The Pittsburgh Steelers dealt with some injuries along their offensive line against the Los Angeles Chargers. As a result, veteran Andrus Peat had his number called, and he logged some snaps in the Steelers’ loss last Sunday.
It’s hard to replicate the success the Steelers have with their offensive front when they’re missing bodies, but there were both ups and downs from the unit in the loss. Speaking Thursday, Arthur Smith praised Peat.
“Peat has done a good job,” Smith said via a team-provided transcript. “I got all the respect for AP. Played a lot of good football in this league. Helps when you have that kind of depth. Guy has got a lot of starts, played at a high level. He’s awesome behind the scenes. Because of an injury, he had some opportunities.”
The Steelers signed Peat just a few weeks before the season began, with the Steelers taking a liking to his combination of size and athleticism. He can play both tackle and guard on the left side and even has limited experience as a tight end. So, he figured to be a natural fit for the Steelers’ jumbo package and makes sense as a depth piece with his ability to play multiple positions.
However, Andrus Peat and the offensive line didn’t have their best day. Peat was called for a false start on the first play of the game. That was a sign of poor fortunes to come for the Steelers’ offense. The Steelers played him at left guard in those jumbo packages, wanting to keep Spencer Anderson as the eligible sixth linemen.
The problem is the Steelers couldn’t use that package as much as they wanted to with the way the game transpired. Jaylen Warren only ran the ball 14 times. The Steelers fell behind in the second quarter and had to play catch-up the entire second half. Once going one-dimensional, they just weren’t really able to do anything until a late garbage-time touchdown.
Overall, Andrus Peat wasn’t good. He had an overall Pro Football Focus grade of 46.9, one of the worst on the team. It was, of course, influenced by that false start penalty on the very first play, and he didn’t get much of a chance after that.
Starting LG Isaac Seumalo was limited in practice on Wednesday, which is some improvement after missing last week’s game. If he plays Sunday against the Bengals, that would certainly mean less snaps, and potentially none, for Peat. If Seumalo is unable to go the Steelers could give Peat more of a role after he played just eight snaps last Sunday. Or they could slot Spencer Anderson or Ryan McCollum in at left guard in their jumbo package. The Steelers will hope to get right against an awful Cincinnati Bengals defense this Sunday.
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