Mike Tomlin has been around awhile. The gray in the beard… The smoothly shaved head… And the ability to answer questions without really truly “answering” them. Tomlin spoke to an assembled gathering of reporters yesterday at the Owners’ Spring Meeting and after one of the more active offseasons in Pittsburgh Steelers’ history there were many things to ask.
On the Quarterbacks
This was obviously the first thing on everyone’s mind and Tomlin addressed that. Sort of. He said that Russell Wilson is in the “pole position” in terms of being the starting quarterback. In my opinion that doesn’t exactly make a huge statement in favor of the veteran. If you know anything about racing then you’ll know that the pole position has the inside track but… there’s another car right next to them rather than behind.
This makes me think that the competition is closer than I would have thought just a week or two ago. I still believe that Wilson will be the starter in week one but I fear this will evolve into a competition and I’m not sure that’s good. Tomlin appeared to then suggest the veteran Wilson had earned the right to be the starter so we shall see.
Pickett
In what I can only expect will be his final comments on the subject, Tomlin stated that a “change in scenery” would be good for Pickett. This came as the comment about the “dominoes in Chicago” starting to fall.
Hard to believe that Pickett went from the toast of the town to shipped out in just 23 months but that’s the National Football League my friends.
Broderick Jones and the Draft
Tomlin stated that he isn’t ready to commit to Jones at left tackle citing there is still so much more to be done in terms of ‘player acquisition.’ I’m fine with Jones staying at right tackle as long as you have a proven guy at left tackle. There’s no way the Steelers can go into this season with Dan Moore the starter there.
Wide receiver and center were the two specific positions that Tomlin mentioned as far as positions that need the most attention. He also said that both of those could be addressed via free agency but I have a hard time seeing that especially at center. Most of the top centers are already off the board. What really concerned me was when Tomlin said the handful of centers in the draft didn’t appear to be “plug and play.” THAT is very concerning to me because the Steelers desperately need an anchor in the middle.
Tomlin was in Orlando because he’s part of the League’s Competition Committee. They are dealing with kickoff changes and ‘hip-drop tackles’ but while that’s going on, he took time to talk about his own team. As usual, he left us with as many questions as answers.
