| |  Ward, Burress catch praise in Pittsburgh
By Len Pasquarelli
ESPN.com
Across the broad back of Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Plaxico Burress,
in dark block letters at least an inch high, is tattooed this graphic
reminder: "Everything Happens For a Reason."
The second-year veteran, just one season removed from "first-round bust"
status, is reluctant to detail the origins of the tattoo. But after a
breakout performance against the Baltimore Ravens last month, a
nationally-televised game in which Burress exploited cornerback Chris
McAlister and caught eight passes for 164 yards, he did acknowledge the
significance of having it on his back.
|  | | Hines Ward finished eighth in the NFL with 94 receptions during the regular season. |
It is, essentially, Burress' way of committing some of his past baggage to
life's rear-view mirror and focusing squarely on what lies ahead.
"Some things that happen to you," Burress said, "they make you a lot
stronger. But even then, you have to put things behind you, and move on.
This year, I've moved ahead, and made up for some lost time. This season, I
kind of came out of the shadows, you know?"
The same can be said for his wide receiver partner, fourth-year veteran
Hines Ward, and actually for the entire Pittsburgh passing game.
Reconfigured by first-year coordinator Mike Mularkey, and featuring a
resurrected Kordell Stewart, the Steelers aerial attack is suddenly one of
the most diverse in the league. And in Burress and Ward, about as disparate
a pair of wideouts as there is in the NFL, the franchise has its first-ever
tandem of 1,000-yard receivers.
Ward had 94 receptions for 1,003 yards and four scores. Burress recorded 66
catches for 1,008 yards and six touchdowns.
Not even the premier pass-catching duet in Steelers history, Lynn Swann and
John Stallworth, had those kind of combined statistics in a season during
the team's glory years of the '70s. In fact, the Steelers hadn't had even
one receiver with 1,000 yards since 1997. This is, after all, a team
historically built around strong legs, not soft hands.
But Ward and Burress have demonstrated to the city's blue-collar fans, who
recall fondly a 1976 season when the Steelers actually had a pair of
1,000-yard rushers, that excitement can come in more than 3-yard chunks.
More important, the wide receivers proved to themselves in 2001 that the
kind of work ethic embraced by diehard 'burghers is not only estimable, but
pays dividends.
The team's first-round selection in the 2000 draft, and the eighth player
chosen overall, Burress was forced to rehabilitate from wrist surgery that
limited him to 12 games as a rookie and left his career in jeopardy. Ward
was a third-round choice in 1998, a one-time do-it-all offensive player at
the University of Georgia who started at three different positions in
college, and was viewed by most NFL scouts as no better than a No. 3 wide
receiver.
When the Steelers used their first choice in the 1999 draft on Troy Edwards,
then took Burress a year later in the first round, Ward figured the team had
relegated him to afterthought status. But he played his way out of the No. 3
spot, catching 109 passes in the 1999-2000 campaigns, and the Steelers
recognized his emergence by rewarding him with a four-year contract
worth nearly $10 million last summer.
The irony was that the Steelers spent nearly $15 million on Edwards and
Burress, a hardly subtle and fairly expensive hint that Ward wasn't good
enough to be a "lead" receiver in the NFL, and he has matured as the "go-to
guy" in the Pittsburgh passing game.
"Nothing against (Burress), but Ward is the guy who does it all for them,"
said Tennessee corner Samari Rolle. "He's made himself a player, a very
complete player, through hard work. You see him every year, and every year
he's better than the previous one, and that's not just by mistake. He has
kind of willed himself to be good. He's not a special athlete but he's a
special player."
The willingness to put in the hours to improve, to slave over the game's
minutiae in an effort to make even incremental strides forward, has become
infectious with the Pittsburgh wideouts. As a former NFL tight end, Mularkey
knows a player is only as good as he wants to be, and now sees the Steelers
wide receivers striving for new heights. The result is one of the most
improved groups overall in the NFL, with depth provided by backups like
Edwards and Bobby Shaw, but also now a starting tandem that complements
itself nicely.
|
“ |
For years, it's always been about the runners here -- Franco (Harris), Barry
Foster, 'The Bus' -- but now we're showing people we can get it done with the
passing game," Ward said. "It's taken a while, but we're catching on here,
really. ” |
|
|
— Hines Ward, Steelers wide receiver |
Burress still doesn't run the crispest routes, and will round off too many
patterns and frequently not fight his way back to the ball, but he has become a
deep threat. A long strider, at 6-feet-5 and 228 pounds, the former Michigan
State standout has become a potent "red zone" threat because he can tower
over most cornerbacks and outmuscle them for the ball. But he is also
effective up the seams and on post patterns and, when he loses some of his
gangliness and learns to use his body to shield off defenders, Burress could
become a Pro Bowl-caliber performer.
Said Burress, who caught just 22 passes for 272 yards in 2000, and failed to
score a touchdown: "For me, I think it's just a matter of (learning) the
mental side a little bit better. I'm not going to be modest and say I don't
have skills, because I do, but it takes more than that to play here. When I
was (rehabilitating) from the wrist surgery, I had a lot of time to think
about things, and I guess I found out you have to pay a price to be at this
level."
The fact Ward was willing to do that in his first few years, when he was
primarily utilized on punt returns and as a third-down receiver, helped
fashion the former Georgia star into a decidedly tough-minded veteran. Funny
but, after years of proving to the coaches that he could indeed be an
every-down receiver and not just a novelty, Mularkey has used Ward as his
"gimmick" guy this season. Ward has lined up at quarterback and running
back, two of the three positions where he started in college, and most of
Pittsburgh's "special" package goes through him.
Ward has also become outspoken and tenacious, the first property reflected
in the two taunting fines he drew during the regular season, the second most
evidenced in his downfield blocking on running plays. The Pittsburgh wide
receivers fine each other, usually a $5 penalty, for every downfield block
they miss. Ward actually earned 20 bucks for leveling Kansas City defensive
end Eric Hicks and is on the plus-side of the ledger for the year.
Unlike his partner, Ward runs precise routes, and it is no coincidence that
he leads the Steelers in third-down catches. A 4.5 guy in the 40-yard dash,
Ward isn't likely to streak by defenders, but he has enough sneaky speed
that, if he picks his spots well, he can surprise some cornerbacks. His
emergence has made him a fan favorite in Pittsburgh and patrons there now
refer to the new Heinz Field as Hines' Field.
"For years, it's always been about the runners here -- Franco (Harris), Barry
Foster, 'The Bus' -- but now we're showing people we can get it done with the
passing game," Ward said. "It's taken a while, but we're catching on here,
really."
Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
|
|
|
FFL Playoff Challenge