While the Pittsburgh Steelers have some strongly recognizable faces from last season such as Troy Polamalu, Ryan Shazier, LeVeon Bell, Heath Miller, and Lawrence Timmons, there are plenty of new faces manning the team. Gone are longtime starters Ike Taylor, Antonio Brown, and Ben Roethlisberger. In are many new players. Troy has shifted from his natural SS position to the FS slot so that Shamarko Thomas can build on the success he had at the end of last season. Last year's nickel CB Stanley Jean-Baptiste played his way into the #2 CB role, while newly signed Javier Arenas takes over nickel duties. Though a hamstring injury will sideline him for the first month of the year, Connor Barwin is expected to take the duties over at ROLB, replacing incumbent Jarvis Jones who is currently splitting reps with Kamerion Wimbley. Victor Butler of the Saints steps into the Arthur Moats run defending role, while rookies Iran Rivers and Devan Trahan have won starting jobs over last year's starters, Steve McLendon and Stephon Tuitt on the defensive line.
The offense has the most significant changes by far however. San Diego Chargers legend Antonio Gates and the sure-handed Brandon Myers provide much better depth at the TE position behind Heath Miller. Stud LT Jared Veldheer is already the leader of the o-line. Dri Archer has already seen a major role increase, while the receiving corps features 4 new faces. Martavis Bryant is buried on the bench while Markus Wheaton takes over Z duties for Antonio Brown. Rishard Matthews has fit in well at the X, and Jeremy Maclin has taken over slot duties. Speedster Eddie Royal and the veteran Pierre Garçon have also rotated time in the receiving game.
The biggest surprise by far, however is the QB controversy that arose from a Week 1 win that frankly, the Steelers stole from the Bengals. FSU QB Cale Hyde was expected to ride the bench for his first season and learn the team's spin on the West Coast offense behind Philip Rivers and Matt Flynn on one-year contracts. After a first half that featured 4 turnovers, including 3 ugly interceptions by Philip Rivers, a change was made. Based on preseason performance, Cale Hyde stepped in instead of the veteran Matt Flynn and the team threw him into the fire down 20-7. He was a perfect 3/3 on his first drive including a nice touchdown pass to Heath Miller for his first career touchdown. In the early 4th quarter it looked like he would steal the lead but an errant rookie mistake led to a pick on his first incompletion. The rookie displayed his clutch characteristics that gave him reputation as a Seminole however, and rebounded nicely. With 3 minutes left to go from the Steelers' 20 yard line, the rookie threw several perfect strikes down the field hitting multiple receivers to immediately bring the team back into scoring range. After a bad drop on 3rd down on a perfectly placed pass, it was 4th and 2 and under 2 minutes remained in the game. On a high-risk shovel option, Cale pitched a short pass to LeVeon Bell after drawing the defense's attention, and Bell was able to convert the yardage and pick up the extra few needed for the game-winning score. The defense held their own just enough, but the Steelers lucked out with a miss by Bengals Kicker Mike Nugent from 51 yards.
Cale played a fantastic game aside from a potentially costly pick, and looks to have stolen a job nobody expected him to earn. The 6'0" Rocket-armed QB has done to Philip Rivers what Seahawks QB Russ Wilson once did to teammate Matt Flynn. Will the end results be the same? Are we witnessing the unexpectedly quick rise of one of the next potential great QB in the league.
