FanHouse JerameTuman

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

After astonishing everyone and heading to the Super Bowl last season, the Arizona Cardinals now face truly raised expectations for the first time in memory. We all remember the magical postseason run, when Larry Fitzgerald established himself as the NFL's premier wideout (even if Andre Johnson wants to argue), Kurt Warner polished his legacy, and the defense showed its capability -- one we had not seen much in the regular season.

Over the past two weeks we've heard all about the numerous connections between Pittsburgh and the Arizona Cardinals, and there are plenty. So many, in fact, that the Cardinals are jokingly referred to as "Pittsburgh west" by Steelers fans.

The story's of Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm are well documented. Clark Haggans, Brian St. Pierre, Jerame Tuman and Sean Morey are all former Steelers, while Steve Breaston and Reggie Wells were actually born in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers got out the axe on Friday, cutting lose a pair of long-time Steelers as well as washed-up returner Allen Rossum. Linebacker Clint Kriewaldt, a fixture on the Steelers special teams for the past five years, and tight end Jerame Tuman, a nine-year Steeler, were the other two to be sent packing.

Tuman and Kriewaldt both ended the year on injured reserve. But when healthy, Tuman is still the Steelers' second-best tight end, because he's a better blocker than Matt Spaeth. Admittedly, Spaeth did show improvement over the second half of the season, but he's got a long way to go both in blocking and in the passing game. The Steelers may look elsewhere for a third tight end, and Tuman may shop for a backup job, but like Matt Cushing before him, there's always the hope that he could end up back in Pittsburgh at a cheaper price.

FanHouse's J.J. Cooper mentioned this morning that the Steelers placed safety Ryan Clark and tight end Jerame Tuman on injured reserve last night. Conventional wisdom suggests that at least one of the two roster new spots would be used to shore up the special teams, a unit that gets worse by the week.

One of my all-time favorite Steelers, Chidi Iwuoma seemed like a good choice (or the sentimental one, anyway), if for no other reason than he was a beast on special teams, even though he was a shade taller than Webster. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Scott Brown wrote on Tuesday that the team hadn't contacted Iwuoma, and also thought it a bit of a head-scratcher.

I agree ... kind of. Iwuoma's small size has worked against him most of his career. Whenever a 160-pound guy not afraid to throw his body around gets put on special teams -- and invariably gets his body thrown around -- he's going to suffer injuries. It happened last year, when the Steelers re-signed him late in the season. (Although, it's worth noting that the special teams immediately improved. Coincidence? I think not.) And it would probably happen this time around too.

But here's the flip side: so what? It's not like the players Pittsburgh signed (center Marvin Philip and defensive back Grant Mason, both practice squadders) were seconds away from getting plucked by some other NFL team. They're not going anywhere. I'm half of the opinion that the Steelers should sign Iwuoma, and ride him until he breaks down. It might be next week, or it might be in January. Whatever, it can't be any worse than what happened against Cleveland Sunday.

Just hours after Mike Tomlin announced that Ryan Clark and Jerame Tuman weren't progressing well, the Steelers put both of the veterans on injured reserve.

The move ends both of the veteran's seasons. Tuman has been limited by injury for the past several weeks. Clark's trip to IR is more surprising. He was fine until the high altitude of Denver aggravated a spleen condition. At the time there was a lot of thought that he wouldn't miss any games, but every week since he's struggled to get back on the field.

Thankfully the Steelers have solid depth at both positions. Tuman was already the third stringer and he's been replaced by offensive tackle Max Starks. Starks serves well in the run blocking role although he's not much of a threat to catch passes. Clark's job has been taken by Anthony Smith. Smith has a knack for making big plays and might hit even harder than Clark, although he doesn't have Clark's steady reliability. With longtime veteran Tyrone Carter moving up into the dime safety role Pittsburgh is still well covered at safety.

It is interesting that the Steelers signed center Marvin Phillip off the practice squad to fill one of the two spots. That means Pittsburgh is now carrying three centers on the active roster (and two more linemen who could play the position in a pinch). Maybe another team was looking to nab Phillip off the practice squad or maybe the Steelers are already planning toward next year's offensive line.