With training camp now just a little more than one week away from beginning, we’ll continue on with our annual polls asking you to vote on whether or not certain Pittsburgh Steelers players who are perceived as being on the bubble will ultimately make the final 53 man roster out of training camp.
We’ve already had you vote on five players and you can find links to those polls along with the results of each below. Today, we will discuss linebacker Jordan Zumwalt and have you vote on his future.
2014 Season Recap:
Zumwalt, who was drafted last year by the Steelers in the sixth-round, had his rookie season end before it really ever got started as he was placed on the team’s injured reserve list just prior to the start of the 2014 regular season after battling a groin injury for most of training camp.
During the preseason, Zumwalt saw action in only one game and that was against the New York Giants. The inside linebacker out of UCLA managed to play 25 snaps on defense in that game and registered five total tackles with one resulting in a loss of yardage. None of those tackles, however, came on special teams.
2015 Outlook:
To his credit, it appears as though Zumwalt is now fully healthy. If he’s going to have a chance at earning a spot on the final 53 man roster this year, he’ll have to make sure he spends more time on the field during training camp than he does in the trainer’s room.
While many have speculated that Zumwalt will be given the opportunity to play outside in addition to inside, I really believe the team views him specifically as an inside-only player. With that said, he’ll have a hard time making the final roster with Lawrence Timmons, Ryan Shazier, Vince Williams, Sean Spence and Terence Garvin all still presumably ahead of him on the depth chart.
If he’s going to crack that list of players ahead of him, Zumwalt’s best shot at a roster spot includes him overtaking Garvin, who is one of the Steelers better special team contributors. This assumes that the Steelers will keep a total of five inside linebackers this year.
Should he ultimately not make the final 53 this year, Zumwalt figures to be a candidate to make the team’s initial 10-man practice squad.
Vote below and tell us the reason why you voted the way that you did in the comments.
Previous Polls:
Chris Hubbard
Terence Garvin
B.W. Webb
Darrius Heyward-Bey
Clifton Geathers
