The Steelers released their depth chart heading into the regular season opener against Cleveland and it had one change from the previous ones in the starting lineup.
Cam Thomas is now listed as the starter at right defensive end ahead of Brett Keisel. Rookie Stephon Tuitt, who had been listed as the starter at right defensive end, is now listed as the backup at left defensive end behind Cam Heyward.
* The Steelers named their captains on Monday. Ben Roethlisberger was voted the lone captain for the offense. Troy Polamalu, for the first time in his 12-year-career, will captain the defense. Shaun Suisham and Robert Golden are the special teams captains.
Polamalu has never been an outspoken leader, but he's been a leader nonetheless. It's good to see him finally be honored by his teammates, though as he said, "the best time to be a captain is at the Super Bowl."
* The Steelers will honor Chuck Noll with a ceremony prior to the start of Sunday's game. Marianne Noll and Chuck Noll's son, Chris, will be present.
The team also will wear decals on the back of their helmet that read "CHN" this season to honor Noll.
* Martavis Bryant and Brice McCain were the only Steelers who did not practice Monday.
6 comments:
Why switch the sides of Heyward and Thomas? Correct me if I'm wrong, but all preseason long Heyward has been on the right and Thomas on the left, correct? Why change now? With Keisel and Tuitt both as backups at RDE and LDE respectively, I don't see why Heyward and Thomas shouldn't stay where they were.
Anon 3:17, I was thinking that over as well. I think there are 3 points to consider: give Heyward the most snaps, give the rookie the least (for now), and put Keisel on the right side. This line-up would work for that.
If Tuitt is playing confidently later in the season, maybe that will change.
so basically, they're switching everything around for keisel, who is currently a backup?
I think Keisel is going to get more snaps than the average backup. More like a 1a and 1b scenario.
Man Martavious Bryant isn't giving us much to get excited about. No fireworks in the preseason and he seems to miss lots of practice.
It appears they are using Keisel to push Thomas. Those two will probably split close to 50-50
I like the split anyway. Some guys blossom when given more snaps (i.e. Jason Worilds) but we've also seen big guys Who perform better with limited snaps. I've no idea if this is applicable to Thomas but he does strike me as that type of guy.
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