The Steelers will begin OTA’s on Tuesday and will likely be without wide receiver Mike Wallace and two offensive line starters.

Wallace has not signed the one-year, $2,742,000 tender offered him as a restricted free agent, and various reports say he will not do so before Tuesday.

Wallace is not required to sign the tender and the only thing required of any of their players — provided they are under contract — is to attend minicamp June 12-14, which will end these spring sessions.

Come June 15, however, the Steelers are permitted to change the amount of that tender to 110 percent of Wallace’s 2011 salary. That would reduce his ’12 salary to $577,000. Sources say they will not do that, at least not before training camp opens.

Two rookies possibly being counted on to start on the line cannot report for OTAs either. The top two draft picks, guard David DeCastro and tackle Mike Adams, cannot attend until the semesters end at their schools. That means Adams, of Ohio State, will miss through the first week of June. DeCastro will miss all of OTAs and minicamp because Stanford’s spring quarter goes through mid-June.

Ed Bouchette confirmed today that the Steelers are planning on newly drafted Mike Adams being the Steelers left tackle as they enter the 2012 season.

Rookie Mike Adams will go to left tackle and Marcus Gilbert will stay at right tackle, a source close to the situation told me today.

At least that’s the plan going into training camp. That obviously could change if Adams cannot handle the job but the coaching staff believes he can and quickly made that decision right after they drafted him.

It’s why they put the phone call into Willie Colon so quickly to inform him of his move to left guard.

So, as long as things work out, the Steelers offensive line will look like this:

LT Mike Adams, LG Willie Colon, C Maurkice Pouncey, RG David DeCastro, RT Marcus Gilbert.
Possible backups: T Jonathan Scott, G/T Trai Essex, G/C Doug Legursky, G Ramon Foster.

Katula, 29, played in five games last season for the Vikings, filling in when Cullen Loeffler broke a bone in his lower back.

A former Wisconsin player, Katula played with the Ravens from 2005 to 2009 and played eight games two years ago for the Patriots.

If your still trying to figure out who is going to be on the Steelers O-line this season, Willie Colon gave some clue today.

The vet says that he will be making a switch from right tackle to the guard spot, freeing up a likely spot for second-round pick Mike Adams.

“I’ve made the transition to left guard. I like it. It’s just a matter of learning the verbiage,” Colon told Mike Prisuta of WDVE-FM in Pittsburgh.

First-round pick David DeCastro will be the other guard, and that puts the starting O-line as one with two rookies (Adams and DeCastro), Colon at the other guard, Maurkice Pouncey at center, and Marcus Gilbert probably as the left tackle.

“My only issue would have been ‘Don’t move me midway through camp,’ ” Colon said.

The Steelers have done their job – now we will see if Colon can do his in 2012.

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From: AP

Bill Cowher wants to teach men about melanoma, a disease whose ravages he knows all too well.

The Super Bowl-winning coach’s wife died of the form of skin cancer in 2010. Now Cowher is the spokesman for a campaign called “Melanoma Exposed.” Launched Tuesday, it seeks to educate all Americans — but particularly men.

“Men are naive to their bodies,” Cowher said. “They don’t pay attention to their skin like women do.”

Cowher coached the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1992-2006, winning a Super Bowl after the 2005 season. He is now a TV analyst for CBS.

“When it hits close to home as it did for me, you find yourself wanting to share the message,” Cowher said. “I realized how many people don’t know the risk factors involved.”

Among the messages he wants to share: People of all skin colors are vulnerable to melanoma, and sun damage can occur at any time of year. The goal is for more people to get checked by doctors, monitor hard-to-see parts of their bodies and familiarize themselves with their skin and moles.

The campaign is sponsored by a coalition of melanoma groups and by pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. It will hold free public screenings at several NFL stadiums this year.

Beachum (6-3, 303), who was the 248th overall pick, played collegiately at Southern Methodist University. He started all 52 games he played at left tackle during his collegiate career. As a senior, Beachum was selected to the Lombardi Award and Outland Award watch lists and named to the Conference USA All-Academic Team. Beachum earned first-team Conference USA honors after his junior season. In 2011, Beachum blocked for an offense that scored 336 points and racked up 5,052 yards of total offense.

Emmanuel Sanders drags Texans cornerback Jason Allen

Last season in his second season, wide out Emmanuel Sanders had 22 grabs for 288 yards with two touchdowns. He’s going to be expected to do more in year three, and it comes with the development of a new offense, one that is being put in place by new offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

There was a piece yesterday in the Post-Gazette reporting that there’s going to be a huge turnaround in the language of the offense, and it’s going to take quite a bit of time for players to learn it.

Today on Twitter, Sanders said just that much in a Tweet:

This new playbook is something serious!!!!! Bout to go old-school and make some flashcards.

— Emmanuel Sanders (@E_Sanders88) May 10, 2012

To which I tweeted back at him:

do u agree that’s it’s 90 percent different than that of Arians?

To which he Tweeted back at me:

@Loede923TheFan I’d say 95%…

— Emmanuel Sanders (@E_Sanders88) May 10, 2012

Ouch. I don’t know about everyone else, but the fact that an offense that had quite a bit of success over the past few seasons is changing that much is a little bit scary.

The good news is with no lockout there’s plenty of time for the players and coaches to get on the same page. For some reason though I have nightmares of a Joe Walton offense from back in 1990 going through my head again. And trust me, that’s not good.

For Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the Steelers veterans on offense, learning new Offensive Coordinator Todd Haley’s offense is like learning a new language and a new way of doing things according to Ed Bouchette of the Post-Gazette.

What’s different? “Everything,” Roethlisberger said. “The similarities would be on a shorter list. Off the top of my head, from what I’ve seen so far, there’s a 90 percent change.”

Coach Mike Tomlin hired Haley after Steelers president Art Rooney did not renew the contract of Bruce Arians, their offensive coordinator since 2007. As offensive coordinator in Arizona, Haley leaned heavily on the pass. As head coach in Kansas City, his Chiefs ran the ball a lot. He has said he will adapt his Steelers playbook to the personnel.

“Right now we’re practicing the pass because it’s more complicated,” Roethlisberger said. “Steelers fans and coach Tomlin and the Rooneys apparently thought B.A. was throwing the ball too much. But yesterday in coach Haley’s office, we were talking about using the no-huddle and throwing the ball and how much we have to use our weapons.”

Roethlisberger said fans won’t notice much difference, but it’s a big change for the players who have been used to doing things entirely different ways for most of their careers. They are way behind where they would have been had things stayed the same, but they have four months to get it down.

“Does that mean we can’t catch up? No, but right now we’re way behind,” Roethlisberger said. “We’re all asking each other what’ going on. Coach Haley is not only coaching the players, he’s coaching the coaches.”

None of the coaches have been in Haley’s system, including quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner.

“It’s coming along,” Roethlisberger said. “Sometimes it’s frustrating. I’m just trying to plug away a little at a time. I tell coach Randy, don’t throw the whole thing at me right away, take it parts at a time.

“I’ve been there two days this week, go back Wednesday. I feel a lot better today than yesterday, I’ll tell you that much. I’m just going to take it in stride and learn it and help us be the best we can be to win games.”

While Brandon Johnson and Dave Rayner are talking to the Steelers, there’s another player in talking to the team today – former Jaguars, Dolphns and Browns linebacker Matt Roth.

In 8 seasons, Roth has 295 tackles and 23.5 sacks. He’s also been a force on special teams over the years as well.