Yesterday, the Steelers cut guard Kraig Urbik and he was picked up off of waivers by the Bills (#9 in waiver order). Only a year ago, Urbik was the 79th overall draft (3rd round) pick in the 2009 NFL draft. Some might argue he was someone the Steelers would have liked to keep and was only a victim of a deep roster. Others can say he just wasn't cutting it and deserved to go. Regardless, he now joins a list of players most Steelers fans will cringe when they hear mentioned, along with the likes of Bruce Davis and Alonzo Jackson.

During Kevin Colbert's tenure as GM since 2000, Kraig Urbik is the highest draft pick cut 1 year after he was drafted. Remember how big of a bust we thought Bruce Davis was? Well, Urbik was drafted 9 spots higher. Here's a list of some of Colbert's biggest draft busts:

Note: I only included players that were cut soon after they were drafted & were drafted before the 5th round. "Soon" was based upon what round they were drafted in. I did not include players that were "busts," but the steelers kept around for a while hoping the player would become a contributor. I think there is a difference between "we don't think you're good enough or have enough potential to get a roster spot" and "you aren't any good right now, but we'll keep you around for another year because we think you have potential."

Biggest Cuts drafted earlier that year:
Danny Farmer- 2000, 4th Rd (103 overall)
Fred Gibson- 2005, 4th rd (131 overall)
Ryan McBean- 2007, 4th rd (132 overall)
Orien Harris- 2006, 4th rd (133 overall)

Biggest Cuts drafted 1 year earlier:
Kraig Urbik- 2009, 3rd rd (79 overall)
Bruce Davis- 2008, 3rd rd (88 overall)

Biggest Cuts drafted 2 years earlier:
Alonzo Jackson- 2003, 2nd rd (59 overall)
Willie Reid- 2006, 3rd rd (95 overall)
Mathias Nkwenti- 2001, 4th rd (111 overall) [side note: he made initial cuts, but was cut during the season]

Urbik is certainly right up there as one of Colbert's biggest disappointments. Overall though, Colbert hasn't had any HUGE mis-drafts and things could certainly be worse. Like how the Broncos just traded a player they drafted early 2nd round in 2009 for a backup TE...and traded a 1st rd 2010 draft pick to get the 2nd rd 2009 pick they used on the player.

This is the preseason Steelers roster with a little insight to people's chances of making the roster. I realize this might be a little early for projections, but I'm just too excited for football season to be starting again.

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After the draft, people are often excited and can't wait for training camp and the start of the next season. But since training camp is more than 3 long months away, we instead have to be satisfied with biding our time analyzing the Steelers' draft decisions and giving predictions on what impact the newly drafted will have on our team. People often have high hopes for these players but how high should these hopes really be? To solve that question, I used Colbert's past drafting history to predict the odds these rookies will become a quality NFL starter.

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So we all know about the Santonio Holmes trade. We all know the Steelers' FO got what they could in the short period of time they tried to trade him. BUT what if Holmes never had that last positive drug test, what would the Steelers been able to get for him?

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I don't know about you, but I'm thrilled with the new OT change. Art Rooney II also voted in favor of it...begrudgingly because he felt it didn't go far enough. But regardless if you agree with this change or not, I'm sure you're interested in how some of the finer points of the new rule work.

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Most Steelers fans were rightfully thrilled upon finding out we were able to keep Casey Hampton for 3 years more at the cost of $21.3 million. But after seeing Vince Wilfork get a 5 year $40 million deal, it made Hampton's contract look that much better. Since Hampton's contract seemed like a big win for the Steelers, I decided to take a closer look at it from both Hampton's and the Steelers' view points.

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Since free agency is about to kick -off on Friday & the Steelers have tendered their RFA's, let's take a look how much each position is contributing to the Steelers' salary cap hit this year. BadMaafala has already done a good breakdown of some of the cap hits & our cap situation in future years. You can check that out here.

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During the offseason, I've found it frustrating that the info for things aren't often found in one place. So I decided to fix that and put together this to complement Blitz's and cgolden's position by position breakdown of the team.

Listed are the current players on the roster, their contract status (highlighted if a FA), their age (highlighted if they are 29 years of age or older), and the ESTIMATED contract value of players. This way if you want to draw conclusions about the decisions the steelers will make about certain players you will be able to look in one spot. I included some important things like franchise tag amounts and highlighted key free agents & possible depth issues that may need addressed.

And of course I had to throw in my breakdown about players possibly returning and other issues (although some of them have probably already been beat to death). I'm very interested in your take any of the "offseason objectives."

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Playoffs!?! You wanna talk about playoffs!?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7fjDS0jKiE

Yes, Coach Mora, I’m talking about playoffs and you should be, too.  Personally, after a tough loss I like to stew in for about a day then turn my sights towards next week’s game.  And despite our 4 game losing streak, we stand a decent chance of still making the playoffs…IF we win out.
He’s the break-down of what must go-down for us to sneak into the playoffs.

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I’m sure you feel the same way.  I walked out of a Steelers bar in Philly in disbelief that we lost to the 3-8 Oakland Raiders lead by Bruce Gradkowski and I’m still stunned. I can’t believe that we lost 4 straight games…that the chiefs get their THIRD win of the year over us 2 weeks ago…that our once dependable Steel Curtain defense failed us once again by letting the worst offense in the league (last in points/gm) put together two 80+ yard touchdown drives with little more than seven minutes left in the game.  Oh and by the way, before this week the Raiders had the worst passing offense in the league, last in both yards/gm and passing td/gm.  It’s frustrating that I took time out of my day that could’ve been spent studying (I’m in Med school) to go to a steelers bar because the game wasn’t on TV in Philly (and that I took time to write this crappy fanpost to vent).  Frustrating that the odds of a West coast team winning a 1 PM game on the east coast were probably ridiculously low start.  Frustrating that the steelers are now a mediocre 6-6 in the middle of the pack for the wildcard race.  That we have a crappy conference record so we’re hurting in the tiebreaker department.  It only rubs salt in the wound knowing that the steelers were expected to win the division this year.  I personally would like to find someone to shoulder this blame for this recent slide, because the last time I felt this way was when then steelers went 6-10 in 2003.

