TIOPS DAILY FIVE
Rumblings, Musings, Opinions
1. Anyone who stayed for the entire Steelers – Panthers game Thursday night, Art Rooney II should have stood at the exit and handed you a $100 bill.
The product of the preseason has become so bad fans should be paid to attend.
2. The Steelers have enough top tier talent on offense that will keep them competitive this season, especially in a division that lacks an elite team.
However, a continued trend since 2012 has been a lack of talent outside of the top-15 players or so.
— At running back the Steelers have no depth options behind DeAngelo Williams to start the season as Josh Harris has showed little to earn a spot and is not an NFL running back.
— The team has no depth at tackle position or on the interior.
— After watching Daniel McCullers get pushed around last night, it’s not a stretch to say Cam Heyward, Steve McLendon and Stephon Tuitt are the only NFL caliber defensive linemen the Steelers have.
— The secondary doesn’t have one player who could start for half the league.
3. The revolving door at the punter position continues for the Steelers with Jordan Berry winning the job.
The Steelers traded Brad Wing to the New York Giants in-exchange for a 2016 seventh round pick.
Berry becomes the ninth punter for the Steelers during the Mike Tomlin era. The group has been so poor over the years that Wing was probably in the top-3 and that’s not saying much.
Among other notable roster moves to be made so far is the team cutting cornerback Kevin Fogg
Fogg was a camp darling but momentum started to die down on him making the roster over the last week due to the Steelers not being confident enough that he could contribute on special teams.
4. One concern emerging for the Pirates — Their No. 1 and No. 2 starters are trending in the wrong direction —
The Pirates winning 11 straight games with Francisco Liriano on the mound prior to last night’s contest overlooked the reality that he hasn’t been very good of late.
The command has been lacking for Liriano who has a 28/20 K/BB ratio over his last five starts.
5. In the on-going sale talks, the Penguins have put a huge price tag on the redevelopment around the arena.To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
