August 8, 2022 • 47 mins
Bob Labriola and Tom Opferman return after a Sunday day off to recap Saturday's practice in the South Side and hear what Coach Tomlin had to say. They then get into the QBs as the first preseason game looms, hear from Pickett and Connor Heyward, and talk about Alex Highsmith to round out today's Training Camp Report.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Man, We're really excited to be here. It's awesome to
get started, and so now we take off. She's the
Training Camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on
Steelers Nation Radio. For the first time in the Steelers season.
It is a game week. The Steelers and the Seahawks
do battle Saturday night at Akershore Stadium, seven o'clock kickoff, Labs.
(00:31):
That's got to be a very welcome opportunity for the players,
for the coaches, for everybody around. This week of practice
got has to have a bit of a different feel
to it as you build up towards that first game. Yeah,
and after the events like from Thursday to Saturday. I
did check with Steelers President Aren't Rooney the second and
there is no initiative to change the team nicknamed to
(00:54):
the Nomads so um or so uh yeah you have
that too. Yes, it it is, you know, because well,
I'm not even gonna say that because I might chinx it.
Never mind, I was gonna say there might not be
any chance for anything that has happened here and in
(01:14):
Latrobe the last few days to impact that, but yes
there could be, So shame on me, came on you
can't even claim the safety of the city of Pittsburgh
as a shelter because Saturday, when they moved practice to
the south side to get away from some weather, this
guy has followed them. They're open up and poured on
top of them. So you're right, it's not I don't
(01:35):
think it has anything to do with Latrobe. I think
it just has to do with the stealers themselves that
weather patterns may or maybe it's me because I was
at all of those Thursday Friday. Yeah, so that's why
I think I'll just bite my tongue here to punish
myself for what I said about Saturday night, and I
(01:56):
hope that the gods were not listening. But you got
to imagine for the players. You know, it's been two
weeks now, you know, first week, first half week of
training camp, we get to the weekend, Sunday day off,
next week, full week of practice, Sunday day off. There's
nothing you're really building towards except for that day off.
And now you finally get to look ahead and say, Okay,
(02:17):
all of this work is for not we see another
opponent coming to town on Saturday. It has to be
a little extra juice because I'm sure I don't have
to tell you. Once you get into this third week
of preseason, I'm sure it starts to drag a lot.
Oh yeah, And you know, we we've talked about this,
you know, previous uh installments of this very fine program
(02:38):
that you know, it's it adds a little bit more
of an edge to everything. You know, every snap, every repetition,
every every every everything, because as an example, uh, the
offense the clock or second clock, depending upon you know,
(02:58):
the result of the obvious play, whether you know, the
officials started at forty or started at so you know,
for the quarterback, just let's just because we haven't mentioned
the quarterbacks yet and it's already nine three, I think,
so um way to keep us back on track. So
(03:18):
you know, the quarterback, he's got to get the call
um from uh the offensive coordinator through his helmet. Uh,
you know, understand it, whatever it might be, if it's
the actual play call or if it's one of those
deals where you know, the quarterback has that long arm band,
you know, and he flips up the top because a
(03:40):
lot of times with in order to save time, rather
than the offensive coordinator you know, reading the whole thing.
The whole play. The offensive coordinator has the exact same
you know sheet on his available to him, and he
might just say column A number three and okay if
(04:00):
you looked down, calling me number three, and then he
goes into the the quarterback goes into the huddle and
then reads the play. So so you have to you know,
disseminate the information or understand the information first, then disseminated
to your teammates so everybody understands what it is. Get
everybody up on the line of scrimmage, if there's pre
snap motion or shifting or whatever. You know, you do
(04:21):
all that, look over the defense to whatever degree is
necessary or called for, and you get the playoff. So
you know, that's something that I'm sure that to some
degree during practices so far somebody has been, you know,
just keeping an eye on the clock to make sure
that you know, at least the general flow of the
(04:42):
thing here is in you know, in compliance with the
rules of the game once the game starts. But still
you have to do it sometimes under pressure, sometimes at
the end of a half or at the end of
the game, you know, if it's a two minute situation.
So there's a lot of different things you know elements
of it that you might not even think about that
(05:05):
are different. UH in that provide either teaching moments or
um provide UH opportunity for guys to show that they
are in fact game ready. They've got a full week
of practice ahead of them to show that very thing
before the Seahawks come to down Town on Saturday night.
Practices back in Latrobe today for your Pittsburgh Stealers after
(05:28):
having to move it to the south Side on Saturday.
UH precautionary. I think didn't want to have any inclement
weather ruin it. Although it tried, it's best in the
south side. Like we mentioned, you know, you moved practice
to the south Side, and that's just a change of scenery,
a change of pace. When we were talking about Friday
Night Lights before it unfortunately got canceled due to weather.
The main thing that Bill Cower wanted out of it
(05:49):
when he invented it was, you know, I want to
change the scenery. I want to, you know, change the
mindset of oh, it's just one go to practice, finished
practice to film study. You gotta change inge it up
a little bit. The season is not always going to
have games that kick off every single Sunday at one pm, Thursday, Saturday,
Sunday night, Monday night. So just a little way to
shake things up for players. I feel like that's still
(06:11):
accomplished by moving to the South Side. You know, it's
not as as as exciting, not fifteen thousand plus people
there at the high school stadium watching the practice, having
that autograph session, so it's not as exciting in that sense,
But as far as you know, for the players on
the field, it is that change of environment, you know,
change of Hey, this isn't the same exact thing we've
done for the past two weeks. And I think that
(06:33):
that's you know, still what cour and Tomlin is continuing
and trying to drill into them with these you know, hey,
we're not just gonna roll out of bed do the
same thing every day, go to Chucknell Field and practice.
