With Pittsburgh Steelers long snapper Greg Warren currently sidelined for the next several weeks with a meniscus injury, head coach Mike Tomlin indicated during his Thursday press conference that backup long snapper Bryce Davis is the leading candidate to take over the duties Saturday night in the preseason game against the Buffalo Bills.
Tomlin did, however, say that a few other offensive linemen currently on the roster might be looked at as well.
“We’ve got some other candidates that are capable guys that have done it in the past in a variety of fashions, talking about some offensive linemen short snapping and so forth,” said Tomlin.
One of those offensive linemen that Tomlin is referencing is likely left tackle Kelvin Beachum. Soon after he was drafted in the seventh-round of the 2012 NFL Draft, Beachum told me in an interview on The Terrible Podcast that while he never had to long snap during a game while in college, he did practice doing it while at SMU.
It is unknown whether or not Beachum will be able to show his long snapping abilities Saturday night against the Bills, but it will be one more thing to look out for during the game. If it does happen and Beachum’s successful doing it, maybe there’s a chance that the Steelers won’t have to carry another true long snapper on their 53 man roster at the start of the regular season if Warren is still not completely healthy by then.
Tomlin said he doesn’t take the importance of having a good long snapper lightly.
“Like a lot of tasks, it doesn’t get a lot of attention unless something’s negative, but I’ve got a great deal of respect, obviously, for what Greg’s capable of and the importance of the position and we’ll address it accordingly,” he said.
