August 14, 2024 • 61 mins
Labs and Tom set the table for the final day of Training Camp and preview the join practice ahead with Buffalo. They hear from Coach Tomlin and Corey Trice Jr. as well.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
He's no training camp report with Tom Opferman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, it's a bittersweet day, Labs, because today is the
final day of Steelers training camp. Practice number sixteen for
the Steelers up at Latrobe will take place at ten
thirty this morning, and then camp breaks. Players are allowed
to go home. It's not like they're off. They still
have practice this week, in the game coming up, and
they're in the full swing of the season. But they
can sleep in their own beds and maybe more importantly,
(00:34):
you and you can sleep in your own bed.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
You know. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And Mike Tolman has talked about this. You know, it's
dangerous for guys to think training camp's over and relax
a little bit because they may be leaving Latrobe. You know,
they may be leaving Saint Vincent College and the Rooney
Hall dormitory and all that stuff. This is not over.
(01:01):
They did not make the team. There's still ninety guys
on this roster and there's still a cut to fifty three. So,
you know, a lot of the veteran people, the you know,
the guys that are familiar with the Steelers are familiar
with the NFL, they have an understanding that you know,
going back to the South side the upmc rooney Sports Complex,
(01:24):
which is where you know, the festivities will resume with
the exception of the Thursday joint practice against the Bills
at Akrosher Stadium. That doesn't mean it's OTA's or mini
camp or you know, any of those low key, low
stress kinds of situations. If anything, these guys are some
(01:50):
guys who don't get it. May have to pick it
up because it's it's really not the end. And I'm
sure that there was some conversation about this recently in
a team meeting where they were warned about it, and
you know, I just hope that you know, they take
(02:11):
that message to heart because, like I said, there's still
a lot of training camp battles that are hanging in
the balance. And you know, again, I would just caution
anybody who thinks that they haven't made or that you know,
(02:35):
they're they can relax, because that's that's not the case.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, it's certainly not the case. And you know, now,
what's it been now Labs a couple of years that
the cutdown day has been pushed to just that one
date you know, it used to be like you had
to hit certain benchmarks throughout training camp and then in
the preseason before the season started. But I mean, now
all of the guys that are at Saint Vincent are
going to be coming to the South Side for the
continuation of preseason practices. Just a lot more competition than
(03:01):
there was just a couple of years ago. When you
get to this phase of the preseason.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, you know, it's the cut is the magic date
and time is four pm. And I love how the
NFL always says New York time because since the NFL
offices are there, I guess that is the hub of
the football universe instead of saying Eastern time, because you know,
(03:25):
you don't want the the rams are the forty nine
ers thinking that, you know, they have three extra hours,
But anyway, Yeah, four pm, August twenty seventh, and they
go from ninety to fifty three. And you know, I've
talked to Mike Tomlin about whether he likes that or not.
(03:50):
You know, I think one of the things, one of
the areas in which it kind of is an advantage
for some teams is for the teams that are going
to want to put their own people that they cut
or wave on their own practice squad, because you know,
ninety to fifty three, you know, that's thirty seven players
(04:14):
per team times thirty two hit the streets all at
the same time. And you know, unless unless you really
have an interest or a history or you know, you're
looking for someone specifically, that's a lot of names to
(04:37):
come through. And the waiver the waiver term is only
twenty four hours because then teams can start signing guys
to their practice squad, so you know, making claims on people.
You know, it's I would imagine it's kind of like,
you know, the the floor of the Stock Exchange when
(04:59):
the opening bell goes off. You know, it could be
kind of crazy or the biggest game of musical chairs
maybe in the history of the world, which whichever, whichever
image you know does it for you. But so yeah,
there's that too, And it's again, as I said, it's
not over there. For the Steelers in particular, there's two
(05:23):
more preseason games two and that's a lot of football
opportunity to either cement your case for a roster spot
or have the guy you're competing against most closely to
cement his place for the roster spot that you thought
(05:44):
you had a good chance to get so, as I said,
we're leaving Saint Vincent College, that's for sure. And let
me say this. I like training camp. I love the
fact that it's up here. I think, you know, I
the the experienced, you know, all of the things that
(06:05):
go with it. I think it has value. I love
the relationship. But Saint Vincent College in the rearview mirror
for another calendar year. It's it's I know, it's a
nice it's a nice feeling. As I said, I don't
hate this place at all, or the you know, the experience.
You know, it's a lot of hard work, but hey,
(06:25):
I get to talk to you every morning.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I mean seriously, then.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'd be happy if that was over too.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I don't blame it, but you know, it is good
to get back to as as you mentioned, reintroduce myself
to my wife, get back to my own bathroom which.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Is huge, my own bed, yes, and.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Eat some normal food, you know, instead of cafeteria food
or shark or the peer. You know, it's good, love it,
it's good. But sometimes I have a tendency that how
do you say it over indulged.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, exactly, Just get a little too eager sometimes just yeah,
the eyes are a little bit bigger than the stomach maybe.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Well, and you know, you sit at a table with
you know, Wolf Flick, Max.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Starts soon just want to keep up.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, you know so, Yeah, I'm ready for a
lot of in those areas are return to normalcy.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, I think as Wolf calls it, and you'll hear
today when he's on for in the locker room though.
The trope five hundred will be run today after practice
is done, as all the media and people make their
giant eggsit out of Saint Vincent College back to Pittsburgh. Uh,
we mentioned they're going to be back at the South Side,
but just to kind of outline the week of head
labs quick pit stuff before they get to practices at
the Rooney Sports Complex, they're gonna be an Acrocher Stadium tomorrow.
(07:55):
Buffalo Bills are going to be in town a couple
of days early before that game on Saturday at Akroschuur
Stadium a joint practice between the Steelers and the Buffalo
Bills that will be closed to the public unfortunately, So
don't go down to Akroscher Stadium expecting to get in.
You'll be banging on the gates, trying to trying to
scale them. But what do you kind of think that
joint practice might entail. I'm sure it has a lot
(08:17):
to do with the kickoff rule, but we heard in
your Tomlin chat pregame against Houston that's not exclusively why
they're having this joint practice.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
No, and it will be in pads.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And because of that, today's practice, which was originally scheduled
for pads, has been downgraded to just helmets. So the
practice that starts here at ten thirty will be in
helmets only, you know, helmets and shells, but they just
on the schedule they say helmets. So because you don't
(08:51):
want them going in pads today tomorrow and then having
a game on Saturday, you don't want to beat up
the bodies too much. But you know, it is closed
to the public. However, I did talk to PR director
Burt Louten, and what is going to happen is the
(09:14):
media rules in terms of what you can report are
going to be relaxed, and the same rules that exist
for training camp practices at Saint Vincent College that are
open to the public will be in effect for the
joint practice against the bills at Akerscher Stadium. It was
(09:35):
originally scheduled for two pm. It has been moved up
to one pm. But as I mentioned, as you mentioned,
it is close to the public, so you know that
time change really doesn't impact anyone. But you know, the players,
the coaches, the officials, the accredited media that will be
allowed in.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So you're saying it will be more like a training
camp setting where the media can kind of give us
an inkling on what's going on out there, not OT's
mini camp where you got to kind of zip it.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yes, that is correct what you said.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Uh so, and I did get a quick glance at
the script for the joint practice. I mean it looks
a whole lot like a regular Steelers practice. Seven shots
team run a couple of special teams periods. So in
a lot of ways, it will be like what happens
(10:33):
on the fields here at Saint Vincent College in terms of, uh,
what the what the teams are doing, what the players
are doing, the kinds of drills that are on the schedule.
But again, uh, you know, they will be wearing different
kinds of helmets, different color jerseys, you know, those kind
of things.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And you know, Mike.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Tomlin has confidence that his longtime relatelationship with Sean McDermott
will help keep the keep things on track because we've
seen a lot of video highlights of joint practices over
the years that you know, they look like riots. You know,
(11:19):
it just descends into a lot of pushing and shoving
and fighting, you know, and that kind of stuff. So
Mike Tomlin is optimistic that it can they can stay
on track, stay on course, and he believes that his
relationship with Sean McDermott will help make that happen. So
(11:40):
we'll get to find out for sure, but I would
expect that it will because I think both of these teams,
both of these groups of players, let me say it
that way, have respect for their respective head coaches, and
if they are told, you know, what to do and
what not to do, I think by and large they're
(12:03):
gonna do what they were told.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Sey was in Bill's joint practice tomorrow, excited to hear
what goes on there. And then, of course Saturday night,
the real thing, seven o'clock kickoff at Akrotur Stadium against
the Buffalo Bills. Let's peek back at what happened on
Monday's practice up at training camp though, LABS before we
hear from coach Tomlin and his thoughts. Following practice, Cordeal
Patterson returned from the non football related injury list with
(12:27):
that hamstring injury, and you know, you add him, you're
adding one of the best kick returners of all time
in the NFL. It's not hyperbole to say that, and
that's clearly what his main usage is. But throughout his
career LABS, he's shown that he's useful not just in
special teams, in the offense as well. Kind of got
a taste of that with the first team offense and
seven shots on Monday as well.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, I mean, and CORDERYO Patterson, his I think his
job is pretty much defined. He was signed almost immediately
after the owner meetings ended and the new kickoff rules
were implemented on a one year trial basis. So you know,
(13:09):
I really think that his role is primarily being the
kickoff return of the Steelers, seeing opportunity maybe to take
advantage to you know, uh use that new rule. Maybe
some of the indecision, uh, the lack of understanding detailed
work available to implementing the return part of it and
(13:33):
the coverage part of it. Maybe you get a guy,
a dynamic returner like Cordero Patterson and he could make
a play for you simply because you know, you look
at his NFL resume. The guy has returned a lot
of kickoffs for touchdowns a lot, So that's his role. However,
(13:54):
you know, it's spot on the roster. Will he have
a job within the offense. That's kind of up in
the air still tbd, And the impact of that could
have some kind of say in how the Steelers formulate
(14:15):
their fifty three men roster. By that, I mean this,
So do you account Cordero Patterson as a running back
the economy, as a wide receiver?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
You know, where does he fit in?
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Because the guy has a lot of NFL experience at
both of those things. You know, he played some running
back and has run the ball a lot during his
college college career, during his NFL career, and he has
been a receiver.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
So you know, I think that the Steelers.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Is still trying to figure out a little bit where
he might fit in beyond kickoff returns. So you mentioned
seven shots on Monday, It was really interesting. He was
on the field first time in you know, full pads
out here. They lighten them up and a receiver at
a receiver spot. Now it's you know, he's wearing number
(15:05):
eighty four, But he wasn't set up in the backfield
right behind the quarterback, so that's kind of on the wing.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That's why he was saying. That's why I said he.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Was in a receiver spot and Russell Wilson handed him
the ball as he ran around. It wasn't a jet
sweep kind of thing because he wasn't moving until the
ball was snapped wide. Receiver around wasn't a reverse because
of wearing a couple of handoffs, so trying to describe
it accurately, he got into the end zone for a touchdown.
(15:36):
He also took a snap lined up in the backfield
as a running back and was off right tackle, so
that was more of a you know, he was in
a running back spot. He got stopped there. But you know,
the guy, he has a skill set. He has a
lot of experience, and I think the Steelers are going
(15:59):
to see what they can do to implement him beyond
more than I don't know how many four or five
kickoffs a game, even you probably hope there aren't even
that many. Where you're in kickoff returns because that means
the other team scoring. So you know, let's look optimistically
the two kickoffs that you're going to be returning one
(16:20):
because you either win the toss or lose the toss,
and then we'll give the other team one score.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I like looking at it that way. And you know,
as far as inserting Cordell Patterson into the actual offense,
that's nothing new to the offensive coordinator because fortunately they
have a nice track record in the past three years
together in Atlanta. So I mean, there's familiarity between Arthur
Smith and Patterson, which is probably what helped him geme
to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Well, I really think that it was the kickoff thing.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Okay, the year on top of it.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yes, it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt. But if you
ask me, you know why we the Steelers signed him,
I would say the new kickoff rules and a chance
to maybe become a you know, a multipurpose kind of weapon.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, coach Thomas spoke to the media following Monday's practice.
