Good morning,
        This is some Thanksgiving fix the Steelers find themselves in.  They’re short on quarterbacks and short on receivers because of the all-you-can-beat ribs feast that’s been going on lately.
          They gambled at wide receiver because they only had four on the roster. When Antonio Brown was hurt, they signed David Gilreath from their practice squad. Now they’re bringing in Plaxico Burress after it was suggested here, oh, back in August that might be a good idea to do. They also have another wide receiver on their practice squad, rookie Derek Moye of Penn State.
       They still have Mike Wallace and Emmanuel Sanders, they still have Heath Miller and they can use Chris Rainey more. It also looked like Gilreath was getting open against the Ravens. So it’s not yet a dire situation at receiver, they just don’t need another injury with Brown unable to play this week again and it looks as though Jerricho Cotchery will be out too with some sort of rib injury.
     That’s not the case at quarterback. Dire might be too strong a word, how about “in a pickle.’’ With both Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich knocked out in consecutive games with shoulder and rib injuries, the Steelers will turn to Charlie Batch for their game in Cleveland Sunday. That’s not so bad, what is bad at the moment is they have no backup. Their backup is Heath Miller.
 Obviously, they will sign a quarterback this week, maybe even two – one to the roster, one to the practice squad. I was told last evening that Jerrod Johnson, who they had in the spring and training camp, was not one of those quarterbacks at the time. Of course, it’s 12 hours later so that might have changed by now.
       It’s easy to second-guess the Steelers on their approach at quarterback and people certainly are doing that. The main criticism I’ve heard is they should have had a younger quarterback on the roster. I thought they had a good situation at backup quarterback, even though their two backups have a long history with injuries. But young quarterbacks get hurt too.
         Here two things I did not understand, and maybe Mike Tomlin can explain them today: Why did they not sign a quarterback to the practice squad last week the day after Roethlisberger was hurt? He would have had a week to learn their offense and be ready just in case what happened, happened and, unfortunately, it happens way too often to Byron Leftwich. It only would have been one week, but they’d be a week ahead of themselves now.
           The other thing: Why did they keep Leftwich in the game Sunday night after his injury? He was in obvious pain and his passes were obviously effective. Wouldn’t Batch have been a better choice at that point? It also might have been the humane thing to do as well for Leftwich. That was surprising, as was Mike Tomlin’s comment after the game when asked about Leftwich that “Obviously, he sustained some hits but that’s football, particularly when you’re talking about this matchup. He did a nice job of communicating where he was and, more than anything, we just wanted to do a nice job of communicating.”
        Asked how close he was to taking Leftwich out for Batch, Tomlin replied, “I wasn’t.’’
        He is now.
Onto some stuff:
 --- The Steelers provide a full transcript of Mike Tomlin’s comments after each game to the media. I attended his post-game session Sunday night and when he was asked about Leftwich’s performance, Tomlin answered with what sounded like “I thought it was great.’’ That’s also what appeared on the transcript the Steelers provided us. I thought it was strange he would say such a thing based on what happened. Apparently, someone – maybe Tomlin – pointed out that “great” wasn’t the word he really said. The Steelers have since adjusted that word to “gritty.’’ I went back and listened to the tape and that is what Tomlin said, and his statement now makes perfect sense in that context.
 --- Now your questions:
 --- YOU: Ed, is it true that Dennis Dixon chose the Ravens practice squad over the Steelers 53? Isn't there a positive cash differential to be on a 53? Is the blood that bad between the Steelers and Dixon?
ME: Reportedly, yes. If so, it’s a little surprising in one way – the extra money, the chance to be actually on a roster with a winning team. It’s not surprising in another – the Steelers thought so little of Dixon that they signed Johnson and Troy Smith in the spring  over Dixon, who was a free agent, and brought Johnson to training camp. Dixon also undoubtedly would see it as a temporary move and he’d be released as soon as Roethlisberger and Leftwich got healthy. But then, the Ravens also released him earlier this season from their practice squad before they re-signed him quickly once Roethlisberger was hurt.
 --- YOU: With Leftwich and Cotchery both hurt and the Steelers looking to add
depth, it seems like roster space is going to become an issue. The
Steelers would have to make at least one roster spot for the new
backup QB and likely one more for Plax (or perhaps another WR). Does
it make sense to cut Leftwich? If he is on the shelf for several
weeks it doesn't make sense for him to tie up a roster spot and I
think that it is unlikely that he will get claimed or sign elsewhere.
Do you think that his job is in danger? Also, who else might get
released?
ME: He’s hurt, so they won’t cut him, plus he’ll be back soon. They have enough excess to find room for both players.  Anyone seen Leonard Pope or DeMarcus Van Dyke playing lately?
---  YOU: Mike Tomlin seems to have a stubborn streak a mile wide. In your opinion, who can be regarded as the most stubborn......Noll, Cowher, or Tomlin?
ME: They all were/are pretty darn stubborn. Perhaps that’s a trait of a good coach, or maybe it’s just a trait of a head coach.
--- YOU: Hey, Ed. Remember that time when the whole team was healthy and all our
1st-stringers started? Me neither.
ME: It’s why you often see the Super Bowl champ relatively healthy. As Mike Tomlin said when he was hired, it’s a game of attrition.
--- YOU: Simple question ol' wise one. Who do we Steelers fanatics unleash our anger on? Byron Leftwich for continuing to play even though he knew he was hurting the team by putting his own ego and agenda ahead of the goals of the team or Mike Tomlin for allowing it?
ME: Do not assume that Leftwich was putting his own ego and agenda ahead of team goals because that is not the Leftwich I know. The evidence was there for all to see and if they could see it in the NBC-TV booth, they could see it on the sideline that the man was hurt and increasingly ineffective because of it.
--- YOU: It was pretty plain to see that Leftwich was hurting. How does Tomlin say after the game that it's normal football bangs and bruises? Especially since the reports of broken ribs have surfaced. Somehow the Ravens allowed Gilreath to break open in the final seconds. It would have been nice to have a healthy QB to get the ball down the field? Is Tomlin that afraid to play Batch?
ME: I’ve written answers to some of your questions above, but the only reason I can determine as to why Tomlin downplayed Leftwich’s injuries immediately after the game was to possibly bide time to sign another quarterback. After Roethlisberger’s injury, Baltimore quickly signed Dixon because, in my opinion, they wanted to pre-empt him going to Pittsburgh.
--- YOU: Here is my rhetorical question: How can Mike Tomlin be a head coach in the NFL and not have any idea how to use his time outs?
The use of two time outs after the Steelers reached the 12 yard line in the third quarter was amateurish. But the use of the third time out with 2:04 left in the fourth quarter was simply coaching malpractice.
ME: I believe the quarterback called the first two tiimeouts. As for that other, I never understood why you’d use a timeout before the two-minute warning but in this case Tomlin’s explanation was a valid one. He said, “We were hoping we were going to get a stop there and I think we had an offsides or something. We wanted to get a stop there, stop the time, have them in a long yardage situation and maybe encourage them to throw the football. But that didn’t transpire.”

First Published: April 6, 2016, 4:17 p.m.
Updated: December 12, 2020, 7:36 p.m.