Steelers Surprisingly Dump Russell

Less than three months ago, Gary Russell was scoring a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Now he's out of work.

Pittsburgh unexpectedly dumped the team's short-yardage back on Thursday. It's surprising because players don't get released in April. There's no advantage to giving up on an NFL-quality player when training camp is still months away.

Russell makes little money by NFL standards, so it's not a salary cap move. The Steelers may have a ton of tailbacks, but Willie Parker, Mewelde Moore and Rashard Mendenhall don't really fill the power back role that Russell handled, so it's not a logjam issue -- and even if it was, you don't release a guy for a logjam until you've gotten through most of training camp.

Add it all up and there is something that hasn't come out yet. Unless Russell simply asked out because he didn't like being part of a numbers game in Pittsburgh, you have to believe something happened that we haven't been told about yet.

It also makes it a lot more likely that Pittsburgh could draft a late-round running back with an eye on the fact that Parker is heading into the final year of his contract.