Boller and ... Reed

Not a whole lot going on football-wise (unless you enjoy watching the New England Patriots lose players to arch rivals and teams now coached by former coordinators ... and let's be honest, who right now doesn't have a shit-eating grin on their face watching all this unfold?), but there are a couple of things I wanted to talk about that were mentioned in the comments a few days ago.

... First, Henigin links to a story predicting the Steelers will get as compensation for the loss of Kendrell Bell, Plaxico Burress, Oliver Ross and Keydrick Vincent, two fourths and a fifth round pick (and one of the fourth round picks may in fact turn out to be a third). As is stands, the Steelers have ten picks, and no real glaring needs to fill. Yes, they could use a WR, safety, and some depth at RB, but even if they only managed to sign a free agent wideout and gave all their draft picks to charity, they'd still be prohibitive favorites to win the AFC North (more on that proclamation below). This is the first time in several years that I really have no idea who Pittsburgh might even consider drafting in the first round.

... DJ is exactly right about the misconceptions still swirling around the national media that the Steelers secondary is (a) old, (b) slow, and (c) can't cover anybody. (To be fair to Dr. Z, who seems like one of the few national guys who actually watches NFL games, is a big Chris Hope fan and even thought he was a Pro Bowler in 2005. And yes, I know, I've flip-flopped on Hope more than Mike Prisuta on Ben Roethlisberger, but even at the height of my Hope fandom, I wasn't even willing to take it that far. But still, give the guy props for at least making an effort -- which is often a 1,000 percent more effort than you might expect from this lot.) Anyway, apparently guys like DeWayne Washington, Chad Scott, Lee Flowers and Brent Alexander get leave quite an impression. Plus, as DJ points out, Ike Taylor biting on the Manning play-action on the very first play from scrimmage that resulted in a Marvin Harrison 80-yard TD reception certainly didn't help things.

(By the way, this is the perfect time to point out Henigin's nomination for CPW -- the National Edition. This masterpiece by Don Banks is dreadful. That's the nicest thing I can say about it.)

Of course, he shut Harrison out after that, like he did with just about every other WR he faced. (With the notable -- and almost embarrassing -- exception of Derrick Mason in the near-MNF loss. And just to clarify, Mason wasn't the embarrassing part; the dude throwing him the ball was the embarrassing part. It's one thing to get beat up and down the field by Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson. It's a whole different ball of wax when Anthony Wright's inflicting the damage. But hey, off the top of my head, that was Ike's worst game as a pass defender, and in all honesty, it probably would've qualified as one of DeWayne Washington's best.)

... Which leads me to an interesting point from GlennW (and seconded by Patrick, and thirded by me). I have a soft spot for Ike because he was the first "real interview" I did, and it was fun watching him make such big strides in his first three seasons. That said, if some team is willing to use a first round pick to take him and the Steelers chose not to match the offer (assuming of course, that Joe Bendel was taking bong hits and his "The Redskins are very interested in signing Ike even though they don't have a 4th round pick," story is totally bogus), the cornerback position is deep enough in this draft that Pittsburgh could find a replacement fairly easy.

I'm not saying that if the Steelers ended up with the 16th pick that whoever they took could step right into Ike's job, but I am saying that a guy like Tye Hill or Ashton Youboty or Antonio Cromartie could step in to the nickel or dime role and have a Bryant McFadden-type season. Don't forget, Deshea's back and Colclough's only going to get better (I hope). And even if some team picking late in the first round made a run at Ike, Pittsburgh has some play money draft picks to move around the Monopoly board if they wanted to move up and take a player they were really interested in.

In a perfect world, Ike wouldn't go anywhere and the Steelers would lock him up for the long-term, but where's the fun in speculating about that?

... I almost forgot to get back to why I think the Steelers are the prohibitive favorites to win the AFC North other than the obvious reasons that (a) they won the Super Bowl, and (b) they only lost three guys from the Super Bowl team. First, only the Cleveland Browns have gotten better (on paper, anyway) while the Ravens have arguably gotten worse (is that possible?) and the Bengals are basically the same (they did add Dexter Jackson at safety -- a position they needed to upgrade, but let's be honest, Jackson's on the downside of his career). Compounding things for Cincy is the fact that Carson Palmer's still recovering from the knee injury we're all very familiar with. So there, that's why I think Pittsburgh's currently in the AFCN driver's seat, but hey, it's March for cripes sake and who knows what'll happen in the next five months or so.

The real reason I mentioned this is because I was watching NFL Network and Rich Eisen was talking with Mike Pereira about potential rules changes for 2006. One change, which would without a doubt be the worst thing to happen to officiating since Pete Morelli, is this:

PEREIRA: The rule last year said that you had to have an unrestricted path to the QB. Well, now we're going to expand that to say that even if you're coming off a block, and you're even blocked or fouled, and you contact the passer at the knee or below, if you had a chance to avoid it, then it's going to be a foul on you.

Eisen: Oh boy.

You can see where I'm going with this. Before Pereira could finish his thought (and before Eisen's "Oh boy," I was thinking: "Well, the rulebook just got more complicated, and this is exactly what the NFL doesn't need: more complexity. Look, I think we're all in agreement that Carson's injury was unfortunate, but would Kimo have been penalized under this new rule being proposed? I'm guessing the answer is no, but I also thought that Troy Polamalu intercepted Peyton Manning in the playoffs too. And this is exactly what Eisen sees happening too.

[...]

PEREIRA: ... We are toughening up the rules and we will emphasize to the players, hey, you have got to be aware of the fact that you can not go low and there are going to be situations where you are blocked into it and you have no opportunity to avoid it, but that's not a foul. It's only when you have the opportunity to avoid it and you still hit the player at the knees or below.

EISEN: Oh boy. I know you guys are trying to tighten things up on player safety, but we can make book on you and I having discussions in the 2006 season of, "Why do you think he actually was called for that? Do you think he intentionally rolled in? Was he blocked in? Blah blah blah." I mean, that's just going to happen Mike.

Pereira wrapped up by explaining that while officials don't want to over-legislate this, the QB is the most vulnerable player on the field when he's planted his foot and releasing the pass. Fair enough. And I can appreciate trying to reduce the number low hits on the QB, but whenever officials have to interpret player intentions, you're opening up a can of worms. And not the kind you can eat.

... Finally, this might be one of my all-time favorite message board threads. It's from the Ravens message board and it is priceless. I won't spill the beans here, but let me just say this: Only in Baltimore. Too funny.