NFL.com is reporting that Shawn Springs has agreed to a contract with the Pats* and will sign later today.  New England* had been discussed as a possible destination for Bryant McFadden, but now it looks like that won't happen.

Good news for those of us (myself included) who would like to see the Steelers sign BMac to a 4 or 5 year deal at a reasonable price.  So far the following teams have re-signed or acquired CBs through free agency or trades in the past week or so:  Redskins (Hall), Colts (Hayden), Ravens (Foxworth), Jets (Sheppard), Eagles (Hanson), Lions (Henry), Broncos (Goodman), Rams (Bartell), Saints (Greer), and Pats* (Springs).  That's 10 teams, several of which were rumored to be interested in BMac, who have passed on him.  Who else is left?  The Cards?  The Dolphins, because they lost Goodman?  Seems like BMac is rapidly running out of options.  The chances of seeing him in a Steelers uniform next year just keep increasing every day.

The Post-Gazette and ESPN are both reporting that Max Starks has signed the 1-year contract offer he received as the Steelers' franchise player.  According to ESPN, this guarantees his entire $8.45 million salary for this season, but prevents him from potentially getting offers from other teams.  (That wasn't likely anyway, since any team who signed him would owe the Steelers two first round draft choices.)

Personally, I think this could work out badly for the Steelers for two reasons.  One, although the Post-Gazette article indicates that the Steelers can and will still try to negotiate a longer-term deal with Starks, I'm not sure Starks would even want to do that, since now he can take his $8.45 million and then be a free agent next year.  Two, it sounds like even if they did reach a longer-term agreement, Starks would still be on the books for the full $8.45 million towards the cap this year, so I don't think there is any way the Steelers still have enough room to sign McFadden now.

Here are the links:

http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09052/950828-100.stm

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3924220

Since the Steelers' thrilling victory in Super Bowl XLIII a week ago, I've been thinking about how wonderful it is to be a fan of the NFL's most successful franchise. It's awesome to cheer for a team that performs at such a consistently high level--every season is exciting, and even if it's a down year, I know that it won't be long before they are competing for another Super Bowl. You all probably know the stats listed below, but I wanted to post them as a reminder of how great the Pittsburgh Steelers have been during the 43 NFL seasons of the "Super Bowl era."

6 Super Bowl championships
7 Conference championships
19 Division championships (44% of the time!)
24 playoff appearances (56% of the time!)
31-18 record during the playoffs (.633 winning pct.)
28 winning seasons and only 13 losing seasons (but 6 of these were prior to 1972, meaning that in the last 37 years, the Steelers were just as likely to play in the Super Bowl as have a losing season!)

Wow. Now that is sustained excellence.

ESPN is reporting that Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau told his players today that he'll be back for the 2009 season.  Not a huge surprise, but I for one wasn't taking it for granted--the guy is 71 years old, after all.  I'm glad he'll be around for at least one more year, and with the only potential loss being McFadden, he should have all the major pieces in place to lead a defense that makes a run at the #1 ranking once again.

"I would never make any kind of decision without the guys in that room, like my son, knowing first," LeBeau said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "The way they're playing, they're going to have to run me out of here."

Details are sparse, but I just found this on SI.com:

http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/nfl_tracker/posts/38341-chargers-vincent-jackson-arrested-for-dui?eref=sircrc&eref=fromSI

Not sure yet if this will his status for Sunday's game.  The league probably won't do anything, so it would be up to the Chargers to deactivate him in the same way the Steelers did with Santonio Holmes earlier this season.  With it being a playoff game, that's probably not too likely.

Just saw the list of inactive players, and there are some interesting names.  Bruce Davis and Tony Hills are no surprise, and a bit less surprising, but still disappointing, is that Limas Sweed is also on the list.  3 of our top 4 picks aren't even good enough to be active on game day...not a good start for this year's draft class.

The biggest surprise, however, is that Anthony Smith is also inactive today.  Guess that means we would use either Carter or Townsend to back up Clark.  Think Tomlin is sending Smith a message after his over-aggressiveness during training camp?  Could this mean that Smith's days in Pittsburgh are numbered?  (I don't think we would get rid of him during the season, but maybe after?)

Some good news on the injury front...the Post-Gazette's blog page is reporting that Kemo has been removed from the PUP list and practiced today while wearing a protective brace on his arm.  The link is below, although details are sparse.  If anyone was at camp today and has information on how he looked during practice, please give us an update.  Here's hoping that he is able to increase the intensity and quality of play on the OL, because it's obvious from everyone's comments so far that significant improvement is still needed.

Now that Kemo is back, Essex will go back to being a backup, but hopefully that's not the only change on the first team line.  I'm hoping that Hartwig and Starks get their chances to run with the first team soon.

So I just read that the AP sportswriters have named Bill Belichick the NFL Coach of the Year for this season. He got 29 out of 50 votes. Apparently those 29 people were living in a cave when HE GOT CAUGHT CHEATING!!!!! How can you choose as your coach of the year someone who intentionally broke the rules to gain a competitive advantage? Not to mention he spent the first half the season running up the score on opposing teams because he was mad that he got caught. I guess fair play and sportsmanship don't matter as long as you win every game. The media's love for the Patriots and their "super-genius" coach continues to amaze me.