Tomlin knee-deep in offseason

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Mike Tomlin isn’t close to hiring a secondary coach to replace Ray Horton, and he’s not really concerned about it. He doesn’t necessarily believe the need for a cornerback is any greater than it has been since he took the job in 2007. He hasn’t given up on Keenan Lewis, or, for that matter, Limas Sweed. And he’s also not a big believer in history being an indicator of the future.

The offseason is underway for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Coach Mike Tomlin has been knee-deep in it for some time, despite the loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV still only a couple of weeks in the rearview mirror, and with an unsettled labor situation on the immediate horizon because of the current CBA carrying an expiration date of March 3.

“When you are in my position, there’s not a lot of time to lick your wounds. There just isn’t,” said Tomlin from the Steelers practice facility on Monday. “I am making sure the staff is getting ample time to refresh, but I’ve got to turn the page and catch up to what Kevin Colbert and his group have done and the information they have given me in order to catch up. I enjoy it. It’s new and different for me. It’s a new challenge. This process kind of helps me turn the page.”...................

read more @ http://www.steelers.com/news/article...3-041759b8ff0d

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Too much good information hidden in this story!!!!

Tomlin also addressed some other issues:

* On whether Sweed, who spent 2010 on injured reserve, is still in the team’s plans: “Certainly. His competition is getting stiff, because I think we have acquired some guys since we acquired him who have proven they are capable of playing NFL football. I’m sure it’s not a comfortable situation, but it is a competition.”

* On whether the Steelers have an interest in adding help at cornerback: “No question we will have an interest in a cornerback. But I don’t know if there’s been a year since I have been here that I can’t say that.”

* On whether Lewis might be a part of the answer at that position: “Probably more than anything else is that it’s opportunity oriented. He didn’t get a bunch of opportunities. He did get some down the stretch, in the playoffs, and he did OK with it. By contrast a guy like Ziggy Hood had a big opportunity and got better with snaps. I expect all these guys to improve when given the opportunity. When and how they get that opportunity sometimes is outside of their control. We all acknowledge that it’s a part of this business.”

* On whether he believes he did the right thing by keeping Aaron Smith on the active roster through what turned out to be a futile attempt to get him back on the field following a torn triceps on Oct. 24: “Yes. That’s just the level of respect we have for what he is capable of as a player, and probably equally important is what he is as a man and a member of this team. I think there’s an element of value that you can’t measure. If I had to do it over, I would do it again. What am I going to do, replace him with a guy who I’m going to have inactive? No, I’m not doing that. If there ever was a situation where I thought someone we acquired had an opportunity to help us and be put in uniform (on game days) I would have considered it. But I wasn’t going to put Aaron Smith down for an inactive type.”