So despite that it wasn't in front of people at Latrobe,
still mission accomplished in that sense. Look at you find
in the silver lining. That's what we do. We're very
optimistic show here labs, you and I are glass half
(06:56):
full people. That's what everybody describes as a um or,
you know, and you were talking about game days, you know,
with during pandemic too. Maybe you play on Wednesday every
now and then, you know, Wednesday at three, Wednesday at three,
oh wow, Hey you watch when this new streaming deal,
whenever it is finalized, is finalized. There's been a lot
(07:20):
of speculation that one of the goals is to almost
have games every day. I mean, if you manipulated, if
you if you manipulate the schedule properly, you know, with buys,
and you know, maybe a team plays, you know, Wednesday
one week and then Thursday the next week, and then
(07:43):
you know, Monday, you know whatever. Who knows? I mean,
and I don't know anything. I just read a lot
of stuff on the internet, and you know, once it's
on the internet as so. Um. But yeah, you know,
I think that keeping every light on their feet or
as Mike Thomlins says thoughtfully non rhythmic, um, you know,
(08:06):
it breaks things up, but it also keeps you know,
I want to say, their interest, but their concentration, UH
is maybe tested a little bit more that way. And
one of the things and we'll hear when we get
to the Mike Tomlin post practice UH presser from Saturday,
that was one of the things that he praised the
(08:28):
team for was that despite all of the changes, you know,
and the weird stuff that was happening starting with Thursday.
Last Thursday when at the last eleven plays had to
be shaved off the the practice script because lightning moved
into the area. You know, Thursday was a change day.
Friday was a changed day. Saturday was a change day.
(08:49):
He praised the team in the players for their focus
and intensity. Um, obviously he liked what he saw in
that respect on Saturday afternoon to you PMC Rooney Sports Complex. Why,
as you mentioned, Tomlin did speak to the media following practice.
Business as usual as far as that's concerned. But before
we get to that, labs, I was just handed some
(09:10):
breaking news here in the studio. Are you ready for this?
According you are, according to you already knew this breaking
news too. But now we can officially make a public
According to the Steelers via recent press release, practice today
will be at Latrobe, but it is moving to Latrobe
Memorial Stadium, so the Friday Night Lights Stadium is going
to be used today. Practice is still at one, but
(09:33):
it is open to the public. So I want to
make sure you guys know if you're listening and driving
up to Latrobe today, Do not go to Saint Vincent College,
Chucknell field practice will be at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. Glad
we could finally get the green light to tell people
that so we can kind of push them into the
right direction if they're headed up today. And awesome to
hear that they're still going to have a practice even
(09:53):
though it's not under the lights and doesn't have the
exact you know, Gravitas is a Friday, since it's a Monday,
it's still nice to see them doing it there this year. Yeah,
it's um, you know, the it's a it's a big
event for the UH community and uh, you know that
was always kind of one of the underlying purposes of it,
you know, Bill Kauer, certainly as you mentioned, you know
(10:16):
that was the football aspect, changing it up a little bit,
keeping you know, the players, um from getting I don't know,
too comfortable with the sketch with the times of being
ready to play football in the days, being ready to
play football because as you mentioned, the NFL schedule, as
(10:36):
much as we would like wish it, like to wish
it back to reality Sunday at one pm am, it's
not anything anything, anything okay to be done by seven
pm on Sundays anything, um, but you know that's just
not the reality. So uh, you know, it's uh, it's
(11:00):
it's a teaching tool, I think, and um as we
have learned, it's beneficial to the community, the programs at
Latrobe and in the Latrobe School district. I don't think
it's just the high school the old school district. So yeah,
it's a good thing, you know, and as long as
um everybody cooperates, including you mother nature. Uh, could be
(11:24):
a fun afternoon most definitely. So if you're headed up,
make sure you get to Latrobe Memorial Stadium today for
practice at one. Like we said, though, Tomlin spoke to
the media following Saturday's practice at the South Side facility.
Let's hear what coach had to say. You know, I
first started by saying, we're just really disappointed for the
fans this weekend. We were looking forward to entertaining them
(11:44):
and gaining a lot of energy from those guys Friday
night lights and today, but unfortunately the weather dictated otherwise.
I really was pleased by the guy's intensity and urgency.
In spite of that, we had to come back into
the city to get our work done today, and UM,
I just thought we had a really good practice in
spite of some of the UH, some of the hurdles
(12:04):
that we had to deal with. From a weather standpoint,
we don't run away from those issues. We want to
run to those issues. We're playing all weather conditions, just
just not lightning, and so it was good to see
them remain singlely focused and have good competitive days. UH.
In spite of the adjustments. UM, no real news from
an injury standpoint. The guys have been described as day
(12:25):
to day or continue to do so. There's been some
guys who had increased participation, like Maka and others, and
it's reasonable to expect that to continue, particularly as we
push in the next week and start leaning in on
the preseason game week. I'll be happy to answer the
questions serious and with Kim No, no, no, not at
all like that Chase has the pads on out there.
(12:48):
Is he getting closure maybe and and he's a guy
that I'm describing and that working their way back and
so UM, hopefully we'll get a lot of those guys
back to us next week as we start to lean
in on some game action and speaking to the wather
we You're happy to see the skies open up there
in the seven shots show simulas and football of them.
I embrace all weather conditions except lightning. Uh So, because
(13:08):
it's an opportunity to learn about ourselves and each other.
Ball security uh an, increase opportunity to ball search from
a defensive perspective, um Man, we gotta take those opportunities
to teach and to learn, and and to set our
focus on opportunities and minimize risk. Mike, what growth did
you see from Alex how Smith? What are you expecting
him in year three? You know, I expect grown man
(13:30):
varsity ball, and he's given us that thus far. Um.
