Just when you thought Steelers wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey couldn't do anything else to make this team, he went out Thursday against Carolina and totally redeemed himself.
Heyward-Bey had a game-high eight targets, making six catches for 44 yards, oftentimes appearing as the safety blanket for check-down happy quarterbacks Landry Jones and Brendan Kaye. Statistics aside, Heyward-Bey looked sharp and fluid in his routes, and generally caught the ball well. While he probably left a few yards on the field in terms of running after the catch, he proved himself to be a solid possession target - something he hasn't done yet in his career.
With second-year WR Justin Brown having outplayed Heyward-Bey most of this preseason, largely due to the concussion Heyward-Bey suffered during training camp, it becomes an issue of whether to keep five receivers on this roster or six.
The veteran DHB has proved himself to be at least a capable NFL receiver, if anything, prone to mental lapses. His effort last night, as well as his willingness to contribute on special teams (he was the gunner on the punt team in the team's third preseason game against Philadelphia), has to endear Steelers coach Mike Tomlin to his side.
Brown charmed Tomlin as well, showing his ability to operate from the slot - something he wasn't projected to do this season - with the first and second teams in the final preseason games. It would appear the two players aren't competing with each other so much as they're fighting to convince the Steelers to take the path less traveled and keep six wide receivers. That would include rookie Dri Archer, who's being considered a running back for the purposes of discussion. In reality, he's probably both, and if the team feels comfortable keeping just four running backs - Le'Veon Bell, LeGarrette Blount, Archer and fullback Will Johnson - they may go with six receivers, using Brown as a back-up to slot receiver Lance Moore and Heyward-Bey ahead of Martavis Bryant, a project split end who will make the team but probably won't see the field a whole lot.
On a team of relatively unproven depth behind Antonio Brown and Moore, split end Markus Wheaton has looked decent this preseason, and the signing of Heyward-Bey was seen, at the time, as bringing in a veteran to push Wheaton, the expected starter, in camp. He may not have accomplished that in Latrobe but he did enough last night with the first, second and third teams to think he can be a serviceable player and can continue to push Wheaton for reps.
The science and art behind putting a roster together is complicated but, if nothing else, Heyward-Bey and Justin Brown showed they're capable of getting on the field at this level. They may keep either one of them, or both, depending on how much weight they want to put on last night's game.