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hawaiiansteel
02-18-2011, 02:12 PM
Colbert: Second isn't good enough

By Bob Labriola - Steelers Digest
Posted Feb 17, 2011

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2006/0727/nfl_w_colbert_275.jpg

On the issue of the Steelers 2010 season, Kevin Colbert is not conflicted. Not at all. It is said that professional sports is a bottom-line business, and the Steelers director of football operations is a bottom-line guy.

“As I have said, we were good enough for second, but second’s not good enough,” said Colbert. “We were one play away from being a World Champion, but we can’t go into next year thinking we’re one play away. We have to start over.”

In the immediate aftermath of a 2009 season that ended with a 9-7 record and no spot in the playoffs, Colbert offered a blunt assessment of the team. In it, he said he viewed the 2009 Steelers, despite being just months removed from the sixth championship in franchise history, to be exactly what their record indicated – a mediocre team not good enough to squeeze into the playoffs.

One calendar year later, Colbert has not deviated from the method he uses to evaluate a particular Steelers team’s performance in a given season, no matter how harsh is may seem.

“We should be judged on what our final record was and where we ended the season,” said Colbert. “Obviously we were a better team than we were in 2009, and so you hope that going into the next season more players will progress than regress.

“But anytime we go into a season, if we don’t win a Super Bowl championship, in our eyes, it’s a failure. Did we have a better chance this year than we had the previous year? Sure. But I don’t feel any different today than I did last year at this time. We’re still not where we wanted to be.”

When the calendar hits mid-February comes the time when Colbert and the rest of the team’s player personnel department go to work on what ultimately ends up being the 80-man roster the Steelers take to training camp. But there is nothing typical about this offseason, what with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement due to expire on March 4.

The only things certain at this point for the NFL are that the Combine will be held as scheduled in Indianapolis next week and that there will be a 2011 NFL Draft in late April. Another certainty is the manner in which the Steelers will continue to operate within the NFL, which is to use the draft as the primary method of adding talent while trying to keep as many of their own players as is possible.

Based on the criteria that had been in place before the uncapped year regarding free agency, the Steelers will have two restricted free agents and 14 unrestricted free agents.

The UFAs are RB Mewelde Moore, TE Matt Spaeth, G Trai Essex, Ts Willie Colon and Jonathan Scott, NT Chris Hoke, DE Nick Eason, ILB Keyaron Fox, OLB LaMarr Woodley, CBs William Gay, Anthony Madison and Ike Taylor, P Daniel Sepulveda and LS Greg Warren. The two RFAs are QB Dennis Dixon and T Tony Hills.

It’s unlikely the Steelers will be able to get any of their unrestricted free agents under contract before March 4, what with the combination of the re-signing rules for the uncapped year and the uncertainty over whatever particulars might be negotiated into the next CBA combining to paralyze any such efforts by teams across the whole league.

The Steelers, like all teams, have a franchise player tag and a transition tag available to be used by Feb. 24, and it would make perfect sense for them to use the franchise tag on Woodley, even though what “franchise tag” comes to mean in the new CBA is another of the unknowns.

“We’d like to retain all of our potential free agents, if possible,” said Colbert. “I would think we would still evaluate our team as we always have and look at potentially who we could lose and who we could retain (in free agency), in addition to what we could add through the draft.”

Colbert did say the team would like to have Flozell Adams back for a 14th NFL season, and he is under contract to the team for 2011. It has been reported that Adams is at his home in Dallas and trying to decide whether he wants to play another season.

“Flozell was a big part of our success this past season,” said Colbert. “Anytime you bring in someone from the outside, if your coaches haven’t had a chance to coach this player before, you really don’t know what you’re getting. The pleasant surprise was seeing what Flozell could do physically at this stage of his career, and then the things that really caught my attention were his professionalism in accepting a move to right tackle after having been a player of status at left tackle, and the quiet leadership he brought to an unstable situation because of all the injuries we had.”

STEELERS NOTES: The team did sign six of the seven players who ended the season on their practice squad. Re-signed were WR Tyler Grisham, S Da’Mon Cromartie-Smith, T Kyle Jolly, DE Sunny Harris, TE Eugene Bright and OLB Chris Ellis. FB Frank Summers signed with the San Diego Chargers. The eighth practice squad player – G Dorian Brooks– had been added to the 53-man roster for Super Bowl XLV when Maurkice Pouncey was placed on the injured reserve list ... The Steelers also signed WR Wes Lyons to a Reserve/Future contract. Lyons (6-8, 230) originally signed with the New York Jets in 2010 as an undrafted rookie out of West Virginia. He is a Pittsburgh native who attended Woodland Hills High School.

http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/ ... ef955a504b (http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/Colbert-Second-isnt-good-enough/60d06f6d-9c30-402c-aaa3-7bef955a504b)

steelerkeylargo
02-18-2011, 02:21 PM
I will be attending the Combine next week. I have a career conference to attend for Sports Managemnet World Wide. Kevin Colbert is the keynote speaker on day 2. Hopefully I will get a chance to speak with him.

costanza2k1
02-18-2011, 03:16 PM
If you ain't first you're last

Mister Pittsburgh
02-18-2011, 03:17 PM
If you ain't first you're last

-Ricky Bobby

StarSpangledSteeler
02-18-2011, 04:01 PM
I will be attending the Combine next week. I have a career conference to attend for Sports Managemnet World Wide. Kevin Colbert is the keynote speaker on day 2. Hopefully I will get a chance to speak with him.

I can't remember if it was you or another poster who talked to Colbert at a bar a couple of years ago, and got some golden information about Starks re-signing (three weeks before it hit the press). If that was you, well done. It was my favorite post of the year. If not, be encouraged, apparently Colbert is a free talker. If you get the chance to ask him, i would love to know:

1) His thoughts/mentality/leeway he's given by the owners, about trading up in the first round? How many spots is within range?

