The Pittsburgh Steelers decision to add cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke back to the roster on Tuesday was a bit of surprise to me, but perhaps the reason behind the move is to better prepare the defense for the Buffalo Bills offense this week, if it is not primarily a special teams related move.
Let’s face it, Van Dyke was not brought in to play defense as he his way behind thanks to him missing nearly all of training camp and all of the preseason due to a hamstring injury. Being as he is healthy now, could it be possible that the former third-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders was brought back to play wide receiver on the scout team this week in an attempt to simulate Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin?
Goodwin, who has all of eight catches this season, does sport a 21.4 yards per catch average and he can stretch the field with his speed. Four of his eight catches this season have gone for 19 or more yards and both his touchdowns were good from 40 yards out or better.
Back in February at the 2013 NFL Combine, Goodwin posted an official 40 time of 4.27 seconds and that was the second fastest time ever recorded in the history of the event. Just so you know, in 2011, Van Dyke turned in a 4.28 official 40 time.
According to my research, Van Dyke played some wide receiver back in high school, so the position is probably not that foreign to him. Really, how hard is it to run go and post routes?
Goodwin also returns kickoffs and when he is not committing penalties, Van Dyke has used his speed in the past to help out on special teams.
Unless someone from the media watching practices this week confirms that Van Dyke is being used some as a wide receiver on the scout team, consider this thought of mine as blind speculation. It does, however, make sense even if it winds up being way off the mark.
