Good Thursday to you Steelers’ fans.
Ramon Foster has retired. Maurkice Pouncey will turn 31 this July. Alejandro Villanueva will be 32 during the season. David DeCastro is now 30 and Matt Feiler is a relative ‘spring chicken’ who will turn 28 this summer. To say this version of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line is “experienced” would be an understatement. Together, these men have see more than their fair share of battles with Ravens, Bengals and Patriots among others. But now the question faces them that comes to every unit like this… Have they seen their better days pass them by? What we know as of this writing is that Pouncey, DeCastro and Villanueva will anchor their respective spots. What we don’t know is who plays right tackle and who plays left guard now that Foster is gone. It is expected that Matt Feiler will find himself in one of those two places. If rookie Kevin Dotson is as advertised then he will grab the left guard spot and not relinquish it for a decade. If he doesn’t? Can Stephen Wisniewski or second year man Derwin Gray hold it down? If those three aren’t up to the task then Feiler will be. But then there’s right tackle… It is expected that Chuks Okorafor and Zach Banner (everyone’s favorite eligible lineman) will vie for the position. And again, if neither shows the capability then enter Feiler. Here however is the problem. Matt Feiler can’t be in two positions at the same time no matter how versatile he is. That means guys have to step up and for me, my confidence meter is much higher with those potential guards than with those two possible tackles. Mike Tomlin doesn’t need me telling him his job is made more difficult by the current pandemic which has significantly reduced prep time for these men. None of us can truly say what this O-Line will look like come September but I’m confident when I say the end of the current line as we have known is here. And that might not be so bad.
Tweet of the Day… It’s Caddyshack. Period.
Off The Top Of Your Head … What Are Your Favorite Sports Movies?
Go off instinct. You can always change later…I’ll start:
The Natural
Hoosiers
Field of Dreams— Frank Caliendo (@FrankCaliendo) May 28, 2020
Hines Being Hines
I was slipped some info this morning by a representative of Steelers’ great Hines Ward who continues to get on with his life’s work away from his playing days. Ward is leading a group of professional and Olympic athletes in an effort to encourage young athletes during this time in which they are not able to play their sport. Hines did his the first episode of “Lessons in Positivity” by telling his story and giving life advice. You can check out the first installment of these videos right here.
A ‘Thank You’
in case you missed it, I recently wrote my 3,000th post for this site which I started eight or nine years ago. If you’re so inclined you can read it here. There are a lot of thank yous!
Have a great day Steeler Nation!
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