The Pittsburgh Steelers shook up their depth charter earlier in the week in preparation for their second preseason game this coming Monday night against the Washington Redskins and while the temptation is there to read things into the several changes, head coach Mike Tomlin said Saturday during his press conference that we shouldn\’t.
“We are just going to provide guys reps,” said Tomlin. “Don’t read too much into what group people are working in. We are going to mix and match, pit people against one another. Sometimes it’s just to see how people perform once fatigue sets in.
“We do things for different reasons, trying to gather information about the people we are trying to evaluate.”
Some of that information gathering could come at the cornerback position as Isaiah Green jumped Josh Victorian this past week on the depth chart. With that being said, Alex Kozora noted Friday in his practice recap that Victorian was the third cornerback on the field during team drills.
Another notable depth chart change included rookie Shamarko Thomas being listed alongside DaMon Cromartie-Smith as the backup to Troy Polamalu at strong safety. In the preseason opener, last Saturday against the New York Giants, Thomas only played the nickel corner position, so this week he very well could see time at safety as well.
Being as rookie wide receiver Justin Brown jumped David Gilreath this week on the depth chart, he figures to get some second-team reps to show what he can do against better competition.
Being that Tomlin warned against reading too much into the changes this week, we will do our best to heed his advice. However, that won\’t stop us from reading too much into the play that takes place on the field Monday night in Washington and should the depth chart flip again next week, well, we just might have to read something into that.
