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Did you know safety Troy Polamalu is the Pittsburgh Steelers emergency running back? And not Jonathan Dwyer, who earned 2,790 yards in two years as the featured back in the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets offense? Since Dwyer fell to the Steelers in the sixth round, he has yet to play a regular season down and hasn't even been suiting up on Sundays.
Expected by some to go in the second or even first round, Dwyer tumbled after a poor Combine, to which he showed up looking surprisingly doughy. Many teams were also concerned about his lack of traditional pass blocking or catching experience.
Polamalu says he played running back in high school, and practices there during bye weeks. He's also had time to work on his ball skills while running back his career 228 yards worth of interception returns. Don't expect him to moonlight on offense like Deion Sanders or Champ Bailey, but it would be fun to see what he could do with a play designed for him.
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A little disappointed
You’ve terribly twisted the message of the original article that was linked in this blog post. Polamalu was an emergency RB because he was in uniform. Dwyer was on the inactive list. Had Dwyer been in uniform and been needed, he would have played over Polamalu.
The article was written about the last Steelers game, not the team’s strategy at RB moving forward.
The slant you took would have been news (and proper journalism) had Dwyer been active and skipped over by Polamalu. Since this wasn’t the case, you’ve missed the point and mislead your audience.
by Mr. Will on Nov 13, 2010 10:17 AM EST reply actions
And why was Dwyer on the inactive list?
At this point the team would rather play Polamalu both ways than suit up Dwyer. Sure, that doesn’t mean he won’t play at any point this year.
I am proud to be a Kennesaw State Fighting Owl. -- Vince Dooley
SB Nation Atlanta · Twitter
by Jason Kirk on Nov 13, 2010 11:03 AM EST up reply actions
Actually...
That’s not true either. The NFL permits only 45 players to be active (suited up and available) per game. The Steelers have four running backs, with Jonathan Dwyer as the fourth in line. Since they already had activated the first three, and two were injured in the same game with concussions, if Rashard Mendenhall would have been injured, Polamalu would have been the emergency running back. However, if the two running backs (Redman and Moore) do not return for tomorrow’s game, then Jonathan Dwyer will be activated as the second running back under Mendenhall and will play in tomorrow’s game
by Big Daaaaaaaaaaa on Nov 13, 2010 2:40 PM EST up reply actions
Dwyer was inactive, and Polamalu was the emergency back.
Glad we all agree on this.
I am proud to be a Kennesaw State Fighting Owl. -- Vince Dooley
SB Nation Atlanta · Twitter
by Jason Kirk on Nov 13, 2010 3:37 PM EST up reply actions
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