Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin still is willing to make adjustments to his final 53 man roster based on what may or may not transpire Thursday night at Heinz Field against the Carolina Panthers in the 2014 preseason finale
During his Tuesday during his press conference, Tomlin was asked if players have ever won spots on the final 53 man roster due to their play in the final preseason game and the head coach was quick to note that that has happened before.
“Most certainly and I provided the team examples of that this morning,” said Tomlin. “I thought last year going into Carolina preseason game that Derek Moye was on the outside looking in. He did enough in that football game to turn the tide for him, though. If you look at it over the history of time, you can go back to 2009, Stefan Logan returns the first punt in the game back for 80 yards and earns a spot for himself.
“Sometimes you’ve got to study the history of this game, in this series specifically, to provide information for men so that they can know that they got a legitimate opportunity to help themselves and some of those examples of that opportunity are sitting in the room with them.”
Las year in the preseason finale against the Panthers, wide receiver Derek Moye caught two passes for 55 yards in the 45 offensive snaps that played. However, it’s what he did on a late third quarter interception in that game that likely earned him a roster spot.
On third down and two from the Panthers 9-yard-line, an ill-advised pass thrown by third-string quarterback Landry Jones was intercepted by Panthers cornerback Josh Norman. If not for the hustle by Moye on the play, Norman would have easily scored.
You can see an animated gif of that play below and it sounds like all of the players still currently on the roster were shown this clip Tuesday morning as well.