He's highly motivated, highly conditioned. Um. He's excited about taking
a step on the depth chart taking out yesterday. Is
that just now? No, it's just the fact that I
have to give you guys a depth chart that's comin
(13:50):
speaking to the media following practice on Saturday. God, he
loves those early season depth charts, doesn't he. It's his
favorite head coach. I think he got into it to
do that. Actually, probably, you know, I'm I'm just you know,
he could probably do a little contest, you know, among
people who work for the team rotated around and everybody
(14:15):
gets a turn. Who knows. If I ever get that chance, though,
I'll certainly consult with you, thank you, and we'll be
putting picket at number one, not just the quarterback, but
in a couple other positions as well. Maybe he'll return punts,
maybe the kick returner. Maybe he'll punt the ball as well.
Who knows, a couple of things I wanted to jump
into with Tom one there before we hit our break
was the injury report and a couple of the guys.
(14:35):
He mentioned Cam Sutton. He was asked about him, Um,
he said, you know, he's just dealing with an injury.
That's day to day. Everybody seems to just be day
to day, which is the good news as far as
you see some names on this injury report and they
make you cringe a little bit, but then you see
the status and it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Uh. Claypool,
he mentioned, was carrying his pads around, didn't really give
any participation though. As he works his way back, I expect,
(14:59):
and I'm sure you ex back to see these guys
get worked more and more into the fold because they
want to have especially on the offensive side. I have
to think they want to have as many of their
main components as possible before Saturday night. Yeah, it's gonna
be interesting. Um. You know, Mike Tomlin has his during
the preseason. His news conferences are always two days before
(15:21):
the whatever game of the week it is, so with
Saturday games, you know, he would be meeting with the
media on Thursday, so you know, looking forward to that
Thursday session and well, because he will certainly be asked
about his plan for playing um, who and when and
how long and you know all that kind of stuff.
(15:41):
And certainly we'll start with the quarterbacks. And you know,
what we have learned from the previous several seasons is
that Ben Roethlisberger would rarely even dress for the first
preseason game. Um. You know, it's gonna be interesting to
me to see, you know how Mike Tomlin addresses that
(16:02):
when asked. My my suspicion would be that he would
kind of try and maybe deflected a little bit and
not really pin himself down to too much specific information
because you know, I really think no matter what he
decides to do, he wants to be or allow himself
to be flexible, you know, based on how the game unfolds,
(16:24):
so it will be interesting to see how he, you know,
uses the quarterbacks. UM, since we're guessing right now and
that's all that this is. UM. You know, I would
think that maybe Chris Oladokin would be the guy who
didn't get to play on Saturday against Seattle, that the
playing time would be divided up among Mitch ter Biscuite,
(16:45):
Kenny Picket, and Mason Rudolph in some order for various
lengths of time. But some of those other guys that
you know, Mike Tomlin was referencing in his injury report,
you know, I would be surprised if Minka as an example,
I don't know that you need him to play in
that first preseason game, and you know, I don't know
(17:07):
how how much he would have progressed at you know,
to this point. But even if he had reported the
camp and health and practiced every day from then until
the last padded practice of the week before leading up
to the game would be Thursday, UM, I don't know
that he would have started anyway. You know, you got
(17:27):
the monte casey. UM. He's a new guy to the Steelers,
certainly is not new to the NFL. UM, But you
know you want to. I think you want to see
some other guys uh, you know, working uh in with
their teammates and you know those kinds of things. So uh,
that'll be interesting to some degree. And it's probably would
(17:48):
be a little bit of reverse of a little bit
of a reversal from what we had become used to
in that the quarterbacks will not necessary early be arrested
like some of the other positions, you know, and guys
like camp Heyward, what do you need him out there
(18:09):
for a lot? You know? I mean, if you're expecting
to see the elite members of the defense play a
lot in the preseason, you're gonna have to wait until
September eleven for that, well, in the preseason opener. Besides,
at the least, yes, so um, some of these guys
that you and I have been talking about daily, uh
(18:30):
in terms of flashing at practice and you know, the
observations and doing those kinds of things, I think we're
gonna get a chance to see them in game action.
There's only three preseason games, you know, there are three
roster cuts there. There's ninety men on ninety men on
the roster right now. August sixteenth, they cut from eighty five.
(18:53):
Then from on August three they cut from to eighty
and then August thirtieth they cut from eight to fifty three. So, um,
you know you've got you gotta start looking at who
you like, who you don't like, who you want to
continue to try and work with, who you think just
(19:14):
as not an NFL caliber player, um, you know, and
and kind of move on. But all the while, when
you're doing those things too, you gotta make sure you
have enough guys at every position so that you can
continue to practice every day. So you know, there's a
lot of things that go into u making those decisions
early in training camp. Even though you know, fans might say, hey,
(19:37):
I could cut the roster from and I'm sure most
of them could. I'm sure most of them could, but
there are some other things that you have to consider
that made that they may not, and you know, maybe
it's not time to get down to I don't know
X number of running backs because on the first cut,
(19:58):
because you need running backs, you know, to practice. So
those are the some of the kinds of things going
on behind the scenes a little bit. We're gonna keep
kicking around the quarterback talk on the other side of
the break, We're also going to hear from Kenny Pickett
and from Connor Hayward as well as we continue to
dig into the offense that's on the other side here
on the Training camp report right here on SNRDC start
(20:28):
Training Camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on
Steelers Nation Radio. Steeler's first preseason game is this Saturday
at Akershore Stadium, Seattle Seahawks come to town. Labs, people
haven't been over analyzing the quarterback reps through training camp
practices so far, so I'm sure the world won't be
on fire Sunday morning, Monday morning when people recap the
(20:49):
game and how the three quarterbacks did right, It'll it'll
all be taken with a grain of salt and everybody
will be remaining patient when it comes to their development.
I'm sure. Well, let me ask you this, let's just
kind of look into the crystal ball of the future.
