Heading into the Thursday night game against the Philadelphia Eagles we really hadn\’t seen any of the Pittsburgh Steelers young wide receivers emerge head and shoulders above one another at the bottom of the depth chart, but wide receivers Scottie Montgomery let be known in a recent interview with David Todd for ESPN 970 Radio, that both Tyler Beiler and Derrick Williams caught his eye in the Steelers first preseason game.
While Montgomery would go on to give an obligatory mention to both Toney Clemons and Marquis Maze, it was clear that both Beiler and Williams have a leg up right now in his eyes. Montgomery also mentioned that they were disappointed that they didn\’t get a chance to see David Gilreath play Thursday night as he evidently was not able to go because of a small bunion on one of his feet. Gilreath is now back practicing, so we can likely expect him to get some looks Sunday night in the Steelers second preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts.
As far as how the wide receivers rotation went this past Thursday, Williams entered the game at the same time that Clemons did and Maze was used in the slot when three receivers were used. After that group exited it was Beiler and Juamorris Stewart that entered with Maze remaining the third receiver of the group. Both Jimmy Young and the newly signed Paul Cox did not see any action in the game on offense, so they figure to be on the bottom of the totem pole entering the second preseason game.
The participation rotation in the upcoming game could shed a little more light on how the depth chart is shaking out and it will be interesting to see if Beiler gets playing time earlier, perhaps in the place of Clemons. With only one preseason game in the books, and with Beiler being the only one of the group with a reception thus far, it is still hard to draw any hard conclusions right now other than what Montgomery noted in his interview with Todd.