FanHouse SeanMcHugh

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

For the second time in four years, the Steelers hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, which means no matter what happens this offseason, Steelers fans have plenty of reasons to be happy. But with an easier 2009 schedule on the horizon and few big names hitting free agency, Steelers fans are ready to start thinking repeat, even if Mike Tomlin won't use that word.

The Steelers found their third tight end and filled their open roster spot as they signed Sean McHugh to fill the spot opened when Sean Mahan was traded yesterday.

McHugh had actually made the Lions through their final cuts, but then he was cut when they picked through the waiver wire the next day. Getting free of Matt Millen and coming to the Steelers instead means McHugh has won the lottery this week.

The move fills a need, as Max Starks isn't much of a receiving threat as a third tight end. That shouldn't be as much of a problem for McHugh, who despite his size (6-foot-5, 265 pounds) is actually more of a receiver than an in-line blocker. He's able to play fullback as well, but he's more of an H-back than a hand on his ground tight end.

Actually that seems like it will be McHugh's biggest role--to be versatile. He serves essentially as Mike Tomlin's new Matt Cushing--a mediocre tight end, but one who has some value because he's also the primary backup at fullback as well.

McHugh may be on the roster now, but it's not clear if he'll actually play this week. He didn't join the team until after some of this week's gameplan was already installed, and he missed today's practice with an ankle injury. So while he likely will allow Max Starks to stop reporting in as a tight end before too long, Starks better practice his pass catching skills this week.

Welcome to another successful installment of Five Questions with an Enemy Blogger, where each week, via email, I will be exchanging hot questions and [sometimes] answers with a rival blogger about their team and the upcoming matchup.

This week I sat down with Sean Yuille of Pride of Detroit, a Sports Blog Nation column that covers the Detroit Lions.

Dan Benton: "-18 yards rushing? What in the world happened last week?"

Sean Yuille: "The balance we saw from Mike Martz the last few weeks had to be abandoned after Detroit got down. That is the excuse Rod Marinelli used, but I think it was more of the actual gameplan. Martz thought Detroit could pass against Arizona to open up the run, but in reality, neither worked out too well. The offense had a stretch in the first half where they just kept going three and out over and over, and with that the Lions did start to fall behind. Knowing that the running game wouldn't work, Detroit decided to air it out, and eventually that did finally start to be work. By that time, though, the deficit was too large to even think about running, so it was pass, pass, pass."