Steelers Show Faith In Mike Adams, Will He Reward Them?

Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports

Many believed that the Pittsburgh Steelers would sign a free agent offensive tackle after they placed Levi Brown on injured reserve. I mean, the move itself would have made sense. Depth at offensive tackle is a must in the NFL, and the Steelers have Kelvin Beachum and Marcus Gilbert as their starters with the recently demoted Mike Adams as their top reserve.

The team is apparently comfortable with those three players as their top offensive tackles, and still surprisingly have confidence in Adams according to a recent tweet by Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

I’ll admit, I started to laugh and cry a bit too when I read that “Adams has to be ready to play better.”

Does that statement mean that the second-year tackle tasked with protecting the blind-side of the team’s most important player was unprepared to play during his first four starts of this season?

Regardless of Adams’ preparedness, the decision to not sign an offensive tackle to replace Brown signified that the Steelers’ brass were confident enough to have the former Ohio State Buckeye in place as the team’s top backup at both offensive tackle positions for the rest of this season.

As it stands, Adams is only one play away from seeing the field and poor performances by Beachum or Gilbert could force the team to turn to their 2012 second round pick again as well.

I just hope that Adams can take this recent vote of confidence and take advantage of it down the stretch.

Stats & Contract Info. Provided By: ESPN.com, Steelers.com , Spotrac, and Pro Football Reference

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