Let's hear what he had to say.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Man, we had another really good day Stealers versus Steelers.
I thought there was really good intensity in our tackle
periods seven shots and team run. We had overkilled a
day relative to possession down football. We didn't perform well
last Friday night on third down on either side of
the ball, and so we had an overreaction, a thoughtful overreaction.
(17:36):
We drowned ourselves in possession down football today in about
three of our periods where every down was third down,
just to kind of take advantage of this atmosphere and
the last week that we have up here in terms
of making points about downs awaited differently, those possession downs
are significant, and so we've you know, just thoughtful about
how we finish up here in terms of some of
(17:57):
the things we emphasize and the effort to to capture
the last that this this environment provides us. We got
guys with a myriad of training camp like bumps and bruises.
You know, some guys were given a day off. It's
not really anything to speak of. D Elliott for example,
as an example of that. D Jackson is an example
(18:18):
of that, and some others. But you guys know, we
focus less on those that we're minimizing and those that
we're not working, and we viewed more its more of
it as an opportunity for some ascending guys to get
not only more reps, but more competitive reps against more
experienced competition. And so that's how we look at some
of that. We'll continue that throughout the remainder of this process.
(18:39):
I think when I come back on Wednesday, PQ and
the Landon Roberts for example, will rotate out. It'll be
a good day for a guy like Peyton Wilson. I'll
pause and open up for questions.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Mikes, you guys chase more points?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Is there any thought to being a little.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
More aggressive, perhaps at the expense a little bit of.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Protecting the ball?
Speaker 5 (18:58):
You know, this is at the early stages of the process.
We're not you know, we don't have agendas as such
as you mentioned. We're just trying to play good varsity
ball all the way around and establish a good fundamental base.
We're just not not where you're at yet. We've seen
brylland Island getting more reps with the first team defense.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
What's he done to impress you guys in the in
the defense?
Speaker 5 (19:17):
So he's healthy. He wasn't healthy last week, so we
minimized him. He's healthy this week. So we give them
more reps and we give them higher quality reps in
the effort to get to know them. Don't read too
much into it.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Another has some time to work at it once they're right.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Exchanges work clean. Get a place where they work clean.
How do their centers block it up? How perfect him
like a sack to.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Do in that regard.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I like their efforts, but I cannot remove that that
fundamental component of the eval. We got to be one
thousand percent on CQ exchanges. That's just the standard for
professional ball. And so they're evolving there.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
Any said the.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
RUSS is going to be available?
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Is he even planning to start?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
We hadn't determined that yet.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Man.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
We're still as versus Steelers right now. We'll get to
some of that stuff later in the week. I think
I'll meet with you guys talking about Buffalo and the
press conference, so I won't have any inf mation regarding
Buffalo for you guys prior to that.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
How do you think Cordero fared today in practice? We've
seen him get some reps running the ball here today.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Yeah, this is not his first rodeo. Man, He's been
around a couple of blocks and back, and so I
don't think any of us are surprised that you know,
he's capable and can swim in these waters.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
It's about a guy like Kean Lowry working his way
back here.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
What's he's able to provide him?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Same thing, man, He's a veteran player, That's why we
did business with him in the off season. But he's
missed a lot of time and I'm sure he's got
extreme urgency in terms of hurrying up to catch up.
He understands what this process is about and how to
say and runs through the hour glass, so you know,
I'm sure he's extremely urgent.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Coach Tomlin speaking with the media. Hey, it's not Cordell
Patterson's first rodeo. It certainly isn't Coach Tomlin's first rodeo.
But another training camp is about to be in the
books for coach t Final practice for the Steelers twenty
twenty four training camp takes place today up at Saint
Vincent College at ten thirty. It's loo got a lot
more to get to though here on the training camp report.
When Labs and I come back, we're gonna keep talking
(20:59):
about that seven shots drail will clee in on who
won yesterday, the intensity and then also look at the
Steelers secondary on the defensive side of the ball, all
that ahead on the Training Camp Report on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
He sees the Training Camp Report with Tom Opferman and
Bob Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Final day of training camp practice for the Steelers today,
which means it'll probably be the final seven shots Steelers
on Steelers in the camp setting. Of course, yesterday the
labs became the last padded practice of Steelers' training camp.
Today will be in just tellmets as they plan to
be in pads tomorrow for the joint practice at Akrosur
Stadium with the Buffalo Bills. But the offense kind of
(21:46):
getting the last laugh as far as that full speed,
fully padded seven shots goes.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yeah, let me just throw this out to you. It
might be the last day out here at Saint Vincent
College and the Latro five hundred is Craig Wolfley refers
to it will begin later today, and yes, I am
one of the ones who is anxious to get back
to my own house, in my own bed and my wife.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
But there are a long there is a long line.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Of fans lined up along the sidewalk from you know,
the Chuck Nolefield bleachers all the way out to that
you know, the one kind of fork in the in
the road there where then there are the security guard
takes the rope down, and then fans scramble to get
(22:40):
autographs positioning down the steps and you know up by
where the players come out after getting dressed for practice.
So there's a lot There may be a lot of
people already on campus who are excited about leaving, but
there are also a lot of Steelers fans in the area,
and who knows from how are away they've come, we're
(23:01):
still very excited about coming here to watch their favorite
team work. Okay, back to your original point seven shots.
You know, it was an interesting drill for me in
this respect because I scored it as an offensive win.
(23:22):
I had it five to two, but I think that
it might have been four to three because, as I've mentioned,
a bunch of times, unless NFL officials are here calling
these plays and lined up on the goal line and
then along the end line to make sure, you know,
guys get their feet in bonds, whether it's a catch
(23:43):
or not to break the plane, all that stuff. A
lot of times it's conjecture. You know, did the quarterback
get sacked or not before he threw the touchdown pass,
all those kinds of things. So I kind of have
a tendency to believe it was tied after six snaps
because Mike Tolman put the first teams back on the field,
(24:03):
and usually he doesn't do that unless the outcome of
the drill is at stake. So there was a play.
It was the fourth snap. Justin Fields was the quarterback,
and what there was the play was a combination route
between George Pickens and Calvin Austin and the the defenders
(24:30):
on the play, or Joey Porter Jr. And the Shawn
Elliott cornerback in safety covering a slot receiver and an
outside receiver. So the play took a long time to develop,
and by the time it did, Calvin Austin was wide open.
Both of the guys, both of the defensive backs went
(24:52):
with George Pickens, Calvin Austin was left all alone and
Justin Fields hit him. You know, he was open enough
that I could have caught him the ball, that's how
open he was.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
So but.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
You know, we were kind of speculating a little bit.
Dale Lawley was up here with me at that point.
Was that a sack. Would that have been ruled a sack?
You know, in real life you're not allowed to tackle
the quarterback or hit the quarterback or anything, but there
are a lot of occasions up here in this camp
setting where a pass rusher will run by the quarterback
(25:27):
and then that's considered a sack in the for whatever
scoring we're interested in. So anyway, I'm going to rule
that now as a sack because, as I said, it
came down to the last play and that was with
Russell Wilson as the quarterback. And I described the first play,
(25:49):
which was the kind of wide receiver around play to
Corderio Patterson. Steelers ran the same thing, only this time
it was with George Pickens. Again not a jet sweep
because he was an in motion. He was a stationary
for the snap of the ball, and then he came
around and he got into the end zone. So that
(26:11):
made it four to three offense. One other thing to note,
I believe the the backup running back job, and by
backup I don't mean number two because both Nausee Harris
and Jalen Warren they're like one on one a and
(26:31):
their locks to make the roster. Okay, the question is,
is there gonna be another running back? Now, I'm not
talking about Jack Coletto either, He's a fullback. That's a
different category. Do they keep another running back? And you
know some of the guys who are in contention for
that job. You know, you got Jonathan Wardle, Michael p Ryan,
(26:53):
Dejon Edwards, Aaron Shamplin. You know, these guys are in
a situation where not only do they have to show
that they belong on the roster, but they almost kind
of have to also convince the Steelers to keep another
running back as opposed to as I was mentioning a
fourth tight end, a sixth receiver, an extra defensive back.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You know, I don't know whatever.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
So Jonathan Ward this guy continues to he looked pretty
good against the Texans in that preseason game. He he
is a guy who along with Anthony Averrett, just to
remind everyone, he made the team based on coming to
rookie mini camp as a tryout guy. So you know,
(27:43):
kind of an uphill battle from there. But you know,
Jonathan ward Is he powered into the end zone. Was
a nice run. He seems to be among the first
of the of that group of running backs onto the
field and Mike Tomlin has said a bunch of times
when you play is important because it says it indicates
(28:08):
what group you're in. And in training camp there's group one,
group two, group three. Once you get to the regular season,
there's no group three. So if you're still in group
three when training camp breaks, you better make a move
here because group three is pretty much all history once
(28:31):
it comes time to cut the roster.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So the offense gets to win. Yesterday in seven shots,
it was an intense practice, according to Tomlin, in all
of the periods that they did tackle periods, seven shots,
team run. But one thing I didn't want to get
to LABS is the overkill. In regards to possession down football.
Tomlin said they had a thoughtful overreaction to that quote.
We drowned ourselves in possession down football today, of course,
(28:55):
referring to Monday's practice. Three of their periods where every
down is third down, and that's what they struggled in
mightily against the Houston Texans on Friday. They started one
for seven on possession down. So I kind of like
seeing that thoughtful overreaction from the coaching staff up at
that Saint Vincent setting.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, Mike Tomlin is big on you know, possession downs,
weight he downs as he refers to them often as well.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
And yes, the.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Steelers ended up two for nine, but they were one
for seven through the into the third quarter, which is.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
You know, that's just awful.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
You cannot you know, that's that's the answer to so
many other questions that you might want to ask the
about the offense. Why didn't they run the ball more?
Why didn't they whatever more? You know, if you're ever
asking why so few things happen in a certain category
(29:51):
of offense when you're one for seven on third down,
that's why. That's why, because you're not you're not possessing
the ball. If you're not possessing the ball, you have
no opportunity to establish any rhythm, and you know, it
just it just kind of sabotages everything. And then you
know that you flip that around. If your defense isn't
(30:15):
getting off the field on third downs, then you know
that also limits the amount of possessions that the offense gets,
the amount of time it has an opportunity to possess
the ball, all that stuff. So yeah, third down performance,
both making them and getting off the field are very
important and Mike Toman judged the Steelers as being below
(30:39):
the line in that area and used an entire practice
pretty much to emphasize it, because you can you can
still run the normal drills that you run, pass under pressure,
a lot of the other kind of things that they do,
but you just make it everything a third down so
(31:01):
that the players understand, you know, they have sticks, it's
not necessarily and they'll set up the particular play of
the seven on seven.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It's an example third and eight.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
So you know, if you're a receiver, you've got to
get past the eight yards. If you're a defender, that's
your line, you know. So that's how they work those
within the context of a regular kind of practice.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Script Well, we.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Mentioned in our first segment today that even though training
camp is coming to an end, guys can't take that
sigh of relief, can't take that breather, especially if they're
in the middle of an intense position battle. And Beanie
Bishop and grayln Arnold really find themselves their labs. With
the suspension of Camp Sutton and Camp rolling into now
it's final day, it's clear that the Steelers are throwing
these two into the fire and seeing if they can
(31:52):
get one of them to step up, or get both
of them to step up and get contributions from them
until Sutton returns. And Beanie Bishop made a nice playing
practice yesterday that you noted on your practice report. Grayland
Arnold started seeing the field more and more because his
health is where it needs to be. Those are two
guys that really need to keep the focus when they
shift to the south side for the next coming weeks
(32:13):
because that battle is at the top of the list
as far as Steelers position battles goes.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, I mean, you're looking for a starting nickel and
because of the way you know, the game is played
now at the NFL level, having an extra defensive back
on the field is pretty much a regular occurrence.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Mike Tomlin estimates that the Steelers are in their base
three to four maybe thirty percent of the time. So
the rest of the time you're in some kind of
subpackage and a lot of times that in a lot
of instances that subpackage includes more defensive backs. Again, because
of the way that the sport has played at the
(32:56):
NFL level now, so you don't have any return arning
veterans there. So Beanie Bishop was an undrafted rookie signed.