Do you think it will okay? Good? Because I I
just used my magic eight ball. Um, do you think
(21:12):
that the overreaction, because there's bound to be some about
the quarterback playing the preseason opener, will be more towards
this is the guy clearly who's the starter he should
be it, or this guy stinks, Um, he's he's out
of the competition. Well, it is Pittsburgh after all, so
(21:32):
I'm gonna have to go with this guy stinks, not
only the out of the competition, Trade him to Cleveland
or cut him from the roster. That's probably the way.
They'll lean yards and two touchdowns and have that one
interception at the very end, and it's there, it is
one interception. Get him out of there. Where's Pickett. It's
a very it's a very steep, uphill battle for all
(21:54):
three of these guys. You mean in the court of
public opinion. Mhm, But I mean it's natural when you
follow number seven. I guess, hey, even for him then
at different times, you know. So, yeah, it's a tough time,
certainly is. Kenny Pickett seems like he is mature beyond
(22:16):
his years. Though he spoke to the media following practice
on Saturday and shared his thoughts on how he and
the offense did. Let's take a listen to Kenny Picker
right here on SNR. But I definitely thought I had,
you know, a really good week, and I think as
an offense, we had a great week and just kind
of building off each day. How difference does it feel
from week one the week two with training camp? Now
you're you're gotten, You're gotten into pad faster. How are
(22:37):
you with justin Yeah? Yeah, I feel a lot better honestly,
like just being able to play with these guys for
a little bit. I thought it was a lot cleaner
this week. Um, you know, being to play at at
a much higher level. So you know, definitely feel good
going in a week three because it was much of
a thanjustment shifting down here and do it all. It
was just just kind of go with the flow. I mean,
coach always says, you know, I gotta be lying your
feet and just react and be ready to go play.
So um yeah, maybe adjustment came down here and I
(22:58):
thought we had a really productive day of that. There's
an even surroundings for you, right, I mean you know
on the seven shot, all nice fade pass there and
you've done a lot of times I'm gonna yeah, yeah,
I mean getting like I said, it's just really reps
with these guys people to know how fast they're getting
to certain points. Um, you know, so I've telling that
to the DV a couple of times. It was good
to get into seven shots there. I think it was
(23:19):
I was listening to helmets. It sound a little loud
of hitting off the top of the home yet. Well,
so what was it like working in that I mean
it was just like that period. Yeah, it was weird.
It was one period that it cleared up for So
it was good. Just played through it. Can you do
you think you're building? Uh, you're fast counting. Um, I
mean right now, it's still early. I mean I would
say all the guys that I've in my in that
two three group that I've gotten to play with the
(23:40):
majority of the snaps, like those are the guys I'm
most comfortable with just because of the time. Um, so
i'd say that group right now. You have a nice
pas to Heyward two that led to a touchdown. He
got pretty wide open. There was a play action, right
we think one well on that one, um, just to
run action the guys coming off the ball, you know,
kind of doing a great job is selling the route
and coming out and getting his eyes up. So uh,
you know, great play, great callback. Coach. You saw two
big plays by Calton the Dade, a big corner in
(24:01):
the route. What have you seen from Calvi, you'r rookie
with him growing with him, what has been his maturation talking? Uh,
just like all of us is is we always talked
about like every day we just feel like we're getting
better and more comfortable in the offense. Is kind of
everything is slowing down for us the more rust we get.
And obviously when he knows what he's doing and he
plays at the speed that he has, I mean, he's
really tough to cover. So he's doing a unbelieva with job.
(24:21):
He on his back now and Chase looks like he's
getting close excited to kind of maybe get some time
then yeah, yeah, I mean that would be huge. Get
those guys healthy, you know, get papped back hopefully soon,
and get the whole team out there so we can
really start clicking. And it gets a bit word that
Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, speaking to the media following
practice on the South Side on Saturday, laughs. I don't
(24:42):
want to assume, because you know what they say about
people that assume. But I think it's fair to say
that I expect the repetition breakdown at least the order
in which they appear in the first preseason game for
the quarterbacks to mirror the first depth chart that the
Steelers have released. Unless there's some dramatic changes throughout practice
the this week, I expect Mitch to get the start,
(25:02):
Mason rolls in after him, and Kenny's the closer. Um yeah,
that would that would follow I believe Mike Tomlin's history. Um.
The only issue to me would be how long you know,
would guys be out there? Um? Would they divided equally
(25:24):
among the three of them? Would Mitch play the first half?
I don't know. I mean, it's gonna be interesting to
see and then the other thing that's going to be
somewhat interesting. But I do believe it if it turns
out the way that you your crystal ball predicted, you know,
Kenny Pickle will not be playing with any first teamers,
any frontline people, because I can't imagine a realistic scenario
(25:48):
where in the preseason opener Mike Tomlin has, as an example,
you know, a couple of starting offensive linemen out there,
and or Deonte Johnson and Pat farm if he's available
to play, just picking out names. So, um, you know
it's it's gonna be interesting. I do think you know
(26:08):
that watching Steelers preseason games all the way to the end.
This summer will have value. I really do believe that.
And let me let me just throw this out for fans,
you know, just as a way to put things in
a little bit of perspective. Terry Bradshaw four known Super Bowls.
He was the first overall pick of the nineteen seventy
(26:30):
NFL draft. He did not have a regular season that
ended with him throwing more touchdown passes than interceptions until
okay and then in uh. In his first eight seasons,
he finished with more touchdown passes than interceptions twice. M
(26:55):
So if he was getting in today's shortly Sharra, I mean,
who knows how much rope he would have gotten. Well,
you know, Bradshaw, let's you know this. This is to me,
this is um frightening that he performed this way um
and was not was not pulled, but then became what
(27:16):
he became. Okay, completed thirty eight point one percent of
his passes, thirty eight point one, six touchdowns, twenty four interceptions,
his passer rating thirty point four. I mean, imagine you're
out of the league in this day and age. If
that's the case, have a full season like that um so, um,
(27:40):
you know, sometimes it takes time. And you know sometimes
if you wait, um and continue to water and fertilize
the flower, it really gets beautiful. Uh. It may not
be beautiful in the first you know whatever, but continue
to nurture it, nurture in and work with it, and
(28:00):
you never know what what you might end up with.
