Figuratively speaking, there weren’t a ton of people at Steelers practice Tuesday afternoon, but along the interior of the team’s first offensive line, there were, literally speaking, very nearly one ton of people.
The biggest Steelers O-line ever, should you care to project starters from a mere 96 hours into training camp (and why wait?), consists of 683 pounds of tackle, 668 pounds of guard, and 312 pounds of center, or a total of 1,663 pounds of uncertainty.
Despite that unprecedented enormity, just 337 pounds short of a ton, there are several new faces here at Saint Vincent trying to ensure that the blockers don’t come up short in more meaningful ways when the 2010 NFL season becomes reality.
Sean Kugler, Mike Tomlin’s new offensive line coach, turns 44 next week but looks as if he could still play, which is good because he may have to. Unless the people on whom this offense will be erected calcify into something reliable in the next six weeks, this team could face another season in which it runs the ball erratically and often protects for the pass only in theory.
“I’ve studied what they’ve done, but this is a new year, the 2010 Pittsburgh Steelers, and really, that’s our only focus,” Kugler said as practice ended. “I’m coming into their system, so, while there are certain individual techniques I can bring to it, I’m still adapting them to the Pittsburgh offense.”
As for that offense, don’t expect a return to the kind of plays Lombardi drew on the chalkboard. Asked for the 100th time already if he is emphasizing the run, Tomlin responded with still more patience.
“I’m really not,” he said. “I know it’s been a hot topic, but it’s really more about running more effectively.”
If there needs to be a greater commitment to running the ball to fix that particular somewhat under-utilized aspect of the Bruce Arians Show, that’s easily addressed. The larger issue is the nature of this club’s chronic inability to protect the passer. The 7-on-7 drills Tuesday went as smoothly as can be, but it’s unlikely opponents will agree to field only seven non-rushing defenders when September comes. Later in the day, during 11-on-11 situations involving offensive and defensive starters, Ben Roethlisberger once found himself side-arming a pass out from under typical pressure.
“I’m not speaking about any particular team — Dallas or Pittsburgh — but there are a whole bunch of different variables that can come into play when a team is allowing a lot of sacks,” said Flozell Adams, the newly acquired Cowboys tackle plugged in for injured starter Willie Colon.
“It can be players, it can be scheme, it can be play-calling, it can be chemistry, and, sometimes, none of those things are the problem, either.”
Adams, in other words, can’t be expected to know what pokes so many holes in the Steelers’ protection, but whatever it is, it wasn’t so much in evidence with his previous employer. The five-time Pro Bowl selection likely didn’t go out of his way to shake out the data, but he’s joining a club that allowed 20 sacks in the final four games of 2009, and 50 for the season. In the past four years, the Steelers have allowed 50, 49, 47, and 49 sacks. In Texas, Adams anchored a unit that didn’t allow more than 37 in that span and once, in ’08, allowed 25.
Adams then, just to be able to help the situation, is under some degree of pressure to adapt quickly after 12 seasons spent entirely in royal blue, metallic silver, and white.
“At first, I thought it was going to be really difficult,” Adams said of the potential for system-shock. “But I’ve been really pleased with how it’s gone so far, with all the help I’ve been getting from the players and from the coaches.”
The prickliest issue is the shift of nomenclature, naturally, as words that meant one thing in Texas mean another in Pittsburgh, just like in the culture at large.
“You’ve just got to block it out,” Adams said of any similarity with the Dallas glossary. “It’s just a matter of learning what everything means.”
Flozell The Hotel brings 178 career starts to this offensive line’s collective dossier under experience, nearly twice that of the next most experienced starter, center Justin Hartwig, and nearly 70 more than the other three starters combined — Max The Other Hotel Starks, Chris Kemoeatu, and Trai Essex.
For the moment, anyway, his head coach doesn’t sound like a guy who fears learning what Willie Colon’s injury means.
“We had our defensive line working in tandems on some stunts today,” said Tomlin after what he characterized as a highly pleasing practice, “and we had our offensive line working in partnership to defend those stunts.”
First-round draft pick Maurkice Pouncey might well have something to say about the final makeup of this offensive line, as might second-year man Ramon Foster, but whatever we have to say about it as 2010 plays out, it certainly won’t include any assertion that it simply wasn’t big enough.
About the Author Jim McMillen
The Editor & Chief, the brains so to say, behind Pittsburgh Blitz. Jim is a rabid sports fan who just loves his Stillers, Pens and Buccos. Feel free to contact us at steelerguy26[@]yahoo.com if you have any questions or comments or would like to join our staff and write for Pittsburgh Blitz.
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