FanHouse Duce Staley

When Jerome Bettis was working at NBC over the past couple of years he could sometimes be criticized for being a little bland. At his best he offered some interesting insights (like when he correctly proclaimed that Bill Cowher was going to retire months before he did), but he generally could best be described as a forgettable analyst.

Apparently, he's a better writer than talker. Just two weeks into his Sports Illustrated column, Bettis (with the help of a contributing writer) has shown that he can be insightful and interesting, especially if you are a Steelers fan.

As I was doing my daily browsing of the Internet, searching for videos of cats playing ping-pong and water-skiing squirrels, I stumbled upon this article from Ian O'Connor over at Fox Sports titled, "In a do-over, Eli still gets draft nod over Big Ben."

My first thought was, "oh crap, not this again." Being the sane, rational person that I am, I decided to give Mr. O'Connor's article a shot and see if he might be able to enlighten me, offering convincing evidence that Eli Manning is indeed better than Ben Roethlisberger, as he suggests.

He failed. Not only did he fail, he made me want to take my laptop and throw it against the wall, repeatedly, until Ian O'Connor's article ceased to exist on my computer screen. I screamed various expletives as if he could hear me, stomping around the house screaming his name. O'Connor! O'Connor! O'Connor!

Now, let me be clear: I'm not going to sit here and blow a bunch of smoke up your butts and pretend to be some sort of unbiased, neutral third-party. Because I'm not. As you may already know, I am a Steelers fan, which makes me incredibly biased -- and passionate -- about this topic. What I am going to do, however, is attempt to offer objective facts, many of which O'Connor uses in his own article, to prove his is full of ... well.

You can say this about Oakland Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin: he knows what the strength of his offense is. According to Raiders beat writer Jerry McDonald at the Contra Costa Times, Kiffin is having dreams of a monster, clock-killing, punishing rushing attack led by Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden and Michael Bush that will pound the ball at defenses nearly 600 times during the 2008 season.

My amateur math skills tell me that 600 rushing attempts over a 16-game season comes out to, roughly, 37 carries per game. That's a lot of running. As a team, they ran the ball 508 times in '07, including seven games where they had at least 30 attempts.

Without getting into the question of, what does it say about your offense when the strength consists of two guys to never carry the ball in an NFL game, this seems like a dream in every sense of the word. I'm not saying the Raiders aren't going to pound the ball and be a run-first team, but 600 carries, or close to it, is nearly impossible to do.

Last week, the Steelers released Najeh Davenport, a 245-pound running back who was signed to replace the ineffective Duce Staley in 2006. Staley was signed two years earlier to take over for the soon-to-be-retiring Jerome Bettis (he's from Detroit, you know). The common theme among the three backs? They were all big, plodding bruisers who could move the pile and excelled in short-yardage situations.

But as Pittsburgh heads into 2008, Gary Russell is the "heaviest" runner of those destined for the final 53, and he weighs 215 pounds (according to NFL.com). Rookie Rashard Mendenhall is 210, and Willie Parker and Mewelde Moore are listed at 209. But it's Moore, signed this offseason to a three-year, $4.95 million deal, who could be the key component to the new-fangled running game.

Not so much for his ability to actually run the ball, but because of his many other talents.

Well, this doesn't happen every week, but Steelers' wideout Hines Ward will miss this weekend's game against the Cardinals. In his 10-year career, Ward has missed only three starts, all since 2005.

A bum knee -- suffered last week during a two-play stretch that featured back-to-back Big Ben Medicine-ball specials that nearly got Ward decapitated -- will keep the four-time Pro Bowler in the Duce Staley memorial game-day sweats. In his absence, Cedrick Wilson and Nate Washington will get more playing time, and Wilson understands exactly what that entails:

This is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and when you put on this uniform, you know you are going to be counted on to block someone out on the perimeter," he said. "Hines does that very well, and I am proud of the way I have improved as a blocker and I know that is part of what they count on me to do."

Statistically, Ward's off to a slow start, but his blocking has been a big part of the Steelers' early-season running-game success. The Cards rank 17th against the run, so that might make Wilson's/Washington's job a tad easier, but as Amos Zereoue was so fond of saying: the guys on the other side of the field are getting paid too.

In other personnel news, cornerback Ricardo Colclough is listed as doubtful with a back injury which begs two questions: First, how the hell did he hurt his back? Second, injured or not, isn't 'doubtful' a step up from inactive?

The last action Todd Pinkston saw in a game was in the Superbowl. Remember that? The Eagles, not too long ago, were in the Superbowl. Tomorrow night the Birds will go up against the defending Superbowl champs in a preseason tune up. It will likely be the last action any of the starters will see before the start of the season.

There has been talk of Pinkston possibly not even making the team due to his nagging achilles injuries. Friday night will be a very pivotal game for Pinky and the Eagles receiving corp.

Other noteworthy news: Brodrick Bunkley, the Eagles stud first rounder, will get the start. Correll Buckhalter, starting at running back, will also get his shot to show he belongs on the Eagles roster.

Friday will also bring back fan favorite Duce Staley to South Philly. An NFL.com report says there is a good chance that Duce will get released by the Steelers and discusses the Eagles propensity to bring back former stars on their last leg.

Pittsburgh's depth at the position makes it possible for it to deal Staley. Yet if Staley is sent packing from Pittsburgh either through a trade or a release, one possible landing spot would seem to be the Philadelphia Eagles who, to date, have not had any trade conversations with the Steelers. Should Staley be released, and it is within the realm of possibility, the Eagles could be on the list of teams interested in his service

Duce was an integral part of the Eagles for years, but at this point does he have anything left?

>>Pinkston debut; Bunkley starts [Eagles.com]
>>Many happy returns for Staley and Eagles? [NFL.com]