In the comment section of a recent post I made following the Pittsburgh Steelers preseason loss Saturday night to the New York Giants, I stated that I thought tackle Mike Adams had a pretty good showing overall after starter Kelvin Beachum left the game. It turns out that new offensive line coach Mike Munchak feels the same way.
According to Chris Bradford of the Beaver County Times, Munchak said Tuesday that Adams had a “good, solid start” against the Giants. In addition, Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Munchak as saying he thought Adams was “solid after some issues with technique” early in the game and also thought the Ohio State product settled in as the game wore on.
I have been one of Adams’ toughest critics since he was drafted by the Steelers in the second-round of the 2012 NFL Draft, but I did see some improvement in his play Saturday night at left tackle. Go back and watch the second quarter. Sure, it wasn’t always pretty, but Adams got the job done nonetheless.
Adams reportedly hasn’t had a solid training camp so far and it’s clear that the team wants to get him as much playing time as they possibly can during the preseason as he played every snap against the Giants after Beachum was done.
If Adams can build on that performance moving forward in the preseason, it will give him a lot more confidence heading into the regular season. The way that injuries always seem to strike the Steelers offensive line, it’s a good bet that Adams will be called upon in 2014 to fill in at either of the two tackle spots. He needs to be better than he was last season and it looks like Munchak has him heading in the right direction. Let’s just hope that continues this week against the Buffalo Bills.
