State of the Steelers: Receiver

If you felt confident about the Steelers wide receiver situation throughout this offseason, you’re lying to yourself. The Steelers have two proven pass-catchers on the roster. Hint: Mike Wallace isn’t one of them. Everyone else on the roster has to be in prove-yourself-mode, and at least one or two of them will have to come through. After the jump, we’ll look at each of the Steelers’ pass-catchers and their expectations for the season.

Hines Ward: Ol’ 86 is back again for the 2010 season, and as the longest-tenured Steeler on the roster, everyone has some concerns regarding his durability. Looking back on his career, that seems like blasphemy; to question Hines’ durability. He has always given 110% on the field, feared no tackler, and even sent Ed Reed crying to the media because he hits too hard at the NFL level, which is always okay with me. but knee injuries and the like have hampered him the past few years and last I heard he had a tweaked hamstring. In minicamp. If he overexerted his leg in May, how on earth is he going to last through November? Hines is going to be one of those people that will just fade out of the NFL. He’s going to get injured and miss a game. Then miss two. Then four or five. Then he’ll miss the season, and by next year, you’ll wonder where he’s been. Remember Marvin Harrison?

I love Hines Ward. But the Steelers have to be ready for life without him. I believe that day is coming sooner than later, and right now, the Steelers don’t have a very impressive group behind him.

Heath Miller: Hey, when did I say this post was all about wide-receivers? I said pass-catchers. And Heath Miller is my favorite pass-catcher of the bunch. In fact, Heath is by far my personal favorite Steeler, with LaMarr Woodley coming up second at this point. Heath will do whatever his team needs. He’s a great blocker at TE and he has the second-surest hands on the team, besides Ward. How many passes has Miller dropped? Between 0 and 1 if I recall. And when he gets the ball in his hands, how many times is he stopped before getting extra yardage? Again, close to zero. And he never talks, either. He’s not Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates. He isn’t a wide receiver disguised as a tight end on the depth chart. He plays his position the way it should be played, and every year he doesn’t get voted to the Pro Bowl is a crime against football.

In the event of a loss of Hines Ward, I personally would count on Heath to pick up the slack in “clutch catches over the middle for a first down late in the game.” Of course, the coaching staff will never get Heath involved enough to satisfy me, but you can chalk that up to me having a huge football-crush on the guy.

Mike Wallace: Remember when I said Mike Wallace isn’t a proven pass-catcher? He isn’t. He had a great rookie season, especially for a WR, by using his speed to exploit 3rd-tier DBs. This season, assuming he and Ward are your starters, who would you commit your top DB to? The 50-year old who is undoubtedly going to run a slant route? Or the impressive young gun planning to blow by everyone down the field? A guy like Wallace is just primed for a sophomore slump. I have high hopes for the kid next season, but I’m not ready to peg him as the next great WR for the Steelers. He had one solid year. Let’s see if he can do it again.

Antwaan Randle El: Nice to see El back in the black and gold. When he was here before, he was a shifty slot kind of guy and he had more a knack for punt returns than any Steeler in recent memory. The question is whether his lack of production in Washington the past few years has more to do with Washington’s terrible lack of direction or his own personal decline in ability. I’m really at a loss of what to believe about him. Part of me wants to like him because he’s a former Steeler (by the way, he knows Ken Whisenhunt’s offense circa 2005, not necessarily the Bruce Arians offense of 2010, okay? Let’s stop assuming there will be no learning curve, guys). The other part of me looks at this deal as the Steelers signing a WR who couldn’t produce for a bad team and really hasn’t shown much promise of producing now. He’ll be one to watch in the preseason.

Emmanuel Sanders: Rookie WR? I’m not putting much stock in him. It’s always hard to transition to the pros at wide receiver (remember how Mike Wallace was such a huge surprise?) and I think it’s unfair to pin a lot of hope on this kid. He’ll have more of an impact than Limas Sweed will in 2010 (obviously) but really I think it would be greedy to expect much more. Ask me about him this time next year.

David Johnson and Sean McHugh: Will block. Next.

Matt Spaeth: This is his make-or-break year, if you ask me. He was a third round draft pick at a position the team was stocked with, their reasoning for the pick being that he was just too good to pass up. Well, how good is he really? He hasn’t seen the field between a few bumps and bruises and playing behind Heath Miller, who never comes off the field, nor should he. It’s time for Spaeth to make himself a part of the offense, or get ready to move on. If he doesn’t show up in training camp/preseason, he could be a surprise late cut.

Arnaz Battle: Mark Madden thinks Battle has some overlooked potential to actually play WR moreso than just special teams, so I am automatically inclined to believe that he is a horrible receiver that will never get a ball thrown his way because he is terrible. Mark Madden sucks. That said, Battle was brought in for special teams and will likely be lucky to see any offensive snaps during the season. Think Tyler Grisham, but likely more noticeable on kickoffs and punts.

Limas Sweed: I said pass “catcher.” Not Ike Taylor on offense. In fact, move Sweed to DB in 2011.

Antonio Brown: See Emmanuel Sanders. I don’t expect Sanders to contribute much in his first season, though for some strange reason, I just have a feeling that he’ll have a bigger impact than Emannuel Sanders. Nothing to base that on, though. Just a feeling.

Mewelde Moore: Bam already talked a little bit about MeMo in his Running Backs preview, and he’s right: Moore isn’t an impressive ball-carrier, but he’ll haul in a few passes and make a couple of plays. He’ll reprise his role as the team’s third down back and likely won’t see much time running the ball, even if Mendenhall goes down with injury. Overall, no exciting developments for Moore. Just another season of steady play in his own role next season.

Stefan Logan: Will struggle to remain on the team with Randle El back to return punts and hopefully Mike Wallace in for kickoffs. Logan’s best offensive asset is his speed, and unless he makes a big splash in the preseason (moreso than last year) he’ll likely be playing football somewhere else in September.

Eugene Bright, Tyler Grisham, Jason Chery, Brandon London, and Isaiah Williams: Practice squad.

So there’s the outlook on the Steelers’ pass-catchers. It’s not the best crop the team has ever put on the field, but it shouldn’t prove to be a hindrance either. Hines Ward is going to have to fight off his age, Heath Miller shouldn’t change a thing, and everyone else is going to have to step up their games for the Steelers’ offense to repeat what it did last season.