2) Any inside information about the Rooney's thoughts/plans/evaluations for Bruce Arians?

steelerkeylargo
02-18-2011, 04:16 PM
I will be attending the Combine next week. I have a career conference to attend for Sports Managemnet World Wide. Kevin Colbert is the keynote speaker on day 2. Hopefully I will get a chance to speak with him.

I can't remember if it was you or another poster who talked to Colbert at a bar a couple of years ago, and got some golden information about Starks re-signing (three weeks before it hit the press). If that was you, well done. It was my favorite post of the year. If not, be encouraged, apparently Colbert is a free talker. If you get the chance to ask him, i would love to know:

1) His thoughts/mentality/leeway he's given by the owners, about trading up in the first round? How many spots is within range?

2) Any inside information about the Rooney's thoughts/plans/evaluations for Bruce Arians?


Yup that was me. He got me some sideline passes to the Steelers/Dolphins game and we have kept in touch a little bit via e-mail. He is a really humble guy. Looking forward to his Q&A at the conference I am attending. I will be sure to fill you guys in when I get back from the combine.

hawaiiansteel
02-22-2011, 01:12 AM
Combine brings normalcy

By Bob Labriola – Steelers Digest
Posted Feb 20, 2011


There isn’t a whole lot about this NFL offseason that qualifies as typical, what with the current CBA carrying an expiration date of March 3, but the NFL Scouting Combine is an exception.

Set for its 14th consecutive year in Indianapolis, the Combine will offer all 32 NFL teams an up-close look at 329 of the top college football prospects available for the draft that’s scheduled for April 28-30. The Combine begins on Wednesday, Feb. 23 and runs until March 1, and like so much of anything having to do with the NFL, it has evolved into a television event that provides six days worth of programming to NFL Network.

“The purpose of the Combine is three-fold, actually,” said Director of Football Operations Kevin Colbert. “First and foremost is the physical examination of the players. Secondly, it’s the physical workout, the testing, of the players. And thirdly, it’s the personal information, the character, the interviews, that we’ll have access to at that point.”

The NFL Scouting Combine began in 1982, when it was known as the National Invitational Camp (NIC), and its primary purpose was to gather medical information on the top draft prospects. That inaugural NIC was attended by 163 players, and the information was provided only to the teams that belonged to a service called National Football Scouting.

In 1985, all NFL teams decided to participate in future National Invitational Camps, with the goal being to share the costs for the medical examinations. After brief stints in New Orleans (1984, 1986) and Arizona (1985), the camp was moved to Indianapolis where it has operated since 1987.

During the early years of the Combine’s existence, teams sometimes got themselves into trouble by overemphasizing the prospects’ performances in the speed and agility drills at the expense of how those same prospects played in games over the course of their college careers. Hence the birth of sayings such as, “looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane,” and even the Steelers occasionally fell into that trap.

That hasn’t happened lately, and the Steelers will send their contingent to Indianapolis for the three reasons Colbert explained, but it’s likely their primary interests are the medical and the psychological information they’ll get a chance to gather.

Each team can interview up to 60 players at the Combine, with a maximum time allotted of 15 minutes per, and the Steelers already have their list of 60 put together. Each of those 60 will meet with a Steelers contingent to include Colbert, Coach Mike Tomlin, either D!ck LeBeau or Bruce Arians depending upon whether the guy plays offense or defense, College Scouting Coordinator Ron Hughes, Pro and College Personnel Special Assistant Joe Greene and Kevin Wildenhaus, who serves as the team’s psychologist.

“You try to be realistic and figure out who might be available to you through the first three rounds,” said Colbert about how the Steelers compile their list of 60. “We’re not going to interview somebody we think is going to be drafted among the top 10 overall picks, because we’re not going to have a realistic chance at them. You try to guesstimate with each guy on your list. Other players are available to be interviewed in more of a mass setting in a separate location, where there might be, say, six offensive line coaches interviewing one offensive lineman at the same time because of the time limitations.

“That is the beginning phase, for the most part our first exposure to the person, more so than the player. Usually out of the seven players we end up drafting, we’ll have interviewed five of them at the Combine.”

The Steelers, by virtue of losing Super Bowl XLV, will pick 31st in each round of the 2011 draft.

“At this point – just trying to get a handle on the underclassmen, which we’re still in the process of doing – I think it’ll be a strong draft at offensive tackle, cornerback and wide receiver,” said Colbert.

http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/ ... 354afd61e2 (http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/Combine-brings-normalcy/a8ace252-c1af-42fe-a7d2-b1354afd61e2)

RuthlessBurgher
02-22-2011, 01:18 PM
“At this point – just trying to get a handle on the underclassmen, which we’re still in the process of doing – I think it’ll be a strong draft at offensive tackle, cornerback and wide receiver,” said Colbert.

It will also be extremely strong along the DL (roughly a third of the first round picks could end up being d-linemen).

Dee Dub
02-22-2011, 04:13 PM
If you ain't first you're last

-Ricky Bobby

Incorrect. That came from Reese Bobby. Ricky's Daddy. :wink: Mr.Columbian Bam-Bam.

RuthlessBurgher
02-22-2011, 05:20 PM
[quote=costanza2k1]If you ain't first you're last

-Ricky Bobby

Incorrect. That came from Reese Bobby. Ricky's Daddy. :wink: Mr.Columbian Bam-Bam.[/quote:33caid1y]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JDnDfoI4uOo/TSsooTOi8PI/AAAAAAAAAIk/JHmfJ2mLofc/s1600/bill-lumbergh-office-space.jpg
http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/000/486/000/reesebobby_display_image.jpg?1288892929

If you ain't first submitting your TPS reports, you're last.