Stillers Preseason Outlook - OFFENSE

Review of the offensive side of the ball as the Stillers head toward the start of preseason on Aug. 15th:�

QB:� With Ben Roth at the helm, the Stillers are looking better at QB than at any time in the past 20-some years.� It's plausible that Benji could hit a soph slump, but any decrease in his effectiveness and productivity will be affected primarily by his supporting cast.� Mommy Maddox will probably serve as the backup, unless Charlie Batch catches fire in preseason and The Mommy falters.� Brian St. Pierre looks poised to assume the #3 job and tote the clipboard and signal plays in to the huddle.� The priority for Ben is to work on expanding his progression of reads on a given play, as well as his ad-hoc decision-making that went awry in the playoffs last season.� It's very reasonable to assume he'll have a much better mastery of the offense, the reads, the audibles, and the opponents' tactics.��

RB:� "Danger, danger," cries the robot from Lost in Space.� He may as well been reviewing the running back corps.�

The biggest blow is in the form of Duce Staley, whose achy knee was scoped and as a result, he'll be out a month.� Of course, with knees, it almost always takes even longer to come back, what with dealing with swelling, scar tissue, excess fluids, and so forth.� Then there's the matter of getting cardio, timing, and speed back up to normal.� You have to wonder why it took until early August to find out Staley had an injured knee.� After all, hasn't the team been holding semi-occasional workouts since the May mini-camp??� At any rate, The Duce is on the shelf, and with it, so is the Stillers running game, unless Verron Haynes can shake the injury bug and chip in with authority and zest.� Haynes is a capable enough back to carry the pig 20 times a game, but his brittleness is a grave concern.�

There's The Fat Back, Jerome Bettis, but don't be fooled into thinking that The Plunger is the full-time answer at RB.� He's not.� He's a year slower and a year more laden with blubber, despite any media blather you may have seen about "Jerome is in the best shape of his life."� The Doughboy can chip in with some plunges here and there, but in the hot weather of September, he won't do jack if he's tasked to tote the pill 20+ times per Sunday.� Wilver Parker is an intriguing back, and should be extra carries in preseason to see if he's up to snuff.� But, nothing terrifies Bilbo Cowher more than having to turn to untested youngsters, and until Parker proves himself, he'll never be given the chance to shine.� (The classic conundrum of playing for a myopic imbecile like Billy Cowher -- one must prove himself to Lord Billy, but Lord Billy is too afraid to give a youngster the chance, so the vicious cycle continues in perpetuity.)� Rookie Noah Herron falls into the same boat as Parker.���

FB:� Dan Kreider gives the Stillers the best blocking FB in the NFL.� And, as The Stump has shown, he is very capable of catching the ball out of the backfield.� Rookie Zachary Tuiasasopo will get a look, but with Staley hobbled, the team likely can't afford to keep an extra FB.�

WR:� Another hideous situation that has obviously gone from bad to worse.� It was grim enough, going into this season without Plex Burress around to stretch defenses, push a safety back from the box, and haul in some downfield tosses.�

Now Hines Ward is sitting out in a stalemate with Rooney and company.� Should Ward miss any regular season time, the offense is screwed. There's been some occasional bandying of the idea that, since the Pats had a relatively small receiving corps, the Stillers can get away with small, too.� Problem is, it's apples and oranges, and as such, it's a ludicrous reach that makes no sense.� The Pats might be small, but they're small and FAST.� Deion Branch and Bethel Johnson could each carry a sack of groceries and still outrun any Stiller receiver.� Patten and Givens could whip any Stiller receiver in a dash.� Randle El is a nice complimentary receiver, but has neither the speed nor size to scare any defenses nor snare many balls downfield.� Ditto for Cedric Wilson, and that's being generous.� Then there's the rookie mid-rounder from Georgia, who hasn't dazzled many in his first pro camp.� As you know, that was Hines Ward back in 1998, and rookie 4th rounder Freddie Gibson, also from UGA, hasn't shown all that much so far, either.� Gibber has some size, but little polish.� Zamir Cobb may be quick, but is a twerp.�

Even if Ward signs soon, the offense must still deal with the departure of Plex and his ability to scare defenses enough to push back a safety.� Now, post-Plex, you can expect a safety to walk up to the box on a majority of plays in order to help bottle the run.�

TE: The Stillers invested a #1 draft pick on a sure-handed TE that the scouts raved about day and night.� That was 1995, when the Stillers wasted a #1 pick on Mark "Hands and Feet of Stone" Bruener.� Hopefully, Heath Miller will pan out to be a bit more productive than the 12-catch-per-year wonderboy, Mark Bruener.� Of course, the TE is often viewed as a tackle eligible in the Stiller offense, which translates into a lot of blocking and little involvement in the passing game.� It'd be nice to see Miller haul in 40-45 passes, but in the Neanderthal world of Billy Cowher, that might be a pipe dream.�

Jerame Tuman and Matthew Kranchick will probably assume the backup chores.� Both may as well ask the trainers to procure the same "murder mitts" that O-linemen prefer to wear, because if Miller isn't worked into the aerial assault, the backups surely won't be, either.� Ever-resilient Matt Cushing will probably be cut for the 8th time, and then re-signed in October once a couple injuries hit the active roster.

O-Line: Remarkably, this is one of the more stable gangs on the entire Stiller team, which is precisely how Billy Cowher likes it, since he's never been fond of developing and grooming O-linemen.� Center Jeff Hartings heads into what appears to be his final season in pretty good health.� Veteran Chubby Okobi waits in the wings as Hartings' capable backup.� LG is obviously set with the superb Al Faneca.� LT is secure with Marvel Smith.�

The right side of the line presents the grim concern.� Kendall Simmons assumes the starting job at RG, not because he's really done anything recently to earn the job, but rather because he's a so-called "incumbent" and because the cupboard is otherwise bare.� The Tree, Max Starks, assumes the RT job on the similar criterion of a bare cupboard.� Hence, the Stillers are banking (on their right side of the line) on a guard that has missed the better part of the past 2 seasons with injury and diabetes, and a RT that has never played more than a small handful of snaps per game as a short-yardage blocker.� Ironically enough, the Stillers actually had a stout, proven commodity that could have played either RG or RT, but instead, after the 2004 season, the team ran this man off like an AIDS-infected leper.� Key Vincent ended up signing with Baltimore, and as I've noted previously, this was an enormous loss from the standpoint of depth as well as the capability of starting, and starting effectively.� Every time Simmons or Starks struggles or is whipped, just remember two words -- Key Vincent.�

Rookies Trai Essex and Chris Komoeatu may impress at camp, but Billy Cowher would rather crawl down Forbes Avenue at midday through chards of broken glass -- stark naked, no less -- than insert an unproven, non-1st round rookie into the starting O-line unit.�

Kicker:� The Stillers appear to be in good hands, er, feet, with Jeff Reed doing the placekicking.� Reed rebounded from a shaky 2003 to have a solid 2004 campaign.� With Burress, and possibly Ward, out of the offense, Reed becomes even more critical in terms of putting points on the board.�

Synopsis:� A solid offense with some weapons.� But the big concern is that, sans Plex, and perhaps sans Hines, how will the offense move the 8th and 9th man out of the box?� The RB situation, with Duce hobbled, is a major concern, as is the right side of the line.� It's Simmons and Starks "or bust", because good, experienced depth simply ain't there.�

Perhaps later this week, or next -- the Defense�..

�(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 4 Stiller playoff losses�.)