Willie Colon Setting the Tone for Offensive Line

"Big" Willie Colon

- Mason Noland

Willie Colon had been one of the Steelers more consistent offensive lineman before 2010. As we all know, 2010 wasn’t so kind to Big Willie, as he ruptured his Achilles, and 2011 wasn’t much better with an arm injury limiting him to 1 game. I can’t help but hope those two injuries were just flukes. He’s been described as a road grader, as a player who is a great run blocker and average pass blocker. He’s been graded as a player who has a difficult time with speed rushers, but is an absolute mauler when he does get his hands on someone. These traits are why Colon has been described as someone who should play guard instead of tackle. This is the year we see if this holds true.

I have already written about my cautious optimism about our offensive line coming into this year. I really believe that, on paper, we have the possibility of having a good to great offensive line. One of the keys to this is Willie Colon’s position change. Not only is he changing from Tackle to guard, he’s switching from left to right. I’m not sure this change is actually a challenge for Colon, as he seems to be one of the team’s brighter individuals. It’s not like he’s a dumb jock who went to a football factory, he’s a Hoftstra graduate. Jeff will point out to you that Hofstra doesn’t even have football anymore.

With everything I’ve read thus far, this change has been nothing but a success. It sounds like a success on multiple levels, not only from a pure X’s and O’s perspective. His position change is helping give the O-line a much needed attitude adjustment. If Colon is healthy this year, he’s helping give the Steelers offensive line a swagger. In the first padded practice of training camp Colon apparently blew Lawrence Timmons up on a block which touched off a fight. When Mike Tomlin was asked what Colon was mad about, he simply replied “Life".  Colon also punched Cameron Heyward in the second week of camp after a little melee. I honestly don’t think this is anything to worry about. He’s not going to turn into Chris Kemoeatu, he’s not one to hold, jump offsides, or start fights in games. Fights are a part of every training camp. These guys are together almost 24 hours a day for a month. If anything, these fights are bringing the offensive line together, they are fighting for each other.

From a pure football stand point, Colon should be fine at guard. He’s a big athletic football player. As I talked about earlier, he’s got the requisite skill set. He’s a road grader as a run blocker. He’s a big strong player who will be able to handle his own with the big interior defensive linemen. He’s even said himself that he really loves pulling. If he’s handling players like Lawrence Timmons in practice, he should be fine working against other teams. I really look forward to seeing Colon moving inside to play guard. I think he’s got the skill set to dominate. He’s bringing a toughness and swagger to a unit that absolutely needs it. IF he stays healthy, and the rest of the O-line stays healthy, our offensive line should dominate the competition this season.