How the Steelers will move forward without Marcus Gilbert
On Monday afternoon, the NFL announced that Pittsburgh Steelers right tackle Marcus Gilbert has been suspended four games for using performance-enhancing substances. Gilbert, a player many feel is a Pro Bowl caliber tackle, will be missed, but it’s not as if the Steelers haven’t had to play without him this season.
Is it a cause for concern? Sure. Losing a starter, especially one as highly regarded as Gilbert, is a loss, but it’s one the Steelers have had to soldier on with for half of the season. Gilbert missed three games near the start of the season after leaving Week 2’s game against the Vikings. He would miss games against the Bears, Ravens, and Jaguars: two of those are two of Pittsburgh’s only losses this season. However, Gilbert was also absent for wins in Week 7 over the Bengals and Week 8 over the Lions after leaving the Week 6 Chiefs game where he played only 1/3 of the offensive snaps after reaggravating his previous injury.
The tackle returned in Week 10, playing a full game against the Colts, and was pulled for the final four snaps, for rest, in the Steelers blowout victory over the Titans.
To put Gilbert’s presence into perspective, he’s played a total of 279 of the Steelers 692 offensive snaps, or 40% of the season.
That means someone has had to step in at right tackle for the missing snaps. That someone is Chris Hubbard, a converted tackle who has replaced Gilbert for 413 of his 438 snaps played in 2017.
Don’t be mistaken: Hubbard is a solid, serviceable player. After going undrafted in 2013 out of UAB, Hubbard has become one of the more underrated pieces of the Steelers’ offense. As the swing lineman who also routinely comes onto the field as an extra lineman on running plays, Hubbard has carved out a nice role in Pittsburgh as their go-to “utility” player.
As an experienced lineman that has been pushed into play at numerous points during his career, Hubbard has shown the ability to hold his own with the starting offense. He possesses nice athleticism and is able to get the job done in pass protection and as a run blocker. Admittedly, though, Hubbard has struggled at times in being effective with some zone blocking, an area that Gilbert has flourished during his time with the Steelers. In pass protection, there isn’t as much drop-off, but against power rushers, Hubbard has been overwhelmed at times, which is something teams with the proper personnel can game plan against. But for the sake of getting the job done, Hubbard does a fine job.
Statistically speaking, Ben Roethlisberger has had a dip in production when Gilbert wasn’t on the field. As Aditi Kinkhabwala pointed out, Roethlisberger threw for 258.6 YPG, 65.7 completion percentage, 11 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, and a passer rating of 102.2 with Gilbert at right tackle. With Gilbert out of the lineup, those numbers take a hit to 260.8 YPG, 58.1 completion percentage, 5 touchdowns, 7 interceptions, and a passer rating of 73.9. These stats don’t do the best job of giving a snap per player breakdown, as Gilbert left during the Vikings and Chiefs game. But at the end of the day, they are still a good indication of Gilbert’s value to the offensive line.
While Hubbard won’t hurt the offense, his promotion to starter for the next 4 weeks does make the Steelers’ depth weaker. With Hubbard getting the start, B.J. Finney will now take over Hubbard’s previous role as the extra lineman. This means that Matt Feiler and Jerald Hawkins will become the Steelers key reserve linemen. Feiler had a solid preseason this year, but is inexperienced. Hawkins, on the other hand, didn’t perform as well as many thought he would and has been a non-factor on the offense. In the event that a lineman would go down, the Steelers would go from having the offensive line be one of their strengths to suddenly being extremely thin with substantial question marks at key spots. While this hopefully won’t happen, it is still something to consider when evaluating potential issues for the Steelers over the next 4 weeks.
At this point in the season, the Steelers are in a position where they control their own destiny, especially if that involves them winning out this year and securing home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Hubbard has more than proven his worth to the Steelers this season with Gilbert missing so much time. But at the end of the day, Gilbert is your unquestioned starter and anytime you lose a starter, you lose any potential momentum you were building in that area.
The lucky thing for the Steelers is that they aren’t in a position where they are throwing in an inexperienced lineman for this stretch of games. Considering that this isn’t Hubbard’s first go at it this this season, the transition should be a relatively smooth one.
Having a backup with the experience that Hubbard possesses makes this suspension slightly easier one to handle.
