Situation Impossible: Replacing Kelvin Beachum

Situation Impossible is a weekly column focusing on the most devastating injury of the week in the NFL. "Next Man Up" is a catchy phrase, but some players are harder to replace than others. Here we investigate the alternatives on hand and how a team reacted or will react to having to replace star-level performance.

Injured player: Kelvin Beachum, Steelers left tackle. We'd finally solved the years-long meme of Ben Roethlisberger needing better pocket protection. And now this happens.

Injury and diagnosis: It's that most common of injuries that end seasons, the torn ACL!

I'm a great admirer of — Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic)October 18, 2015

Beachum will probably have enough time to completely recover by the start of next season, although this may linger on long enough to cause conditioning problems — remember, big offensive linemen need to do cardio too. PUP for the start of next season is also an option.

What's missing: As usual, in-season offensive line statistics aren't readily available to me now that PFF has gone behind the corporate world paywall. Beachum was about average for a left tackle as far as blown block rate in 2014, per Football Outsiders Almanac 2015.

It's worth noting that Beachum has contributed to great Pittsburgh run-blocking numbers in 2014 and on. Here's how those look as compared to 2013.

Beachum had really solidified that side of the line for the Steelers. And with Maurkice Pouncey also out, Pittsburgh is now starting a lot of sub-optimal players on the line.

And when you lose a starting left tackle in-season, your options are slim and none.

What the team will do: They've signed former Titan Byron Stingly, a pet project of Steelers line coach and former Tennessee head coach Mike Munchak. Stingly didn't look completely helpless last season for the Titans, though he did blow five run blocks in just 242 snaps.

Alejandro Villanueva will get the first crack at the starting job. If you happened to watch the Hall of Fame preseason game this year, Villanueva was the guy who was praised endlessly for making the NFL transition after tours of duty in Afghanistan.

He's definitely got the raw tools to be a decent NFL tackle. And at 6-foot-9, he's a massive human being. His preseason performance was simply adequate, but that's not necessarily a death knell. Everything else is basically an unknown at this point.

X-Factor: Before Beachum was supposed to solve Pittsburgh's offensive live problem, the task had fallen to second-round pick Mike Adams, who has been a constant NFL failure. He managed to blow 16 blocks and allow a sack in just 366 snaps last season. But Adams also has the pedigree of being a former top pick, which can be alluring to coaching staffs in desperate times.

I wouldn't be surprised if Adams, currently on PUP, gets the job again. I don't think that it necessarily would be a good thing for the Steelers. Then again, Munchak has done wonders for this line.

Adjusting our expectations: Pittsburgh is in good shape to make the playoffs. At 4-2, and with Baltimore in the running for the No. 1 pick rather than the division title, the Steelers should be looked at as a co-favorite to win a wild card slot. (The Jets and Buffalo are their main competition at the moment.)

That doesn't mean the Beachum injury doesn't hurt. It's the sort of thing to keep in mind when playoff time hits. It's the sort of thing that might burn your fantasy team when the Steelers play a good defense and Roethlisberger has to revert to scrambling around to buy time. Star back Le'Veon Bell will certainly feel the brunt of it.

But as far as injuries go, this is your garden variety thorn rather than an absolute killer. A challenge rather than a "shut the offense down" moment. This won't change what the Steelers should be able to do once Roethlisberger is on the field again and he's surrounded by Pittsburgh's enviable skill position talent.

It will hurt in a much less noticeable way, on every three-yard carry that could have gone for eight with better blocking.