Hines Ward will be Hines Ward: the hardest working wide receiver in football. This might be the "Swan Song" for Plaxico Burress, so look for a him to finally live up to his potential. Randle El is fun wrapped in a jersey. Every play that he is involved in, even the ones that net negative yardage, arepositively exciting to watch. Hopefully, the Steelers can get the ball into his hands a lot more this year...although I hope it is not due to Plaxico's ubiquitous mid-season disappearing act.
The tight ends are still average at best.
When Bell and Porter are healthy, the Steelers' linebacking unit is one of the best in the league. As said before, Farrior is a tackling machine. Bell can be a very special player, and Porter should be back to form after an off-season to rehabilitate his injured buttock. The question mark created by Gildon's departure is actually exciting to me. One, if not all, of Gildon's three replacements (Haggans, Jackson, and Adibi) will eventually become a star; the Steelers always seem to find excellent outside linebackers. They lose Greg Lloyd; they insert Chad Brown. They lose Kevin Greene; they insert Jason Gildon. They lose Jason Gildon...you get the point.
Casey Hampton is to the defensive line what Alan Faneca is to the offensive line: the anchor. To think that a few years ago, a couple of sports magazines called Hampton a wasted draft pick. Woah, were they wrong.
Kimo probably has one more good year left in him, and Aaron Smith does not get enough credit for what he does: take on double-teams. In short, this may be the most consistent unit on the Steelers, and a good unit to boot.
The PREDICTIONS
The Optimistic prediction:
-The Steelers have corrected all their shortcomings. Not only will go they go undefeated, 19-0 and win the Super Bowl, the Steelers will score more that 45 points in every game, while holding their opponents scoreless (i.e. nineteen straight shutouts).
The Pessimistic prediction:
-The Steelers will be outscored in every game by 30points, and go 0-16.
The Realistic prediction:
-The Steelers will end up somewhere in between the previous two predictions: 10-6 and vying for a wild-card spot in the playoffs. The Carolina Panthers demonstrated that any team can go from horribly bad to Super Bowl contenders with a few key moves. Could the Steelers be in the Super Bowl this year? Quite possibly.
The Steelers' success depends on three things: health, youth, and luck. The health of Marvel Smith, Jerome Bettis, and Duce Staley is crucial ot the offense. The young players, namely Troy Polamalu and the rest of the young secondary, have to learn on the job and do so rather quickly. And, as far as luck goes: I purchased new pins for my voodoo dolls, shined up the pennies for wishing wells, and will keep my fingers crossed from now until February.
(NOTE: Now that I have been the realistic and pessimistic Steelers fan for a little while, I will revert back to being the completely blind-to-facts, optimistic Steelers fan.)