So far during training camp this year there hasn’t been a lot of talk about Pittsburgh Steelers second-year linebacker Terence Garvin, who made the opening day 53 man roster last year as an undrafted rookie tryout player. Just because we’re not hearing much about the West Virginia product, however, doesn’t mean that he’s not having a good summer.
“He’s really had a real good camp for us. He’s played both inside and outside for us,” said Steelers linebackers coach Keith Butler of Garvin during an interview last week with David Todd of 970 ESPN Radio.
Saturday night in the preseason opener against the New York Giants, Garvin played 21 snaps on defense and registered one assisted tackle. Three of those snaps came at right outside linebacker, but it was scheme related as Chris Carter shifted to the inside on those plays.
So, will we see Garvin play more on the outside during the Steelers three remaining preseason games? According to Butler, we will.
“A little bit, yes,” said Butler of Garvin playing outside in addition to inside. “He’ll have to do both. He needs to be a swing-guy for us. We had a guy last year doing that, Sly (Stevenson Sylvester), but he left and went to Buffalo.
“We need somebody like that. It always ends up where we’ve got to utilize somebody like that, that knows both positions inside and outside. Lawrence Timmons has done it before, Sly did it last year. We always feel better if I’ve got somebody on the team that can do that, because sometimes it gets down to that in terms of injuries and you need someone like that.”
In addition to potentially being Butler’s swing-guy in 2014, Garvin should continue to be one of the Steelers top special teams players as well. Saturday night against the Giants, he played 14 special teams snaps and registered an assisted tackle on the Steelers second kickoff.
While it’s still unclear as to how many total linebackers the Steelers will carry on their final 53 man roster this year out of training camp, it’s probably safe to say that Garvin will indeed be one of them.
