Steelers make cuts to have team at 53

The Steelers have made their roster cuts to have the team down to the 53 players on a roster for the season. Charlie Batch was officially placed on injured reserve, which means his season is over. He will collect his salary of $1,355,000 this season and can work out and rehabilitate at the Steelers' facilities, which he couldn't have done had the Steelers reached an injury settlement with him. He is likely four more weeks from playing, and had they reached an injury settlement, he could have signed immediately with any other team, but not with the Steelers for another 6 weeks because NFL rules state that a player cannot sign with the team that reached an injury settlement with that player immediately. He wouldn't have been able to play with the Steelers until at least week 10 or 11 anyway. Byron Leftwich was kept as the number 2 quarterback and Dennis Dixon as the number 3, as they did not want to risk losing him on waivers.

The rest of the cuts are as follows:

Willie Reid, wide receiver

Ryan McBean, defensive end

Paul Ernster, punter

Eddie Drummond, wide receiver/return specialist

Patrick Bailey, linebacker

Billy Latsko, fullback

Doug Legursky, guard

Matt Lentz, guard

Roy Lewis, cornerback

Grant Mason, safety

Jeremy Parquet, tackle

Scott Paxson, defensive tackle

Jordan Reffett, defensive end

Micah Rucker, wide receiver

Dezmond Sherrod, tight end

Lee Vickers, tight end

Justin Vincent, running back

Travis Williams, cornerback

Arnold Harrison, outside linebacker *

Mike Humpal, linebacker *

Ryan Mundy, safety *

*Players were waived after reaching an injury settlement.

The Steelers are able to sign up to eight players to their practice squad beginning at noon today. Parquet and Lewis are players they would like to sign, as well as others.

The Steelers were also looking into possibly trading one of their backup offensive linemen, tackle Max Starks, center Sean Mahan, and tackle Trai Essex, but nothing ever materialized. We heard a rumor that Sean Mahan is demanding a trade, but we shall see.

We personally hope to see Mundy back in some form, be it practice squad or whatever. We were also surprised at the release of Lewis after we had heard the Steelers really liked him, but he does appear to be one of the players they would like to sign to the practice squad. Arnold Harrison always had a place in our heart on special teams and it's sad to see his season end. If you watched the game, you saw how angry he was. Hopefully he heals soon. As for the rest, most aren't surprises to us. The only one being the Willie Reid/Dallas Baker choice, but only because we weren't sure who they were going to keep. Hopefully it all works out for the best.

You can read PG's article here and Trib's here. The Trib also lists the Steelers 53-man roster with a few "quick hits" here.

Mike Prisuta writes a column on the Steelers and their practices here. And you can read View from the Press Box by Scott Brown here. Included in that article is the fact that running back Rudi Johnson was let go from the Bengals.