Grayland Arnold is a guy who came to the Steelers,
I believe. Yes, let's see grayln Arnold. Yeah, he has
(33:17):
some NFL experience. I'm looking it up here to see
the specifically. Yeah, he's a fifth year player from Baylor.
So the guy's been around the league a little bit.
He has some experience. And in the first segment segment
of training camp, you know, Grayland Arnold was a guy
(33:37):
was constantly looking on the on the roster. You know
who's this number? What's his number?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Now?
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Thirty five? You know who's this number? Thirty five? Yes,
because there's two thirty five. Jonathan Ward is thirty five
and Grayland Arnold is thirty five. You know who's this
thirty five? Who did that? Who got his hands on
the ball? That's thirty five? Who came up with that
interception of that's thirty five. So he was around the
ball a lot. He was making some plays, making himself known.
(34:10):
Then he got injured, so he was removed from the
equation a little bit. Beanie Bishop started to assert himself
and he was a guy that I guess it's fair
to call him maybe the Steelers' primary target after the
draft in terms of undrafted rookies to sign. They had
(34:33):
some good intel on him played at West Virginia. Who knows,
maybe Wes Euler was giving him a Scotty Reports. Yeah, yeah,
But so then you know, being Bishop started doing some things.
But Mike Tomlin has been pretty clear about it in
(34:53):
terms of when and why each guy seemed to be
running with the first team. Because Beanie Bishop, you saw
him on the field a lot, heard his name called
a lot in the preseason opener, you know, that doesn't
necessarily mean that he had a great game or that
(35:15):
he is clearly in the lead for that position. Battle
was more of a case of Grayland Arnold's injury and
opportunities created by that injury. Grayland Arnold got a good
bit of time on the field on Monday, as Mike
Tomlin said, that was more a result of he's now
back healthy than Beanie Bishop has done anything bad to
(35:40):
lose his spot. So that's still pretty much to me
a two horse race. It's up for grabs, definitely. Saturday's
game could be a big determining factor.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
No doubt. And sticking with the secondary, Corey Trice got
some more run on Monday's practice because of Dante Jackson
getting a little Veterans day off. Corey Trice, of course,
getting injured in last year's training camp. A second year
man trying to find a nice role with the Steelers,
he caught up with Rob King following practice on Monday.
Let's hear what he and the Steelers played by play
man had to say.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Corey.
Speaker 6 (36:12):
First of all, let's talk about the game action. I
want to rewind in a moment, But what was it
like finally being out there and being healthy and being
able to play in a game?
Speaker 7 (36:19):
Man, like a dream come true?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Man? Definitely felt good.
Speaker 7 (36:22):
You know, I've been waiting for a long time, and
you know, whenever the opportunity presented itself, I was ready.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
So let's talk about your injury and the rehab process
and when you really felt like, okay, I can let
out a breath. I finally feel one hundred percent healthy.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
It's not really more like the hundred percent healthy thing.
It's more so like this is the best on the
feel right now. So you know, my rehab process, all
that went good. You know, surgery went good, and you
know after that, after my surgery, I woke up, they
told me everything I need to do now, just a
grind and just keep working on myself, keep working on
my body. And you know, whenever he felt like it
(37:00):
was time is when I came back from after the
break in July, we had you know, we have to
report back for camp.
Speaker 6 (37:08):
So what's it been like working with this group of
different receivers, different group from a year ago?
Speaker 7 (37:12):
Oh yeah, man, it's great. Man, Like everybody got something different.
Like every time I go up against a new guy
that guts a different skill set that I'm most likely
going to see in a game.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
So it's definitely great.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
We were just listening to Arthur Smith and he talked about,
look a lot of guys offense defense they need to
get a helmet by being good on special teams. How
much is that important to you right now?
Speaker 3 (37:32):
At this juncture? That was very important.
Speaker 7 (37:33):
That's one thing they definitely emphasized here in Pittsburgh's special team.
So you know, all he knew that was gonna, you know,
probably beat my role coming into it. And I don't
mind getting it in like that. So whatever they want
me to do, you know, I'm gonna do a hundred
and ten percent. So yeah, spear, the team death.
Speaker 6 (37:47):
Is huge now every game is an opportunity. You have
the Bills coming up, you have a team practice against
somebody else that's not you, guys, you're looking forward to that,
and what about this opportunity against the Bills.
Speaker 7 (37:56):
Oh yeah, I'm loving it, man. Just another opportunity for
me to you know, continue get my feet you wor
continue do you know, get us speed with the game
and stuff like that. So it definitely a great opportunity.
Speaker 6 (38:05):
Corey, thank you very much the time. Sure appreciate it, Yes, sir,
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
There's steer. Second year defensive back Corey Trice speaking with
Rob King after practice on Monday. When Labs and I
come back, we're gonna look at the weather report for
meteorologists Labs and then we'll also kick around some of
the injury updates with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's on the
way to wrap up the first hour of the training
camp report on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Hec's the Training Camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Labs, I feel like it's finally safe to say this.
Don't have to even knock on wood, but Steelers have
gotten full weather cooperation up at Saint Vincent College, just
about forty minutes away from the final practice starting today.
And as you'll tell the folks who are listening in
their cars heading up to Saint Vincent or are just
curious listening at home, it looks all good from the
weather front.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yeah, you know this is it'll be a little bit
of an adjustment for me not being able to do
the weather every morning.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
You know, what is about money? Here? Do I get
a pay cut since my meteorological duties?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Right, No, they'll don't just take anything they need to
cut out of my paycheck to make sure your stays
the same.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
But another beautiful day here, not a cloud in the sky,
sunny and clear. It's sixty three degrees right now. For
our weather geek there in the studio, the barometric pressure
is thirty point one nine inches of mercury. And once again,
when you're getting in your private helicopter, what kind of
(39:40):
logo do you have on the side.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I don't go with any logo. I don't want anybody
to identify me.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Good plan, ten miles of visibility, so they.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Should beautiful all camp.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Right right route you right in there to Arnold Palmer
Airport and I'll see you here in time for lunch then, right.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Sounds like a plan to me. Russell Wilson starting to
work his way back into the fauld. We heard coach
Tomlin speaking to the media on Monday not really committing
that he will be starting for the Steelers Saturday against Buffalo.
I think they'd like that to be the plan, Labs.
You want to give this guy a bit of taste
of real football before he takes the helm, or we
(40:21):
assume he'll take the helm health permitting week one against
the Atlanta Falcons. Did you see anything on Monday with
Russell Wilson Maybe a little bit more of a workload
or was it kind of the same status quo of
him and field split and stuff with the first team.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
Yeah, I mean yes, But I don't really think that
the calf situation is a factor.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I just don't.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
I mean, my opinion is that it was not the
Russell Wilson's calf injury. Let me start like this, Russell
Wilson's calf injury was not a Joe Burrow type of situation, Okay,
but they didn't want it to become that, right, and
(41:03):
so that's why the course of action was taken to
limit him. And again I think that part of that,
maybe hand in hand with that, was let's get an
extra long look at Justin fields, you know, give him
(41:23):
to some time to work on some things, to develop
some things, let us see what we have in him,
let him get a better feel for this offense and
his teammates and you know, all of those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
And so I think it was more of.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
A two pronged kind of approach slash decision that was made.
And you know, I believe, I believe Russell Wilson will
be the starter on September the eighth, when the Steelers
open in Atlanta against the Falcons. I believe that he
is the better choice to be the starter for that
(42:00):
game because what we have seen from Russell Wilson, beyond
the fact that you know, the guy still has a
live arm, he still can throw the deep ball. I
don't think there's any question. He's not the dynamic kind
of escape artist or running runner that Justin feels is.
(42:21):
But I mean, he wasn't signed to be that. I
don't think you expect that from a man of his age.
But Russell Wilson is a pro, a pro and in
terms of that status. I think you can. It's safe
to say it takes one.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
To know one.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
And Russell Wilson is the kind of guy that when
he's in the locker room, the way he conducts himself,
the way he practices, the way he gets he prepares
in the other areas, his teammates notice that. And that's
the kind of thing you need from your starting quarterback.
(43:03):
And so Russell Wilson, I believe is the better choice
to start the season. I think he will be fine
given the support that you know, any starting quarterback in
the NFL needs, and I would expect him to play
a good bit against Buffalo. This is just my opinion.
I don't know anything about it for sure yet. Mike
(43:23):
Tomlin will hold his pre Buffalo news conference after the
joint practice tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Okay, so.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Steelers fans, you know that'll be streamed on Steelers dot
Com and all of the Steelers media platforms, as are
all of the Mike Tomlin news conferences, So if you
want to hear exactly what he says, you know, as
I said, the practice starts at one, it'll probably be
two hours, and then it's always archived on there too,
(43:55):
so you know, you don't have to worry about it.
But he'll answer the question. I'm right. I'm sure he
will be asked that quickly. He may just give it
up in his opening remarks.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
He might do that. If not, though, I'm pretty sure
the odds in Vegas are like minus one hundred and
fifty thousand that that's the first question asked of him,
is who's going to start on Saturday against Buffalo Real
quickly laps before he hit the break. One other injury
that I wanted to touch on, rookie Troy Fautan, who
suffered that knee injury against the Houston Texans, is going
to keephim out of practice this week, might keep him
out for the rest of the preseason. But Jerry Dulac
(44:26):
in the Post Gazette, you know, saying that this rookie
looks like he's on track to start at right tackle,
and he kind of, you know, squashed some worries that
I had about this injury being maybe a setback in
that regard.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Yeah, I mean, I agree, it's not as bad as
it could have been.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Or you know, for someone who lives in his fears
like me.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
But again, profile time missing this kind of practice now
a segment of training camp is not going to help
him get on the field quickly once the regular season starts.
I'm just saying that because in Broderick Jones and Dan
Moore Junior, it doesn't really matter what the fans think.
