for the Pittsburgh Steelers right now. No Kevin Greene Jersey , it is not Devin White or Mack Wilson, even if they would fit well into the system. Meet NC Stater17;s ILB Germaine Pratt, who I am personally extremely high on and would like to see the Steelers grab. He is a converted safety, and that should speak well to what he can do as a whole from the LB position. So, here he is.MeasurementsHeight: 6r17;3r1;Weight: 245 lbsProjected 40: 4.57Courtesy of SportsReference.com, the Draft NetworkFilm RoomPratt excels as a LB because he is fit for the modern defensive scheme. There is almost no one as fluid as him in coverage, especially when he is dropping back to cover the middle of the field. The Steelers do not have the type of athlete or the fluid athlete that Pratt would be. L.J. Fort is a nice player for sure, and a great complement, but Pratt could take on the main MACK role with plays like this.This play illustrates that point well. Pratt is lined up inside of the slot here, and actually gets turned around a bit here, but the fluid hip flip allows him to recover easily, and he has great mirroring technique to make up his ground. This is a guy who can cover the whole middle of the field and move with WRs in the open field. That is a fantastic accomplishment. And then the ability to high point that football and get the interception is something not many LBs can do. I do not usually talk about ball skills and LBs, but Pratt has some of the most impressive ball skills I have seen at the LB position in a long while. Again, though, that is the virtue of being a converted safety.The concern with moving Pratt from Safety to ILB would obviously be how he plays the run. The coverage skills and processing skills are already there because he played in the box, but how does he play in between the gaps? Turns out he does it pretty well.Here, Pratt makes a great play by baiting the tackle inside and using his leverage to throw him outside. Fantastic gap discipline and sifting through the traffic there by Pratt, and he has some serious range, even if it is not shown off here. Coming downhill and reading that at the goal line is never an easy play, but when you are able to do it and have coverage skills Lynn Swann Jersey , you should be a hot commodity.Closing speed anyone? Processing? Boom. Pratt knows how to sniff out a play easily and make a play out there by flying over there. He overpursues it, and it is a big knock on him that he has to get better on, but in 2018, he curtailed that and his missed tackles fell from 16 to 5, which is an amazing improvement. In other words, he is only improving and is fixing his issues. And with that speed and processing, he is a game changer in the middle of the field that teams will need desperately.WeaknessesYeah, the overpursuit issue is a thing. He tailored it back, but it still rears its ugly head a bit too often for my liking. The good thing is he showed upward progression, so it would be nice to see that continue. While I showed you a video of fluid-hipped Germaine Pratt, he does not always have that fluidity to him. His hips can absolutely get super tight at times. Usually, he is a good enough processor to not let this happen, but it does happen at times. Lastly, he needs to bulk up big time. He can come screaming downhill and just make the play often, but in order to shed blocks better, he will need to live in the gym this offseason.Fit with the SteelersWith the new base package, per Mike Tomlin, moving toward sub packages, that should signal that the Steelers will start to drift away from their standard 3-4 and go to 2-4-5 and 3-3-5 packages as a sub-unit based defense. In that, Pratt and Fort would be ideal. Pratt was a fantastic sub package defender in college Hines Ward Jersey , and looks to be a good 3 down ILB so be as his play strength improves. Final ThoughtsThe Steelers are not going to be happy with the weak ILB class as a whole, especially with the top LBs seemingly out of their reach. However, if they wanted to spend their second round pick on a LB who can do everything you would want a LB to do and more, Pratt seems to fit the bill, and not just because he is a good player, but because of the scheme fit. COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) r12; The Chargersr16; Philip Rivers and Pittsburghr17;s Ben Roethlisberger are playing some of the best football of their 15-year careers.On Sunday, the two meet at Heinz Field in a prime-time game that could serve as a playoff preview.If the postseason began this week, the Chargers would be facing the Steelers in a first-round game. Los Angeles (8-3) has a two-game lead for the AFCr17;s first wild-card spot while Pittsburgh (7-3-1) leads the AFC North and would be the fourth seed.It is the sixth time the two members of the 2004 draft class have met but the first time since 2012, when the Chargers defeated the Steelers 34-24 in Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger though has the 3-2 edge in the series.r0;Wer17;re probably similar in a lot of ways,r1; Rivers said. r0;We both like to stand in there, donr17;t mind holding on till the last second to make a throw, take a hit, all those things. Itr17;s always awesome going against those teams led by those types of guys.r1;Both have been in the league for 15 seasons, but Rivers acknowledged that he doesnr17;t know Roethlisberger very well. However, there is a mutual admiration between the two.r0;Her17;s an MVP-caliber player, and her17;s playing at a MVP level right now,r1; said Roethlisberger of Rivers.Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt was Roethlisbergerr17;s offensive coordinator when he was drafted in 2004 and spent three seasons with him.Whisenhunt has been Riversr17; coach for four seasons in two different stints and said he has been fortunate to see both at different stages of their careers.r0;Got two different guys that have managed to be successful. The one trait they both have is how competitive they are,r1; Whisenhunt said.r0;They are both great leaders. I remember in Pittsburgh telling (then defensive coordinator) Dick Lebeau how special Ben could be. With Philip it is hard for opposing defenses to fool him because he sees so much and has great anticipation for what is coming.r1;Rivers comes into this game after having the most accurate passing performance in league history last week against Arizona, going 28 of 29 for 239 yards and three touchdowns in three quarters. He completed his first 25 Heath Miller Jersey , which tied the league mark for consecutive completions and broke the record for the most to start a game.The performance drew plenty of plaudits from throughout the league, including Roethlisberger.r0;What he did last week was pretty spectacular r12; 25 in a row. Itr17;s hard to follow all of the games on the west, so much but itr17;s easy because her17;s a quarterback to kind of keep track of how her17;s doing,r1; he said.Rivers is third in the league with a 115.7 passer rating and is averaging 9.1 yards per completion, which is fourth. He has thrown for two or more touchdowns in every game this season, becoming just the fourth in league history to do that in the first 11 games in a season.His biggest improvement though is in not taking risks. He has 26 touchdowns against six interceptions, and his 69.5 percent completion rate ties a career best. Rivers has said often this year it has been one of his goals to have a completion rate of 70 percent or more in a season.Roethlisberger though is also getting better with age. He has thrown for 3,664 yards, which is his most of his career through the Steelers first 11 games, and the 24 touchdowns are tied with his 2014 season.r0;Obviously he does a great job extending plays and is hard to bring down. He probably has made a lot more plays on the move than I have over the years,r1; Rivers said.A late-season matchup between Rivers and Roethlisberger is also appropriate considering they are in the top three since 2006 in regular-season wins once the calendar turns to December. Rivers is 39-19 to Roethlisbergerr17;s 38-14. Only Tom Brady has more wins in that span with 44.Both feel fortunate to be linked to a 2004 quarterback draft class where all three, including Eli Manning, have remained with the same team. Roethlisberger has said it is even cooler when their group is compared with the 1983 class of Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and John Elway.While there is certainly competition between Rivers, Roethlisberger and Manning, Rivers said there isnr17;t a rivalry.r0;You know your17;re going to be linked to guys. Itr17;s a heck of a group to be a part of. I think itr17;s something we can look back and be proud of, that draft class.But I donr17;t check to see where we all stack up, all that stuff.I know we all three have sustained pretty long, good careers.r1;
