Steelers: Five things to know | 
Prisco
LATROBE, Pa. -- The talk just doesn't seem right, hardly believable.
How can it be that in this blue-collar area, with a legion of fans who worship a football team known for its power-running style and ball-control offense, that things are about to change?
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| Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and QB Ben Roethlisberger waste no time in getting to work. (AP) |
What in the name of Jerome Bettis is going on?
What's going on is that the Steelers are changing with the times. New coach Mike Tomlin, who takes over for Bill Cowher, gave the reins of the offense to longtime NFL assistant Bruce Arians. With that, he gave him the freedom to change things, and the biggest change will be a more aggressive passing attack.
"We've been a heavy, heavy, heavy run team the last couple of years," said Arians, who served as Steelers receivers coach the past three seasons. "I would like to be more balanced."
The reality is the Steelers weren't a heavy run team last year when they finished a disappointing 8-8. They passed it an average of 32.7 times while running it 29.3 times a game. A lot of that was because they were often playing from behind. But for most of the Cowher regime, they were a strong run-first team.
The Steelers finished ninth in passing and 10th in rushing, but you never got the impression the past few years that the Steelers were a team that leaned more to the pass. Former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, now head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, is a creative play-caller, but he believed in the run first, just like the head coach.
Arians does as well, but there will be many new wrinkles added to the offense to help liven up the passing game. He will use no-huddle, giving Ben Roethlisberger freedom at the line of scrimmage to change the play. Arians also plans to use more four-receiver sets on first and second downs, and will employ some three-tight-end formations.
| Community Focus | |
 One man vs. One fan | |
steelersNbleach : "It's going to be a bit of a rebuilding year. It's hard for a first year head coach to make the playoffs." |
"We're not no run-and-shoot team," Steelers receiver Hines Ward said. "We're still going to run the football."
Suggesting otherwise is almost met with disdain in these parts, with many finding it hard to imagine the Steelers really moving away from their run-first offense.
What's next? No more IC Light? Sidney Crosby becoming a goalie? The Pirates actually winning more than they lose?
"We're doing some things that are different, but we're not leaving behind what we do," Arians said. "We are the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, yeah, we will run the football."
Under Cowher, the Steelers had five different offensive coordinators. In that time, they all added to the playbook. Nothing coming out of it. That left a huge book for players to memorize, adding confusion to the offense. It also featured plays that were long in verbiage.
"We had guys studying things we hadn't run in three years," Arians said. "It was too much. And the biggest change is the terminology. We wanted the quarterback to say less in the huddle."
| Out of Nowhere Man |
| FB John Kuhn |
 John Kuhn is a 6-foot, 255-pound load of a fullback. He will stick his head into anything that moves. That's what the Steelers want from that position, and he can also play some H-back if needed. Kuhn is a second-year player who signed with the Steelers last year as a rookie free agent from Shippensburg College. He spent most of last season on the practice squad, but with starting fullback Dan Kreider now 30 -- with countless collisions in the hole on his body -- it might be time to consider a change. Kuhn could be that guy, if not this year, then maybe next. |
| '06 Rewind: WR Nate Washington Miles from Nowhere:  Last year's OONM Nate Washington literally came from ... out of nowhere. He went from zero catches in '05 to finishing third on the team in yards and touchdowns and leading the team in yards per catch. And Clark Judge isn't shy about reminding us of this fact: 80 percent of Washington's catches went for first downs. |
| Who is your Out of Nowhere Man? |
Roethlisberger, who is coming off a disappointing 23-interception season, is excited about the new offense. He will get more freedom, something all quarterbacks like. The no-huddle is also something he used in high school and college.
"The biggest thing is to get in the meeting rooms and learn this stuff and get better," Roethlisberger said.
In changing things, it's clear this staff believes Roethlisberger is a guy they want to build the offense around. Now in his fourth season, he said this week he's healthier than anytime since coming into the league -- even as a rookie.
That's saying something considering what he dealt with in 2006. First, it was the horrific motorcycle accident last June that could have ended his career, not to mention his life. Then it was an appendectomy just before the season started, followed by a monster hit in Atlanta that knocked him out of the game with a concussion.
Before the hit, Roethlisberger was 16 of 22 for 238 yards and three touchdowns, his first breakout game of 2006. In his first four games before that, he threw two touchdown passes and seven interceptions, hardly reminding anybody of the quarterback who sizzled in the playoffs after the 2005 season to help the Steelers win a Super Bowl.
He played the remainder of the season, but clearly was not the same player who lit up the Atlanta defense. He was sacked 46 times and had three more games with three or more interceptions.
That hasn't changed the strong belief Arians has in Roethlisberger to run his offense. The no-huddle, which Arians saw Peyton Manning run when he was a coach on the Colts staff, is a sign of that trust between coordinator and quarterback.
"It will be a little different than what the Colts do since I don't want him to sit there and decipher, decipher, decipher," Arians said. "It's easy to get a play, go with that, and check it off at the last second. That's what he will do. He has the ability to audible to good plays."
| Fantasy Focus |
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| QB Ben Roethlisberger |
 Jamey Eisenberg's take: Roethlisberger had a career year last season in yards (3,513) and touchdowns (18) but also in interceptions (23). But last year was a nightmare for him with the offseason motorcycle accident and appendectomy before the first game. He's never going to be a Fantasy star, but he can be a serviceable player for your team. Fantasy owners should consider Roethlisberger a No. 2 option and a good bye-week replacement. The potential is there to be a starting Fantasy QB, but he needs to play well early on in the new Steelers offense. He also needs Hines Ward to stay healthy and for Santonio Holmes to improve in his second year. |
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By spreading out defenses, it should create more cracks and creases for running back Willie Parker to run. He isn't the typical Steelers back, a grinder with power, yet he ran for 1,494 yards last season and went to his first Pro Bowl.
Parker had 12 rushes of 20 yards or more, the same number that league-leading rusher LaDainian Tomlinson had with the San Diego Chargers. Parker's big-play speed should be even more in display in the spread formations. One crease followed by a missed tackle could mean a 70-yard run for Parker.
"It's why you're spreading them out, to get the running back more space," Arians said. "If you're throwing it every down, it ain't flying around here. And it ain't winning either. You still have to run the football."
The Steelers went through a passing phase in 2003 when Tommy Maddox, playing in the Tommy Gun offense, threw for 3,414 yards. The Steelers went 6-10 that year and the fans screamed about the style of offense.
"We were putting up points, but fans didn't like it," Ward said. "Now it's weird to see fans eager to open things up. Back then, people wanted to get back to the running game."
As a receiver, Ward is excited by the change.
"We're not going to be as predictable, run, run, run, punt," Ward said. "We're not going to do that. Maybe you'll see four wides and we'll pass the ball on first down or second down. We're going to have so many varieties in terms of formations to find ways to puck up five yards on first down. If you do that, you're ahead as an offense.
"We'll be a ball-control offense, no matter how we get it done."
Change is sometimes a good thing. The guess here is that Roethlisberger rides this new style to the Pro Bowl and has a chance to get the Steelers back into Super Bowl contention -- even if the Steelers and a wide-open offense sound about as awkward as Lindsey Lohan and a traffic cop.
