LATROBE, Pa. -- The Steelers have incorporated live tackling into the first two weeks of training camp since 2013 and have always gotten through it relatively unscathed. Until Saturday.
Guard Ramon Foster suffered what appeared to be a severe injury to his right knee three plays into a live tackling drill Saturday, the first day the Steelers were in pads.
What's ironic is that Foster's injury occurred on a passing play after a pair of inside runs. It was a reminder of just how quickly things can change on the football field where every player is an injury waiting to happen.
Nobody gets out of this game unscathed. The only players who don't suffer injuries on the football field are the ones who don't set foot on it. That's why depth at all positions is so important.
And the Steelers' once-ridiculous depth on the offensive line is now being tested.
Why was it ridiculous? In 2017, the Steelers had nine quality offensive linemen. They had seven, for sure, going into the season who could have played for just about any team in the league. And they had two others, Matt Feiler and Jerald Hawkins, that they felt pretty confident about in the long term.
Now, that depth has evaporated. Chris Hubbard, who could competently play all five positions, signed with Cleveland in free agency, getting $36 million. Hawkins, a promising young tackle who saw his first significant action last season when he played some tight end, suffered a season-ending quad injury in OTAs. And now Foster.
While the line is still a position of strength on this team, it's certainly not as strong as it was last year. And there's now little depth -- at least of the proven variety.
B.J. Finney, who was expected to step in as the top backup at all three interior line positions, will step in for Foster at left guard. And that will be fine. While he doesn't have Foster's experience and leadership, Finney is a solid player who would probably have been a starter already for at least half the teams in this offensive line-starved NFL.
In fact, one team source said he expects Finney, who was originally signed as an undrafted rookie, to play the game into his mid-30s. He's 26 now.
For that to happen here, he was going to have to pass Foster, center Maurkice Pouncey or right guard David DeCastro on the depth chart. That wasn't going to happen -- at least not this year.
But Foster, 32, is in the final year of his contract with the Steelers, as is Finney. It wouldn't have been at all surprising to see the Steelers sign Finney to a long-term deal. He's younger and — presumably -- cheaper. At least that's the case right now, because Finney has only started seven games in three seasons.
That could very well change this season if the news is as bad as most fear about Foster.
The shame of it is that Foster was really excited for this season. And he's one of the truly good guys. That's why so many of his teammates gathered around him as he lay on the grass at Chuck Noll Field.
We don't yet know if this is something that will end his season. But it certainly appeared that way from the concern shown.
• The Steelers are concerned about their depth on the line, especially at offensive tackle. And that was true before Foster went down.
But, unlike last season, when they added tight end Vance McDonald and safety J.J. Wilcox late in the preseason via trades to improve their depth at some weak positions, nobody in the NFL is going to let a quality offensive lineman go.
There are just too few in the league to go around.
But it does mean the Steelers are going to have to take a good, long look at some of the young linemen they have in camp. They had better hope third-round draft pick Chuks Okorafor, whom some felt was an unneeded draft pick, can get up to speed quickly.
• The injury to Foster immediately reminded me of the one suffered by Kendall Simmons before the 2004 season. Simmons looked primed for a breakout season in his third year, having gotten his diabetes, which had been diagnosed in 2003, under control.
Then, he suffered a season-ending knee injury early in training camp in 2004.
If you recall, the Steelers also lost nose tackle Casey Hampton six games into that season to a torn ACL. They went 15-1.
• Running back Jaylen Samuels told me during OTAs he was looking forward to the opportunity to show he could block when the pads went on because he had never been asked to block anyone in college.
He still hasn't blocked anyone.
Samuels got embarrassed four times in a row by undrafted rookie linebacker Matthew Thomas in the backs-on-backers drill, including completely whiffing on him once and getting pancaked onto his back on the fourth attempt.
In fact, it was Thomas who wound up being one of the stars of the period. After showing speed and explosiveness against Samuels, he bumped up to a more accomplished opponent in Fitzgerald Toussaint, a try-hard veteran who is pretty good as a blocker.
Thomas beat Toussaint twice, including blowing around him on his second attempt, which drew a "Whoop," and a high five from inside linebackers coach Jerry Olsavsky.
• Mike Tomlin is very thoughtful about who he matches in backs-on-backers, which is why it was fun when he put Mike Hilton in as a rusher.
Hilton took three shots at Toussaint, winning the first one, much to the chagrin of the offensive players.
Toussaint won the next two, however, planting Hilton on his back on the final attempt.
"That's why I hesitate putting your little (butt) out here in this," Tomlin yelled.
• Mason Rudolph has struggled with his throws to anyone but James Washington in the first three days of practice. Rudolph has underthrown and overthrown receivers pretty consistently and has looked every bit the rookie.
But he and Washington have hooked up at least once for a big gain each day. Saturday, it was a corner route to Washington working against Coty Sensabaugh for a 25 to 30-yard gain.
• Artie Burns got a nice jump on a pass from Landry Jones to open the seven shots drill to start practice, stepping in front of Antonio Brown for an interception on a slant.
Jones and Brown got their revenge in a later team portion of practice when Jones threw a perfect pass down the sideline on the first play to beat Burns.