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(3/8) Readers of this website know what my opinion is of Ben Roethlisberger. I think he is one of the all-time greatest Steelers players. There is no way we win two Super Bowls without him, and it ticks me off to no end that he never gets the proper respect from the dumbed-down national sports media. That being said, I have to say that I am really disappointed to hear these latest off the field allegations. In case you missed it, a college student in Georgia is accusing Ben of sexual assault. This may be true or it may be made up like it was in the Nevada case. If it is the latter (and The Nation better pray that it is), there is still a big problem at hand. Roethlisberger is a superstar quarterback. He has millions of fans, including a ton of kids. God blessed him with an amazing talent for playing this game. And what does he do with that talent? He uses it to not only pick up random women, but does it in situations that leave him vulnerable to trouble. On the field, Ben is more comfortable winging it. He works better when operating out of the no huddle or scrambling around to make a play. It would seem that he operates his personal life in much the same way. Unfortunately, the results haven't been quite as good. Maybe it's time for a new way of living. Maybe it's time to start acting like a grown-up. If this latest mess doesn't wake him up, I'm not sure what will.

(3/8) I was all set to upload a story detailing how upset I was by the signing today of Tampa Bay safety Will Allen. It's not that Allen is a bad player, but rather that this signing seemed to signal the end of the Ryan Clark era. That would have been a huge mistake. Clark is probably the most underrated player on the defense. Fortunately, the Steelers came through. The Allen signing turned out to be for depth only because the team announced tonight that Clark has been re-signed to a four-year contract! This is great news for Steelers fans. The big three key free agents are all staying in the fold. They will have some new teammates however.

The Steelers made an uncharacteristic splash into free agency today by signing two more players in addition to Allen. The first was Buffalo tackle Jonathan Scott, another depth signing. The second was San Francisco WR Arnaz Battle. He is a seven-year veteran who will add - you guessed it - depth to the position. He will also likely push Limas Sweed out of a job. If that is the case, it would mark the end of a disastrous tenure in Pittsburgh for the team's 2008 second round pick. Let's just hope that the Battle signing works out better than the last time we signed a 49ers receiver.

So you would have thought the Steelers would have been done there, right? Nope. One more player was signed later, and it's a familiar one. Antwaan Randle El is heading back to Pittsburgh four years after leaving for a lucrative free agency deal in Washington. I really LOVE this move. I'm not sure Randel El is still the same playmaker he was when we had him the first time, but he is still a productive receiver (50 catches last year) and an all-around great guy whose presence will only do good things for the Steelers locker room. The Super Bowl XL hero got a three year deal. The offense is now loaded at the receiver position. Bruce Arians must be a happy man.

(3/4) Free agency starts tomorrow. The Steelers have several big names on the list this year:

• FS Ryan Clark: Despite having a subpar season in 2009, Clark is still a very valuable member of the team. Don't be fooled by thinking that just anyone can play back there because of Troy Polamalu. However, it doesn't look promising. Negotiations have been going on for a while now with no success. Also don't forget that Clark still feels like the team handled the Denver spleen incident very poorly, so that could also factor into his decision.
  
  
• OG Darnell Stapleton: He was the starting right guard when the Steelers won the Super Bowl two years ago, but he missed last season with an injury. The offense got by ok without him, making Stapleton expendable if the cost is too high.
  
  
• RB Willie Parker: Steelers fans will always remember FWP as a great player who contributed to two championships. Unfortunately, NFL runners have a short shelf life, and FWP's expiration date was sometime around when he got hurt in that Rams game in 2007. It is doubtful that he would be back.
  
  
• CB Deshea Townsend: As the only current Steeler who was on the roster back when the team played at Forbes Field, Townsend has certainly cemented himself as a longtime Steeler. If he still wants to play (and all indications are that he does), why not bring him back cheap as a 3rd down DB? It may depend on the two CB's drafted last year and whether or not they are ready for more playing time.
  
