Where you blown away by the Monday news that Pittsburgh Steelers assistant offensive line coach Adrian Klemm is being promoted to replace Shaun Sarrett. I know I was and not in a good way. After all, it sure seemed like the Steelers were destined to go outside the organization for their next offensive line coach and one with a lot of NFL experience at that. Oh well, it’s time to grab a rag so we can clean up this milk and dry our eyes because Klemm is now the next man up. With that, I thought I might quickly highlight one thing about Klemm that might could come into play in the next several weeks.
After his NFL career ended, Klemm started his college coaching career as a graduate assistant at SMU in 2008. From 2009 to 2011 he was the offensive line coach at SMU and even coached former Steelers tackle Kelvin Beachum while there. So, why is that worth highlighting? Well, for starters, there’s a good chance the Steelers might be on the hunt this offseason for a cheap offensive tackle in free agency and especially if soon-to-be unrestricted free agent offensive linemen Alejandro Villanueva, Matt Feiler and Jerald Hawkins all fly the coop. Heck, the Steelers might not even want Hawkins back. The aforementioned Beachum is set to become an unrestricted free agent in March as well after playing on a minimum salary benefit contract last season with the Arizona Cardinals.
Beachum, who will be 32 this coming summer, can play both tackle spots and he’s been quite durable since suffering his season-ending knee injury as the Steelers starting left tackle in 2015. Assuming he still wants to play one more season, Beachum figures to be cheap again as well, meaning possibly another minimum salary benefit contract that comes with a reduced cap charge. If anything, Beachum would be an upgrade over Hawkins for the Steelers in 2021. He already knows the Steelers culture and was obviously previously teammates with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, center Maurkice Pouncey and guard David DeCastro.
There’s no guarantee that Beachum is added in the coming months, obviously, but based on the Steelers offseason cap situation outlook, he certainly would potentially fit a huge need the team figures to have beginning a little more than six weeks from today and at an extremely low price at that. The fact that Klemm is now the new offensive line coach of the Steelers makes it even easier to connect the proverbial dots to Beachum possibly returning this offseason to the team that originally drafted him. We shall see.
