Morning Links (and Daily Thread)…

Posted on October 6, 2010 by adam

A quick daily look at what’s happening around Steelers Nation. And consider this your open thread for discussing the days events and, well, anything else that comes to mind about the Black and Gold.

– So, the internet was crazy last night with a rumor that Randy Moss was on the verge of possibly being traded back to the Minnesota Vikings, this after Seattle acquired Marshawn Lynch from the Buffalo Bills. Along those lines, and playing a very hypothetical game of “what if,” if you could acquire one player in the NFL in a trade for the remainder of the season, who would it be?

– Reflections on of the NFL’s blue chip modern rivalries. [Behind The Steel Curtain]

– A look at how Cam Cameron schemed the game-winning drive on Sunday. [Post Game Heroes]

– Maybe you’ve heard, but Ben Roethlisberger is back. [Post-Gazette]

– And for your random YouTube of the day: Part 1 of the NFL Films Presents episode that focused on Steelers Nation shortly after Super Bowl XL.

And if you have 20 minutes, I’d recommend checking out parts 2 (right here), 3 (right here) and 4 (right here) as well…

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  • Cols714

    QOTD
    Revis.

    • FW

      +1.

  • John S.

    Maybe Logan Mankins? The team’s pretty well stacked everywhere else, so I’d go for best available to beef up the o-line.

  • http://twitter.com/JasonArmes Jason Armes

    Great stuff on the youtube video posted. 4:30 HILLARIOUS!!!!!! BTW Love this website. Just found it after the 1st game of the season links from the post-gazette blog. Wondering what you guys think about Heath Miller still not getting much involvement in the passing game. I would have thought with Dixon and Batch he would have been a bigger target. Seems he was under-utilized last year too.

    • Cols714

      I think Miller broke some kind of Steelers record last year and posted career highs in receptions and yards. I don’t think he was under utilized last year.
      This year, yeah, but so has every receiver. Ben is back, Miller’s (and everyone else’s) numbers will go up.

  • Gretz

    Looks like the Moss trade is complete. New England gets a third-round pick for him and now has two picks in each of the first four rounds. I’m not going to lie: I didn’t see this coming.

    • countertorque

      shocked.

    • John S.

      Ridiculous that the Pats got him for a 4th rounder, got three great years out of him, then got a 3rd rounder in exchange for him.

      • GlennW

        Not really so ridiculous. With Randy Moss the trade compensation is only about 10% of the total story– the rest is all about motivating, paying and putting up with him. Per straight performance, the Patriots underpaid for Randy, and now were underpaid for him. This move doesn’t make much sense to me as the Pats are in line for a 3rd-round compensatory pick anyway, so this becomes all about Getting Randy Gone. As most of his teammates seem to like or at least tolerate Moss, I see this as yet another show-’em-who’s-boss power/ego trip by Belichick-Kraft with a player with a contract issue (see Deion Branch, Asante Samuel, Richard Seymour, Logan Mankins, etc.). Can the Patriots really continue to operate that way in today’s NFL? No team’s entire roster is ever fully happy with its contract status, and that needn’t be an unproductive situation. In any case, I’m glad that Moss is now in the NFC, we don’t have to face him on Nov 14, and that the Patriots are seemingly deferring their “resurgence” for at least another year.

        • Cols714

          Dumb move by the Patriots in what seems to be a new series for them. If they could draft well this wouldn’t be an issue. But they haven’t had too many impact drafts lately.

          • Gretz

            It shows me how little value wide receivers have in trades. Look at all of the receivers that have been traded recently (or in the case of Vincent Jackson, attempted to be traded) and the return they brought. Hardly impressive.

          • GlennW

            In my opinion most players at any position don’t yield their apparent face value in trade, or at least their value to their current team. Some of that is the contract status; impending free agents (including Santonio Holmes) aren’t going to fetch a full price. Some of it is the lost time that it’s going to take for the player to adapt to his new system. In any case, the prospect of the Patriots picking up yet another 3rd-round draft pick doesn’t exactly fill me with fear. I’m sure they’re going to hit on some of these eight 1st-4th round picks in the next draft (or whatever they end up with after their annual draft-pick shuffling), but as the previous poster alluded to, in recent drafts the Pats have only come away with some serviceable prospects, as opposed to impact players. Here in New England the bloom is very much off on Bill Belichick as a talent evaluator…

  • JCRODRIGUEZ

    As per the QOTD, I shoudl go for Joe Thomas, a young stud LT, to anchor the position for the next 10 years along with Pouncey…of course, that will never happen, but hey, we are dealing with ideals here…

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    After the Moss trade, a friend (who is a Chiefs fan) and I emailed back and forth about how teams overvalue draft picks. He wrote, “I’d be curious to see a list of the Patriots’ (or any team’s) 3rd round picks the last 10 years. If there are more than one or two good players on the list, I’d be shocked.”