The Steelers think they have two started capable NFL offensive
(45:06):
tackles in those two guys, so they're not going to
rush the rookie onto the field.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
When we come back to start our second hour of
our final Training Camp report, we're going to talk a
little bit about the wide receivers. Van Jefferson and Joey
Porter Junior had a nice back and forth and practice
on Monday, so we'll touch on that, talk about that
room in general, and then we'll get into that joint
practice with the Bills preview what's going to come on
Thursday before we wrap things up here on the Final
Training Camp Report on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Hec's No Training Camp Report with Tom Opferman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Steelers wide receiver room has obviously been a cause of
a lot of conversation, not just through our training camp,
but throughout this entire offseason. Labs and guys have an
opportunity within that room, like a Van Jefferson, a Calvin Austin,
a Scottie Miller, Roman Wilson when he gets healthy to
really grab that man until of a quote unquote wide
receiver too for this team. And you know, I think
(46:05):
all of the guys I've mentioned have kind of had
really good contributions towards that throughout their camp.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
Yeah, I mean, it's still very much in flux. And
there's a name that you know, a number two receiver
that you didn't mention, Pat Fryarmouth.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
You know, we've seen other teams go to their tight end,
often use a receiving tight end in ways not to
replace what another wide receiver might contribute to the offense,
but you know, to pose enough problems for the defense
where you know it gives them something to worry about. Certainly,
(46:45):
Travis Kelcey is one of those guys. And I'm not
gonna sit here right now and predict that, you know,
Pat Fryarmouth is going to be Dayton Taylor Swift anytime soon,
but he can be a I believe he can be
much more of a factor for the Steelers in the
offense than he has been to this point in his career,
(47:07):
and so there's that opportunity for him. But as the
specifically the other guys at depth charter wide receiver, you know,
you mentioned Van Jefferson. You know, he is a guy who,
again I use this word to describe Russell Wilson, he's
a pro. He's not Van Jefferson is not a pro
(47:32):
to the sense at wide receiver that Russell Wilson is,
to the sense he is a pro at quarterback. But
he's a been there, done that kind of guy. He
is reliable, He runs pretty good routes, he has good hands,
you know. So he's certainly, I believe, someone who can
have an impact, you know, on the passing game. Of
(47:55):
all those guys you mentioned, the guy I think who
is coming on the fastest and the most lately is
Scotty Miller.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Another veteran lads, another guy who's been around the block.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
Yes, and he's not gonna wol you with his size
or his speed or anything. But the guy is reliable.
He's he's where he's supposed to be when he's supposed
to be there.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
You know, I.
Speaker 4 (48:24):
Like him. I think that again, he's not special from
any of the physical measurables category. But again another guy
I think that can be helpful and make contributions in
some critical situations, you know, to the cause. Calvin Austen
(48:45):
is another guy I think. Who he's Here's the thing
with him to me. You look at him and see
how the areas of the field where he typically operates,
and if you're not around him enough or see him enough,
you might get seduced into thinking this guy is just
(49:08):
a possession receiver, you know, works the middle of the field,
always runs his routes close to the sticks. You know
that kind of guy. But he also has speed, and
he could get deep and he can make those kind
of plays too down the field. So any opposing defender
(49:30):
or you know, defenses as a whole, who might underestimate
him a little bit and think he is just a
possession type catch catch an eight yard pass on third
and seven, don't fall asleep on him, because if your
defensive back or a safety or whoever might be covering
him is covering the stick too much, he'll run right
(49:55):
past you. So he's interesting in that respect.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Of course, you got George Pickens, and I don't know,
I just don't think it's necessary to talk about the
wide array of athletic.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Skills this guy.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
I mean, I'm done talking about it in terms of
while look at that, because if you miss that one,
wait five minutes and there will be another one. So
you know, again, I don't know that. I don't know
that there is a number two wide receiver in the
(50:34):
traditional sense of what people are thinking about when you're
talking about number two wide receiver. I don't know that
any of the wide receivers on the Steelers' depth chart
outside of George Pickens will be high picks for anybody's
fantasy league team. But that doesn't mean it can't be effective.
And if it's, if it truly is and develops into
(50:58):
being a run first offense from Arthur Smith, you know,
we'll see what they actually need from that spot or
that role.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
And you know, as far as a guy like Van
Jefferson is concerned, or even Scotty Miller labs, you know,
there are veterans, they've been on other teams, and you
know they kind of get that treatment from the fans here.
It's like, oh, you got the young guys in Austin
and Roman Wilson, and then you got the old guys
and Van Jefferson and Scotty Miller. But it's not like
their grandpa Jefferson and Grandpa Miller. Van Jefferson's still twenty
eight years old, Scotty Miller's twenty seven years old. Those
(51:29):
guys are still a couple of years on the right
side of thirty. There's still a lot of potential for
them in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yes, And you know, you mentioned a guy that I
neglected to mention, Roman Wilson, you know, a second day
draft picked by the Steelers. He's certainly he of course
sustained that ankle injury, sprained ankle.
Speaker 3 (51:50):
He's out of the boot.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
When he watches practice, there's you know, it doesn't even
seem to me that he has any kind of special
rap on it anymore. But he's not practicing. He hasn't practiced,
I would say, And again, since he hasn't practiced yet,
I would doubt that he plays on Saturday against Buffalo.
(52:13):
And you know, the injury itself might not continue to
be a problem for him, but the time that he
missed as a rookie is certainly going to be a problem.
And it's I don't know that it's something that you
can make up instantly with a couple of practices, so
(52:37):
that certainly set him back in terms of his development.
And you know, we're gonna have to see how long
it takes him to get on the to get a
helmet on game day, let me say that, and or
become part of the offensive game plan where you know,
(53:00):
he's a weapon slash option. You know, I would think
at this point the areas of the field that Roman
Wilson was operating in, that could be Scotty Miller's job
early in the in the regular season, just because of
his experience and his availability through this part of you know,
the training camp, preseason process.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Still a lot of intrigue when it comes to those
wide receivers and a lot to keep an eye on
as camp breaks today, and they still have a few
weeks of practice before we make it all count against Atlanta.
Week one of the NFL season leaves and I will
come back. We'll talk a bit more about that joint
practice that's coming up tomorrow against the Buffalo Bills, what
you can't expect out of it. And coach Tomlin sat
down with Labs before the game against Houston and had
(53:44):
some thoughts about that joint practice. Will play those for
you as well. That's all on the way on the
Training Camp Report on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
This season Training Camp Report with Tom Opferman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
Camp breaks after practice today at ten thirty for the Steelers,
But tomorrow is a significant day on the Steelers preseason
practice schedule as the Buffalo Bills will come to town
early and participate in a joint practice at Akroscher Stadium
before Labs and I discuss what we expect to see
out of that joint practice. Labs and Coach Tomlin talk
pregame on the Steelers Audio Network before each game preseason
(54:26):
or regular season. They had a chat before the Houston
Texans game and Labs brought up the joint practice to
Coach Tomlin, and here's what he had to say.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
If there had been no change to the kickoff rule,
would there have been a joint practice with Buffalo.
Speaker 5 (54:39):
Yes, I'm into joint practices, particularly when I have a
relationship with the coach. I think you like the intensity
of it, while at the same time you want to
maintain professionalism. I think relationships aid in that. The history
that Sean and I have make us appropriate dance partners,
and I'm glad that it's going to happen for us.
Speaker 4 (54:59):
Besides what you just said, what would you describe as
the pluses and minuses of a joint practice or are
there none?
Speaker 5 (55:05):
But you know, for example, Buffalo is a four to
three team. We're a three four team, and so during
the course of the season, you see three four teams,
you see four to three teams. Our offense has almost
seen exclusively three fourth structure in camp. It's good for
them to work during development against something that's you know,
schematically different. We utilize a bunch of tight ends and
(55:28):
so forth. Offensively, Buffalo has been a three receiver group,
if you will, and so it's good for our defense
maybe to see some different things offensively. It's good for
offense to see some different things defensively. It's just all
part of the you know, developmental process.
Speaker 4 (55:45):
So you mentioned the relationship you have with Buffalo coach
Sean McDermott. How does that relationship, I don't know, maybe
prevent some of the negatives of a joint practice.
Speaker 5 (55:57):
You know, that's my brother Man. We've been we've been friends.
Man says. We are young, young people and so it's
probably because of the depths of that relationship, is probably
easier to maintain the professional environment that we all desire.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
Coach Thomas speaking with Labs before the Houston Texans game,
and Labs you heard it there, you know, the joint
kick or the kickoff rule, the update to the new
rule that they put in, I should say, played a
factor in this being a joint practice, but there are
other reasons beyond that that Tomlin and McDermott thought this
would be a good idea.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yeah, I mean, and it's convenient too.
Speaker 4 (56:34):
A lot of this you know, joint practice thing has
to do with, you know, scheduling, because both teams are
at ninety players, so that's a significant logistics.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
Issue, right and if you're.
Speaker 4 (56:50):
If you know, first of all, you would almost need
to have the teams be scheduled for a preseason game
in very close proximity of the joint practice availability because
you know, let's just pretend, okay, there's no game between
the Steelers and the Bills at Actorsure Stadium.
Speaker 3 (57:12):
Where are you going to have it? You have it
out here?
Speaker 4 (57:14):
Okay, maybe you have the fields, the field capabilities, but
where do the Bills live? You know, for a couple
of days.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
Got the extra dorms for ninety more players and coaches.
Speaker 3 (57:25):
Huh. Well, but and besides that, you know, talking to
people who you.
Speaker 4 (57:33):
Know, made pilgrimages out here for training camp, came from
long distances. There's no hotels either. I mean, they're booked,
they're booked long in advance. And again we're talking about
ninety players, coaches and staff. They're bringing trainers and video people,
you know, the whole you know, the whole shebang. So
(57:56):
you know that that's a little bit of a problem,
but it's relieved made easier by the fact that there's
a preseason game because you're coming anyway, so there's that.
And then you know, you want to have a relationship
between the coaches because you wouldn't want a situation where
and I'm trying to think of, you know, two teams
(58:18):
where the coaches aren't real fans of each other. You
wouldn't want any of that because then it's just then
it's just a free for all, you know, I mean,
because there there may be NFL officials there, but I mean,
I don't know that they would find.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
People for fighting in practice, you know what I mean.
If there's any league sanctions.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
The team, the individual team has to deal with that
on their own. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (58:47):
Yeah, and you know, and and again, you know, just
extrapolating this out to the whole teams can't just find
players for stuff. The Union has a lot to say
about that kind of thing. Fans, I know, they got
all excited. You know, if a player mouths off to
an assistant coach or you know, doesn't do something or
does something on the sideline during the game, fine, good
(59:11):
luck with that. I mean, that's you know, that's not
something that the players Association just stands back and allows happen.
So again, there's a lot of things involved, maybe below
the surface of why joint practices are difficult to schedule
and not maybe held as regularly as people might think
(59:33):
they could be or should be, based on the potential
advantages that they provide in terms of what you see
on the field. So this worked out pretty well, and
so we're going to have it tomorrow at Akroscher Stadium.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
Yeah, and just quickly got about a minute here, But
there will be pads for the joint practice against Buffalo,
so you can expect to see some of that intensity,
hopefully not boil over. But there will be some spirit
competitive periods between those two teams.
Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Yes, and you know, I'm sure Mike Tomlin and Sean
McDermott will get together and set specific parameters of when
is there tackling to the ground aloud, when it's tackling
to the ground, the loud not hitting the quarterback, things
like that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Well, Labs, this was fun again. I'll see you again
in like what three hundred and fifty days. We'll do
it all over now.
Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
I think me and you should maybe just talk every morning,
just for old time sake.
Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Yeah, even if we don't record, I'll just give you
a call, all.
Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
Right, I'll tell you what the weather is outside my house,
you know, just for just to keep you informed.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Yeah, that sounds like a plan. And of course we
will be back soon ish for our Asked and Answered podcast,
maybe taking a week or two off before the regular
season before we pick that back up again. But keep
an eye out on the Steelers Audio Network for our
latest ass and Answer to pop up. We'll be back
in the saddle sooner rather than later. There's been a
lot of fun with you guys throughout training camp. You
got one more practice in about seven minutes and then
(01:00:57):
that's it for twenty twenty four Steelers Training Camp at
Saint Vincent in College. We'll head it out. We'll head
out to training camp live next with Mike Perzuda and
Max Starks. They'll give you live coverage of this final
day of practice and for Bob Labrielle, I'm Tom Opferman.
Thanks for listening to the Training Camp Report on the
Steelers Audio Network,
He's no training camp report with Tom Opferman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, it's a bittersweet day, Labs, because today is the
final day of Steelers training camp. Practice number sixteen for
the Steelers up at Latrobe will take place at ten
thirty this morning, and then camp breaks. Players are allowed
to go home. It's not like they're off. They still
have practice this week, in the game coming up, and
they're in the full swing of the season. But they
can sleep in their own beds and maybe more importantly,
(00:34):
you and you can sleep in your own bed.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
You know. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
And Mike Tolman has talked about this. You know, it's
dangerous for guys to think training camp's over and relax
a little bit because they may be leaving Latrobe. You know,
they may be leaving Saint Vincent College and the Rooney
Hall dormitory and all that stuff. This is not over.
