Scouting Report
2 -
Pittsburgh Steelers
The biggest problem is secondary in nature, and
therein lies the greatest cause for concern on a
team gunning for its fifth straight division title
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Lake has been to the Pro Bowl four times as a safety, but
the 10-year veteran has also made an impact as a
cornerback. (Richard Mackson) |
There
has
been much talk in Pittsburgh on the subject of pressure and,
specifically, how it will affect strong safety Lethon
Flowers. In his first three seasons Flowers never started a
game and played almost exclusively on special teams. Not
only that, the man he's
replacing, departed free agent Myron Bell, was a ferocious
hitter and a steady cover man. What's more, Flowers played
cornerback in college, at Georgia
Tech.
Regardless, asking the Columbia, S.C., native if he can
handle a do-or-die situation is like asking Pavarotti to
hum
Mary Had a Little
Lamb. "People say the secondary is our huge question
mark," says Flowers, a fifth-round pick in '95.
"But I'll be one of the NFL's best safeties—no
doubt about
it."
That self-assurance comes from experience. When he was 14,
Flowers spent three months in intensive care after the
removal of a ruptured appendix that, he says, "came
very close to killing me." Doctors told his mother,
Patricia, that
Lethon's prognosis
was grim. "I learned to appreciate life and the
blessings you receive," says Flowers, 25. "You
learn to keep things in perspective but also take advantage
of the opportunities given. This is my golden
opportunity."
Flowers and right cornerback Dewayne Washington, a
free-agent pickup who was formerly with the Vikings, join
left corner Carnell Lake and free safety Darren Perry in a
unit that will either 1) excel and lift Pittsburgh toward
its fifth consecutive
AFC Central title or
2) implode and cause Steelers fans to stage a "Bring
back Dwayne Woodruff" rally.
Lake, the Steelers' best athlete, is a four-time Pro Bowl
strong safety who, to be honest, would rather hang back and
smack overzealous tight ends than bump and run with the
Herman Moores of the world. However, at a voluntary workout
in May, Chad Scott,
Pittsburgh's All-Rookie cornerback last year, tore the
anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and was lost
for the season.
WANTED:
Unselfish veteran safety to play corner
... again. Speed and smarts
required.
"Carnell is as team-oriented a player as you'll
find," says Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who also asked
Lake to play corner in '95 and '97, after first Rod Woodson
and then Scott were injured. "His best position is
strong safety—everybody knows that. But
out of need he's spent two years at corner for us. One time
we went to the Super Bowl, the other we went to the AFC
Championship Game. Clearly, he and Darren Perry are two
guys we can count
on."
That leaves Washington, who last year was, well, bad. A
fifth-year player out of North Carolina State, he is a
strong guy with good footwork and—as he'll often
remind people—Pro Bowl aspirations. But as Cowher was
seeing early in camp (and as Vikings
coach Dennis Green saw too often last year), speedsters eat
him up. In a division featuring the Bengals' Carl Pickens,
the Ravens' Jermaine Lewis, the Oilers' Yancey Thigpen and
the Jaguars' Jimmy
Smith, Washington could be toast. "I don't think it's fair
to judge Dewayne on one inconsistent year," says
Cowher. "When a guy has a nose for the ball, you want
him
around."
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 | at Baltimore |
| 13 | CHICAGO |
| 20 | at Miami |
| 27 | SEATTLE |
| Oct. | 4 | OPEN DATE |
| 11 | at Cincinnati |
| 18 | BALTIMORE |
| 26 | at Kansas City (Mon.) |
| Nov. | 1 | TENNESSEE |
| 9 | GREEN BAY (Mon.) |
| 15 | at Tennessee |
| 22 | JACKSONVILLE |
| 26 | at Detroit (Thurs.) |
| Dec. | 6 | NEW ENGLAND |
| 13 | at Tampa Bay |
| 20 | CINCINNATI |
| 28 | at Jacksonville (Mon.) |
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If Flowers and Washington hold up, Pittsburgh's swarming
defense, which ranked sixth in the league, will again
emerge as one of the league's best. Inside linebackers
Levon Kirkland and Earl Holmes are mobile and tackle-crazy,
while left outside
linebacker Jason Gildon has quietly accumulated 12 sacks in the last
two years. The Steelers cut linebacker Greg Lloyd, which
sounds worse than it is. Anyone who saw the five-time Pro
Bowl player tentatively hobbling around in minicamp knows
that Lloyd, once one
of the game's fiercest competitors, has been a sad shell of
himself ever since wrecking his left knee in the '96
opener. "I love Greg Lloyd, as a player and a
person," says Cowher, "but there's an evolution
each team has to go
through."
Flowers likes hearing this—the idea that, finally, his
time has come. On the second day of training camp, a
95° scorcher at
St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., Flowers worked out with
the team for two hours, then—with sweat soaking his
black NWO T-shirt—spent another 50 minutes lifting
weights on his own. The extra work is the result of a
conversation he and Lake had in
February, when Flowers asked for a specific workout plan. From that
point, it has been sprints and weights two to three hours a
day, six days a
week.
"When all I did was special teams, I
didn't worry too much," Flowers says of conditioning.
"I was on the field 10 times a game, and that's it.
But now I've got a chance to do some big things. I love
making contact. I love covering. I just love being on
the field, part of the Blitzburgh defense. People have
questions about us. I think we've got the
answers."
—Jeff Pearlman
By the Numbers | Inside Slant | Lineup
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