Now that all of the contract numbers are in for new Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Levi Brown following the Wednesday trade, it wouldn’t be a shocking to see Kelvin Beachum make his first start at left tackle a week from Sunday against the New York Jets.
Tuesday evening, Josina Anderson of ESPN reported that Beachum was scheduled to start a week from this coming Sunday and Bob Labriola of Steelers Digest said Wednesday afternoon that he too expects that to be the case.
Head coach Mike Tomlin has sung the praises of Beachum for some time now and had planned on getting him work at left tackle in the loss to the Minnesota Vikings until left guard Ramon Foster went down with a pectoral sprain. As of right now, the general consensus seems to be that Foster will be ready for the Jets game, so that would indeed free Beachum up to start.
Being as the Steelers are off for the next four days due to the bye week, Brown will have to wait until Monday to practice with the Steelers for the first time. That means he will only have four days of practice to prepare for the Jets game.
Thanks to the Arizona Cardinals picking up a good portion of Brown’s 2013 salary as part of the trade, the Penn State product now becomes just another option for the Steelers. Whether or not he dresses for the Jets game over Mike Adams will likely depend on how fast he picks up the offense and terminology, and Tomlin said as much Wednesday after practice.
Unless there is a sudden change in plans, I expect Tomlin will start Beachum against the Jets and you should do the same.