(01:01):
They did not make the team. There's still ninety guys
on this roster and there's still a cut to fifty three. So,
you know, a lot of the veteran people, the you know,
the guys that are familiar with the Steelers are familiar
with the NFL, they have an understanding that you know,
going back to the South side the upmc rooney Sports Complex,
(01:24):
which is where you know, the festivities will resume with
the exception of the Thursday joint practice against the Bills
at Akrosher Stadium. That doesn't mean it's OTA's or mini
camp or you know, any of those low key, low
stress kinds of situations. If anything, these guys are some
(01:50):
guys who don't get it. May have to pick it
up because it's it's really not the end. And I'm
sure that there was some conversation about this recently in
a team meeting where they were warned about it, and
you know, I just hope that you know, they take
(02:11):
that message to heart because, like I said, there's still
a lot of training camp battles that are hanging in
the balance. And you know, again, I would just caution
anybody who thinks that they haven't made or that you know,
(02:35):
they're they can relax, because that's that's not the case.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
No, it's certainly not the case. And you know, now,
what's it been now Labs a couple of years that
the cutdown day has been pushed to just that one
date you know, it used to be like you had
to hit certain benchmarks throughout training camp and then in
the preseason before the season started. But I mean, now
all of the guys that are at Saint Vincent are
going to be coming to the South Side for the
continuation of preseason practices. Just a lot more competition than
(03:01):
there was just a couple of years ago. When you
get to this phase of the preseason.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, you know, it's the cut is the magic date
and time is four pm. And I love how the
NFL always says New York time because since the NFL
offices are there, I guess that is the hub of
the football universe instead of saying Eastern time, because you know,
(03:25):
you don't want the the rams are the forty nine
ers thinking that, you know, they have three extra hours,
But anyway, Yeah, four pm, August twenty seventh, and they
go from ninety to fifty three. And you know, I've
talked to Mike Tomlin about whether he likes that or not.
(03:50):
You know, I think one of the things, one of
the areas in which it kind of is an advantage
for some teams is for the teams that are going
to want to put their own people that they cut
or wave on their own practice squad, because you know,
ninety to fifty three, you know, that's thirty seven players
(04:14):
per team times thirty two hit the streets all at
the same time. And you know, unless unless you really
have an interest or a history or you know, you're
looking for someone specifically, that's a lot of names to
(04:37):
come through. And the waiver the waiver term is only
twenty four hours because then teams can start signing guys
to their practice squad, so you know, making claims on people.
You know, it's I would imagine it's kind of like,
you know, the the floor of the Stock Exchange when
(04:59):
the opening bell goes off. You know, it could be
kind of crazy or the biggest game of musical chairs
maybe in the history of the world, which whichever, whichever
image you know does it for you. But so yeah,
there's that too, And it's again, as I said, it's
not over there. For the Steelers in particular, there's two
(05:23):
more preseason games two and that's a lot of football
opportunity to either cement your case for a roster spot
or have the guy you're competing against most closely to
cement his place for the roster spot that you thought
(05:44):
you had a good chance to get so, as I said,
we're leaving Saint Vincent College, that's for sure. And let
me say this. I like training camp. I love the
fact that it's up here. I think, you know, I
the the experienced, you know, all of the things that
(06:05):
go with it. I think it has value. I love
the relationship. But Saint Vincent College in the rearview mirror
for another calendar year. It's it's I know, it's a
nice it's a nice feeling. As I said, I don't
hate this place at all, or the you know, the experience.
You know, it's a lot of hard work, but hey,
(06:25):
I get to talk to you every morning.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I mean seriously, then.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I'd be happy if that was over too.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I don't blame it, but you know, it is good
to get back to as as you mentioned, reintroduce myself
to my wife, get back to my own bathroom which.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Is huge, my own bed, yes, and.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Eat some normal food, you know, instead of cafeteria food
or shark or the peer. You know, it's good, love it,
it's good. But sometimes I have a tendency that how
do you say it over indulged.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, exactly, Just get a little too eager sometimes just yeah,
the eyes are a little bit bigger than the stomach maybe.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Well, and you know, you sit at a table with
you know, Wolf Flick, Max.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Starts soon just want to keep up.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, you know so, Yeah, I'm ready for a
lot of in those areas are return to normalcy.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Well, I think as Wolf calls it, and you'll hear
today when he's on for in the locker room though.
The trope five hundred will be run today after practice
is done, as all the media and people make their
giant eggsit out of Saint Vincent College back to Pittsburgh. Uh,
we mentioned they're going to be back at the South Side,
but just to kind of outline the week of head
labs quick pit stuff before they get to practices at
the Rooney Sports Complex, they're gonna be an Acrocher Stadium tomorrow.
(07:55):
Buffalo Bills are going to be in town a couple
of days early before that game on Saturday at Akroschuur
Stadium a joint practice between the Steelers and the Buffalo
Bills that will be closed to the public unfortunately, So
don't go down to Akroscher Stadium expecting to get in.
You'll be banging on the gates, trying to trying to
scale them. But what do you kind of think that
joint practice might entail. I'm sure it has a lot
(08:17):
to do with the kickoff rule, but we heard in
your Tomlin chat pregame against Houston that's not exclusively why
they're having this joint practice.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
No, and it will be in pads.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And because of that, today's practice, which was originally scheduled
for pads, has been downgraded to just helmets. So the
practice that starts here at ten thirty will be in
helmets only, you know, helmets and shells, but they just
on the schedule they say helmets. So because you don't
(08:51):
want them going in pads today tomorrow and then having
a game on Saturday, you don't want to beat up
the bodies too much. But you know, it is closed
to the public. However, I did talk to PR director
Burt Louten, and what is going to happen is the
(09:14):
media rules in terms of what you can report are
going to be relaxed, and the same rules that exist
for training camp practices at Saint Vincent College that are
open to the public will be in effect for the
joint practice against the bills at Akerscher Stadium. It was
(09:35):
originally scheduled for two pm. It has been moved up
to one pm. But as I mentioned, as you mentioned,
it is close to the public, so you know that
time change really doesn't impact anyone. But you know, the players,
the coaches, the officials, the accredited media that will be
allowed in.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
So you're saying it will be more like a training
camp setting where the media can kind of give us
an inkling on what's going on out there, not OT's
mini camp where you got to kind of zip it.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yes, that is correct what you said.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Uh so, and I did get a quick glance at
the script for the joint practice. I mean it looks
a whole lot like a regular Steelers practice. Seven shots
team run a couple of special teams periods. So in
a lot of ways, it will be like what happens
(10:33):
on the fields here at Saint Vincent College in terms of, uh,
what the what the teams are doing, what the players
are doing, the kinds of drills that are on the schedule.
But again, uh, you know, they will be wearing different
kinds of helmets, different color jerseys, you know, those kind
of things.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
And you know, Mike.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Tomlin has confidence that his longtime relatelationship with Sean McDermott
will help keep the keep things on track because we've
seen a lot of video highlights of joint practices over
the years that you know, they look like riots. You know,
(11:19):
it just descends into a lot of pushing and shoving
and fighting, you know, and that kind of stuff. So
Mike Tomlin is optimistic that it can they can stay
on track, stay on course, and he believes that his
relationship with Sean McDermott will help make that happen. So
(11:40):
we'll get to find out for sure, but I would
expect that it will because I think both of these teams,
both of these groups of players, let me say it
that way, have respect for their respective head coaches, and
if they are told, you know, what to do and
what not to do, I think by and large they're
(12:03):
gonna do what they were told.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Sey was in Bill's joint practice tomorrow, excited to hear
what goes on there. And then, of course Saturday night,
the real thing, seven o'clock kickoff at Akrotur Stadium against
the Buffalo Bills. Let's peek back at what happened on
Monday's practice up at training camp though, LABS before we
hear from coach Tomlin and his thoughts. Following practice, Cordeal
Patterson returned from the non football related injury list with
(12:27):
that hamstring injury, and you know, you add him, you're
adding one of the best kick returners of all time
in the NFL. It's not hyperbole to say that, and
that's clearly what his main usage is. But throughout his
career LABS, he's shown that he's useful not just in
special teams, in the offense as well. Kind of got
a taste of that with the first team offense and
seven shots on Monday as well.
Speaker 4 (12:48):
Yeah, I mean, and CORDERYO Patterson, his I think his
job is pretty much defined. He was signed almost immediately
after the owner meetings ended and the new kickoff rules
were implemented on a one year trial basis. So you know,
(13:09):
I really think that his role is primarily being the
kickoff return of the Steelers, seeing opportunity maybe to take
advantage to you know, uh use that new rule. Maybe
some of the indecision, uh, the lack of understanding detailed
work available to implementing the return part of it and
(13:33):
the coverage part of it. Maybe you get a guy,
a dynamic returner like Cordero Patterson and he could make
a play for you simply because you know, you look
at his NFL resume. The guy has returned a lot
of kickoffs for touchdowns a lot, So that's his role. However,
(13:54):
you know, it's spot on the roster. Will he have
a job within the offense. That's kind of up in
the air still tbd, And the impact of that could
have some kind of say in how the Steelers formulate
(14:15):
their fifty three men roster. By that, I mean this,
So do you account Cordero Patterson as a running back
the economy, as a wide receiver?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
You know, where does he fit in?
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Because the guy has a lot of NFL experience at
both of those things. You know, he played some running
back and has run the ball a lot during his
college college career, during his NFL career, and he has
been a receiver.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
So you know, I think that the Steelers.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Is still trying to figure out a little bit where
he might fit in beyond kickoff returns. So you mentioned
seven shots on Monday, It was really interesting. He was
on the field first time in you know, full pads
out here. They lighten them up and a receiver at
a receiver spot. Now it's you know, he's wearing number
(15:05):
eighty four, But he wasn't set up in the backfield
right behind the quarterback, so that's kind of on the wing.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That's why he was saying. That's why I said he.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Was in a receiver spot and Russell Wilson handed him
the ball as he ran around. It wasn't a jet
sweep kind of thing because he wasn't moving until the
ball was snapped wide. Receiver around wasn't a reverse because
of wearing a couple of handoffs, so trying to describe
it accurately, he got into the end zone for a touchdown.
(15:36):
He also took a snap lined up in the backfield
as a running back and was off right tackle, so
that was more of a you know, he was in
a running back spot. He got stopped there. But you know,
the guy, he has a skill set. He has a
lot of experience, and I think the Steelers are going
(15:59):
to see what they can do to implement him beyond
more than I don't know how many four or five
kickoffs a game, even you probably hope there aren't even
that many. Where you're in kickoff returns because that means
the other team scoring. So you know, let's look optimistically
the two kickoffs that you're going to be returning one
(16:20):
because you either win the toss or lose the toss,
and then we'll give the other team one score.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I like looking at it that way. And you know,
as far as inserting Cordell Patterson into the actual offense,
that's nothing new to the offensive coordinator because fortunately they
have a nice track record in the past three years
together in Atlanta. So I mean, there's familiarity between Arthur
Smith and Patterson, which is probably what helped him geme
to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Well, I really think that it was the kickoff thing.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Okay, the year on top of it.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
Yes, it didn't hurt. It didn't hurt. But if you
ask me, you know why we the Steelers signed him,
I would say the new kickoff rules and a chance
to maybe become a you know, a multipurpose kind of weapon.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Well, coach Thomas spoke to the media following Monday's practice.
Let's hear what he had to say.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
Man, we had another really good day Stealers versus Steelers.
