FanHouse Kendall Simmons

On Thursday, the Steelers parted ways with guard Kendall Simmons. It was a surprising move; not so much because of Simmons' on-field contributions -- he's been nothing more than replacement level for the last three seasons -- but because starting left guard Chris Kemoeatu was headed for free agency and Simmons' replacement, Darnell Stapleton, has only 12 career starts.

Then, on Friday morning, the New York Daily News reported that the Jets had offered Kemoeatu more than $4 million a year. By this afternoon, however, the Steelers had re-signed Kemoeatu, their former sixth-round pick, to a five-year, $20 million deal, which includes a $4 million signing bonus.

If you pay any attention to the Steelers, you probably know that guard Kendall Simmons has struggled with pass blocking, run blocking and staying healthy. But even with that, the Steelers' decision to cut Simmons on Thursday is pretty shocking considering how thin the Steelers are at guard.

Just two years after the Steelers signed Simmons to a five-year, $24 million deal, they cut him on Thursday. It leaves Pittsburgh with only one guard (Darnell Stapleton) on the current roster who has ever started a game. One would hope that this means the Steelers plan on bringing in a guard in free agency, even if Jeff Saturday, their likely No. 1 target, has re-upped with the Colts.

Like usual, the Steelers will likely be sitting out the heavy bidding when free agency starts. But on the day before free agency, when many teams are dumping veterans left and right to create cap room, the Steelers have no one on the roster who deserves to be cut.

If you want further evidence that the Steelers front office generally knows what its doing, take a look at this rough estimate of the Steelers salaries. There is only one player on the roster whose contract is much bigger than his on-field production. And while Kendall Simmons ($4.67 million) is overpaid, with just one other experienced guard on the roster, Simmons is going nowhere.

The Steelers decision to franchise Max Starks may seem puzzling, but for a team that just won the Super Bowl, it's a pretty logical move.

By tagging Starks, Pittsburgh ensures that it doesn't head into free agency with a gaping hole. With Starks locked up, Pittsburgh could start the season with Starks, Kendall Simmons, Justin Hartwig, Darnell Stapleton and Willie Colon. It's not a good line; in fact, it's a pretty poor one, but it's not really any worse than the one that won the Super Bowl.

If you thought there was any chance that Chris Kemoeatu was coming back to the Steelers, there are some pretty strong signs that he will be heading elsewhere in today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Steelers already have Kendall Simmons (back from an Achilles injury) and 2008 starter Darnell Stapleton under contract for 2009. They also have a starting right tackle (Willie Colon) who almost every scout/player personnel man not employed by the Steelers believes would be better off playing guard. So the only real reason to bring Kemoeatu back is if he's willing to agree to a very reasonable deal.

But if you listen to Kemoeatu's agent, it sure sounds like he's expecting a landmark offer. And he hopes it comes from the Steelers.

The Steelers have had to survive lots of injuries this year, but if you're the type who likes to find the silver lining, it's pretty clear that the injuries have helped the Steelers' planning for 2009.

When Kendall Simmons tore his Achilles, second-year guard Darnell Stapleton stepped in and has played better than Simmons. Stapleton will almost assuredly be starting in 2009, whether in Simmons' spot or at Chris Kemoeatu's spot since Kemoeatu will be a free agent. It's hard to believe that Mike Tomlin and the Steelers front office would have been comfortable turning a job over to Stapleton in 2009 without a backup plan if not for Simmons injury, but now, that's not a problem.

Now we're seeing the same thing potentially happening at cornerback. When Bryant McFadden and Deshea Townsend both went down with injuries, the Steelers were forced to turn to second-year corner William Gay as an unexpected starter. Three games into his unexpected role, Gay has been very solid, showing that he's an extremely good tackler despite his small size and he has a decent feel for coverages. While it will be important to get McFadden back into the lineup, Gay has shown he can do the job respectably as an emerhgency fill-in.

The Steelers managed to put the memory of the Eagles' debacle behind them with a win against the Ravens, but if you think the team's offensive line and blitz pick-up issues are behind them, you'd be mistaken.

Pittsburgh did handle Rex Ryan's innovative blitz packages better than it did the Eagles' come-from-anywhere blitz, but the Steelers still had trouble picking up blitzers, despite the fact that Baltimore rarely sent more than five pass rushers. The biggest difference between the first-half struggles and the second-half success was the emphasis on quicker passes and Ben Roethlisberger's ability to shrug off unblocked blitzers.

Four days ago, I had no idea who Danny Ware was. Before last weekend, apparently, he was just a running back sequestered on the Giants practice squad. Now he's the guy who was arrested for being drunk while standing in oncoming traffic at two in the morning. No idea what would possess anybody to do that (well, other than to get their mind right for the big game), but at least he wasn't wearing his uniform, so there's that.

Whatever, Ware tells the New York Post that the full story has yet to be told (I mean, there has to be a completely logical explanation for this; 24-year-old professional athletes just don't get drunk and start doing stupid stuff for no reason.)

"The truth is going to come out," said Ware, who was arrested along with a woman for drunken conduct and because they seemed oblivious to traffic that had to steer around them as they stood in the street talking, police told the Athens Banner Herald. His court case is later this month. ... "Everybody sees the comments," Ware said. "You can have your own opinion. But the truth's going to come out, we'll just have to wait."

And wait I will.

The Steelers got a big win on Monday night, but they also suffered a lot of losses.

Starting guard Kendall Simmons tore an Achilles tendon. First-round pick and defacto starting tailback Rashard Mendenhall broke his shoulder. Both are headed to the injured reserve and will miss the rest of the season. This is the latest malady for Simmons who missed a season with a torn ACL early in his career and had to adjust to playing with diabetes a couple of years ago. Mendenhall broke his shoulder on a particularly hard (but fair) hit from linebacker Ray Lewis.

The Steelers will likely replace Simmons with either Trai Essex or Darnell Stapleton, although the way to get the best five on the field would be to move Willie Colon inside to guard while Max Starks slides into the right tackle spot.

If you pay attention to history at all, you probably know how a blitzkreig works. The idea is that putting pressure on your opponent quicker than he can make decisions, you stay a step ahead and basically force him into paralysis of inaction because he can never make decisions quick enough.

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson clearly knows what blitzkreig is. His Eagles defense stayed a step ahead of the Steelers offense all night. And in the process, he made every Steeler fan realize that the team's worst nightmare before the season began has just been in hibernation for two weeks.

After giving up nine sacks in a disastrous performance against the Eagles, the Steelers offensive line had no excuses, but this wasn't a case of players getting physically beaten as much as it was the Steelers being outsmarted by a defense. Philadelphia blitzed from every angle, but often Steelers offensive lineman were caught blocking air, as a linebacker or defensive back would take a step or two towards the line in a fake blitz before dropping into coverage. And while the Steelers offensive lineman was standing their confused, another blitzer would be running free into the backfield.