So I just used that as a little bit of
a cautionary tale, just as a reminder that you know,
sometimes it takes time for these guys to blossom. So
hopefully no one really needs the amount of time that
(28:20):
Terry Bradshaw did in terms of years, because I really
don't know, uh if in today's day and age, when
quarterbacks hit free agency and the money that those guys
end up making, whether there would have been that kind
of patience with him. Um. So it's a different game,
different era, We're all different. Um. So we'll see what happens.
(28:44):
But as I said, I'm gonna just continue to keep
falling back on this. I do believe that this might
be the most compelling Steelers preseason in a while. Said that,
no question, you know, patients paid off big time for
Terry Bradshaw. We know that patients is paid off with
other quarterbacks around the league as well as far as
developing them into their best version of themselves. When it
(29:09):
comes to, you know, the fertilization process of a Kenny Pickett.
I think, and this is again be looking into a
crystal ball and speculating on what I think would be
best case scenario. It would really be great if Mitch
could wrap this thing up after the second preseason game Tomlin,
that practice week following that game comes out. My number
one quarterback in Cincinnati September eleventh is Mitch Drabinski. Competition over.
(29:33):
We know who we're riding with at least in week one,
and then that way you can kind of give Kenny
Pickett the Dwayne Haskins treatment from last year, where you
just kind of roll the ball out and say, final
preseason game Detroit Lions, it's all you for all four quarters. Kenny,
maybe maybe three quarters, and then all of Dokin can
come in for the fourth. But this is mainly gonna
be your game. I don't want to stay trial by
(29:55):
fire because it's not a regular season game, but I
think that'd be a great way to get him really
acclimated and give him that fool game under his belt.
As then he transitions to, you know, sitting on the
sidelines with a year piece in or being the backup
quarterback for at least the beginning portions of the season.
That's all well and good to hope that that happens,
But you need Mitch to take the job first. That's
(30:17):
step one in that equation. And if he needs reps
in game three, he needs reps in game three, and
this Kenny Pickett scenario I've laid out just goes out
the window. Okay, coach off from and I'm not I'm
not letting you off the hook that easy. So let's
just let's let's just pretend not I'm not. I'm just
gonna let you. I'm just gonna let you continue down
(30:37):
this train of thought and either drive the train, you know,
through the tunnel or into the wall of the bridge. Yeah.
So okay, let's pretend that it works that way for you,
and Mitch Drobisky clinches the starting job. Mike Tomlin makes
the announcement that you said Kenny pick is going to
play the entire third game. Who plays with them? I
(31:02):
would say, see that's stuff, because it really you don't
want anybody you don't want anybody have significance out there.
You don't want Naddie out there, you don't want Friarmouth
if he's healthy out there. You don't want the receivers
out there. So you're right, he might. You know what
about the alignment, right And you know, going off of
your point even further, we saw that last year when
(31:22):
Dwayne Haskins got that chance. He didn't get to go
with the ones for the Steelers, but guess who was
playing their ones the Carolina Panthers defense. So you're right,
I mean, just because you know it might work out
the way where Kenny gets to start the whole game,
He's not going to have the pieces around him that's
necessary to give him a fair shake, i'd say, or
at least show his full potential. So yeah, it's definitely
(31:43):
a good point that you bring up. And you know,
that's why I'm not a coach. That's why I speak
into a microphone and not you know, out on the
south side or out on the Latrobe practice field. Right now. Okay, Well,
like I said, I just wanted to know him there
being legit, Yeah, I would have to tend to agree.
(32:05):
I mean, if that's the case, if you, if you
as the coach, me as the coach, would be going
into the third preseason game convinced that, um, who you're
starting quarterback was going to be September eleven, I wouldn't
necessarily play him. And then, you know, I think that
you have to vend um, you know, extrapolate that out
(32:27):
with the rest of the offensive unit too, um, because
you know, again, you don't want to be losing a
frontline uh starter, especially on offense where there's gonna be uh,
there's gonna be perceived to be so much uh different
from you know, the last year, the year before that. Uh,
(32:50):
you don't want to create your own upheaval on top
of the normal upheople that you're going to be facing
offensively in terms of style person now you know whatever,
play calling. I don't know. We'll have to see how
this evolved. So um, yeah, again, I'll go back to
what I said in the previous segment. This is going
to be a pretty compelling preseason compared to others in
(33:13):
recent Steelers history. One guy that would definitely be playing
in that third preseason game with Kenny is Connor Hayward.
When we heard Kenny speak just moments ago. He mentioned
that play action passed that he completed to Connor in
the end zone for a touchdown in seven shots. Hayward
has been impressing so far, uh in the early goings
in camp, and he ended up speaking to the media
(33:33):
as well following practice on Saturday. Let's take a quick
listen to Connor Hayward here on SNR. We're you seeing
that robot by Mitch really command the offense and being
able to get you guys down there. Just Mitch being Mitch,
you know, being composed, you know, and you know, leading
us to drive, leading us to drive the ball down there. Um,
you know he didn't flinch with a quarterback like that,
and all the other quarterbacks not flinch, and that just
(33:55):
makes us have so much more confidence in our team.
I know you're see so you've you've grown with Kenny
Brunts the Tiret Pross. How have you seen Kenny grow?
