The Steelers haven’t had much success in short-yardage situations since the days of Jerome Bettis, and it makes me cringe when the team has 3rd or 4th and one situations to see what disaster is going to happen next. With that, the team has made efforts to shore up that part of their game, and it sounds from the practices that there’s a couple of guys in mind for those roles in 2010.
Isaac Redman and rookie Jonathan Dwyer continue to surface as candidates to line up at running back in short-yardage situations. “It is interesting; we’ve got some young guys in the backfield who might have a degree of pedigree that is geared towards those things.”
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DrGeorge
June 13, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Watching the Steelers in short yardage since the departure of Bettis has been nothing short of painful. Because the team has no power running back, the team resorts to the pass far too often, and defenses, knowing this, do not respect the run, making Ben’s job in the red zone that much harder. Tomlin and the Rooneys seem intent on rectifying that deficiency in the Steelers’ game. Redman and Dwyer are a look in that direction. Moreover, our blocking in short yardage should improve this year with the reworking of the O-line.
However, no RB on our roster has Bettis’s size; or even the size of opposing power backs. We really need a short yardage RB who goes 260# or more — someone with the power to level an opposing ILB. I continue to believe one of our OGs or LBs could fill that role. Many of them played RB or FB early in their careers. James Harrison would be ideal; he demonstrated in the Super Bowl what a talented athlete he is; but he may be too valuable to risk in that role. Legursky has possibilities, too. There are several others on the roster who would make effective special situation RBs.
The Bears used Refrig Perry (a DE) in that role very effectively a few years ago? A 300 lb. FB can be a very intimidating weapon, especially behind an O-line that blocks.
The Tony
June 14, 2010 at 9:23 am
I believe with a little work Frank Summers who is 5’10 240lbs could potentially fill our need for a short yardage back. Ever since we drafted Dwyer I have been getting the feeling that he is quickly going to excel wearing the black and gold. I believe Dwyer could potentially even challenge Mendenhall.