    So, we looked into it for the Pats, Chiefs and Steelers, looking back to roughly 1995 or 1997, depending on the sources of data we had in front of us at the time. Turns out, if you looked at the Pats picks from 1997 to now, my friend would be right. Basically, after hitting home runs with Curtis Martin and Teddy Bruschi in R 3 in 1995 and 1996, from 1997-2009, they had 12 picks and the only contributor has been Ellis Hobbs. Other than that, there’s a whole lotta busts on their lists from 1997-2009. To be charitable, you could include backup QB Kevin O’Connell and perhaps 1-2 of their recent picks who might pan out. Even being generous, though, that’s below a 25% hit rate of the 17 3rd rounders. So don’t fear Emperor Hoodie stockpiling 3rd rounders. He doesn’t know what to do with them.

    The Chiefs hit rate was even worse than the Pats, with Jamal Charles, Brody Croyle, Keyaron Fox and a lot of other crap.

    However, if you look at the Steelers, it is a much different story. From 1997-2010, we’ve had 20 picks and only 6 busts. And the list of third-round picks that have already panned out as good NFL players (for us or other teams) includes Mike Wallace, Max Starks, Ike Taylor, Chris Hope, Kendrick Clancy, Joey Porter, Hines Ward and Mike Vrabel. That doesn’t include TBDs like Manny Sanders and Keenan Lewis or guys who have contributed like Matt Spaeth, Trai Essex, Amos Zereoue or Hank Poteat, all of whom have contributed more than almost all of the NE or KC picks. We complain about picks like Bruce Davis, but we’re actually pretty spoiled; on the Pats and Chiefs, he’d be the typical r3 pick and for us he’d be an exception.

    I’d love to see one of the Lounge Lizard Kings (perhaps resident draft expert Ted) do a round-by-round draft comparison for every NFL team. This would take a while but not much longer than JJ’s OL charting. And, if you package it right (eg, make team-by-team comments), it could be good link bait for all the other blogs and sites that write about the NFL. You could do points for starters, backups, Pro Bowls, etc. to be able to compare from team-to-team. If it was my job to write about the NFL, I’d do it, so hopefully one of you guys can.

    • Cols714

      I don’t know why you wouldn’t include Spaeth and Essex as good 3rd round picks. Essex is a starter at RG and a very valuable backup OT while Spaeth has filled in admirably for Miller when he’s injured and is now turning into a very good blocking TE.

      I’m also surprised at how many people here would take Joe Thomas. He’s very good, but Starks is good enough at LT. The upgrades are needed more along the interior OL, and defensive backfield.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    We found this site after discussing picks for a bit, so if you want to check our work or do your own, here’s a good link: http://www.fftoday.com/nfl/drafttracker.php?o=by_team&TeamID=9008

  • Anonymous

    For one season? I’m going to make the assumption that whomever I pick is automatically healthy every game and playing at peak level (ie no worm up time, not necessarily career peak).
    1. Ed Reed – second best safety in the league. Having 1 and 2 would make the secondary incredibly scary. And bonus, you take away the best player of your arch-rival.
    2. Darelle Revis – best corner in the nfl matched against the Steelers biggest defensive weakness. I’ll take that.
    3. Joe Thomas – the o-line is the biggest offensive weakness, so with the smae logic as #2, this is a win.

    I’ll answer a bonus question you didn’t ask. Who would I take for a new multi-year contract?
    1. Darelle Revis – Young and should still improve.
    2. Joe Thomas – Just hitting his prime, and with Pouncey could help make the Steelers’ current offensive weakness become a strength in years to come.
    3. Larry Fitzgerald – One of or perhaps the best receiver in the NFL. He’s in his prime and has many productive years in him. He has a great attitude towards the game and would be a great fit in the clubhouse in a day when many top-flight receives have become divas. And Hines Ward still has “it” but he’s no spring chicken.

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    I think Colbert has been very, very good in round three. Assuming Sanders and Lewis become at least average players, Colbert has picked 10 average-to-excellent players out of 13 third round picks in 11 years.

    I’d like to dig into the formula that puts this as only 10th best in the league, as that really seems hard to imagine. I only looked up the drafts for the Pats and Chiefs, and neither have been in the same planet. You can do your own research here: http://www.fftoday.com/nfl/drafttracker.php?o=by_team&TeamID=9008

    Here are the 3rd round picks under Colbert:
    2010: Emmanuel Sanders, WR, already a contributor, looks like a strong prospect
    2009: Mike Wallace, WR, starter, likely will be a Pro Bowler soon; Keenan Lewis, CB, unclear what his career will be but the coaches like him
    2008: Bruce Davis, LB, total bust
    2007: Matt Spaeth, TE, serviceable back up
    2006: Anthony Smith, S, bust; Willie Reid, WR, injured / bust
    2005: Trai Essex, T, currently our starting RG, average NFL guard
    2004: Max Starks, T, starting LT, a very good player
    2003: Ike Taylor, CB, starting CB, very good player
    2002: Chris Hope, S, was a starter, signed after Super Bowl with Titans and remains a borderline Pro Bowler
    2001: No picks
    2000: Kendrick Clancy, DT, still in the NFL on the Saints, used to be a serviceable starter for someone; Hank Poteat, DB, wasn’t good for us but was serviceable for other teams like the Pats and Jets through the 2008 season.

    Oh, and most of this was culled from the data I pulled for my comment post from a few weeks ago: http://www.steelerslounge.com/2010/10/morning-links-daily-thread-39/.