Already been asking row each day, just coming in getting better, uh,
being more vocal and just being himself. You know, Kenny
had a lot of good qualities, so you know as
a leader and has a quarterback, but uh, you know
it's hard. You know, your first day it was even
(34:17):
hard for me and all the rookies. Sometimes you're gonna
have those days. Not saying you did so, but uh,
you know, coach always just talks about getting better, Uh,
you know, showing growth, and uh, I can definitely say
that he has. I know it's not completely live yet,
but Mitch Kenny Mason, they all tried to extensive place
you guys have gotten looking to scrambling. Ruh, Mitch had
wanted to pick him there. How's that kind of working
with you guys and learn how to figure out that
(34:37):
it be Mitch Kenny Mason kind of how to work
that out structor stuff. I mean, obviously all of them
have different skill sets, but uh, you know, to be
an NFL quarterback in this league, you've got to be
able to scramble and be able to make plays on
the run, and all three of them can. And uh,
you know, none of the rules change means scrambled drill.
Uh when he's scrambling, you, you know, you gotta find
space and grow on that sideline. And uh, you know,
(34:58):
it's all about chemistry and uh, just having a good
deal for the game. And you know, if you're out
there on the field, you know the coaches have more
more of the compuments that you have that that Steelers
sixth round pick Connor Heyward, speaking to the media following
practice on Saturday, labs he's been turning heads with his
tight end play so far. But if he wants to
get a helmet on game day, if he wants to
be that third string on the depth chart, it's all
(35:19):
about special teams right now for him. Would you say, yeah, absolutely?
I mean it's uh because, uh, you know Jay Sternberger. Uh,
he's one of the other candidates for a third tight
end spot. As an example, Um has shown me a
lot more than I ever expected. And I'm no personnel guy,
(35:43):
so you know, uh Ja Sternberger, you know, impressing me
doesn't really matter, but I'm impressed anyway. Uh So, Um,
you know, he's a candidate, Kevin Ragers a candidate, and
then you just never know. Also, how the you know,
the roster is gonna work out, because we were talking
(36:07):
in the previous segment about playing guys, um, you know
in the preseason finale. Okay, one of the one of
the tricky things that a coach can sometimes encounter is, Okay,
let's say you're heading into the regular season with a
few guys who you plan on either starting or having
(36:28):
significant roles, you know, in one phase of the group,
and they have like minor nagging type injuries that may
only keep them out for a week or two, but
they're not gonna necessarily be ready for the opener. Okay,
So now when you're putting your fifty three man roster together,
say you want to keep six receivers, I'm just spitballing here,
(36:50):
and one of those six or two of those six
are the kinds of guys that I just described, people that, um,
you wanted to play, had planned to play, but aren't
gonna be able to slash ready to physically when the
season opens. So you can't i R them because we
don't exactly know what those rules are going to be yet.
(37:12):
That's still kind of in the league office and they're
trying to figure out whether there's gonna be that short
term i R um or just it's going back to
pre pandemic rules. Um, okay, so now you can't put
them on i R. But if you only want so,
you keep them, so you may have to go shorter
at the other position then you had originally planned, because
(37:37):
you know, you need to account for these guys that
you're gonna have to carry on the roster but aren't
necessarily going to be able to play when the season opens.
So you know, there's a lot of that stuff going
on too. So if you're a player or trying to forecast, uh,
you know, who's gonna be at the bottom of the
depth chart at the different positions, that's a factor you
(37:57):
have to consider because it's not necessar serily just cut
and dry the best fifty three. You know, it's not
like you make a list, you know, when you go
down and co fifty three names and then you rip
the list off and throw the bottom part of it
in the garbage. So, uh, if you're one of those
players that's you know, on the bubble like that, you know,
(38:19):
you better make yourself really valuable somewhere else. And you know,
Danny Smith always says, you know, first group, second group,
third group on training camp opens when September one Worlds
are on, there is no third group that's either practice
squad or working at seven eleven. So, um, you know,
(38:40):
you you if you're not if you're not a starter,
this is what he tells the players. He told me this,
He tells the players this in the first meeting. That's
a training camp. If you're not first team on offense
or defense, you better find a way to be first
team on special teams. So, um, you know, one of
the other things and end back to my I'm beating
(39:01):
this dead horse consistently today about this compelling preseason. Another
thing to look about look at and maybe you know,
instead of cracking how many yards a quarterback throws for
in a in a practice at St. Vincent College, maybe
you want to start tracking who are the uh courts
special teams guys, just to use Connor Heyward as an example,
(39:24):
And you know, is he on kickoff, kickoff return, punt
punt return? You know, does he have a role on
you know, field goals and extra points? Is one of
those wing guy block guys or something? You know, those
are the guys you know when you're watching that those
players who are keep showing up on these very special
teams units. You know, they're showing up there because they're
(39:47):
they're proving themselves capable of doing it all. Because if
you know, you may get a chance one game or
one week in practice with being a quote unquote starter
on special teams and all those spots. But if the
the video that they're watching grade doesn't justify you continuing
in that role, then you get the motive or maybe
(40:09):
taken off or whatever. So you know, these are the
guys to a lot of times that become a factor
on the final cutdown day. Return guys. Steelers are always
looking for return guys. If you plan on making a
football team as a return guy, you better bring one
back for a touchdown at least one unless you are
(40:31):
and again I'm picking out a name here, Calvin Austin third,
who's again just speculating the starting slot receiver. Okay, so
that's different. But if you're you know, Stefon Logan. I
don't love many Steelers fans remember him? Uh oh nine,
I think it was well yeah, okay, but general Schefsky,
(40:54):
if he if he can't help as a receiver, which
he has shown some ability to do by the way
in the training game to this, okay, uh, if he
can't help as a receiver, he better get in the
end zone on a punt return or two. I'm just
saying because um, I don't mean. I'm not trying to
be mean or I don't like Gunn Rochefski or any
of that stuff. I'm just telling you what it is,
(41:17):
and that's how it's viewed. I mean, I've heard Mike
Tomlin tell me, you know, I've asked him what do
you need to do to make the team strictly as
a return guy? I mean he pretty much has said
you better get in the end zone. Uh. You know,
catching them all isn't good enough. Uh catching all the punts. Uh,
knowing when they'll let the punt roll into the end
(41:39):
zone as opposed to catching it you know, the ten
yard line or whatever. That's not good enough by itself.
