5 interesting decisions on Steelers initial 53-man depth chart
By Tommy Jaggi
Steelers NT: Isaiah Buggs over Carlos Davis
No matter how hard Carlos Davis works and what he does to impress during training camp or the preseason, he just can’t seem to leapfrog Isaiah Buggs on the depth chart. To be quite honest, I’m surprised the Steelers kept both.
In my final 53-man roster prediction, I had Buggs just barely missing the cut and the Steelers keeping Mondeaux and Davis to round out the group. It seems interesting to me that Pittsburgh was willing to keep two nose tackles behind Tyson Alualu, but kudos to them for recognizing that this was the strength of their team and making some decisions accordingly.
I thought Davis had a very good preseason and training camp this year. In my mind, he flashed more than Buggs as a pass rusher with a quick first step and the ability to pursue the ball carrier in open space. Buggs, however, was solid in his own right, and I thought this would be the hardest decision on the team.
Pittsburgh is going to have a tough choice to make if they have to let one of these guys go. Perhaps there’s a team out there that would offer up a late-round future draft choice in exchange for one of these two nose tackles. This could be worth pursuing.