Cam Heyward's headed to the Pro Bowl, Joe Haden's heard more praise in these parts than any corner since Rod Woodson, and Vince Williams just earned the most stunning honor of all: He was singled out for praise by Mike Tomlin.
For anyone who missed that earlier in the week, this was part of Tomlin's introduction to his press conference this week: "I can’t say enough about Vince Williams and what he was able to do in terms of being a central communicator for us throughout the game."
The New England game, of course.
And in my visit to the locker room inside the Rooney Complex yesterday afternoon, I confirmed Tomlin's specific sentiment on Williams many times over. He really has been that good, that smart. He's a big reason the Steelers' defense really did outsmart Tom Brady and the Patriots.
But want to hear something funny?
When I asked these same guys to tell me something I didn't know about this defense, something we all might be missing, the name most commonly cited was that of ... Javon Hargrave, believe it or not.
Yeah, I know. Me, too.
The nose tackle seemingly forgotten even by the coaching staff when ceding snaps to Daniel McCullers as recently as Jacksonville a month ago, has suddenly stepped up into what his teammates insist is a silently starring role. He's been as effective as anyone on the line at generating a push, and he's found a way to get to the quarterback for pressures, hits and even the occasional sack. More important, from what I was told, he's been the one clearing space for Heyward, Stephon Tuitt and the linebackers, rather than the other way around.
"The big push right now," as Williams told me, "is coming from No. 79."
So, what's changed?
Plain and simple, as I heard, Tomlin and Keith Butler have cut the kid loose.
They've let go of the Casey Hampton approach in which the behemoth nose tackle eats alive multiple blockers, as Hargrave doesn't have the size or background to excel at that. Besides, that's dying across the NFL, which is headed toward the Aaron Donald mold for excellent reasons. But what Hargrave did do well -- extraordinarily well -- at South Carolina State was accumulate sacks, with an AD-like 29.5 in his final two collegiate seasons. And that's what he's doing now, lining up across from a man and beating him. In the process, he's creating a chaos from which everyone's benefiting.
Oh, and he's smiling once in a while, too. That's been rare in the past.
"I'm enjoying myself," Hargrave told me, "but that's because of wins like this. We're getting better as a line, better as a defense, better as a team. But there's a long way to go."
It's a little clearer, though.
• That's something to weigh when looking at the current rookie class, by the way. Sunday saw Terrell Edmunds, James Washington and, above all, Jaylen Samuels elevate against the Patriots, even though none of the three had shown much of that beforehand. Not even Edmunds, who still hasn't come close to his playmaking potential on the ball.
I asked Edmunds yesterday how much this class sticks together, as is coolly common in football.
"Oh, yeah, we're all about each other," Edmunds told me. "We talk all the time, try to stay together, take care of each other, do whatever we can to help the team."
Bear in mind, third-rounder Chuks Okorafor has already impressed at right tackle, too. He might make for an affordable starting replacement for Marcus Gilbert in 2019.
• Not just yesterday but for a while now, the Steelers have spoken in much stronger tones of the Saints than the Patriots or anyone else on their schedule. Offense and defense. These guys don't buy into bogeymen. They're watching the games in intensive study.
"It's Drew Brees, man," Tuitt told me. "But it's so much more than that. It's a great football team, a great challenge for us."
• Numbers aren't why JuJu Smith-Schuster should be in the Pro Bowl ahead of Antonio Brown. His consistency, his timely and big plays, and his steady, stirring progress are why. He's become, as I've been writing for a couple weeks now, the Steelers' best player at any position.
• I'd engage in a similar screed about Haden, but then that would lend way more relevance to the Pro Bowl than it merits. As one player told me yesterday, "There can't be anything less important in football." And this individual was chosen.
• Anytime anyone questions the value of Kris Letang, whip up a big bucket of popcorn, plop that somebody onto a couch and queue up the video of that masterpiece last night in D.C.
• The Penguins now have 16 total wins. Of those, two have come against the defending Stanley Cup champions, and two others have come against the defending Western Conference finalists in the Jets and Golden Knights. Also, they've now beaten current 22-win teams in the Maple Leafs and Flames (the latter by a 9-1 count up in Calgary!), as well as a 19-win team in the Avalanche and 18-win teams in the Blue Jackets, Oilers and Bruins.
That's half of all their wins against some of the NHL's very best!
And yet, they've also lost to the Blackhawks and Canucks, as well as the Senators and Devils twice each, all in the league's bottom 10!
