DeCastro Injures MCL, ACL Tear to be Confirmed

Behind the Steel Curtain's Neal Coolong is reporting (based on an ESPN tweet) that the Steelers have confirmed that rookie first round draft pick David DeCastro has an injured MCL. The team fears that he also has a torn ACL which will soon be determined by an MRI.

If DeCastro has only injured his MCL, he could conceivably return to action this fall. A torn ACL would send DeCastro to the injured reserve and he'd be lost for the year.

David DeCastro injured his knee and was carted off the field 6 plays into the Steelers 38-7 preseason victory over the Buffalo Bills. Both Willie Colon and Ben Roethlisberger have blamed Orchard Park's Field Turf.

Dale Lolley however, reports that he thinks that DeCastro might have been tripped by Marcus Gilbert. To quote Lolley:

If that was the case, Gilbert has now taken out two starters this preseason. He fell across fullback David Johnson's legs in the opener, ending his season with a torn ACL.

Now, if Marcus Gilbert could only start unleashing this tendency on defenders....

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Is Signing Antonio Brown a Good Football Move?

As mentioned previously here on Steel Curtain Rising, the Pittsburgh Steelers made a decisive statement when they cut off negotiations with Mike Wallace andopted (instead?) to resign Antonio Brown.

The move also satisfied an emotional need for a fan base who traditionally has had little sympathy with hold outs, although this later factor undoubtedly had no impact on the Steelers decision making.

But if the move provided Steelers Nation with an emotional high, the the question still remains:

Was giving Antonio Brown big money now the right football move?

It’s hard to say.

Based on what I saw during the second half of 2011 I was of the mind that if forced to choose between Mike Wallace and Brown I’d choose Brown. But then again, I thought drafting a quarterback in the first round of 2004 was a mistake….

Antonio Brown impressed greatly as a rookie, making an immediate impact and aggressively working his way into the Steelers offense.

He continued on that trajectory in 2011, becoming such a significant play maker that the drop off in Hines Ward’s play barely impacted the team.

Yet one stand out season is not a lot to hang your hat on.

To wit, the Steelers have never given a contract extension to a player after only two years.  The only exception closely resembling this would be the deal Willie Parker got in 2006, but that does not compare. Parker was an exclusive-rights free agent and had no contract.

Parker had also clearly proven himself as a starter by not only pushing Jerome Bettis but also Duce Staley to the bench.

In contrast Antonio Brown has started only three games for the Steelers.

That’s right, the Pittsburgh Steelers have just given 42 million dollars to a man with three starts under his belt who has yet to face a situation where defensive staffs game plan specifically to stop him.

That is a very thin resume.  But with that said, Antonio Brown has:

• earned his stripes in the trenches
• come up with clutch catches in the playoffs vs. the Ravensand then vs. the Jets
• is clearly in a position of establishing himself as a leader on and off the field.

At the end of the day the Steelers are taking a risk, but on balance its one worth taking. If Brown works out to be the player he is on track to become, this deal will look like a total steal for the Steelers come 2014 or so.

Why Resign Brown Now?

The next question is now the time for the Steelers to make such a move?

In cold, calculating football terms, the answer is certainly “no.” Wallace has one year left on his contract, and then he’ll be a restricted free agent. The Steelers would still hold the lion’s share of leverage next March.

Had Machiavelli written on NFL personnel matters as opposed to matters of state, he’d undoubtedly would have counseled Kevin Colbert to play the cards close to the vest, and hold off until the off season.

But that’s not the Steelers Way. Never has been and hopefully never will be.

Consider, in the past twelve months the Steelers have:

• Given a long-term extension to Troy Polamalu, when the smart money would have been to wait
• Released Troy Smith when Bryon Leftwich’s injury historywould indicate it would have been “wiser” to bring him to camp
• Cut Jonathan Scott instead of keeping him in camp

Each of the moves was the “wrong” move from both a football and a business stand point (with the possible exception of the money that releasing Scott freed).

Yet each of these moves signaled that the Pittsburgh Steelers are an organization that believes in taking care of its people. Make no mistake about it. The NFL is a business and the Steelers make unsentimental business decisions about personnel ever year.

That capacity was on display last spring with the departures of Aaron Smith, James Farrior and Hines Ward, to name a few.

But even in business, there’s a right way to treat people and a wrong way to treat people. And the Steelers, for the most part, treat their players right.

The most of the players associated with the franchise know this, they understand it, and they respect it. The organization is stronger because of it and the team certainly need not tie itself into knots over the players who don’t recognize that.

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Steelers Sign Antonio Brown, Make Statement to Mike Wallace

“One thing that experience has taught me is that this is bigger than all of us. It’s bigger than Wallace and it’s bigger than me.” – Mike Tomlin on Mike Wallace’s hold out

While Mike Tomlin’s comments on Mike Wallace’s holdout were clear and fairly strong, they did not go much beyond standard Pittsburgh Steelers head coach boiler plate for contract disputes.

• Actions, of course speak louder than words.

It’s easy for a coach to talk about focusing on "The guys who want to be here" but it’s another for an entire franchise to put its foot down. And make no mistake about it, the Pittsburgh Steelers put their foot down by giving Antonio Brown a five year contract extension that will keep him with the team through 2017.

Since Mike Wallace became a restricted free agent this off season, Tomlin, Kevin Colbert, and Art Rooney II have said all the right things about resigning him.

This is true despite credible reports that some of the Steelers Brain Trust had reservations about Wallace. The drop off in Wallace’s production during the second half of 2011 was troubling just as the drop off in the 2010 playoffs raised yellow flags.

But both Ed Bouchette and Len Pasqurelli wrote about people in the Steelers organization having worries about the role that attitude played in his drop off.

• Then came the rumors that Wallace expects to be paid Larry Fitzgerald like money.

The Steelers commenced training camp and Wallace no showed. Add in the fact that Wallace’s is holding out against the advice of his agent Bus Cook, a man who has a history of orchestrating hold outs.

• Connect the dots and the pattern you get is not a pleasant one for Steelers Nation.

Make no mistake, the Steelers negotiated in good faith. While character and locker room chemistry are important to the Steelers, senior management knows Wallace is one of the rare NFL players who truly is a threat to go all the way anytime he gets the ball in his hands.

That alone makes him valuable. And even when Wallace is dropping passes or letting defensive backs make uncontested plays on under thrown balls, he’s still stretching the field for Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, Jerricho Cotchery and Health Miller.

The Steelers stood ready to give Wallace real money in a long-term deal. And they made good on that intention. Except Antonio Brown’s name was on that contract, not Mike Wallace’s.

There are franchises in pro sports that allow themselves to be defined by a single player or personality. The Pittsburgh Steelers are not one of them.

The Steelers are a far weaker team without Mike Wallace in the line up. But the statement the Steelers made in signing Antonio Brown is that the organization will not be dictated to by one player, no matter how valuable.

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