PRACTICE?!?! (squad) (Rich)

The roster at steelers.com has now been updated to include the practice squad, which is slightly unusual in that it consists entirely of guys who were with the team in camp:

• Andre Frazier
• Jim Jones
• Shaun Nua
• Dedrick Roper
• Eric Taylor
• Zach Tuiasosopo
• Walter Young

I'm curious about the fact that Young and not Fred Gibson will be manning the WR slot; I assume this was Gibson's choice and not the team's, and maybe he's been picked up for another team's squad or even a roster spot. Also, somehow I thought Jones was an old guy, so I was surprised to see this--I think I confused him with another "Jim J." who was a longtime Jet and short-time Steeler OT and whose last name eludes me at the moment. Tuiasosopo also can't be a surprise given that we stuck with one fullback (although wouldn't you kinda like to see what Brett Keisel could do in short yardage?), and Matt Cushing is probably only so patient with the speed-dial. I imagine Roper and Frazier are also likely candidates for the 53-man if anything happens to anyone at LB. I was vaguely aware that there's something called Eric Taylor, and I'd have to look up his position, if I actually cared.

In other news, our fourth WR for the opener is Sean Morey who I would like to officially nickname "The Eel," especially if he ever wriggles out of a tackle. If the team has adopted Weegie and my idea that it should hire an actual demon as its special teams demon, then we can expect diabolical things from that position. Hopefully this also means that Heath Miller will see a lot of time alongside the top 3 WRs and Haynes/Parker on third and long.

Finally, I vaguely recall something about the number of inactives changing or possibly being done away with this year. Presuming I'm wrong about that, I'm guessing our inactives for week 1 will look something like: Duce Staley, Jerome Bettis, Lee Mays, Trai Essex, Chris Kemoeatu, Bryant McFadden, and Joey Porter.

--rich erenberg