(Photo by Bobby Ellis/Getty Images)
Shortly after the Steelers released veteran David DeCastro on June 24, the Steelers agreed to terms with five-time Pro Bowl guard Trai Turner. Turner is projected to start at right guard, but he doesn't look at himself as DeCastro's replacement per se.
"I just look at it like there's always a new era at different times in different places," Turner said. "Everything has an expiration date at some point. DeCastro's a great player, not to necessarily say I'm replacing him. I'm just the new right guard."
Turner made the Pro Bowl every year from 2015-2019 in Carolina, and he's just going to be himself in Pittsburgh and not try to fill the shoes of DeCastro or the great Alan Faneca.
"I'm gonna be the best Trai Turner I can be," he said. "I've been that since I was born on June 14, 1993, that'll never change. I'm not trying to emulate or be somebody else, I'm not taking the place of nobody else and I'm not replacing anything.
"I'm coming in and I'm setting the tone for who I am and what I do."
Speaking of Faneca, who will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 8. Turner personally knows the former Steelers guard, as they're both products of LSU.
"That's a living legend," Turner said of Faneca. "I have nothing but a ton of respect for Mr. Faneca. I admire his game. I've been knowing about him since I got to LSU in 2011.
"Hopefully, he can come to a couple games and I can just make him proud."