You need to you need to be dynamic. And so uh,
these roster spots as they're being fought for. And again
we're just using this as a name as an example.
Tight ends Connor Hayward. Well, you might say, okay, well
there's Friarmouth Gentry. He's the third best tight end. Okay,
(42:03):
what's he giving you on special teams? Though? Because if
he's not giving you a lot, then maybe you go
with Sternburger because maybe Sternburger has given you more. Again,
this is all speculation, and I'm just picking names out
and throwing them out here. I don't want anyone to
think that, you know, I'm uh making any decisions or
(42:24):
predicting anything because I don't know what the pecking order
is at this point. But it'll be determined in these
first couple of preseason games. And um, you know, guys
who have their eyeballs on one of those final fifty
three on after four pm on August, Um, you know
they better have Danny Smith in their corner, saying, and
(42:47):
you know when he has his meeting with Mike Tomlin,
I need this guy. We're gonna wrap things up here
on the Training camp Report when we come back, talk
a little bit about the defensive side of the ball
and give you again an update on today's actus up
at Latrobe. That's all on the way. Next here on
the Training Camp Report on SNR, he sees the training
(43:10):
camp Report with Tom Opperman at Bob Labriola on Steelers
Nation Radio. Only a few more minutes left here on
today's training camp Report, but Labs, one guy I did
want to get into on the defensive side of the
ball was someone that Tomlin was asked about in his
press or following practice on Saturday, and that's outside linebacker
Alex Highsmith. You know he was asked what he expects
(43:31):
and what he needs from him this year, and he
put it as Tom and often does. He just needs
varsity football from high Smith. Uh, this is a big
year for him. I don't want to say that he's
you know, way behind the eight ball, because he had
a pretty solid season last year and I'd say for
a middle round draft pick out of the University of Charlotte,
he's actually done pretty well in his first two seasons
in the NFL. But I think this third season now,
(43:53):
the coaching staff wants to see it a little bit
more of an uptick from him, even if the numbers
don't necessarily bear it out. I think we've talked about
this before. Hey, sometimes you're gonna get to the quarterback,
but number nine he's just gonna get there a step
faster and he's gonna take some sacks out of your pocket.
But just to see you know, more consistency, uh, not
getting pushed to the outside, you know, cutting his angle
down a lot sharper on the quarterback. Things like that
(44:15):
are are really needed to be seen from Highsmith this season. Yeah,
and it's picked for him too, because you know, as
a third round pick, he signs a four year contract
coming into the NFL, so the fifth year option thing
is only available to first year guys. So he's going
into his third season. So now it's you know, it's
getting up to a point where uh, and this was
(44:38):
explained to me once by a long time assistant coach. Um,
a lot of times teams make decisions on whether you're
worth the money if they're gonna have to spend. So,
you know, Alex Highsmith not only for him in terms
of you know, if he wants a second contract and
what that number might be. Um, you know those kinds
(44:59):
of things. Uh, that's happening on the other on the
other side too, of that bargaining table. Um, you know,
do we like this guy or do we need to
start looking for a replacement Because, um, when Bud Dupre
was heading towards free agency and he was really lightening
it up, you know, the Steelers made a conscious move
(45:20):
to draft Alex Highsmith. I mean they didn't wait until
Bud was gone to pick Highsmith on the next draft.
They picked them while Bud was still here. So let's
just flip it around a little bit. Maybe it's not
uh so much of a situation that we're gonna lose him.
There's an undrestricted free agent. It's more like we don't
know if we want to sign him back to a
(45:41):
second contract, so let's prepare for that. So, yes, this
is a big season for Alex Highsmith personally. Uh. The
Steelers need him. You know you were mentioned his production.
Uh you know, the the defense certainly needs that. And
for that to improve, as you mentioned, Uh, he needs
to not allow himself to be run past the quarterback
(46:04):
so much and finish because there are a lot of
times when you know, Alex hi Smith is almost there,
almost doesn't cut it. Uh, So we are not. So Uh,
it's a big season for him. It's a big season
uh for the Steelers in terms of what he can produce.
And here's the other thing. He needs to stay healthy
(46:27):
because uh, there is not a lot of depth right now,
or let me put put it this way, proven depth
uh behind the two starters t J. Watt and Alex Eismith.
And so you know, you have to find a way
to keep yourself available. He needs to do what he needs,
whatever needs to be done in terms of, you know,
preparing his body and then taking care of his body
(46:49):
on a regular basis. So that you know, he's able
to line up and and assume the role that they
need him to assume. So yeah, in a lot of
different ways, it's a big year for alex II Smith,
how it impacts the Steelers and then how it impacts
his future. Steelers are back in Latrobe for practice today,
but the practice will be at Latrobe Memorial Stadium, the
(47:11):
usual home for Friday night lights. So if you are
headed up to Latrobe, make sure you stop there because
that is where practice will be taking place at one today.
That's gonna do it for us today. On the Training
Camp Report, we're gonna hand things off to the locker
room next as Wolf and Starks will take you for
the next two hours right here on SNR. For Bob Labrielle,
I'm Tom Offerman. We'll talk to you at nine am
(47:33):
tomorrow right here on Steelers Nation Radio.
Man, We're really excited to be here. It's awesome to
get started, and so now we take off. She's the
Training Camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on
Steelers Nation Radio. For the first time in the Steelers season.
It is a game week. The Steelers and the Seahawks
do battle Saturday night at Akershore Stadium, seven o'clock kickoff, Labs.
