The Pittsburgh Steelers released their first depth chart of the 2012 season on Monday and overall it does not shed any light on the overall situation, as several of the listings seem to go by experience and do not match the reports that have come out of practice.
Let\’s have a look at a few things that stick out to me and things that do not jive.
- The first thing that sticks out is that Mike Wallace is front and center as a starter even though he has yet to report and sign his tender. Is there anything to be read into this? Not likely, but perhaps it is a small message to Wallace. What exactly that message is I will leave to you to speculate. Wallace does have an asterisk next to his name that designates that he has not reported yet.
- The rest of the wide receiver depth chart seems to go by experience. As you can see both Marquis Maze and Toney Clemons are at the end of the listings. Basically there is no clarity here and we will have to look at the participation charts from Thursday night to see who enters the game before who.
- Despite running with the first team at left tackle last week, Mike Adams is still listed behind Trai Essex. Do we really expect Essex to start at left tackle Thursday night against the Eagles, or is this just the coaching staff letting Adams know that he hasn\’t earned anything yet? We shall see Thursday night.
- It has been reported that Kelvin Beachum was kicked inside to left guard, yet he is listed as the third team left tackle. Until Max Starks is off PUP, Beachum just might get snaps at left tackle Thursday night. Even though Kyle Jolly is the third team right tackle, it would not be surprising to see him get snaps at the left tackle spot Thursday night either. I believe there have also been reports of Chris Scott receiving left tackle reps with the third team as well.
- Just like the wide receivers, it appears that the running backs are listed in order of experience behind Isaac Redman.
- Emmanuel Sanders, as expected, is listed as the top kick and punt returner with Chris Rainey currently being listed as the backup ahead of Antonio Brown. This is believable.
- Despite playing on the left side last year during the preseason, Corbin Bryant is listed as the third team right defensive end with Al Woods being listed as the backup to Ziggy Hood on the left side.
- In summation, this depth chart really does not match a lot of what has come out via the media from the practices so far, so advise you to not put too much stock into it. The participation reports that we will have up after the Thursday night game will be a much better reflection of where everything is in the pecking order.
