The return of Maurkice Pouncey to Steelers practice might register low on the significance scale because it was expected. He had what coach Mike Tomlin called a minor foot injury, and the Steelers have the longest stretch of preseason since the All-Pro center arrived.
Nevertheless, there was a welcoming committee for the leader of the offensive line after the Steelers removed him from the physically unable to perform list Monday and he pulled on the pads and practiced at Saint Vincent College.
Goodbye, PUP; hello, Big Dog.
“Not only the skill, but he brings a continuity to the group and that extra confidence he brings infuses through the whole group,” said guard David DeCastro.
Even Tomlin, not one for hyperbole, agreed that a center can add a “swagger” to the rest of an offensive line.
“If it’s Maurkice Pouncey, certainly. Besides the fact that he’s a really good player, he’s a good leader, a good communicator and that is a significant component at that position.
“To create clarity just prior to the snap with what he is able to do above the neck, and obviously his skills after the snap are what they are. … We know what he’s capable of.”
He’s more than capable and likely to make his fifth Pro Bowl in his sixth NFL season. He only skipped one when he missed all but the first series of the 2013 season after a torn ACL.
He returned to start all 16 games and a playoff matchup last season and made All-Pro for the second time in his career.
“It’s amazing,” DeCastro said, looking over his teammate’s career. “That’s what he did last year coming off the injury and coming back and playing as well as he did.”
It was a major factor in the play of the offensive line last season that generally stayed healthy and drew praise as the team’s best in a decade. The line is part of an entire offense that returns intact after finishing second in the NFL in yards, its highest ranking in 35 years.
“We love when we’re all together and playing,” DeCastro said.
Technically, they weren’t all together Monday because guard Ramon Foster missed practice with a minor injury. Pouncey ran first team only once in the 11-on-11 drills as the Steelers ease him into things, and they likely will hold him out of Sunday’s preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings in Canton, Ohio.
Why tempt fate so early?
Pouncey makes the whole thing go, something the Steelers are accustomed to having at center. They put two of them in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Mike Webster and Dermontti Dawson. And the virtual bridge between Dawson and Pouncey, Jeff Hartings, made two Pro Bowls and started for their Super Bowl XL championship.
“If you look at the legacy of that position of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s pretty special,” said NFL analyst and draft expert Mike Mayock, who attended camp Monday. “I look at Pouncey as a guy who is every bit as good as anybody who ever played here. That whole group of centers blows me away.”
Pouncey became the first center in NFL history to make the Pro Bowl in his first three seasons. He started all 16 games as a rookie but has not been an iron man in the mold of three other centers, Ray Mansfield, Webster and Dawson. They rank 1-2-3 in consecutive games played by anyone with the Steelers at 182, 177 and 170. Webster’s 220 games played overall are more than any Steeler ever.
But at his pace of Pro Bowls and All-Pro awards, Pouncey may be on the fast track to something else — following Webster and Dawson into Canton.
“He has all the accolades for a reason,” DeCastro said. “We have a lot more work in the preseason. It is nice to have him back and healthy.”
Quick hits
The Steelers are considering several options for rookie cornerback Senquez Golson, including season-ending shoulder surgery.
Golson has been on the PUP list since the start of training camp July 25. He went through spring practices with no apparent issues, but later told team officials he thought he injured his shoulder in those practices.
His injury is part of the reason the Steelers traded for cornerback Brandon Boykin from the Philadelphia Eagles for a conditional fifth-round draft pick Saturday night. That pick reportedly could become a fourth-round pick if Boykin plays in 60 percent of the Steelers’ defensive snaps this season.
Although only 5 feet 9 and listed at 176 pounds, Golson’s 10 interceptions last season for Mississippi were second in Division I-A — only behind the Steelers’ seventh-round draft choice, Louisville safety Gerod Holliman, who had 14.
The Steelers will practice Boykin both inside in the slot, where he played for the Eagles, and on the outside, where he will have a chance to compete with Cortez Allen and William Gay to start. He also will practice returning punts.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com.
First Published: August 4, 2015, 4:00 a.m.