Loose Slag from The Still Mill (Mar 13, 2003)
- It's a shame that Dexter Jackson
saw green in lieu of black n' gold and went off to Tempe to play for a team
that, Cinci aside (and maybe even Cinci not aside), is the worst run
franchise in the entire NFL.�� How bad
are the Cards?� They had a chance to
franchise David Boston -- arguably one of the top 5 WRs in the league -- but
instead stood by and allowed Boston to depart with nothing to show for their
efforts.� Buffalo was in a similar predicament
with Peer Price and Tom Donahoe landed a 1st rounded pick.� Dexter was the right signing for the
Stillers, at the right time, at the right position, to fill the right need. Dexter
is no Ronnie Lott, but he'd have been a nice acquisition and would have boosted
the team's most glaring Achilles heel.�
- What really scares me the
most about our pass defense, is that, had we signed Dexter, the Stiller front
offense would have been perfectly content to take the rest of the spring and
summer off, and proclaim, "The hole has been filled."�� My esteemed colleague, Steel Haven, touched
on this briefly: this isn't the case of one safety spot needing an
immense upgrade.� Rather, both spots
need massive upgrading, right now.� Flowers
is a UFA and won't be invited back, and all along, the Stillers and the local
media have pointed at that spot, and only that spot, as the offseason
priority of fill.� Lost amidst the
Flower dropping is the fact that Burnt Alexander had an absolutely horrendous '02
season, and there's not a single shred of evidence to presume his slide will somehow
come to a halt in '03.� Burnt was the
free safety, and as such, he should have been making plays on passed balls�something
he did with unbelievable infrequency in '02.�
The guy had 4 INTs -- with at least 3 of those being gratuitous freebies
on horrible misfires -- and aside from that, defended all of 4 passes the
entire season.�� Opponents threw 40, 50,
even 60 passes per game at us, and our starting free safety defended 4 passes
(along with the 4 cheezy INTs) in 16 games.�
I'm not concerned that Dexter wasn't signed. I'm concerned that the
front office is going to keep this sorry sack o' dung (Alexander) around -- a
la Darren Perry -- when clearly the best chance of defensive improvement is to
send this guy over to the unemployment office.
- Lost amidst the need for
not one, but two, starting safeties, has been the possibility of signing
AZ Card UFA safety Kwammie Lassiter.� Kwammie
is a proven ballhawk who still can play at a fairly high level -- much higher
than Burnt Alexander.� In fact, because
Lassiter has never had a serious injury, and because he didn't regularly start
until his 5th season in the league, he's about the freshest and youngest
33-year old in the NFL.� As recently as
'01, he had 9 (nine) INTs on a defense that paled in comparison to what he'd
have in Pittsburgh.� Lassiter could be
had for fairly small mula, with a low-risk 2-year contract.� There's not a need to rush into this, but there's
no doubt whatsoever that Lassiter could be a tremendous value because of the
immesnse upgrade he'd provide over the likes of Burnt Alexander.� Besides, I used to work with Lassiter's
cousin (once again, we at Stillers.com have connections unlike big bags o' wind
like Wax-all and Sawski) so it'd be easy as pie to arrange for some free
ducats.� J
- With the Stillers fighting
to keep below the sal cap, this thought came to mind:� Is it allowable to sign some free agent now to a low-priced
contract, and then, perhaps after June 1st and after some fat has been cut from
the roster, that contract for the UFA is "upped" by a few more
dollars?� I imagine there's some obscure
NFL rule that would prohibit this, but if not, the loophole would be pretty
handy.� The Stillers, for example, don't
have much cap room now, but will have more after June 1st, when they take a far
lesser hit re-working or cutting overpaid stiffs like Mark Bruener.� Say they signed Charlie Batch today to a
veteran minimum deal, with a "handshake agreement" (Rooney's typically
good on his word) to re-do the contract on June 3rd for a few more scores of
thousands.� The Stillers are trying to
re-do and "up" Maddox's contract, so it seems plausible that this
clever idea could work.� Perhaps the NFL
has a rule about working a certain contract more than once per year, but if
not, it�s at least worth looking into.
- Lost amidst the plethora
of sports news this past week, was the action taken by Texas Tech hoops coach
Bobby Knight.� Tech "dropped"
to 16-11 last Saturday, and Knight informed Tech to keep his salary -- all
$250,000 of it -- because he felt didn't do a good enough job.� Said Knight, "I'm just not at all satisfied
with what transpired with our team in terms of our fundamental execution. I
don't think it's anybody's fault but mine."�� Contrast Knight's actions with the greed of Billy Cowher.� After the '97 season, which ended when
Cowher choked away yet another home playoff game, Cowher had the gaul to
blackmail the Rooney's into giving him a raise, or he was going to, as he
threatened, flee to Cleveland, a city that did not yet even have a football
team.� Rooney blinked and lavished
Cowher with a fatty contract, and Billy Cowher "responded" with brilliant
seasons of 7-9 and 6-10, yet never once volunteered to give back a cent of the
money that he'd blackmailed.� Cowshit
had a nice 13-3 season in '01, but then choked away yet another home
playoff game.� The '02 season was
pockmarked by Cowher's gross inability to address and rectify deficiencies in
the pass defense, yet he never once offered to forfeit any of the very salary
that he was so adroitly stealing.� Some Cowher
lovers will immediately carp about Knight's boorish behavior, which behavior I'm
not advocating.� Knight, though, has a kinder,
charitable side that few have seen and fewer media have ever reported on.� And, fact is, Billy isn't much different from
Bobby. If he's not stuffing a photo down the shirt of a ref, Billy is dashing
after a ref like a complete jackass after his team has been eliminated from the
playoffs with an overtime FG.� Knight's
teams play 30 games per year, or roughly twice as many as Billy's, which is why
you've seen a lot of film snippets of Knight's behavior.� Fact is, during his tenure at IU, Knight won
3 (three) NCAA championships; whereas in 11 seasons with the Stillers
Billy has won none.� Bobby Knight
accepts responsibility and blames himself; Billy Cowher shirks responsibility and
blames everyone else -- to include the GM, the assistant coaches, the refs, the
players, the ballboys, and even the popcorn vendors.� The only difference between the two, is that Bobby Knight is a
stand-up guy, where as Billy Cowher is a squats-when-he-pisses kind of
guy.�� The only difference between these
two, is that Bobby produces winners, while Billy produces pathetic complaints,
blackmail, backstabbing of his general manager, and a pile of excuses so high
that it'd make Hans Blix have a headache.�
- Once again, muchos kudos
to my esteemed colleagues here, Phantom and Haven, for their splendid work on
the upcoming draft.� Please take the
time to read, digest, and assimilate their draft articles.� You won't find anything close to the depth,
breadth, and analysis of the draft, as what these two preeminent writers are
providing.����
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- the only nationally read coverage on the Pittsburgh Stillers that has accurately predicted the how's and the why's of the past 3 Stiller playoff losses�.)