If you’re a fan of this site, you know our love for Pittsburgh Steelers’ special teams coach Danny Smith. The always-entertaining man sat down with Bob Labriola, discussing the nuances of special teams.
Labriola also asked how much the team was affected by the loss of Terence Garvin, who will miss several weeks with an MCL sprain. To Smith, it’s a significant loss.
“You lose a lot. And it shows how important a guy like him is, to be quite honest with you,” said Smith. “He is our leading tackler on special teams to this point. Anytime you lose that kind of guy, you lose a lot.
“We replaced him with four people, to be honest with you. We played Bud Dupree on a kickoff return. We played Moats on the punt team in his spot. We played Jordan Todman on a punt return in his spot. There’s a lot of people it takes to replace those kind of guys. We replaced him with Chickillo on the kickoff coverage team. So four guys took his one spot.”
Not only did Garvin lead the team in tackles coming into last Sunday, he led the Steelers in special team’s snaps with 112. He’s been one of the team’s core special teams and a large reason why the Steelers’ special teams units, especially their coverage team, has been so successful.
They’ll be without him to face the Cincinnati Bengals and Adam Jones, who Smith referred to as an “outstanding” returner. Jones is averaging over 27 yards per kick return and 12 yards per punt.
He also played in the Steelers’ goal line package, forcing the team to change their personnel grouping, as they did against the Kansas City Chiefs.
