Mike Adams is a big man. He is on record as standing at 6 feet 7 inches tall and 323 pounds. That's a mountain of a man.
Now meet Shamarko Thomas. Standing at 5 feet 9 inches tall and a whopping 217 pounds.
In a live drill, one would think the much larger Adams would swallow the much smaller Thomas, but that wasn't the case in this 2014 training camp. In fact, the complete opposite happened.
Thomas came on a blitz and absolutely leveled the much larger Adams to the ground. Big trees fall hard. Adams told Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he slipped on the play, but that could also be a proud professional trying to cover up after an embarrassing play.
Let's not discredit Thomas here either. He is as strong as they come for his smaller frame, and is every bit capable of laying out a number of bigger men on the Steelers' roster, but that doesn't help make things any better for Adams.
It only seemed to get worse from there. In yesterday's practice Adams found himself on his back again, but this time it wasn't a smaller player but the largest man in the 2014 NFL Draft that did the honors of placing Adams on his posterior.
Daniel McCullers is a large human with tremendous power and strength and is more than capable of making a number of people foolish in a one on one setting.
What all this boils down to is the simple fact that Adams is having a rough start to camp. Barring something catastrophic, Adams will make the team and could even press Marcus Gilbert for the starting right tackle spot. What this demonstrates is that even in his third year, Adams can fall apart pretty fast.
The Steelers need Adams to develop the way they hoped he would when they drafted him in the second round in the 2012 NFL Draft. Their depth at the tackle position depends on it.
Adams has had a rough row to hoe his first three years. From being a turnstile his rookie season, being stabbed before last season and having his ups and downs in the 2013 season. Adams has the size and the ability, but whether or not he will be able to put things together to be a viable option for the Steelers has yet to be determined. Entering his third NFL season, the organization has to wonder how much longer it will take for this development to come to fruition.