If new Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak gets his way, the team will keep nine offensive linemen on their final 53 man roster this year as opposed to only eight.
“You want to have as many guys as you can,” Munchak said Tuesday, according to Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s hard to find one. You always think you can find them on the street, but they’re hard to find, especially if you want them to come in and help right away and especially with the things we’re doing on offense. These guys have to be versatile. With the things we’re doing with the no huddle, three tight ends, two backs…you hope to have guys from within that will play the season.”
Did Munchak keep nine offensive linemen during his time as the head coach of the Tennessee Titans? He sure did and you have to all the way back to 2009 to find the last time that the Titans only had eight on their roster to start a regular season.
It’s easy to see that seven spots are already spoken for when it comes to the 2014 Steelers offensive line as Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro, Ramon Foster, Marcus Gilbert, Kelvin Beachum, Cody Wallace and Mike Adams are all locks. That leaves quite a few players fighting for what could be two spots.
One would think that if nine does indeed wind up being the magic number that rookie fifth-round draft pick Wesley Johnson would get one of the two spots. That would leave Guy Whimper, Chris Hubbard, Bryant Browning and Chris Elkins as the obvious candidates fighting for the ninth and final spot.
Will Munchak get his way? If so, who is number nine?