  
• QB Charlie Batch: Where else is he going to go? That being said, what value is he to the Steelers at this point? Don't get me wrong - I love the guy. But is it worth taking up a roster spot?
  
  
• DB Tyrone Carter: When he is a backup, he does fine. When he needs to step up and start a few games, the dropoff is felt big time. I wouldn't bring him back.
  
  
• DE Nick Eason: Solid defensive end who adds depth, but I don't see the Steelers bending over backwards to try to keep him around.
  
  
• DE Travis Kirschke: Valuable role player but very, very old. The Steelers just don't have a lot of depth in their aging defense (the result of years of drafting offense first), so they can't afford to lose too many of these guys.
  
  
• WR Joey Galloway: If this were 1996, teams would be battling it out for the right to offer him a huge paycheck. It is not 1996.
  
  
• FB Carey Davis: Interesting one here because the Steelers had jettisioned him early in the year but then decided that they needed him. Not sure how they feel now.

(2/25) I had planned to write a whole free agency preview thing next week evaluating if the Steelers could retain their big free agents, but now it looks like the two of them - Casey Hampton and Jeff Reed - will both be sticking around. Let's start with Hampton. The Big Snack signed a three-year deal for $21 million. Like Ted Washington or Pat Williams before him, Hampton is at that point in his career where his skills may have diminished, but he would still highly valued by any NFL team because of the way he can plug up the middle of a defense. While it seems doubtful that he could really play at a high level another three years (at which point he would be 36), the Steelers simply could not afford to lose him, especially with all the defensive issues that became so apparent after last season. It's also good that the Steelers did not have to force the issue. They had threatened to use the franchise tag, and in return Hampton had threatened to hold out. Those types of things are never fun to deal with, so it's nice that all parties could avoid it.

Reed was slapped with the franchise tag, which means big bucks for him this year (nearly $3 million, which is a lot for a kicker). I was admittedly down on Reed this past season. He wasn't totally sharp on the field, missing key field goals in the Chicago game and whiffing on tackles during the 47 TD returns that the special teams allowed. Off the field, he was doing bonehead, fratboy kind of crap. However, after watching the kicking debacle that was the 2009 NFL playoffs, I remembered how important it is to have a great kicker, and Reed is one of the best.

These were interesting moves by the Steelers, and they were both precipitated by the fact that there will be no cap next year, and potentially no season at all in 2011. The front office realizes that this is a team that is still a Super Bowl contender. They can't afford to slowly fall apart from free agent losses. It's better to hold the nucleus together with some duct tape while they rebuild their aging defense thru the draft. That being said, I'm not sure I understand why they didn't use the transition tag to hang onto Ryan Clark. That seemed like a logical move given his importance in the secondary. Not sure I agree with that one, but it's good to have the loveable fat guy and the loveable drunk guy back in the fold at least!

(1/7) It looks like the Steelers will indeed retain offensive coordinator Bruce Arians (there were reports earlier this week that he was getting fired). This is good news. There is really no reason to make a change on offense. Arians play-calling is somewhat suspect at times, but you can’t argue with results. The 2009 unit was a top ten offense. Records were set, milestone numbers were reached, and big points were put up. Most importantly, the offense won games and aside from the Cleveland game, was not responsible for any of the losses (conversely, the defense and special teams can directly blamed for the other six losses). Arians is a person who many Steelers fans love to hate, but that makes no sense to me. The guy is doing a good job. Our franchise QB keeps getting better and he likes working with Arians. Why would we mess with that, especially when offense is nowhere near the top of the list of problems that need to be addressed?

The team did fire offensive line coach Larry Zierlein and special teams coordinator Bob Ligashesky. I get the Ligashesky move, but I don't understand why Zierlein was fired. Granted, the o-line has been a problem for quite some time, but why did they wait until the line actually showed improvement to fire him? That move just reeks of "we missed the playoffs so heads had to roll" logic.


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