1968 Offseason:
Staff:
The coaching staff stays the same. We blame the injuries ;-)
Free Agency
We had cap trouble so a lot of activity in free agency. A bunch of the guys are already Steelers. I target the following free agents:
QB Tommy Wade - Re-signed
C Dave Behrman - Signed
G Eric Rupert - Signed
T Jim Perkins - Signed
T Dan James - Re-signed
DE Ike Lassitter - Sign with KCY
NT Gary Larson - Signed
ILB Dave Lloyd - Signed
S Dave Kearney - Signed
LS BJ Spencer - Re-signed
Draft
Looks to be a very deep draft. At the top sits QB Ken Stabler, T John Williams and DT's Paul Smith & Curley Culp. We have the 6th selection.
Our needs are:
QB, ILB (WR, DE, WLB, NT)
At 6th both interesting QB's are gone. Had Stabler dropped one more spot I would have traded up to get him. At second though he was too expensive.
We have the following options at 6th:
DE Claude Humphreys
DE Elvin Bethea
DT Curley Culp
All defensive linemen with a nasty stride. Talent wise we have potential at DE. If not we would have selected Elvin Bethea. But we need a great stopper in the middle of the front. The Pittsburgh Steelers select DT Curley Culp.
At 37th we select the final piece of our offensive line, T Ron Yary. If he pans out that should give us a running attack and a O-line for the next 5+ years.
3rd - Dean Halverson, ILB
4th - Grady Allen, OLB
5th - Mike D'Amato, S
6th - Gary Beban, QB
7th - Mike Donohoe, TE
On a sidenote I'm very happy with this draft :-)