I thought there was really good intensity in our tackle
periods seven shots and team run. We had overkilled a
day relative to possession down football. We didn't perform well
last Friday night on third down on either side of
the ball, and so we had an overreaction, a thoughtful overreaction.
(17:36):
We drowned ourselves in possession down football today in about
three of our periods where every down was third down,
just to kind of take advantage of this atmosphere and
the last week that we have up here in terms
of making points about downs awaited differently, those possession downs
are significant, and so we've you know, just thoughtful about
how we finish up here in terms of some of
(17:57):
the things we emphasize and the effort to to capture
the last that this this environment provides us. We got
guys with a myriad of training camp like bumps and bruises.
You know, some guys were given a day off. It's
not really anything to speak of. D Elliott for example,
as an example of that. D Jackson is an example
(18:18):
of that, and some others. But you guys know, we
focus less on those that we're minimizing and those that
we're not working, and we viewed more its more of
it as an opportunity for some ascending guys to get
not only more reps, but more competitive reps against more
experienced competition. And so that's how we look at some
of that. We'll continue that throughout the remainder of this process.
(18:39):
I think when I come back on Wednesday, PQ and
the Landon Roberts for example, will rotate out. It'll be
a good day for a guy like Peyton Wilson. I'll
pause and open up for questions.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Mikes, you guys chase more points?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Is there any thought to being a little.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
More aggressive, perhaps at the expense a little bit of.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Protecting the ball?
Speaker 5 (18:58):
You know, this is at the early stages of the process.
We're not you know, we don't have agendas as such
as you mentioned. We're just trying to play good varsity
ball all the way around and establish a good fundamental base.
We're just not not where you're at yet. We've seen
brylland Island getting more reps with the first team defense.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
What's he done to impress you guys in the in
the defense?
Speaker 5 (19:17):
So he's healthy. He wasn't healthy last week, so we
minimized him. He's healthy this week. So we give them
more reps and we give them higher quality reps in
the effort to get to know them. Don't read too
much into it.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Another has some time to work at it once they're right.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Exchanges work clean. Get a place where they work clean.
How do their centers block it up? How perfect him
like a sack to.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Do in that regard.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
I like their efforts, but I cannot remove that that
fundamental component of the eval. We got to be one
thousand percent on CQ exchanges. That's just the standard for
professional ball. And so they're evolving there.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
Any said the.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
RUSS is going to be available?
Speaker 7 (19:49):
Is he even planning to start?
Speaker 5 (19:51):
We hadn't determined that yet.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Man.
Speaker 5 (19:52):
We're still as versus Steelers right now. We'll get to
some of that stuff later in the week. I think
I'll meet with you guys talking about Buffalo and the
press conference, so I won't have any inf mation regarding
Buffalo for you guys prior to that.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
How do you think Cordero fared today in practice? We've
seen him get some reps running the ball here today.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Yeah, this is not his first rodeo. Man, He's been
around a couple of blocks and back, and so I
don't think any of us are surprised that you know,
he's capable and can swim in these waters.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
It's about a guy like Kean Lowry working his way
back here.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
What's he's able to provide him?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Same thing, man, He's a veteran player, That's why we
did business with him in the off season. But he's
missed a lot of time and I'm sure he's got
extreme urgency in terms of hurrying up to catch up.
He understands what this process is about and how to
say and runs through the hour glass, so you know,
I'm sure he's extremely urgent.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Coach Tomlin speaking with the media. Hey, it's not Cordell
Patterson's first rodeo. It certainly isn't Coach Tomlin's first rodeo.
But another training camp is about to be in the
books for coach t Final practice for the Steelers twenty
twenty four training camp takes place today up at Saint
Vincent College at ten thirty. It's loo got a lot
more to get to though here on the training camp report.
When Labs and I come back, we're gonna keep talking
(20:59):
about that seven shots drail will clee in on who
won yesterday, the intensity and then also look at the
Steelers secondary on the defensive side of the ball, all
that ahead on the Training Camp Report on the Steelers
Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
He sees the Training Camp Report with Tom Opferman and
Bob Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Final day of training camp practice for the Steelers today,
which means it'll probably be the final seven shots Steelers
on Steelers in the camp setting. Of course, yesterday the
labs became the last padded practice of Steelers' training camp.
Today will be in just tellmets as they plan to
be in pads tomorrow for the joint practice at Akrosur
Stadium with the Buffalo Bills. But the offense kind of
(21:46):
getting the last laugh as far as that full speed,
fully padded seven shots goes.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Yeah, let me just throw this out to you. It
might be the last day out here at Saint Vincent
College and the Latro five hundred is Craig Wolfley refers
to it will begin later today, and yes, I am
one of the ones who is anxious to get back
to my own house, in my own bed and my wife.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
But there are a long there is a long line.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Of fans lined up along the sidewalk from you know,
the Chuck Nolefield bleachers all the way out to that
you know, the one kind of fork in the in
the road there where then there are the security guard
takes the rope down, and then fans scramble to get
(22:40):
autographs positioning down the steps and you know up by
where the players come out after getting dressed for practice.
So there's a lot There may be a lot of
people already on campus who are excited about leaving, but
there are also a lot of Steelers fans in the area,
and who knows from how are away they've come, we're
(23:01):
still very excited about coming here to watch their favorite
team work. Okay, back to your original point seven shots.
You know, it was an interesting drill for me in
this respect because I scored it as an offensive win.
(23:22):
I had it five to two, but I think that
it might have been four to three because, as I've mentioned,
a bunch of times, unless NFL officials are here calling
these plays and lined up on the goal line and
then along the end line to make sure, you know,
guys get their feet in bonds, whether it's a catch
(23:43):
or not to break the plane, all that stuff. A
lot of times it's conjecture. You know, did the quarterback
get sacked or not before he threw the touchdown pass,
all those kinds of things. So I kind of have
a tendency to believe it was tied after six snaps
because Mike Tolman put the first teams back on the field,
(24:03):
and usually he doesn't do that unless the outcome of
the drill is at stake. So there was a play.
It was the fourth snap. Justin Fields was the quarterback,
and what there was the play was a combination route
between George Pickens and Calvin Austin and the the defenders
(24:30):
on the play, or Joey Porter Jr. And the Shawn
Elliott cornerback in safety covering a slot receiver and an
outside receiver. So the play took a long time to develop,
and by the time it did, Calvin Austin was wide open.
Both of the guys, both of the defensive backs went
(24:52):
with George Pickens, Calvin Austin was left all alone and
Justin Fields hit him. You know, he was open enough
that I could have caught him the ball, that's how
open he was.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
So but.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
You know, we were kind of speculating a little bit.
Dale Lawley was up here with me at that point.
Was that a sack. Would that have been ruled a sack?
You know, in real life you're not allowed to tackle
the quarterback or hit the quarterback or anything, but there
are a lot of occasions up here in this camp
setting where a pass rusher will run by the quarterback
(25:27):
and then that's considered a sack in the for whatever
scoring we're interested in. So anyway, I'm going to rule
that now as a sack because, as I said, it
came down to the last play and that was with
Russell Wilson as the quarterback. And I described the first play,
(25:49):
which was the kind of wide receiver around play to
Corderio Patterson. Steelers ran the same thing, only this time
it was with George Pickens. Again not a jet sweep
because he was an in motion. He was a stationary
for the snap of the ball, and then he came
around and he got into the end zone. So that
(26:11):
made it four to three offense. One other thing to note,
I believe the the backup running back job, and by
backup I don't mean number two because both Nausee Harris
and Jalen Warren they're like one on one a and
(26:31):
their locks to make the roster. Okay, the question is,
is there gonna be another running back? Now, I'm not
talking about Jack Coletto either, He's a fullback. That's a
different category. Do they keep another running back? And you
know some of the guys who are in contention for
that job. You know, you got Jonathan Wardle, Michael p Ryan,
(26:53):
Dejon Edwards, Aaron Shamplin. You know, these guys are in
a situation where not only do they have to show
that they belong on the roster, but they almost kind
of have to also convince the Steelers to keep another
running back as opposed to as I was mentioning a
fourth tight end, a sixth receiver, an extra defensive back.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
You know, I don't know whatever.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
So Jonathan Ward this guy continues to he looked pretty
good against the Texans in that preseason game. He he
is a guy who along with Anthony Averrett, just to
remind everyone, he made the team based on coming to
rookie mini camp as a tryout guy. So you know,
(27:43):
kind of an uphill battle from there. But you know,
Jonathan ward Is he powered into the end zone. Was
a nice run. He seems to be among the first
of the of that group of running backs onto the
field and Mike Tomlin has said a bunch of times
when you play is important because it says it indicates
(28:08):
what group you're in. And in training camp there's group one,
group two, group three. Once you get to the regular season,
there's no group three. So if you're still in group
three when training camp breaks, you better make a move
here because group three is pretty much all history once
(28:31):
it comes time to cut the roster.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So the offense gets to win. Yesterday in seven shots,
it was an intense practice, according to Tomlin, in all
of the periods that they did tackle periods, seven shots,
team run. But one thing I didn't want to get
to LABS is the overkill. In regards to possession down football.
Tomlin said they had a thoughtful overreaction to that quote.
We drowned ourselves in possession down football today, of course,
(28:55):
referring to Monday's practice. Three of their periods where every
down is third down, and that's what they struggled in
mightily against the Houston Texans on Friday. They started one
for seven on possession down. So I kind of like
seeing that thoughtful overreaction from the coaching staff up at
that Saint Vincent setting.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, Mike Tomlin is big on you know, possession downs,
weight he downs as he refers to them often as well.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
And yes, the.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Steelers ended up two for nine, but they were one
for seven through the into the third quarter, which is.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
You know, that's just awful.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
You cannot you know, that's that's the answer to so
many other questions that you might want to ask the
about the offense. Why didn't they run the ball more?
Why didn't they whatever more? You know, if you're ever
asking why so few things happen in a certain category
(29:51):
of offense when you're one for seven on third down,
that's why. That's why, because you're not you're not possessing
the ball. If you're not possessing the ball, you have
no opportunity to establish any rhythm, and you know, it
just it just kind of sabotages everything. And then you
know that you flip that around. If your defense isn't
(30:15):
getting off the field on third downs, then you know
that also limits the amount of possessions that the offense gets,
the amount of time it has an opportunity to possess
the ball, all that stuff. So yeah, third down performance,
both making them and getting off the field are very
important and Mike Toman judged the Steelers as being below
(30:39):
the line in that area and used an entire practice
pretty much to emphasize it, because you can you can
still run the normal drills that you run, pass under pressure,
a lot of the other kind of things that they do,
but you just make it everything a third down so
(31:01):
that the players understand, you know, they have sticks, it's
not necessarily and they'll set up the particular play of
the seven on seven.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It's an example third and eight.
Speaker 4 (31:16):
So you know, if you're a receiver, you've got to
get past the eight yards. If you're a defender, that's
your line, you know. So that's how they work those
within the context of a regular kind of practice.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Script Well, we.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Mentioned in our first segment today that even though training
camp is coming to an end, guys can't take that
sigh of relief, can't take that breather, especially if they're
in the middle of an intense position battle. And Beanie
Bishop and grayln Arnold really find themselves their labs. With
the suspension of Camp Sutton and Camp rolling into now
it's final day, it's clear that the Steelers are throwing
these two into the fire and seeing if they can
(31:52):
get one of them to step up, or get both
of them to step up and get contributions from them
until Sutton returns. And Beanie Bishop made a nice playing
practice yesterday that you noted on your practice report. Grayland
Arnold started seeing the field more and more because his
health is where it needs to be. Those are two
guys that really need to keep the focus when they
shift to the south side for the next coming weeks
(32:13):
because that battle is at the top of the list
as far as Steelers position battles goes.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, I mean, you're looking for a starting nickel and
because of the way you know, the game is played
now at the NFL level, having an extra defensive back
on the field is pretty much a regular occurrence.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
Mike Tomlin estimates that the Steelers are in their base
three to four maybe thirty percent of the time. So
the rest of the time you're in some kind of
subpackage and a lot of times that in a lot
of instances that subpackage includes more defensive backs. Again, because
of the way that the sport has played at the
(32:56):
NFL level now, so you don't have any return arning
veterans there. So Beanie Bishop was an undrafted rookie signed.
