It’s been coming for a while, and it looks like it’s about to happen.
Rookie Maurkice Pouncey, expected to be a guard at least for a year, apparently has supplanted Justin Hartwig as the Steelers’ starting center.
Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Pouncey took all of the first-team reps during practice on Wednesday, for the first time.
“It put a big smile on me,” Pouncey said following practice. “I ain’t going to lie, but I just need to go out there and practice every day. I want to stay humble. I’m happy about it. I just want to stay humble and keep working at it.”
Bouchette explains that the Steelers coaching staff was “blown away” by Pouncey’s first two practices on the first day of training camp. At that point, they reconsidered the plan to allow the first-round pick to compete at right guard.
Meanwhile, the guy who’ll be headed to the bench -- and possibly out of town -- didn’t want to talk about the latest development. Per Bouchette, Hartwig wouldn’t take questions about Pouncey’s ascension to the starting lineup in Hartwig’s spot.
Here’s what Hartwig said eight days ago, once Pouncey started to get reps with the first-team offense: “I’ve been playing football for a long time and I’ve worked my butt off and I do my job every day, and that’s not going to change based on somebody pushing me for my starting spot. I’m going to continue to do what I’ve been doing and everything will play itself out.”
The next question becomes whether the Steelers will pay Hartwig $2.08 million to sit on the bench, or whether they’ll try to trade him.