Feb 21, 2016 4 min read

Much like everyone else, the Steelers were surprised when tight end Heath Miller contacted them late last week to let them know he was retiring after 11 seasons.

And just like that, tight end moved higher on the team’s priority list this offseason.

They’ll get a close look at tight ends this week at the annual NFL Scouting Combine.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, they might not like what they see.

Hunter Henry, the top-rated tight end prospect, is an accomplished receiver, but is lacking as a blocker. The same could be said of most of the other tight ends available this year. If they’re good receivers, they can’t block. And if they’re good blockers, they can’t catch.

That’s what made Miller so valuable for the Steelers. He was adept at doing whatever the Steelers needed of him.

That carried over into the locker room, where Miller was one of the Steelers’ most respected players.

Miller slowed down in recent seasons – his 8.9 yards per catch average in 2015 was easily the lowest of his career. But he was still as good as they came in terms of finding open spots on the field.

More importantly, he was perhaps the most respected voice in the locker room.

That will be where the Steelers miss him the most.

• The perception in Pittsburgh as the Pirates open Spring Training is they won’t be nearly as good as last season, when they won 98 games, the second-best total in Major League Baseball behind the Cardinals.

The feeling around here is the Pirates didn’t do enough in the offseason to improve, and will take a major step back in 2016.

Nationally, however, the feeling about the team is much different.

Take a look at any power rankings compiled on national media sites and they have the Pirates solidly as a top-10 team in the league, if not top five.

Why the disparity?

As is typically the case, Pirates fans are focused solely on what happened in the offseason rather than taking a look at the league as a whole, while the national writers look more at the big picture.

As one national site, which picked the Pirates as the fifth-best team in the majors noted, the nucleus of Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Garrit Cole is still solid. And help from the minors is on the way in the form of top-rated prospects such as pitcher Tyler Glasnow and infielders Alen Hanson and Josh Bell.

Will that be enough to make the Pirates a contender in 2016?

Maybe, maybe not.

But at the very least, they’ll finish well above .500 again, which, considering where the franchise was even five years ago, is still a positive step.

• The WPIAL takes too many teams/individuals into its postseason tournaments.

Don’t think so? Consider this: The average score of first-round playoff games in Class A boys basketball was 67.5-37.9. On the girls’ side in Class A, it wasn’t much better at 59.8-38.3.

We also saw Class AA hold its wrestling section tournaments over the weekend, with some weight classes advancing all five competitors into the WPIAL tournament because that was all that showed up. In a couple of cases, there weren’t even enough wrestlers competing to fill five spots.

Why? Because a kid knows if he’s got a 10-18 record – typically with a good portion of those wins coming via forfeits – during the regular season, he’s got no chance at winning a section or WPIAL title. That being the case, he moves on.

But basketball teams – or teams in other sports in general – aren’t afforded that chance. They are compelled to show up, even though they know they have no chance of winning.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get one more game out of a season, particularly if you’ve got a young team. But at the same time, what are you gaining out of a 30-point loss?

Did the kids on the team really need a beatdown to realize they need to get better?

For the WPIAL, it’s all about the money those early-round games generate.

But those teams should be given the choice of whether they want to compete in the postseason.

Haven’t enough teams been fed to the lions over the years?

You should be required to have a .500 or better record in section play to qualify for the postseason. If you couldn’t win at least half of your section games, you’re unlikely to become the second coming of Hickory High.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.