While the team hasn’t made it official, it appears the Steelers will promote assistant Offensive Line coach Adrian Klemm to succeed the fired Shaun Sarrett.
The initial reports were quickly met with skepticism, which is understandable. After all, why replace the coach who failed to do his job with the coach that assisted him?
Recently retired Ramon Foster, who worked with Klemm in 2019, says Klemm is his own man.
Current offensive lineman Zach Banner echoed Foster's statement.
Another former Steelers lineman, Trai Essex, says Ramon’s word is more than good enough for him. Plus, he is familiar with Klemm’s resume.
“I was excited when they brought him on board,” Essex told us on The Fan Morning Show. “I remember when he played for the Patriots (from 2001-04) so he’s been around some great offensive linemen on championship teams.”
“He knows what an O-line is supposed to do, supposed to perform and how it looks like when it jells together as one unit,” Essex continued. “Just because he came in under Shaun doesn’t disqualify him from being a good offensive line coach. Give the man a chance.
Klemm will have no shortage of younger players to tutor in 2021.
Alejandro Villaneuva and Matt Feiler are free agents and Maurkice Pouncey is leaning toward retiring. If Ben Roethlisberger changes Pouncey’s mind then David DeCastro could be released due to the salary cap. At least one of the team’s first few draft picks will be a lineman.
Of course, Klemm could be the second-coming of Mike Munchak and that wouldn’t necessarily fix the morose running or the rest of the offense that (we have come to find out) has been widely considered to be the most predictable in the NFL. Essex, still a Steeler through and through, paused a fell 4 seconds when I asked him if he agreed with that.”
“It hurts me right now saying this,” Essex sighed, admitting he hates to criticize his team, “but, yes, there were predictability issues. I thought early in the year when we used a lot of motion and end-arounds with Chase Claypool the first 5 or 6 games that the offense was opening up and then we got away from that.”
After rushing for over 100 yards in each of the first 5 games, the Steelers only had one 100-yard rushing game over the final 12. Essex hopes that with Matt Canada calling the plays the Steelers offense will be more creative to also take advantage of the talented receivers.
Will Adrian Klemm help the offensive line be a part of that? At least two former Steelers lineman think he can.