Ed: Scratch Ogletree as Possible Steelers Pick

Monday, 18 February 2013 07:47

Written by Ed Bouchette

Good morning,
    If you missed it, go back and read Ron Cook’s column yesterday. There were a few choice comments from one unidentified Steelers player about teammate LaMarr Woodley.
"He was awful," Cook quotes him as saying.
"He tells us he works out, but we didn't see it. He wasn't in shape. That has to be a reason why he was always hurt."
Ouch. Here’s the entire column: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/ron-cook/cook-its-time-for-lamarr-woodley-to-focus-on-football-675736/#ixzz2LD3XgUt3
  --- One thing the Steelers coaches would like to see is more and better special teams play from their young linebackers. Greg Lloyd, Joey Porter, Clark Haggans, James Harrison and more all cut their teeth playing special teams long before they moved into the starting lineup. A linebacker is a prime candidate for special teams play, and if he can’t perform there, it’s often a sign that he won’t perform at linebacker.
 --- This is the normal way of things in football: The offensive coordinator left Michigan State to take a job as running backs coach with the New Orleans Saints – not like in Pittsburgh, where the wide receivers coach left the Steelers to become an assistant at Duke.
 Click here: Saints hire Michigan State’s offensive coordinator as RB coach | ProFootballTalk

--- Scratch Alec Ogletree of the list of candidates to be drafted by the Steelers in the first round. With all the trouble they had with last year’s rookie class, there is no way they will draft this kid.
From CBSSports.com:
Linebacker Alec Ogletree, who led Georgia with 111 tackles despite being suspended for four games, recently was arrested for allegedly driving under the influence, according to his agent.
The projected first-round pick “was pulled over for speeding and a lane violation in Arizona,” agent Pat Dye Jr. told Profootballtalk.com. “After the officers smelled alcohol, they conducted tests and also cited him for DUI. Although Alec regrets this incident terribly, he is thankful that there was no accident and that no one was hurt. Because this matter is still pending, we cannot comment further publicly at this time.”
Ogletree (6-3, 237) announced he'd enter the draft after making a team-high 13 tackles in the win over Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl.
Coach Mark Richt suspended Ogletree for the first four games of 2012 because he failed drug tests during spring practice. Ogletree also was arrested for the theft of a Georgia track athlete's motorcycle helmet in September 2010 and was suspended for his first college game.
--- Michael Jordan turned 50 yesterday. You might have heard. Has there ever been more time and space devoted to a 50th birthday? If he were still playing basketball instead of golf and cards, you could understand it. Maybe if he were running for president, or shot his age on a golf course. No one paid this kind of attention to Bubby Brister’s 50th birthday Aug. 15.
--- Apparaently @AntonioBrown84 is catching flack for writing this on Twitter last night: “Praises be to Allah.’’ That’s it. Here’s a take on it from Amber Lee, a Pittsburgh native blogging in Washington, D.C.:
    Amber Lee (@blamberr)
2/18/13, 4:14 AM
Steelers' Antonio Brown: Praises Allah on Twitter, Enrages Followers wp.me/p1WlcD-f7 @HuffingtonPost @PittsburghPG @EdBouchette    

--- Chat's on tomorrow, 1:30.

--- Your questions:
--- YOU: will the naming rights to Heinz Field be effected by the Hathaway/3G joint acquisition down the road?
ME: The deal Heinz signed goes until 2021.
--- YOU: My Q. most folks would say that the ravens right now are better than the steelers.
Is it because they are better at using PED's? Aaron Smith out most of a year with triceps tear, Ray Lewis a few weeks. Terrell Suggs achilles, back before anticipated. is this subject off limits forscribes who require clubhouse access?

ME: You can speculate all you want, but no proof means no story.
--- YOU: Too early to know if Buffet’s purchase of Heinz result in a name change of Steeler’s home field, ala Buffet Field?
ME: From what I know, the name of the company won’t change.
--- YOU: As a fan, I think Tomlin (and the organization) owe Dick Lebeau an apology. Of course, that will never happen. But he and they have largely squandered the efforts of the best defensive mind in football in more than a decade. And he's almost done.

Year in, year out, key injuries or not, help from the draft or not, Lebeau's defenses finish first or top five nearly every year. If they had been able to muster even a credible offense over the last decade, just top 50 percent, they would have two or three more rings.

ME: Just two or three? That would make, four of five Super Bowl victories in eight years, by my math. Why not four or five? Or a sweep of all eight? Football teams include an offense, a defense, special teams and a whole lot more stuff including injuries, poor decisions, lucky or unlucky plays, good and bad calls from the officials, etc. The greatest team in my lifetime, the 1970s Steelers, managed “only” four Super Bowl victories in a span of six seasons. The Steelers decided to sink most of their salary cap into defense over the past decade, so it should be no surprise that is where they would be strongest. However, it seems to me that defense almost lost Super Bowl XLIII to Arizona by giving up a late lead only to have its offense pull them out of the fire with one of the clutch late drives in Super Bowl history.