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Talk around the Steelers maybe keeping only two quarterbacks on their 53-man roster is akin to the proverbial "I'll turn this car around" bit uttered by parents all over SteelerNation.
It's something we always hear, but never actually happens.
That U-turn on the Steelers roster may actually happen this time.
Part of the fallout from RG David DeCastro's possible season-ending injury is having one less game-ready guard on the roster. Ramon Foster will slide into the starting position, and the back-ups at that spot aren't the most appealing in the league. But the Steelers are going to need to keep an extra one, whether DeCastro is put on injured-reserve or not.
Where is that extra roster spot going to come from?
It won't be come in the form of another offensive linemen for obvious reasons. In fact, we mentioned Dale Lolley's suggestion of seeing whether the Steelers try to get rookie Mike Adams some snaps at guard to possibly shore up the lines of depth.
It can't come from running back or tight end, where they have enough talented players to make an argument for keeping an additional player on its own.
The defensive line is very much in the same boat, in that it'd be better with keeping an additional player as opposed to cutting one. The linebacking group is the most injury-ravaged position on the roster.
While it's difficult to see a clear-cut winner for the 5WR position, it's still not a position they're going to want to keep only four. The secondary provides critical special teams players, plus, FS Ryan Clark will miss Week 1 in Denver. The team won't cut into that any more than it will already have to, considering Clark's absence probably means keeping an additional player who will be cut later.
Quarterback is really the only position that doesn't have an immediate spot to be filled.
Assuming DeCastro is not placed on the IR (something we'll likely hear more about in wake of the 4 p.m. ET deadline to cut the roster from 90 to 75), the Steelers would have to keep him, along with another back-up guard to Foster they may have otherwise cut.
It's certainly a possibility the result of keeping that extra guard would mean the release of both Charlie Batch and Jerrod Johnson, although neither would be likely to be cut today, with one last preseason game coming Thursday vs. Carolina.
Batch has been cut multiple times in these situations, clearing out a roster spot for the sake of depth for a game or two. Johnson looked fairly decent at times in the preseason, but didn't show enough to unseat Batch from his rule over the team's 3QB spot.
So if the threat of turning the proverbial car around was ever going to turn into something more than just a threat, this year looks like a very strong candidate.