Innholdsfortegnelse for 2019 Regular season preview issue i Steelers Digest

It’s being cast as a kind of referendum. Tranquility vs. turmoil. Team vs. talent. If only it were that simple. This overly simplistic, some might even call it lazy, approach to the 2019 Steelers can be traced to the issues/distractions the team no longer will have as a result of the running back who now plays for the New York Jets and the wide receiver who may or may not be playing for the Oakland Raiders, pending the outcome of his most recent helmetgate grievance. Not to be sarcastic. It’s overly simplistic to assign complete culpability for the Steelers’ playoffless 9-6-1 finish in 2018 to some combination of Le’Veon Bell’s absence and Antonio Brown’s petulance, but doing so is a lot easier for the talking heads living a couple of…

Assistant Editor The Steelers made it official when they named Ray Sherman interim wide receivers coach for the 2019 season. Sherman has been with the team through all of training camp and in the preseason, initially coming in to observe. After the passing of receivers coach Darryl Drake, Sherman stepped in and has worked with the group since then. Sherman is no stranger to the organization. He was the Steelers offensive coordinator in 1998 and was the running backs coach at Purdue when offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner was a student assistant in 1984-85. Sherman, who hasn’t coached since 2015, brings with him a wealth of experience from his 42 years coaching in college and the NFL. Sherman’s coaching career began in the college ranks as a graduate assistant at San…

Q. You often talk about your job being one where you give the players what they need. What did they need in the immediate aftermath of Darryl Drake’s passing? A. I thought the first thing that they needed, and we all needed, was time to digest what transpired in some way, to digest it in individual ways. That’s why I canceled work last Sunday. That’s why we switched the off day from Tuesday to Monday. It just gave guys a block of time to absorb, in whatever ways they could absorb, what transpired. It also gave us time to mobilize and be thoughtful about the assistance we would give them — the professional grief counseling, etc. I think that was the first reaction in regards to the guys, to provide…

From the notebook of a sportswriter who’s happy he waited until after the third preseason game to freshen up his opinions: • Had I waited this long to write my encyclopedic season preview, I would have easily added another 5,000 words and sold it as a manuscript. • It also afforded me the chance to utilize more realistic defensive statistics than yards allowed per game. After three preseason games, the Steelers allow 342 yards per game, which ranks 26th in the NFL. • That is not the 26th-ranked defense I watched in Nashville. • This Steelers defense is fast and furious — not to mention versatile and interchangeable, which is more important to the coaching staff than fast and furious. • But not my much. • The points allowed after…

Sunday, Sept. 8 PITTSBURGH AT NEW ENGLAND Time: 8:20 p.m. Site: Gillette Stadium Television: CBS Series record: Teams tied 16-16 (including playoffs) Last meeting: 2018 at Pittsburgh; Steelers 17, Patriots 10 Series trend: The victory at Heinz Field last season ended a five-game New England winning streak in the series that included a victory in the 2016 AFC Championship Game. Scouting report: Another football season will begin with New England expected to easily win the AFC East, this despite the retirement of tight end Rob Gronkowski. Bill Belichick and Tom Brady remain the constants here, and the reinstatement of wide receiver Josh Gordon could provide a major boost to the passing game. The defense, which was key in the Super Bowl victory against the Rams in February, features one of…

In the camp preview, we posited the questions. And in this, the season preview, we’re posting the answers — at least as well as we know them to be. But here’s a question and an answer: What does a strong start in preseason mean for the regular season? Well, in this century, three other Steelers teams won their first two preseason games, and here’s how those seasons went: • 2017: Division champs (13-3) • 2010: Super Bowl appearance (12-4) • 2005: NFL champions (11-5) Not too shabby. Does their strong preseason signify that these Steelers have what it takes to get to the Super Bowl? “It’s a good start,” said Cam Heyward. “I don’t put all my eggs in the basket that way. But we’re winning games and still learning…

LATROBE, Pa. — Darryl Drake’s coaching bona fides are indisputable, presented neatly and chronologically in a timeline dating back to his days as a Western Kentucky University graduate assistant in 1983. The list of the men he molded in his four stops in the college ranks and his three jobs in the NFL include both certain Hall of Fame inductees and nobodies from nowhere, and he impacted the careers of them all. Darryl Drake died early Sunday morning, Aug. 11. He was 62. “We are at a loss for words following Darryl Drake’s passing,” said Steelers President Art Rooney II. “Darryl had such an impact on the players he coached and everyone he worked with throughout his entire career. He was a passionate coach and had a tremendous spirit toward…

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