I agree with you on Woodson.  The only other players that the Steelers lost to FA who had enough innate talent to succeed elsewhere were LBs Hardy Nickerson and Chad Brown.  Nickerson enjoyed 5 pro bowl and 2 All-Pro seasons with Tampa Bay (“paper champions”).

Chad Brown enjoyed 2 pro bowl and 1 All-Pro season with Seattle.  Although, the reality was that Mrs. Brown and Paul Allen’s private jet never really gave the Steelers a chance to resign him.

I will say that there were three players who achieved nothing after leaving the Steelers but whose departure significantly changed the Steelers the following year:  QB Neil O’Donnell (1996), LT John Jackson (1998), and WR Yancy Thigpen (1998).

O’Donnell was succeeded by Mike Tomczak who managed to lead the defending AFC Champions to the Central Division title with a 10-6 record and into the Divisional Playoff round where they were soundly beaten by the eventual AFC Champions the New England Patriots.  Tomczak threw 15 INTS to 12 TDs that year.  O’Donnell was simply a better QB in Chan Gailey’s spread offense.

Jackson was replaced with Will Wolford and Thigpen was replaced with Courtney Hawkins (technically Hawkins replaced Charles Johnson who moved over to replace Thigpen).  These were important components on a team only two years removed from the Super Bowl and coming off a loss to the Broncos in the AFC Championship.  They were ultimately doomed with Kordell but he was at least over achieving with a safe blind side and reliable #1 WR.

No offense, but your earlier statement about the Browns shoving it to the Steelers calls for a chuckle.

Browns stink, have stunk, and will continue to stink for years. The Pittsburgh Steelers demolish the Cleveland Browns in overall NFL accomplishments. World knows this. Surprised to see a Brown fan even remotely beginning to elude to the idea that the Browns will be threatening ANYBODY, let alone the Steelers.

What a joke.

I like your line-up except the exact positioning… Legursky deserves to start. I have said all year that he is better than most of the guys on that line, but his ability to play any o-line position makes him more useful as a back-up.

Don’t get me wrong, Colon is a good O-lineman, when healthy.

I see the line going

Max Starks|Doug Legursky|Maurkice Pouncey|Mike Pouncey|Flozell Adams

Kemoeatu is a good guard, but too many boneheaded plays. He always seems to play about 20 seconds past the whistle.

God I would love to see the Pouncey brothers together in the ‘Burgh and I HATE the Gators lol.

IF he goes.. all we know so far is he wasn’t tagged. But I suspect the coaches have a plan. Colon had penalties every game, it was maddening.

@MikeTomlin:

I’d say dump kemo the lost, and go with this:
Starks, Maurkice Pouncey, Legursky, Mike Pouncey, Adams.

5 best players- no more stupid penalties- or missed assignments due to failure to have actually functioning brain cells.

As for Colon, I’m not sure he is going anywhere, but as some Steelers’ fans above have duly noted, the Rooneys rarely make a mistake on a free agent. In fact, Rod Woodson is about the only one I can seriously think of where they should have held on. They will offer Willie what he’s worth. If he prices himself out of their market, then he can grab money and probably won’t have as much success (unless he lands in a place like New England or Green Bay or New Orleans). Certainly, if he goes to Cleveland, Dallas, Chicago, Philly or some of the other above mentioned spots, he may get paid but he won’t win as much as he would as a Steeler.

Look at Clark … he took a little less than Miami offered to stay in Pittsburgh. How did that work out for him? Pretty good, I’d say.

the choice of not signing him has nothing to do with his injury,so you may as well get that out of your head now.there are a lot of linemen coming up in this years draft that are possible starters.colon has cost a lot of yards in penalties with his false starts and holding calls.sure it would be nice to keep him for his size but it just wont happen,,if it does good for the steelers if not no big issue..so dont make it one about his injury.

and to the browns fan who posted.lol,i think colon is smart enough not to go to the mistake by the lake

GO STEELERS!!

“Cleveland will give Willie 2 chances a year to shove it right back at the Steelers. Come on’ Willie, Brownies are calling.”

Cleveland??
Even money can’t buy a man’s pride.

Hell, Andy Reid and Joe Banner must be salivating for him to become a free agent, this is their Gold Standard….

This isnt a big deal he would have moved to guard anyways since Max Starks is coming back. Instead of a 28 year old revolving door coming off a torn achelles well have a 21 year old stud.

Starks-Kemoeatu-Pouncey-Pouncey-Adams

Looks pretty solid to me!

The dead horse called. He asked that you stop beating him.