Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media on Tuesday at the annual owners\’ meetings and was asked about the possible use of more zone blocking in 2013.
“Something we\’re going to explore, said Tomlin,” via a report by Bob Labriola on Twitter. “Not going to move too far from what guys are capable of doing.”
It\’s not like the Steelers didn\’t use some zone blocking last year, but now that Jack Bicknell Jr. had been the hired, the thought is that we will see much more of it 2013. Bicknell said when he was hired that he was looking for athletic offensive linemen that can bend and move. The Steelers 2013 offensive line is shaping up to be able to do just that, especially if tackle Marcus Gilbert and guard Ramon Foster can lose a few pounds in the off-season. Both can move OK, but Bicknell would probably like them to be able to move a little bit better.
So will the Steelers abandon their power running game with man blocking that they have used predominantly for as long as we can all remember? No, it doesn\’t sound like it. It sounds like we will have a nice mixture of the two and this makes me happy as I love the pulling guard traps. We have yet to really see the damage that David DeCastro can move on the counter pike, but you can bet that we will in 2013.
Tomlin says that they aren\’t going to move too far from what the guys are capable of doing, but the way that the offensive line is shaping up for next season, they ought to be capable of quite a bit.
