Saturday’s Camp Buzz: Starting right guard job is now David DeCastro’s to lose

The main evaluation tool for the Steelers coaching staff is how the players perform in stadiums and David DeCastro’s early struggles or so called inconsistencies in camp from a physical standpoint have had no bearing on how he’s viewed by the coaching staff in the battle for the starting right guard job and DeCastro showed enough promise in Thursday’s preseason opener where the Steelers brass intend to move forward in the preseason with DeCastro as their starting right guard over Ramon Foster.

Thursday’s game is seen as a game that DeCastro won the starting right guard spot and the job is now DeCastro’s to lose leading into week 1 and indications are he’s going to have to really regress in the next two preseason games or get injured for Foster to start there in week 1.

As good as Ramon Foster has been in camp (outperforming DeCastro), the coaching staff, most notably offensive line coach Sean Kugler has always found ways to replace him.

— Marcus Gilbert has not been shy about his desire to play left tackle and he got his wish today, running first team left tackle. Willie Colon was back at left guard and the versatile Ramon Foster moved over to right tackle. The Steelers starting five O-line left to right was Marcus Gilbert – Willie Colon – Maurkice Pouncey – David DeCastro – Ramon Foster.

This could be a group with Gilbert at LT and Foster at RT that the Steelers give a long look at the next couple weeks. LT Mike Adams has a mild knee sprain and indicated earlier today that he wouldn’t miss much time but some Steelers folks seem to believe he’s not going to be full strength for at least two to three weeks.

— David Johnson has a torn ACL and MCL and will miss the entire season. He will have surgery when the swelling goes down. Unproven Will Johnson is now the lead fullback.

— None of the PUP players James Harrison, Jason Worilds, Rashard Mendenhall, Max Starks or Casey Hampton will be activated off PUP list before next Sunday’s game vs Indianapolis.

— Several players have been raving about the athleticism of third round pick Sean Spence who is showing some flashes of being able to dish out some hard hits despite his small build.

— The Mike Wallace holdout has now reached 18 days.