Welcome to Steelers Takeaways! – Page 109 – More than 1,000 interviews of Steelers players, coaches, front office staff, media and more with those that played in the 50’s through today’s current roster.

Your Toolkit for the Remainder of the Steelers Offseason

So, the Steelers tried to land a big fish in ILB Dont’a Hightower. Some read that as the team’s perceived need to upgrade the ILB spot with Timmons’ departure in free agency. I don’t.

I see it purely as the team having tried to seize an opportunity to land what they consider to be an elite player at an affordable price. Regardless of whether I think Hightower would have been effective in coverage (stats/draft bios say no), I don’t think they considered ILB a need position with Vince Williams manning the helm. I just think they saw an opportunity to try and leverage. Williams is otherwise perfectly adequate there.

In truth, the Steelers have five real needs:

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New Interview With Steelers Reporter for PennLive Jacob Klinger

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Over 800 former & current Steelers player & coach interviews w/ more each week – from Joe Greene, Tony Dungy, LC Greenwood, Donnie Shell, Alan Faneca, Hines Ward, and Dick LeBeau to current players like Devlin Hodges, Steven Nelson, Benny Snell, Rosie Nix, Diontae Johnson, Mike Hilton ….

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Articles by Former Steelers on Their NFL and Post-NFL Issues and Experiences and Interviews with Rival Teams' Players and Coaches

Elnardo Webster, Steelers Linebacker, 1992-1993

First, can you let readers know about your legal career – how you got started and how you began as well as an NFL legal intern?

Well I got hurt early in my career – my third or fourth game – I can’t remember – probably blocked it out. I tore my knee up – had nerve and ligament damage and couldn’t play again.

I was in rehab – and had surgeries to get it fixed and realized I couldn’t play again. I was planning on going to law school – I talked to Marvin Lewis, Cowher, and Mr. Rooney about my next steps, and Mr. Rooney – I guess he liked me enough. He thought I was a smart guy and offered me a position in the front office. They still owed me money so he offered to pay me a little more to work for them and go to law school at night at Duquesne. They were very involved I think then with Duquesne University.

Well, I wanted to stay in football, and I was probably a little depressed at the time, on reflection. I didn’t want to stay in Pittsburgh – it was all ‘t.still too raw. I was twenty-three, maybe twenty-four at the time. I still wanted to play, but obviously I couldn’t.

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PSDB’s Way too Early Steelers Mock Draft

This is a list of players with a real chance of being at the Steelers pick. This does not include comp picks which have yet to be assigned.

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Exclusive with Steelers Linebacker Patrick Bailey, 2008-2009

First, can you let us know what you’ve been up to since you’ve retired from the NFL?

After retiring, I got my MBA from Vanderbilt and graduated in May. I now work for Asurion doing strategic pricing for them. In football, leadership and looking at trends of the teams and players you faced was essential to predict the offense. That’s the role I’m doing here – looking into pricing results to create opportunities to price offerings that ensure customer satisfaction.

What caused you to retire and how hard was that adjustment?

It was more because of the news on brain injuries. I wanted to play football but not too long that I couldn’t start another career. I enjoyed it but the young guys starting getting faster and faster. I could catch them but i wanted to use my mind to take on other challenges.

Talking about challenges…how hard was it making it to the NFKL as an undrafted free agent?

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Charles Lockett, Steelers Wide Receiver, 1987-1988

First, can you let readers know what you’ve been doing with yourself since your time in the NFL?

Well, I got into coaching about eleven years ago at the high school level. I always wanted to be have a career in the police force but wanted to coach as well. At the high school level I was able to develop younger players – transition them to college and help not only educationally, but as athletes. The high school level is a great age – a great foundation to build on their fundamentals.

My son also played football, so from that standpoint that was good. I love the game so it was natural for me.

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Exclusive: Dale Lolley on the Steelers Offseason, Ben, & More

Steel Nation Association and I had the opportunity to sit down with Dale Lolley, Steelers beat reporter for the Observer Reporter. Dale had great insight on the team’s off season plans – including free agency moves, the front office’s thoughts on team needs, Ben’s issues and the #2 WR spot, pass rush and corner concerns, and more.

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Over 800 former & current Steelers player & coach interviews w/ more each week – from Joe Greene, Tony Dungy, LC Greenwood, Donnie Shell, Alan Faneca, Hines Ward, and Dick LeBeau to current players like Devlin Hodges, Steven Nelson, Benny Snell, Rosie Nix, Diontae Johnson, Mike Hilton ….

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Shawn Vincent, Steelers Cornerback, 1991

First, can you let readers know what you’ve been doing with yourself since your time in the NFL?

I’ve been working at a tire place here in Wheeling, West Virginia. I’m the warehouse manager and work with the lift kits on trucks. Been doing that for twenty years now.

Was it hard adjusting to life after the NFL?

It was pretty tough, yeah. I still love and miss football. But after we had our first daughter my focus was on her first. I lost my edge. She became my number one priority. It was tough in the beginning but I have no regrets.

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Alex Kozora of Steelers Depot on the draft and Steelers Off-Season

We caught up with Alex Kozora of //www.steelersdepot.com/ to talk about the off-season plans for the black and gold, free agency, draft needs and potential coaching changes. It’s a great two-part interview with a ton of insight. If you love the off-season part of the game then you’ll love this podcast.

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Over 800 former & current Steelers player & coach interviews w/ more each week – from Joe Greene, Tony Dungy, LC Greenwood, Donnie Shell, Alan Faneca, Hines Ward, and Dick LeBeau to current players like Devlin Hodges, Steven Nelson, Benny Snell, Rosie Nix, Diontae Johnson, Mike Hilton ….

Plus:

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Articles by Former Steelers on Their NFL and Post-NFL Issues and Experiences and Interviews with Rival Teams' Players and Coaches

It’s too easy to blame “Scheme”

I’ve been called an apologist. I stated that what I saw last night was not a loss you can easily/conveniently pin on the coaches and schemes. And I’ve had my issues at times with the coaching decisions over the season.

But you can’t blame the coaches for three botched/dropped touchdowns. That’s not on them.

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