There is a new leader in the clubhouse at left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers as the depth chart for the first preseason game against the New York Giants has been released and shows Mike Adams at left tackle replacing Marcus Gilbert, who has been flipped over to the right side, where he started and played his first two years in the league.
Steelers offensive line coach Jack Bicknell, Jr. was asked about the flip recently, but pretty much wrote it off as not yet being permanent.
“Yeah, basically we\’re just trying to find the best combination we feel like for the team. said Bicknell, Jr. “So we want to take a look at both guys in both spots. I think it\’s premature to make any real statements as to how this will go from here. It\’s only been a couple of days and were just going to continue working it and at the end of the four preseason games and as we\’re getting into our season, we\’ll certainly have it set by then. But it\’s really up to coach Tomlin, obviously, exactly how he wants to go, but this will give us good chance to look at both guys, both sides.
“I\’ve always told all offensive tackles, you\’re never a left or a right. You\’ve always got to be ready to play both. You never know what\’s going to happen, so it\’s just a process that we go through. You\’ll notice we switch a lot of people. We have a lot of people playing two different positions, so when you only have seven guys up, you\’ve got to be ready to play different positions.”
Gilbert had been manning the left side all offseason and through the first week of training camp. This past Friday, however, Adams was flipped from right to left and the two haven\’t been switched back since.
Former Steelers offensive lineman Tunch Ilkin weighed in Monday with his thoughts on the switch as it relates to each players handedness as Adams is naturally left-handed. He made a great argument as to why Adams should be on the left side and Gilbert the right.
The Steelers still have a full month to go until their season opener, but it now looks like the starting left tackle spot is Adams\’ to lose from this point forward.
