Now that the 2021 season is over, bringing yet another year of disappointment, a fifth consecutive season with no postseason victories, it’s time to take stock of where the Pittsburgh Steelers stand. Specifically, where Steelers players stand individually based on what we have seen and are seeing over the course of the season and into the offseason as it plays out. We will also be reviewing players based on their previous season and their prospects for the future. A stock evaluation can take a couple of different approaches and I’ll try to make clear my reasoning. In some cases, it will be based on more long-term trends. In other instances, it will be a direct response to something that just happened. Because of this, we can and will see a player more than once over the course of the season as we move forward.
Player: OL Chaz Green
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: With the Steelers’ signing of Trent Scott, veteran Chaz Green’s chance of making the 53-man roster take a substantial hit as an older player with less starting experience, among other reasons.
Chaz Green has the advantage of having been on the Steelers’ practice squad last year. But Trent Scott has spent the past four seasons—his entire NFL career—with Pittsburgh’s offensive line coach, Pat Meyer, who was hired earlier this year to fill a vacancy left by his predecessor’s departure for a college job.
Meyer coached Scott for two years in 2018-19 with the Los Angeles Chargers. Then he coached Scott again for two years in 2020-21 with the Carolina Panthers. Now they’re back together again for their third stop in five seasons.
Who do you think is more likely to be favored for a roster spot, somebody who has worked with the team’s offensive coordinator for four years, and who obviously liked him enough to surely influence his being signed at least twice—and originally signing him as a college free agent—or a veteran who was on the practice squad last year in a different blocking scheme who wasn’t seen as good enough to be on the 53-man roster?
Tackle depth was one of the largest remaining outstanding concerns for the Steelers coming out of the draft when they bypassed the offensive line entirely. Scott, pairing with Joe Haeg behind starters Dan Moore Jr. and Chukwuma Okorafor, isn’t going to intimidate anybody, but it’s at least somewhat more secure from a depth chart perspective.
Backup linemen are, of course, generally backups because they’re not as good as starters. Unless you’re going about a young high draft pick, your backups are rarely ‘starters in waiting’, and Scott isn’t going to be waiting for a starting job to open up.
But he should make a decent enough number four tackle. At the very worst, it gives the Steelers options, but I would imagine that he has a pretty clear edge over Green, at least as it concerns the veteran reserve tackles on the roster, to make the roster.
