When Everyone Is Healthy? Who Will Start For the Steelers??

If DeCastro comes back in 2012,
SHOULD he overtake Ramon Foster and start?

-Mason Noland (M_Noland386)

The old adage once upon a time was you could NOT lose your starting position due to injury. I believe we have evolved past this old "rule". Of course you can lose your job due to injury. If your replacement meets the standard and exceeds your level of play, he should keep the job until proven otherwise.  Injuries are an unfortunate side effect to playing sports, but the injuries can open the door for a player to step in and make a name for themselves. Without a Duce Staley going down, the door wouldn't have opened for Willie Parker, and maybe he doesn't have the Super Bowl Record for longest TD run? Without Tommy Maddox hurting his arm, does Ben Roethlisberger have his 15-1 rookie year? These are questions, I'm not necessarily concerned to know, but make for good bar room discussions.

Sure there are some players who are almost guaranteed their jobs back if they are coming off the injured list. Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, James Harrison, Maurkice Pouncey, but those players are few and far between. Most of the time, a starter is a starter for a reason, but you may have a few players at a certain position on any team that can be interchangeable, so it doesn't really matter who the starter is. Other times, your team may get lucky, and a back up catches fire, making it hard to put the former starter back in the lineup. The Steelers have a few injured players that have backups who may be making it hard for Mike Tomlin and company to choose who gets in the game.

The obvious place to start is at Running Back. Rashard Mendenhall looked good in his first game back after ACL surgery, however seems to have tweaked his Achilles. His backup, who we were expected a lot from this season, Isaac Redman has underperformed, and also sprained his ankle. This allowed Jonathan Dwyer to get a start and he had back to back 100 yard games for the first time since Fast Willie did it five years ago. He looked like a mini version of Jerome Bettis running the football. His performance has led a lot of people to believe that he may have jumped both Mendenhall and Redman on the depth charts. Sadly for him he has a quad injury which will have him out this week.  I also see where Redman's ankle is better, and Mendenhall is still out, meaning Redman starts this week, reopening his door. Will he pick up where Dwyer left off, or will he look lackluster as he did early in the season.

It is hard to say who should be the starter if and when the three running backs are  healthy. To me, Redman has been the player who may be left out. Mendenhall and Dwyer have both looked good when given the opportunity. Running back is a position where the hot hand should be played. If all three are healthy, they should see who looks to be hot and stick with that guy. If Redman looks good this week, see if he can keep it rolling, if he doesn't, get it to Dwyer or Mendenhall. It almost looks to be anybody's job to win or lose at this point, plus with the injuries from week to week, the Steelers starting running back is the next man up.

Marcus Gilbert got his starting job at right tackle because Willie Colon tore his achilles last off season. The promising second year player looked good at the beginning of the year before hurting his ankle. This injury has thrust rookie, Mike Adams, into the line up. Adams was shaky at the start, but looks to be developing quite well considering he looked like a revolving door in the preseason. When he first started, he was drawing a lot of help from tight end Heath Miller and chip blocks from the backs, but now is holding his own. He is showing glimpses of why he was a first round prospect before his drug test mishap at the combine. I'm not sure he's ready to take over fully for Gilbert however. I think Gilbert will assume his starting position once fully healthy, however the Steelers may take their time, as Adams is holding down the right side quite well. What this does show is that we have two young potential bookend tackles for the future.

The other "Starter" who may have the hardest time getting on the field if and when he becomes healthy is first round pick, guard David DeCastro. I put starter in quotes because he was only a starter in preseason games. While he is a future starter with a lot of potential, he was going to be a rookie, who may show some growing pains. His knee injury definitely put a damper on his progress. DeCastro was going to be a starter from day one, but the Buffalo Bills put an damper on that. Ramon Foster resumed his starting role at right guard, where he started most of the season last year, and has looked more than adequate. Foster has almost been the model for Tomlin's favorite saying "The standard is the standard." Foster is a little more limited athletically than some of his other line mates, but has looked and played the part of starting NFL lineman. If DeCastro is able to come back off the Injured Reserve, which some reports say isn't likely, he will most likely be watching Foster from the sideline. I would think for the rest of the year Foster will be starting for the Steelers, and then will probably head off to another team and happily start.  Simply because I doubt he'll want to resign with Pittsburgh to be a backup.

I am hoping that as the season turns, some of our injured players will return to make contributions to the team. Some, like Troy Polamalu, will hopefully make an instant impact, while others, like Gilbert, you may not notice at all. With a full compliment of weapons, I believe the Steelers can get hot in the second half of the season and make a big push in the playoffs. I'm just not sure which of those injured players will be on the field to make it happen.