This team's got problems beyond focus. But not many. And none more pressing.
• Remember what I wrote the other night about the Penguins finding extra fire when facing a physical opponent?
The most physical opponents they've faced all winter have been the Capitals, Jets, Bruins and Blue Jackets. Check, check, check and check.
Let the boys do some banging, Coach.
• Pascal Dupuis' TV assessment was accurate. Mike Sullivan does have issues with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel, though such situations are standard fare within professional sports.
But that doesn't mean Dupuis was right to speak as he did. He was functioning as an analyst for TVA Sports on that broadcast, and that's fine because that's now his role under that employer. But he can't have it both ways. The Penguins invited him, his family and his youth hockey team into their locker room this past weekend as a respected former champion, as a guest, not as an analyst. And the information he culled in that room shouldn't have been aired out.
That might sound like small stuff, but it isn't in the sports/media world. Be absolutely certain this is why Sullivan seethed over Dupuis' remarks. They were, as the coach called them, "irresponsible." Professionally so.
• Some former athletes don't get that. They think that, when they move on to media, they can somehow still be one of the boys. Harold Reynolds, the longtime baseball analyst for ESPN, to this day has never stopped using phrases like "as a player, I understand," as if he's still a player. Even though he hasn't been one in more than 30 years!
Drives me nuts. I'll bet it drives his bosses nuts, too.
• No one in Anaheim will be marveling at the video of Marcus Pettersson’s late clear the way we all did at Daniel Sprong’s first goal for the Ducks. But it’s the same result on the scoreboard, the same level of will and skill and, yeah, the same value. Just a different position.
One of the billion or so reasons it's silly to invoke the Markus Naslund trade as a comparison point is that the return for Naslund was a big, slow winger named Alek Stojanov. Even if Stojanov's career hadn't been unfortunately cut short by a car accident, he'd never have come close to an average NHL winger, much less an elite scorer and team captain like Naslund was in Vancouver.
Here's the truth: Pettersson's been damned good since his arrival.
What's more, the kid really likes his role, as I learned in a cool conversation we had about whether he's defensively motivated by being with a new team or simply by being ... well, Swedish.
"It's a little bit of both," Pettersson replied with a small laugh. "I've always thought about defense first. I mean, I want to get up on the rushes. I want to contribute up front. I want to be on the power play, like I am right now."
He really is. Second unit. Left point.
"But I think defense first. I've been like that ever since I was a centerman."
Wait, what?
"Yeah, I was a center in Sweden until I was about 14 or 15."
Had no idea.
"That's OK, because even when I was at center, I used to play like a defender, go all the way back."
Sounds a lot like Oskar Sundqvist, once a prospect with the Penguins and now with the Blues. Tall, lanky center who always thinks defense first.
I always hate asking someone from a given country if they know someone else from that country, as it can come across as insulting toward the size of the country. But I went ahead and asked Pettersson, anyway, if he knows Sundqvist.
"Oh, for sure," he replied with a big grin, to my relief. "That's how all Swedish centers play. Most of them, I should say. We're pretty well-schooled, and we take care of the defense first. But yeah, it's also when you come to a new team. That's when you want to make a good impression. I'm here to play defense. That's my job."
• I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't pick on the Pirates at least once in this opus, right?
Well, the offseason's been fairly innocuous so far, but this deserves a bit of a brighter light, maybe: The recent trade of Ivan Nova, obviously made to move his $8.5 million salary, was basically replaced by the free-agent signing of Jordan Lyles at $2.05 million. That might or might not matter, as nothing in baseball's more overblown than the fifth starter. But the savings are real.
The team's 2019 payroll, to the penny, is currently $47,250,000 for the nine players signed. That might sound like they've still got a lot of money to put up for the rest of the 25-man roster, but they don't. Only two of the unsigned players are arbitration-eligible: Corey Dickerson and Keone Kela. Both are coming off fine seasons, but neither will break the bank. The rest are all within their first three years in the majors, so they'll be stamped at or close to the big-league minimum wage of $555,000.
Even if Dickerson and Kela total as high as $12 million between them -- and they won't -- the other 14 guys won't even total $8 million.
Projected payroll: $68 million.
The lowest payroll in the majors in 2018 belonged to the Rays at $68,810,167.
If they trade Francisco Cervelli, their highest-paid player at $11.5 million, and they don't get equal value, you'd better believe the MLB Players Union will be filing the mother of all grievances. As they should.
• Headed to the rink tonight!