Now, one could put the blame on Gay’s frequent missteps, Mundy’s helmet to helmet contacts on both Gay and then against the Raider WR for a penalty.  Possibly Ike Taylor with his half hearted attempt to push out Louis Murphy on his long TD reception or his decision not to go for the INT instead of knocking down the ball on the Raiders last drive allowing Murphy a 17 yard reception.  And of course there was Ben’s interception on a horrible decision in the redzone or Burnett’s dropped interception.  If ANY of those happen a little differently, the Steelers are probably 7-5 and in decent position in the playoff race.  But I personally put the blame a little higher up the ladder.  This one falls squarely on Tomlin & LeBeau. 

 I realize this is probably a very unpopular stance to have on BTSC.  I would probably get more agreement if I creatively come up with a way to point the finger at Arians.  LeBeau reminds me of a grandfather, but is a devious defensive genius.  Meanwhile, Tomlin has endured us with his insight observations/comments called “Tomlinisms” and giving us our record setting 6th super bowl.  But this loss represents a bigger problem & not just due to a couple bad plays.  Let’s start with LeBeau.  His defensive strategy was atrocious on the last drive.  He constantly rushed only 4 players.  If a 5th was brought (maybe once or twice) it was in a delayed blitz fashion.  Our secondary was being embarrassed the entire 4th quarter and hoping that we get a coverage sack was a foolish strategy.  From the days when we used to have horrible secondaries, any Steelers fan knows that the solution to a poorly playing secondary is to bring more pressure & faster.  Sack the QB before he has any opportunity to look downfield and find that open WR.  The one time LeBeau did bring some pressure was when they had gotten inside our redzone, but he brings IKE TAYLOR on a corner blitz.  It was a double corner blitz but again only 4 people were trying to pressuring the quarterback permitting the Oakland wideouts enough time to get open once again for the game winning TD.  Mr. LeBeau, I have the utmost respect for you and think you’re a defensive mastermind.  I’m sure you have forgotten far more about defensive strategy than I’ll ever know.  But why did you bring your best defensive back in a 4 man blitz when we have a depleted secondary due to injuries and a 4 man blitz hadn’t worked once this quarter? Not smart, not smart at all.

As for Tomlin, I think he’s a great head coach.  He seems very intelligent and seems to say and do a lot of the right things.  But it drove me insane watching him stand stoically on the sidelines for 99% of the game while his team failed to put away the underdog.  This entire game, our team didn’t seem fired up.  They didn’t seem to want it.  Remember Gradkowski’s 10 yard run for a first down that was called back because of holding?  At the end of the play, Taylor just pushes Gradkowski out of bounds and he would’ve had the first down.  Gradkowski never tried to slide and wasn’t just already out of bounds when Taylor got to him.  Do you think if the Steelers were fired up for the game, that Taylor just pushes Gradkowski out of bounds or do you think he lights him up there?  You motivate your players and get them fired up in football and Tomlin didn’t seem to do it for this game or against the Chiefs.  If you can’t get your team fired up to play against a 3-8 team at home and end a 3 game losing streak to save your season then when will you get your team fired up? Tomlin seemed to get more excited during games last year and the results of those games speak for themselves.  Haley and Pendergast had their team firing on all cylinders against us because they were still pissed about the super bowl loss and that’s one of the best games the Chiefs have played all year.  I wonder what would’ve happen if Tomlin would’ve laid into the defense on the sidelines after they let up the big play for the Raiders second TD and told them he expects more even without Troy.  Maybe they would’ve stopping the Raiders on the next drive.  The players have said they enjoy that Tomlin doesn’t yell and scream all the time because it treats them like adults.  I agree that’s good to have on the professional level for the most part, but on occasion it’s good if you reprimand players.  This isn’t the work place where you need people to only think with their minds.  This is a sport where intense physical action is needed along with that thinking.  Maybe Tomlin’s take that we won the super bowl last year and it doesn’t mean anything this year was the wrong mind set to have.  Teams are elevating their play against us.  We’re the game EVERY team circles on their schedule as a huge game.  Maybe saying it’s going to be even harder to win because we won last year would’ve been the right mind set instead of just wiping the slate clean.

Let’s get this straight, I’m not calling for a new head coach or LeBeau to be replaced.  I think they’re great and we won’t find a better replacement.  But Tomlin calls for accountability and I’m simply holding him and LeBeau accountable for not getting their jobs done.  The two most important jobs coaches have are putting their best players in the best possible positions to make plays and the second is motivating those players to get the best out of them.  I think LeBeau isn’t putting his players in the best positions and Tomlin isn’t motivating the players.  They need to adjust what they’re doing and come back working harder.  We can still save this season.  We have a very winnable schedule left and should be getting Polamalu back soon.  And since this 8 division setup was implemented in 2002, only 4 teams have been 10-6 or better and not made the playoffs.  But I really think that change has to come from Tomlin if we are to see a change in the players because we certainly won’t have to worry about having a target on our backs next year if there isn’t any improvement.  What do you think?