FanHouse Sean Mahan

As we get ready for the 2009 season, nearly everyone but the Steelers coaching staff sees the offensive line as the weakest link in the team's bid to repeat as Super Bowl champs. In fact, ESPN.com's AFC North blogger James Walker made that case again this week.

But Frank Tursic over at Steel City Insider has gone further to try to figure out whether offensive coordinator Bruce Arians was being completely straightforward when he said that only 19 of the 49 sacks the Steelers gave up last year were the fault of the offensive line.

The Steelers really didn't have a choice. When Illinois running back Rashard Mendenhall was still on the board 22 picks into the 2008 NFL draft, Pittsburgh pretty much had to take him. Not because they needed a running back, but because Mendenhall had game-changing ability and was too good to pass up at that point in the proceedings.

Sure, Pittsburgh had gaping chasms along the offensive line -- the Sean Mahan experiment flopped and Alan Faneca took the money and ran to New York -- and they still had said gaping chasms when they selected wideout Limas Sweed a round later.

The moments shortly after a week one game are the perfect time for knee-jerk reactions, seeing as how we've been waiting for these games for months, and if the result we want isn't there, then certainly EVERYTHING IS AWFUL!

Case in point, the St. Petersburg Times' Stephen Holder's post game blog entry on Tampa Bay's 24-20 loss in New Orleans, and more specifically, Holder's thoughts on No. 1 wide receiver Joey Galloway.

What is up with Joey Galloway? He looks to me like a guy who doesn't want to be out there sometimes. Seeing how he is the Bucs' No. 1 receiver, that's a problem.

Indeed, that's a problem. And it's a problem that many of the readers noticed as well.

Seriously, I'd like to see Galloway released, he showed yesterday why he has never been a true #1 reciever. At least Clayton tries, and doesn't give up on routes.

Back in the days of the Soviet Union, you could always tell who had been purged by looking at old photos. One day in the newspaper, you could see a photo of Stalin with a couple of party underlings, and then the next month, the same photo would appear with one of the commisars airbrushed out.

When talking about the Steelers long lines of Pro Bowl centers, maybe we can just airbrush out the 2007 season.

The Steelers officially flushed the Sean Mahan era by dealing to the Bucs for a draft pick--no word on the pick, but if the Steelers got any thing better than a seventh rounder they got a steal. By getting a draft pick for Mahan, the Steelers at least have gotten something for a player who was woefully unable to live up to the expectations that come with being center in Pittsburgh.

It's safe to say that when we're thinking back, the lineage of Ray Mansfield-Mike Webster-Dermonti Dawson-Jeff Hartings will not include Mahan.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears did some house cleaning along their offensive lines today, as the Buccaneers reunited themselves with Sean Mahan, and sent former fourth-round pick Dan Buenning to Chicago. Each transaction involved undisclosed 2009 draft picks, as reported by ProFootballTalk.

Mahan was signed to a five-year deal by the Steelers following the 2006 season and was, by all accounts, a tremendous flop trying to continue the Steelers' legacy at the center position. He lost his starting job this preseason to Justin Hartwig and was going to be the teams primary backup at center and guard.

I imagine the Bucs will be looking at him, for the most part, as a guard -- his main position in his first stint with Tampa -- as they signed free-agent center Jeff Faine this past off-season to a $37.5 million deal. Of course, that's simply speculation on my part.

To make room for Mahan, the Bucs then sent Beunning, their fourth-round pick in 2005, to Chicago. It's a little odd, seeing as how Mahan and Beunning both possess the ability to play center and guard (though, it's up for debate as to how much Sean Mahan can really play center), while Mahan is slightly older, makes more money, and may or may not be as good. It all comes down to the picks the Bucs are swapping.

Charlie Batch's season is officially over, as reported by Gerry Dulac at the Post-Gazette. The Steelers today made the much anticipated move of placing the veteran on Injured Reserve, and making Byron Leftwich the No. 2 quarterback behind Ben Roethlisberger. This could very well be the end of Batch's career in Pittsburgh.

Batch broke his collarbone in the teams first preseason game while attempting to salvage a busted play in the backfield.

Also, from the same Post-Gazette article, the Steelers will be releasing former third-round pick Willie Reid, as well as veteran return-man Eddie Drummond. Both players were competing for return duties on this years squad.

Reid, the teams second third-round pick during the 2006 draft, never panned out after having his rookie year completely wiped out by injuries.

It's preseason, so there's no reason to freak out too much over the Steelers loss to the Bills, but here's what jumped out to me from the game.

• Steelers fans have been noticing Santonio Holmes for two years but this is the year taht evberyone else will get to notice the third-year receiver. It's not hard to imagine Holmes going for 1,200+ yards with an outstanding yards per catch average. In two games this preseason he's looked unstoppable.

• It's hard not to get excited about the idea of James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley coming off the edges. For the second straight week, Pittsburgh generated a pretty solid pass rush just by lining up and beating people off the edge--something that hasn't been true in recent years.

You can't fault him for saying it, because you have to defend your players, but Steelers offensive line coach Larry Zierlein let out a whopper of a lie yesterday when talking about center Sean Mahan.

"We're not listening to the fans," Zierlein said. "Sean did fine for us last year."

If the Steelers actually believed that, there would be reasons to be very, very worried. But the reality is that there's no sign that they think any differently than the fans. If the Steelers though that Mahan did fine last year, they wouldn't have signed Justin Hartwig to a reasonably large deal to try to beat him out. If they thought that Mahan did well last year, Mike Tomlin wouldn't have commented on the team's inability to handle teams that put big nose tackles over center.

Training camp is finally here and FanHouse breaks down the most important position battles heading into the season, team by team.

When Alan Faneca took off for the Jets in the offseason, he took with him seven Pro Bowl appearances. Left behind is a Steelers offensive line filled with aging veterans, inexperienced youngsters and very little in between.

The Steelers have as many as five candidates to fill Faneca's spot. But this is a case where quality would be a lot better than quantity.

Instead they have a fourth-year pro who's never been able to win a starting job (Chris Kemoeatu); last year's starting right tackle, who might move inside (Willie Colon), a failed center who is expected to lose his job (Sean Mahan), a highly paid but underachieving guard (Kendall Simmons), and a second-year pro who was an undrafted agent just last year (Darnell Stapleton).

We're just a couple of days into training camp, but already the signs about the Steelers center situation aren't good.

Apparently Sean Mahan and Justin Hartwig are engaged in a "heated battle" (Mike Tomlin's words) for the starting center job. Considering how bad Mahan was last year, if Hartwig can't clearly earn the starting job in short order, it's a sign more of Hartwig's inability than Mahan's ability. As mentioned here a couple of months ago, Hartwig is nothing special--he's pretty clumsy on his feet and struggled mightily at times last year.

Which is why this ESPN prediction is pretty interesting: AFC North blogger James Walker says he expects LeCharles Bentley to sign with the Steelers. Of course, Walker expects Bentley to play guard if he signs with Pittsburgh, but he is one last hope for Steelers fans who still remember what it was like when Pittsburgh was known for great center play.

There are a lot of questions about Bentley's health--he hasn't played a snap in two years, and he's coming off of a serious knee injury and a life-threatening staph infection. But he also is a former Pro Bowler who, if he can come back at 90 percent of what he was before the injury, could give the Steelers the upgrade that Hartwig may be unable to give. Pittsburgh would likely have to clear some salary cap room to bring in Bentley, but it's not like he's been turning down many multi-year offers, so he'll likely go for an incentive-laden deal.