The Steelers officially made their cuts today with no surprises. Mike Tomlin informed players of their fates’ yesterday, but declined to announce decisions until after submitting the paper work to the league office today at 6:00 pm.
The Steelers also placed FB/TE Sean McHugh on injured reserve, making him ineligible to play during the entire 2009 season. Pittsburgh picked McHugh off of waivers last year from Detroit, thus taking him from a club that went 0-16 to one that won Super Bowl XLIII.
Waiver Wire Watch Begins
Pittsburgh now begins watching the waiver wire with dual interests. First, they want to resign players to their practice squad. Chief among those would be preseason sensation running back Isaac Redman, an undrafted rookie free agent, and draft picks A.O. Shipley and defensive lineman Sonny Harris.
The team’s the decision to place Darnell Stapleton on injured reserve leaves them with precious little depth on the offensive line, so the Steelers are also interested in adding a quality lineman via trade or the waiver wire.
Roy Lewis, Dallas Baker Among Those Sent Packing
Two other men who spent time on the bubble during the past two years also got their walking papers. One was Roy Lewis, an undrafted rookie free agent who caught coach’s attention during the 2008 training camp. Dallas Baker was the team’s 7th round draft pick in 2007 and won praise from Mike Tomlin in the 2008 off season for his development on the practice squad.
Both men moved on an off the practice squad and regular season roster in 2008, but neither man was able to make a case for himself at St. Vincents this summer.
Other players cut include:
Mike Reilly, Quarterback
Justin Vincent, Running Back
Piotr Czech, Kicker
Jeremy Parquet and Jason Capizzi, Offensive Tackles
Steve McLendon, Defensive Tackle
Dezmond Sherrod, Tight End
Roy Lewis, Defensive Back,
Andy Shantz and Tom Korte, Linebackers
Dallas Baker, Tyler Grisham and Brandon Williams, Wide Receivers
NFL players have 24 hours to claim a player off the waiver wire. Like the draft teams with poor records have the first chance at waived players, meaning that the Steelers will be picking last.
