Daily Links: Steelers FA Options, Cowher on Young Ben

Bleacher Report: Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report thinks the Pittsburgh Steelers should pursue cornerback Marcus Peters, outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, and edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue.

“Adding Peterson and rookie second-round pick Joey Porter Jr. will tremendously help a pass defense that ranked 25th in yards per attempt allowed (6.5) last season. However, a team with playoff aspirations can never have too much depth at the cornerback position,” Knox wrote on the possibility of the Steelers adding Peters to the secondary.

“If the Steelers are open to bringing in another veteran, they should strongly consider Marcus Peters. The former Baltimore Ravens starter missed 2021 with a torn ACL and had a down year in 2022, but he’s still a starting-caliber perimeter corner.”

🏈 Instead of making the day about him, Steelers safety Miles Killebrew spent his birthday at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh with patients and delivered gifts to kids as part of “Smiles with Miles.”

“I have never liked being the center of attention on my birthday, not since I was real little,” Killebrew told Teresa Varley of Steelers.com. “My wife, Kailah, asked me what I wanted to do, if I wanted to throw a big party. It’s not in my heart. I love making it about other people. I thought there is no better way to do that than on my birthday.

“I wanted to celebrate someone that usually doesn’t get celebrated. I wanted to do it for the kids at Children’s Hospital. If I can make my day about them and see their smiles, you end up feeling fulfilled. It ends up being the biggest present ever. I wanted to spend some time with them, let them know I want to be there. If they can say this is a great day, I will feel like I had a good day myself.”

🏈 ESPN: Mike Clay ranked the Steelers’ edge rusher group as the fourth-best in the NFL, behind just the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Chargers and Minnesota Vikings.

🏈 Footbhalin podcast: Bill Cowher reflected on the notorious Jerome Bettis coin toss game against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving in 1998. In addition to the heartbreaking loss to Detroit, the Steelers lost five straight to end the 1998 season at 7-9, marking Cowher’s first non-playoff season with Pittsburgh.

“It’s like two kids coming up, I got Carnell Lake and Jerome Bettis, two guys I would leave my kids with, I would trust them to the end and they’re both going, ‘I called tails’ and Phil (Luckett) goes, ‘They called heads.’ I don’t know, I wasn’t there,” Cowher said. “Then we lose, they get the ball, they come back, kick a field goal. Charlie Batch was the quarterback at the time. Truth be told, we lost every game after that. From that game on, we lost the next four games and ended up 7-9. And so I blame Jerome Bettis. He did go ‘head tails’ and obviously that has to be one of the reasons why now it’s called before it flips.”

🏈 Bill Cowher also shared on the podcast that Ben Roethlisberger’s “streetball” style of play drove him absolutely nuts.

“Drove me crazy, crazy, crazy, because you were getting away with it, you’d be running to the right and then see Plax (Burress) on the left and throw it across the field… I’m like, ‘He had the check down right there, his progression says check down,’ he’s like, ‘I ain’t checking anything down,'” Cowher said.

Cowher then recalled a conversation that he had with offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt.

“I said listen, ‘He’s playing streetball again, I’m gonna pull him in, I gotta talk to Ben, he’s making it seem too easy for him, it’s reinforcing bad habits,'” Cowher said.

“I need to let him know, ‘You should be going through this progression and doing this, look this guy off, trust what you see, take what’s given to you right here. And then if you see two-high you can run, you can’t be running on single-high and you can’t just get out of the pocket the first time you feel any kind of people around your feet, you can’t do that.”

While Roethlisberger’s streetball style of play raised Cowher’s blood pressure, more often than not it worked in the Steelers favor.

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