Okay, did we keep anybody? (Weegie)

Steelers Finalize Roster

We now have a big pile of shockers, don't we?
1. I'm utterly shocked that we kept none of Frazier, Roper, or Jackson. I had to figure one of these three was going to win the competition between them.
2. I'm equally shocked that given the first premise, that BOTH Eric Taylor and Shaun Nua missed out.
3. The countdown is 1 quarter until we hear Tunch say "and Willie Williams is getting utterly abused out there." Given I figured this was a battle between Carter and Williams, a minor shock has to be them both making it over Stuvaints.
4. Did anyone see anything out there that said Barrett Brooks was a lock to make this team? A little baffling.
5. There had better be a reason they forgot to note the cutting of the final remains of Marco Battaglia, otherwise I'm going to scream.
6. Mr. Gibson, Mr. Farmer... Mr. Farmer, Mr. Gibson...

We'll need to do a breakdown by positions, but I'm more than a little surprised by everything here.

-- Weegie Thompson

The Cruelest Cut (Rich)

Indeed it is a sad day for the Best Available Bloggers, who have pondered buying matching #54 Schneck jerseys on multiple occasions. Schneck always embodied the principles of long snapping--snap the ball accurately, try to make the tackle, collect an NFL paycheck. I hope he gets work wherever throwing something between your legs and then chasing something else is valued.

Conversely, our sadness is tempered by the end of the Alonzo Jackson Experiment, which only goes to show that you can convert a 4-3 DE to a 3-4 OLB, but only if they went to college somewhere in Colorado.

--rich erenberg

SCHNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECK! (Weegie)

This is probably going to result in the lamest online petition ever, but I'd sign it.

Jackson, St. Pierre, Schneck cut

You know, of all the vowels to shout in a KHAAAAAN! like way, short e is pretty much the worst.

-- Weegie Thompson

Plus/Minus for the Carolina preseason game (Weegie)

Tuman -1 (0/1)
Randle El +1 (1/0)
Williams -1 (1/2)
Foote 0 (1/1)
Farrior -1 (0/1)
Hampton +1 (1/0)
Logan +3 (3/0)
Faneca -1 (0/1)
ASmith +1 (1/0)
Kirschke +2 (2/0)
Taylor +1 (1/0)
JHarrison 0 (1/1)
Haggans +1 (1/0)
Roethlisberger -1 (1/2)
Hoke -1 (1/2)
Roper +2 (2/0)
Colclough +1 (2/1)
McFadden +3 (3/0)
Starks +1 (1/0)
Herron +2 (3/1)
Morey +3 (4/1)
Miller +1 (1/0)
Wilson +1 (1/0)
Kemoeatu -1 (0/1)
Wallace +2 (2/0)
Batch +1 (3/2)
Kriewaldt 0 (1/1)
Stuvaints +1 (1/0)
Iwuoma +1 (1/0)
Jackson -1 (0/1)
Carter -2 (0/2)
Keisel +1 (1/0)
Patton -1 (0/1)
Gibson -1 (1/2)
Kuhn -1 (0/1)
Frazier +2 (2/0)
Kranchick +1 (1/0)

Notes:
1. I saw the game in the rebroadcast, so I did find out who had been cut early during the game, when I switched over to check the Pirates score. Oops.
2. Morey may have secured a spot based on this, but I really don't want to see him as an option for passing.
3. Kuhn and Jackson may have played themselves off the team in this game.
4. Tyrone Carter may also have played himself off, if this game meant anything to that, meaning that Willie Williams may have not played himself back on. Somehow I'm neither over-, nor underwhelmed by this. In fact, I'm pretty much whelmed by it. The fact exists, and I recognize it as an inevitability.
5. We still have an issue here with the offense, it's not panic-level, run-around, fire-at-rescue-helicopters bad, but it is an issue, and it needs fixed.


-- Weegie Thompson

The Redskins and The Turk (which only sounds like a weird picaresque novel)

I watched a good bit of the Redskins game on fastforward, thanks to the magic of Tivo, and with my eyes half open thanks to the magic of sleeping really poorly the three previous nights. The list of players who impressed me was pretty short. I remember Rian Wallace looking good, and perhaps Andre Frazier, although honestly it's kind of a blur at this point.

I'm not so concerned about the offense, which I think will come around. Commentators love to hold the following two beliefs simultaneously:

1. The preseason is completely meaningless, except for injuries.
2. A bad performance in a preseason game is a signal of existing problems and a foreshadowing of things to come.

I don't fully subscribe to either belief. I think preseason can be meaningful for a team on the rise or decline to the extent that it builds momentum, positive or negative. But for a team that has reached a certain level of performance (good or bad) and doesn't have any great reason to believe that will change, the preseason means diddly-poo. I think that's us--with the caveat that a record of 11-5 or above is basically the same level of performance in my mind.

I still expect Ben to get the ship righted when he gets full weeks of 100% of the snaps in practice and gets to play full games. People have rewritten last season as if Ben was a mere caretaker of the running game, but this ignores a couple of things. One is that we ran so much in the second half of games because we often put up points in the passing game( courtesy of Ron Jaworski) and built big leads early. The other is that Ben came through aerially in the one game he needed to win late, at Dallas.

As for the first cutdown date, it was a real yawner. Doering clearly wasn't making the team this time around after being signed a few weeks ago with Ward out of camp, and Cushing made a horrible decision to try to be the backup fullback on a team that never keeps a backup fullback. Still, I imagine he'll show up at some point for his annual catch, half-season pay, and solid blocking and special-teams play. The only other name of any note was Zamir Cobb, last year's flash in the pan, but the bottom line is that undrafted free agents are usually undrafted free agents for a reason. I was a little disappointed at the lack of news, not realizing that we got to keep 71 at this point, but that means 18 names get dropped on Sunday, with at least 1 or 2 no doubt raising eyebrows.

Down to 65 (Weegie)

So we are now down to 65.

Nothing really unexpected here: Cushing, Doering, Cobb, Burr, Iorio, Davis, Verstraete, Young, Duff, Suisham

I'm less confident that Cobb will get practice squad'ed at this point, but I'm more confident he could be, given his release now means he'll be off the radar when the final cuts start rolling. Cushing will get a speed dial, and it looks like we'll need an actual wooden stake to kill Chris Doering's Steeler career.

The other point of note in the bullet points of this article is the possible reason Hines hasn't been locked in yet. If it's simply the point that his agent has botched so many other items that Hines is still at the bottom of the pile, I wouldn't be surprised to see Hines pick up a new agent. It's the rarely noted third side in the negotiations that has failed here.

-- Weegie Thompson