The Pittsburgh Steelers cut down to 53 players on Friday and now we will examine the numbers by position starting with the offense.
Quarterbacks (3) – Not really a surprise here as they will need one of these quarterbacks on the inactive list. That player of course will be Charlie Batch.
Running backs (5) – As I pointed out in my roster prediction, Rashard Mendenhall will not be ready for a few weeks at least and he will be one of the seven inactives. Baron Batch has played a lot on special teams all preseason and that was one of the main reasons he was kept.
Fullback (1) – No surprise here with Will Johnson winning the job.
Wide receivers (4) – Also as I pointed out, the Steelers don\’t use 4 and 5 receiver sets and being as Chris Rainey can serve as an emergency receiver, there was no reason to keep five.
Tight ends (3) – If you watched the Todd Haley formations like I did during the preseason, you know he uses two tight ends a lot. David Paulson played a ton of special teams in the preseason and he will also serve as the backup fullback.
Offensive linemen (9) – David DeCastro has to stay on the 53 until he is moved to the new 8 week injured reserve. When that happens we could very well see Trai Essex resigned. It is hard seeing them carrying only 8 linemen for a considerable amount of time.