Grayland Arnold is a guy who came to the Steelers,
I believe. Yes, let's see grayln Arnold. Yeah, he has
(33:17):
some NFL experience. I'm looking it up here to see
the specifically. Yeah, he's a fifth year player from Baylor.
So the guy's been around the league a little bit.
He has some experience. And in the first segment segment
of training camp, you know, Grayland Arnold was a guy
(33:37):
was constantly looking on the on the roster. You know
who's this number? What's his number?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
Now?
Speaker 4 (33:45):
Thirty five? You know who's this number? Thirty five? Yes,
because there's two thirty five. Jonathan Ward is thirty five
and Grayland Arnold is thirty five. You know who's this
thirty five? Who did that? Who got his hands on
the ball? That's thirty five? Who came up with that
interception of that's thirty five. So he was around the
ball a lot. He was making some plays, making himself known.
(34:10):
Then he got injured, so he was removed from the
equation a little bit. Beanie Bishop started to assert himself
and he was a guy that I guess it's fair
to call him maybe the Steelers' primary target after the
draft in terms of undrafted rookies to sign. They had
(34:33):
some good intel on him played at West Virginia. Who knows,
maybe Wes Euler was giving him a Scotty Reports. Yeah, yeah,
But so then you know, being Bishop started doing some things.
But Mike Tomlin has been pretty clear about it in
(34:53):
terms of when and why each guy seemed to be
running with the first team. Because Beanie Bishop, you saw
him on the field a lot, heard his name called
a lot in the preseason opener, you know, that doesn't
necessarily mean that he had a great game or that
(35:15):
he is clearly in the lead for that position. Battle
was more of a case of Grayland Arnold's injury and
opportunities created by that injury. Grayland Arnold got a good
bit of time on the field on Monday, as Mike
Tomlin said, that was more a result of he's now
back healthy than Beanie Bishop has done anything bad to
(35:40):
lose his spot. So that's still pretty much to me
a two horse race. It's up for grabs, definitely. Saturday's
game could be a big determining factor.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
No doubt. And sticking with the secondary, Corey Trice got
some more run on Monday's practice because of Dante Jackson
getting a little Veterans day off. Corey Trice, of course,
getting injured in last year's training camp. A second year
man trying to find a nice role with the Steelers,
he caught up with Rob King following practice on Monday.
Let's hear what he and the Steelers played by play
man had to say.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
Corey.
Speaker 6 (36:12):
First of all, let's talk about the game action. I
want to rewind in a moment, But what was it
like finally being out there and being healthy and being
able to play in a game?
Speaker 7 (36:19):
Man, like a dream come true?
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Man? Definitely felt good.
Speaker 7 (36:22):
You know, I've been waiting for a long time, and
you know, whenever the opportunity presented itself, I was ready.
Speaker 6 (36:27):
So let's talk about your injury and the rehab process
and when you really felt like, okay, I can let
out a breath. I finally feel one hundred percent healthy.
Speaker 7 (36:38):
It's not really more like the hundred percent healthy thing.
It's more so like this is the best on the
feel right now. So you know, my rehab process, all
that went good. You know, surgery went good, and you
know after that, after my surgery, I woke up, they
told me everything I need to do now, just a
grind and just keep working on myself, keep working on
my body. And you know, whenever he felt like it
(37:00):
was time is when I came back from after the
break in July, we had you know, we have to
report back for camp.
Speaker 6 (37:08):
So what's it been like working with this group of
different receivers, different group from a year ago?
Speaker 7 (37:12):
Oh yeah, man, it's great. Man, Like everybody got something different.
Like every time I go up against a new guy
that guts a different skill set that I'm most likely
going to see in a game.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
So it's definitely great.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
We were just listening to Arthur Smith and he talked about,
look a lot of guys offense defense they need to
get a helmet by being good on special teams. How
much is that important to you right now?
Speaker 3 (37:32):
At this juncture? That was very important.
Speaker 7 (37:33):
That's one thing they definitely emphasized here in Pittsburgh's special team.
So you know, all he knew that was gonna, you know,
probably beat my role coming into it. And I don't
mind getting it in like that. So whatever they want
me to do, you know, I'm gonna do a hundred
and ten percent. So yeah, spear, the team death.
Speaker 6 (37:47):
Is huge now every game is an opportunity. You have
the Bills coming up, you have a team practice against
somebody else that's not you, guys, you're looking forward to that,
and what about this opportunity against the Bills.
Speaker 7 (37:56):
Oh yeah, I'm loving it, man. Just another opportunity for
me to you know, continue get my feet you wor
continue do you know, get us speed with the game
and stuff like that. So it definitely a great opportunity.
Speaker 6 (38:05):
Corey, thank you very much the time. Sure appreciate it, Yes, sir,
appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
There's steer. Second year defensive back Corey Trice speaking with
Rob King after practice on Monday. When Labs and I
come back, we're gonna look at the weather report for
meteorologists Labs and then we'll also kick around some of
the injury updates with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's on the
way to wrap up the first hour of the training
camp report on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Hec's the Training Camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Labs, I feel like it's finally safe to say this.
Don't have to even knock on wood, but Steelers have
gotten full weather cooperation up at Saint Vincent College, just
about forty minutes away from the final practice starting today.
And as you'll tell the folks who are listening in
their cars heading up to Saint Vincent or are just
curious listening at home, it looks all good from the
weather front.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Yeah, you know this is it'll be a little bit
of an adjustment for me not being able to do
the weather every morning.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
You know, what is about money? Here? Do I get
a pay cut since my meteorological duties?
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Right, No, they'll don't just take anything they need to
cut out of my paycheck to make sure your stays
the same.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
But another beautiful day here, not a cloud in the sky,
sunny and clear. It's sixty three degrees right now. For
our weather geek there in the studio, the barometric pressure
is thirty point one nine inches of mercury. And once again,
when you're getting in your private helicopter, what kind of
(39:40):
logo do you have on the side.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I don't go with any logo. I don't want anybody
to identify me.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Good plan, ten miles of visibility, so they.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Should beautiful all camp.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
Right right route you right in there to Arnold Palmer
Airport and I'll see you here in time for lunch then, right.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Sounds like a plan to me. Russell Wilson starting to
work his way back into the fauld. We heard coach
Tomlin speaking to the media on Monday not really committing
that he will be starting for the Steelers Saturday against Buffalo.
I think they'd like that to be the plan, Labs.
You want to give this guy a bit of taste
of real football before he takes the helm, or we
(40:21):
assume he'll take the helm health permitting week one against
the Atlanta Falcons. Did you see anything on Monday with
Russell Wilson Maybe a little bit more of a workload
or was it kind of the same status quo of
him and field split and stuff with the first team.
Speaker 4 (40:34):
Yeah, I mean yes, But I don't really think that
the calf situation is a factor.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
I just don't.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
I mean, my opinion is that it was not the
Russell Wilson's calf injury. Let me start like this, Russell
Wilson's calf injury was not a Joe Burrow type of situation, Okay,
but they didn't want it to become that, right, and
(41:03):
so that's why the course of action was taken to
limit him. And again I think that part of that,
maybe hand in hand with that, was let's get an
extra long look at Justin fields, you know, give him
(41:23):
to some time to work on some things, to develop
some things, let us see what we have in him,
let him get a better feel for this offense and
his teammates and you know, all of those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
And so I think it was more of.
Speaker 4 (41:38):
A two pronged kind of approach slash decision that was made.
And you know, I believe, I believe Russell Wilson will
be the starter on September the eighth, when the Steelers
open in Atlanta against the Falcons. I believe that he
is the better choice to be the starter for that
(42:00):
game because what we have seen from Russell Wilson, beyond
the fact that you know, the guy still has a
live arm, he still can throw the deep ball. I
don't think there's any question. He's not the dynamic kind
of escape artist or running runner that Justin feels is.
(42:21):
But I mean, he wasn't signed to be that. I
don't think you expect that from a man of his age.
But Russell Wilson is a pro, a pro and in
terms of that status. I think you can. It's safe
to say it takes one.
Speaker 3 (42:40):
To know one.
Speaker 4 (42:41):
And Russell Wilson is the kind of guy that when
he's in the locker room, the way he conducts himself,
the way he practices, the way he gets he prepares
in the other areas, his teammates notice that. And that's
the kind of thing you need from your starting quarterback.
(43:03):
And so Russell Wilson, I believe is the better choice
to start the season. I think he will be fine
given the support that you know, any starting quarterback in
the NFL needs, and I would expect him to play
a good bit against Buffalo. This is just my opinion.
I don't know anything about it for sure yet. Mike
(43:23):
Tomlin will hold his pre Buffalo news conference after the
joint practice tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
Okay, so.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
Steelers fans, you know that'll be streamed on Steelers dot
Com and all of the Steelers media platforms, as are
all of the Mike Tomlin news conferences, So if you
want to hear exactly what he says, you know, as
I said, the practice starts at one, it'll probably be
two hours, and then it's always archived on there too,
(43:55):
so you know, you don't have to worry about it.
But he'll answer the question. I'm right. I'm sure he
will be asked that quickly. He may just give it
up in his opening remarks.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
He might do that. If not, though, I'm pretty sure
the odds in Vegas are like minus one hundred and
fifty thousand that that's the first question asked of him,
is who's going to start on Saturday against Buffalo Real
quickly laps before he hit the break. One other injury
that I wanted to touch on, rookie Troy Fautan, who
suffered that knee injury against the Houston Texans, is going
to keephim out of practice this week, might keep him
out for the rest of the preseason. But Jerry Dulac
(44:26):
in the Post Gazette, you know, saying that this rookie
looks like he's on track to start at right tackle,
and he kind of, you know, squashed some worries that
I had about this injury being maybe a setback in
that regard.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
Yeah, I mean, I agree, it's not as bad as
it could have been.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Or you know, for someone who lives in his fears
like me.
Speaker 4 (44:45):
But again, profile time missing this kind of practice now
a segment of training camp is not going to help
him get on the field quickly once the regular season starts.
I'm just saying that because in Broderick Jones and Dan
Moore Junior, it doesn't really matter what the fans think.
The Steelers think they have two started capable NFL offensive
(45:06):
tackles in those two guys, so they're not going to
rush the rookie onto the field.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
When we come back to start our second hour of
our final Training Camp report, we're going to talk a
little bit about the wide receivers. Van Jefferson and Joey
Porter Junior had a nice back and forth and practice
on Monday, so we'll touch on that, talk about that
room in general, and then we'll get into that joint
practice with the Bills preview what's going to come on
Thursday before we wrap things up here on the Final
Training Camp Report on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Hec's No Training Camp Report with Tom Opferman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Steelers wide receiver room has obviously been a cause of
a lot of conversation, not just through our training camp,
but throughout this entire offseason. Labs and guys have an
opportunity within that room, like a Van Jefferson, a Calvin Austin,
a Scottie Miller, Roman Wilson when he gets healthy to
really grab that man until of a quote unquote wide
receiver too for this team. And you know, I think
(46:05):
all of the guys I've mentioned have kind of had
really good contributions towards that throughout their camp.
Speaker 4 (46:12):
Yeah, I mean, it's still very much in flux. And
there's a name that you know, a number two receiver
that you didn't mention, Pat Fryarmouth.
Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
You know, we've seen other teams go to their tight end,
often use a receiving tight end in ways not to
replace what another wide receiver might contribute to the offense,
but you know, to pose enough problems for the defense
where you know it gives them something to worry about. Certainly,
(46:45):
Travis Kelcey is one of those guys. And I'm not
gonna sit here right now and predict that, you know,
Pat Fryarmouth is going to be Dayton Taylor Swift anytime soon,
but he can be a I believe he can be
much more of a factor for the Steelers in the
offense than he has been to this point in his career,
(47:07):
and so there's that opportunity for him. But as the
specifically the other guys at depth charter wide receiver, you know,
you mentioned Van Jefferson. You know, he is a guy who,
again I use this word to describe Russell Wilson, he's
a pro. He's not Van Jefferson is not a pro
(47:32):
to the sense at wide receiver that Russell Wilson is,
to the sense he is a pro at quarterback. But
he's a been there, done that kind of guy. He
is reliable, He runs pretty good routes, he has good hands,
you know. So he's certainly, I believe, someone who can
have an impact, you know, on the passing game. Of
(47:55):
all those guys you mentioned, the guy I think who
is coming on the fastest and the most lately is
Scotty Miller.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
Another veteran lads, another guy who's been around the block.
Speaker 4 (48:07):
Yes, and he's not gonna wol you with his size
or his speed or anything. But the guy is reliable.
He's he's where he's supposed to be when he's supposed
to be there.
Speaker 3 (48:22):
You know, I.
Speaker 4 (48:24):
Like him. I think that again, he's not special from
any of the physical measurables category. But again another guy
I think that can be helpful and make contributions in
some critical situations, you know, to the cause. Calvin Austen
(48:45):
is another guy I think. Who he's Here's the thing
with him to me. You look at him and see
how the areas of the field where he typically operates,
and if you're not around him enough or see him enough,
you might get seduced into thinking this guy is just
(49:08):
a possession receiver, you know, works the middle of the field,
always runs his routes close to the sticks. You know
that kind of guy. But he also has speed, and
he could get deep and he can make those kind
of plays too down the field. So any opposing defender
(49:30):
or you know, defenses as a whole, who might underestimate
him a little bit and think he is just a
possession type catch catch an eight yard pass on third
and seven, don't fall asleep on him, because if your
defensive back or a safety or whoever might be covering
him is covering the stick too much, he'll run right
(49:55):
past you. So he's interesting in that respect.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
You know.
Speaker 4 (50:01):
Of course, you got George Pickens, and I don't know,
I just don't think it's necessary to talk about the
wide array of athletic.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Skills this guy.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
I mean, I'm done talking about it in terms of
while look at that, because if you miss that one,
wait five minutes and there will be another one. So
you know, again, I don't know that. I don't know
that there is a number two wide receiver in the
(50:34):
traditional sense of what people are thinking about when you're
talking about number two wide receiver. I don't know that
any of the wide receivers on the Steelers' depth chart
outside of George Pickens will be high picks for anybody's
fantasy league team. But that doesn't mean it can't be effective.
And if it's, if it truly is and develops into
(50:58):
being a run first offense from Arthur Smith, you know,
we'll see what they actually need from that spot or
that role.
Speaker 2 (51:09):
And you know, as far as a guy like Van
Jefferson is concerned, or even Scotty Miller labs, you know,
there are veterans, they've been on other teams, and you
know they kind of get that treatment from the fans here.
It's like, oh, you got the young guys in Austin
and Roman Wilson, and then you got the old guys
and Van Jefferson and Scotty Miller. But it's not like
their grandpa Jefferson and Grandpa Miller. Van Jefferson's still twenty
eight years old, Scotty Miller's twenty seven years old. Those
(51:29):
guys are still a couple of years on the right
side of thirty. There's still a lot of potential for
them in the NFL.
Speaker 4 (51:35):
Yes, And you know, you mentioned a guy that I
neglected to mention, Roman Wilson, you know, a second day
draft picked by the Steelers. He's certainly he of course
sustained that ankle injury, sprained ankle.
Speaker 3 (51:50):
He's out of the boot.
Speaker 4 (51:51):
When he watches practice, there's you know, it doesn't even
seem to me that he has any kind of special
rap on it anymore. But he's not practicing. He hasn't practiced,
I would say, And again, since he hasn't practiced yet,
I would doubt that he plays on Saturday against Buffalo.
(52:13):
And you know, the injury itself might not continue to
be a problem for him, but the time that he
missed as a rookie is certainly going to be a problem.
And it's I don't know that it's something that you
can make up instantly with a couple of practices, so
(52:37):
that certainly set him back in terms of his development.
And you know, we're gonna have to see how long
it takes him to get on the to get a
helmet on game day, let me say that, and or
become part of the offensive game plan where you know,
(53:00):
he's a weapon slash option. You know, I would think
at this point the areas of the field that Roman
Wilson was operating in, that could be Scotty Miller's job
early in the in the regular season, just because of
his experience and his availability through this part of you know,
the training camp, preseason process.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
Still a lot of intrigue when it comes to those
wide receivers and a lot to keep an eye on
as camp breaks today, and they still have a few
weeks of practice before we make it all count against Atlanta.
Week one of the NFL season leaves and I will
come back. We'll talk a bit more about that joint
practice that's coming up tomorrow against the Buffalo Bills, what
you can't expect out of it. And coach Tomlin sat
down with Labs before the game against Houston and had
(53:44):
some thoughts about that joint practice. Will play those for
you as well. That's all on the way on the
Training Camp Report on the Steelers Audio Network.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
This season Training Camp Report with Tom Opferman and Bob
Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio.
Speaker 2 (54:02):
Camp breaks after practice today at ten thirty for the Steelers,
But tomorrow is a significant day on the Steelers preseason
practice schedule as the Buffalo Bills will come to town
early and participate in a joint practice at Akroscher Stadium
before Labs and I discuss what we expect to see
out of that joint practice. Labs and Coach Tomlin talk
pregame on the Steelers Audio Network before each game preseason
(54:26):
or regular season. They had a chat before the Houston
Texans game and Labs brought up the joint practice to
Coach Tomlin, and here's what he had to say.
Speaker 4 (54:33):
If there had been no change to the kickoff rule,
would there have been a joint practice with Buffalo.
Speaker 5 (54:39):
Yes, I'm into joint practices, particularly when I have a
relationship with the coach. I think you like the intensity
of it, while at the same time you want to
maintain professionalism. I think relationships aid in that. The history
that Sean and I have make us appropriate dance partners,
and I'm glad that it's going to happen for us.
Speaker 4 (54:59):
Besides what you just said, what would you describe as
the pluses and minuses of a joint practice or are
there none?
Speaker 5 (55:05):
But you know, for example, Buffalo is a four to
three team. We're a three four team, and so during
the course of the season, you see three four teams,
you see four to three teams. Our offense has almost
seen exclusively three fourth structure in camp. It's good for
them to work during development against something that's you know,
schematically different. We utilize a bunch of tight ends and
(55:28):
so forth. Offensively, Buffalo has been a three receiver group,
if you will, and so it's good for our defense
maybe to see some different things offensively. It's good for
offense to see some different things defensively. It's just all
part of the you know, developmental process.
Speaker 4 (55:45):
So you mentioned the relationship you have with Buffalo coach
Sean McDermott. How does that relationship, I don't know, maybe
prevent some of the negatives of a joint practice.
Speaker 5 (55:57):
You know, that's my brother Man. We've been we've been friends.
Man says. We are young, young people and so it's
probably because of the depths of that relationship, is probably
easier to maintain the professional environment that we all desire.
Speaker 2 (56:14):
Coach Thomas speaking with Labs before the Houston Texans game,
and Labs you heard it there, you know, the joint
kick or the kickoff rule, the update to the new
rule that they put in, I should say, played a
factor in this being a joint practice, but there are
other reasons beyond that that Tomlin and McDermott thought this
would be a good idea.
Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yeah, I mean, and it's convenient too.
Speaker 4 (56:34):
A lot of this you know, joint practice thing has
to do with, you know, scheduling, because both teams are
at ninety players, so that's a significant logistics.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
Issue, right and if you're.
Speaker 4 (56:50):
If you know, first of all, you would almost need
to have the teams be scheduled for a preseason game
in very close proximity of the joint practice availability because
you know, let's just pretend, okay, there's no game between
the Steelers and the Bills at Actorsure Stadium.
Speaker 3 (57:12):
Where are you going to have it? You have it
out here?
Speaker 4 (57:14):
Okay, maybe you have the fields, the field capabilities, but
where do the Bills live? You know, for a couple
of days.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
Got the extra dorms for ninety more players and coaches.
Speaker 3 (57:25):
Huh. Well, but and besides that, you know, talking to
people who you.
Speaker 4 (57:33):
Know, made pilgrimages out here for training camp, came from
long distances. There's no hotels either. I mean, they're booked,
they're booked long in advance. And again we're talking about
ninety players, coaches and staff. They're bringing trainers and video people,
you know, the whole you know, the whole shebang. So
(57:56):
you know that that's a little bit of a problem,
but it's relieved made easier by the fact that there's
a preseason game because you're coming anyway, so there's that.
And then you know, you want to have a relationship
between the coaches because you wouldn't want a situation where
and I'm trying to think of, you know, two teams
(58:18):
where the coaches aren't real fans of each other. You
wouldn't want any of that because then it's just then
it's just a free for all, you know, I mean,
because there there may be NFL officials there, but I mean,
I don't know that they would find.
Speaker 3 (58:37):
People for fighting in practice, you know what I mean.
If there's any league sanctions.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
The team, the individual team has to deal with that
on their own. I don't know.
Speaker 4 (58:47):
Yeah, and you know, and and again, you know, just
extrapolating this out to the whole teams can't just find
players for stuff. The Union has a lot to say
about that kind of thing. Fans, I know, they got
all excited. You know, if a player mouths off to
an assistant coach or you know, doesn't do something or
does something on the sideline during the game, fine, good
(59:11):
luck with that. I mean, that's you know, that's not
something that the players Association just stands back and allows happen.
So again, there's a lot of things involved, maybe below
the surface of why joint practices are difficult to schedule
and not maybe held as regularly as people might think
(59:33):
they could be or should be, based on the potential
advantages that they provide in terms of what you see
on the field. So this worked out pretty well, and
so we're going to have it tomorrow at Akroscher Stadium.
Speaker 2 (59:47):
Yeah, and just quickly got about a minute here, But
there will be pads for the joint practice against Buffalo,
so you can expect to see some of that intensity,
hopefully not boil over. But there will be some spirit
competitive periods between those two teams.
Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Yes, and you know, I'm sure Mike Tomlin and Sean
McDermott will get together and set specific parameters of when
is there tackling to the ground aloud, when it's tackling
to the ground, the loud not hitting the quarterback, things
like that.
Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Well, Labs, this was fun again. I'll see you again
in like what three hundred and fifty days. We'll do
it all over now.
Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
I think me and you should maybe just talk every morning,
just for old time sake.
Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
Yeah, even if we don't record, I'll just give you
a call, all.
Speaker 4 (01:00:28):
Right, I'll tell you what the weather is outside my house,
you know, just for just to keep you informed.
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Yeah, that sounds like a plan. And of course we
will be back soon ish for our Asked and Answered podcast,
maybe taking a week or two off before the regular
season before we pick that back up again. But keep
an eye out on the Steelers Audio Network for our
latest ass and Answer to pop up. We'll be back
in the saddle sooner rather than later. There's been a
lot of fun with you guys throughout training camp. You
got one more practice in about seven minutes and then
(01:00:57):
that's it for twenty twenty four Steelers Training Camp at
Saint Vincent in College. We'll head it out. We'll head
out to training camp live next with Mike Perzuda and
Max Starks. They'll give you live coverage of this final
day of practice and for Bob Labrielle, I'm Tom Opferman.
Thanks for listening to the Training Camp Report on the
Steelers Audio Network,
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