reasons."

In the wake of Butler's departure, the Steelers had to sign another tackle, right? Maybe promote Joe Long from the practice squad?

Apparently not. Despite the injuries to Beachum (in a walking boot and listed as "questionable" for Sunday's game, which means "probably not") and Adams, the Steelers opted to sign yet another center, David Snow, who was cut by the Buffalo Bills at the end of training camp.

Let's see: Cody Wallace is a center. Eric Olsen is a center. David Snow is a center. Do the Steelers have enough centers? Probably not.

Presumably these guys have "positional flexibility." Still, Wallace has been in the NFL for nearly six full seasons and on Sunday will make his first start. Counting his 40 snaps this year with the Steelers, Wallace has been on the field for all of 58 plays. That means, what? ... that Cody Wallace is good enough to make an NFL roster but not good enough to play? That seems to be what his coaches have thought. Or not.

Guard Larry Gagner, 1968

We will find out on Sunday, when Wallace starts in place of the injured Fernando Velasco, who was starting, and playing well, in place of the injured Maurkice Pouncey. Presumably the newly signed Eric Olsen will also suit up on Sunday and David Snow will be on the inactive list. Presumably.

More about David Snow: In 2012, the Bills signed Snow as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Texas. He was on Buffalo's practice squad, promoted to the active roster, and appeared in five games for the Bills during the 2012 season. The Bills let him loose at the end of the 2013 training camp.

Anyway, it appears the Steelers are counting on either (or both) Beachum and Adams to be available to play left tackle.  Otherwise, you would think, the Steelers would have signed somebody with tackle experience to at least be in uniform in case either Beachum or Adams get hurt again on Sunday.

Why not promote the practice squad players?
These roster machinations are always a mystery. Joey Porter's Pit Bulls wish somebody would answer a simple question: With two offensive linemen on the practice squad -- tackle Joe Long and guard Chris Hubbard, why did the Steelers go outside the organization to add guys like Butler, Olsen and Snow? Presumably the answer would be the Steelers believe the newly acquired players are better than the guys on the practice squad and would provide more help immediately. Huh.

Which brings us to our final question of the day: Why does the NFL even require a certain number of game-day inactives?  What purpose does that serve?

*As for Rashad Butler, the Post-Gazette reports he remains under contract but is now on the "exempt" list after the Steelers received a roster exemption. What the real story is, we'll likely never know.