Staring a winless record in the face, the Steelers are looking ahead, and making a changes in the depth chart as well.
Former first-round pick defensive end Cameron Heyward will start on Sunday against the Jets, and awful LT Mike Adams will sit and either Kelvin Beachum or Levi Brown will both get playing time at tackle.
Rookie Vince Williams will be the opposite ILB with Lawrence Timmons.
“I like the attitude, demeanor and approach to work that the guys have taken,” coach Mike Tomlin said.
“That’s just part of the equation. Obviously, putting it together and producing victory is the most significant part of the equation.”
The moves for the defense Tomlin has to hope will help in terms of the club not getting a turnover in the first four games, and also giving up way too many big plays.
Against the Vikings in the loss in London, the club allowed four plays of over 50 yards, and missed a number of key tackles.
The team also has just four sacks, good for dead last in all the NFL.
Heyward was the third man in a four-man rotation at end behind Brett Keisel and Ziggy Hood.
Hood has been a disappointment, and with Heyward in the mix, it would appear that Hood’s playing time will go down quite a bit.
Maybe more pressure on Geno Smith and the Jets Sunday will stop the Steelers D from allowing big play after big play.
“We have to minimize the big plays,” Tomlin said.
“I think that has been an issue for us, we just need to get more solid in that area, minimize big plays and make people work to produce points against us.”
Tomlin did not rule out Brown starting at tackle Sunday, but at this point anyone other than Adams would be an improvement.
Guard Ramon Foster is still having issues with a strained pectoral muscle, and he will likely be questionable for the game Sunday.
It would seem that Beachum would start for Foster if need be, while Brown would take the spot of Adams on the line.
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Mario
October 9, 2013 at 8:32 am
Sounds like Tomlin still has no clue what he is doing. Training camp and pre season games are the time for major changes, not after your season has started. His inability to evaluate talent is inexcusable. Fire the clown and get a real head coach to try and fix the mess we are in!
Jalen
October 9, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
George H
October 9, 2013 at 5:00 pm
well when you are sitting at 0-4 I think it is a good time to start making some changes. Haywood has needed to be starting all year long and I like Williams over Wilson too. I’m not quite ready to give up hope on Adams, but I really don’t see the LT position really improving all that much. I would of rather had an old and beat down Starks over Brown anyway.
Jalen
October 9, 2013 at 7:58 pm
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…steelers have neglected investing in a franchise caliber LT for years now and the reason, I, believe, is because being that the LT is the second highest paid position on the team (QB being number 1), and being that the steelers already ghve invested all that money in BB, there’s no way they were going to turn out two large salaries concomitantly. However, as first round deaft picks don’t get paid what they used to AND that they typically have five year deals to start, you’ll see the steelers grab one in the first round this year; bb has roughly five good years left, right about the time you’d have to pay the LT his second contract….so they won’t have two exorbitantly large contracts at the same time (rook contracts are not that big these days like they were in 2009 etc). No matter what happens with protection it won’t matter unless the steelers go and get 6’3″ or 6’4″ athletic hybrid type of WR/TE early in the draft for bb to throw to in the red zone.