(00:31):
That's got to be a very welcome opportunity for the players,
for the coaches, for everybody around. This week of practice
got has to have a bit of a different feel
to it as you build up towards that first game. Yeah,
and after the events like from Thursday to Saturday. I
did check with Steelers President Aren't Rooney the second and
there is no initiative to change the team nicknamed to
(00:54):
the Nomads so um or so uh yeah you have
that too. Yes, it it is, you know, because well,
I'm not even gonna say that because I might chinx it.
Never mind, I was gonna say there might not be
any chance for anything that has happened here and in
(01:14):
Latrobe the last few days to impact that, but yes
there could be, So shame on me, came on you
can't even claim the safety of the city of Pittsburgh
as a shelter because Saturday, when they moved practice to
the south side to get away from some weather, this
guy has followed them. They're open up and poured on
top of them. So you're right, it's not I don't
(01:35):
think it has anything to do with Latrobe. I think
it just has to do with the stealers themselves that
weather patterns may or maybe it's me because I was
at all of those Thursday Friday. Yeah, so that's why
I think I'll just bite my tongue here to punish
myself for what I said about Saturday night, and I
(01:56):
hope that the gods were not listening. But you got
to imagine for the players. You know, it's been two
weeks now, you know, first week, first half week of
training camp, we get to the weekend, Sunday day off,
next week, full week of practice, Sunday day off. There's
nothing you're really building towards except for that day off.
And now you finally get to look ahead and say, Okay,
(02:17):
all of this work is for not we see another
opponent coming to town on Saturday. It has to be
a little extra juice because I'm sure I don't have
to tell you. Once you get into this third week
of preseason, I'm sure it starts to drag a lot.
Oh yeah, And you know, we we've talked about this,
you know, previous uh installments of this very fine program
(02:38):
that you know, it's it adds a little bit more
of an edge to everything. You know, every snap, every repetition,
every every every everything, because as an example, uh, the
offense the clock or second clock, depending upon you know,
(02:58):
the result of the obvious play, whether you know, the
officials started at forty or started at so you know,
for the quarterback, just let's just because we haven't mentioned
the quarterbacks yet and it's already nine three, I think,
so um way to keep us back on track. So
(03:18):
you know, the quarterback, he's got to get the call
um from uh the offensive coordinator through his helmet. Uh,
you know, understand it, whatever it might be, if it's
the actual play call or if it's one of those
deals where you know, the quarterback has that long arm band,
you know, and he flips up the top because a
(03:40):
lot of times with in order to save time, rather
than the offensive coordinator you know, reading the whole thing.
The whole play. The offensive coordinator has the exact same
you know sheet on his available to him, and he
might just say column A number three and okay if
(04:00):
you looked down, calling me number three, and then he
goes into the the quarterback goes into the huddle and
then reads the play. So so you have to you know,
disseminate the information or understand the information first, then disseminated
to your teammates so everybody understands what it is. Get
everybody up on the line of scrimmage, if there's pre
snap motion or shifting or whatever. You know, you do
(04:21):
all that, look over the defense to whatever degree is
necessary or called for, and you get the playoff. So
you know, that's something that I'm sure that to some
degree during practices so far somebody has been, you know,
just keeping an eye on the clock to make sure
that you know, at least the general flow of the
(04:42):
thing here is in you know, in compliance with the
rules of the game once the game starts. But still
you have to do it sometimes under pressure, sometimes at
the end of a half or at the end of
the game, you know, if it's a two minute situation.
So there's a lot of different things you know elements
of it that you might not even think about that
(05:05):
are different. UH in that provide either teaching moments or
um provide UH opportunity for guys to show that they
are in fact game ready. They've got a full week
of practice ahead of them to show that very thing
before the Seahawks come to down Town on Saturday night.
Practices back in Latrobe today for your Pittsburgh Stealers after
(05:28):
having to move it to the south Side on Saturday.
UH precautionary. I think didn't want to have any inclement
weather ruin it. Although it tried, it's best in the
south side. Like we mentioned, you know, you moved practice
to the south Side, and that's just a change of scenery,
a change of pace. When we were talking about Friday
Night Lights before it unfortunately got canceled due to weather.
The main thing that Bill Cower wanted out of it
(05:49):
when he invented it was, you know, I want to
change the scenery. I want to, you know, change the
mindset of oh, it's just one go to practice, finished
practice to film study. You gotta change inge it up
a little bit. The season is not always going to
have games that kick off every single Sunday at one pm, Thursday, Saturday,
Sunday night, Monday night. So just a little way to
shake things up for players. I feel like that's still
(06:11):
accomplished by moving to the South Side. You know, it's
not as as as exciting, not fifteen thousand plus people
there at the high school stadium watching the practice, having
that autograph session, so it's not as exciting in that sense,
But as far as you know, for the players on
the field, it is that change of environment, you know,
change of Hey, this isn't the same exact thing we've
done for the past two weeks. And I think that
(06:33):
that's you know, still what cour and Tomlin is continuing
and trying to drill into them with these you know, hey,
we're not just gonna roll out of bed do the
same thing every day, go to Chucknell Field and practice.
So despite that it wasn't in front of people at Latrobe,
still mission accomplished in that sense. Look at you find
in the silver lining. That's what we do. We're very
optimistic show here labs, you and I are glass half
(06:56):
full people. That's what everybody describes as a um or,
you know, and you were talking about game days, you know,
with during pandemic too. Maybe you play on Wednesday every
now and then, you know, Wednesday at three, Wednesday at three,
oh wow, Hey you watch when this new streaming deal,
whenever it is finalized, is finalized. There's been a lot
(07:20):
of speculation that one of the goals is to almost
have games every day. I mean, if you manipulated, if
you if you manipulate the schedule properly, you know, with buys,
and you know, maybe a team plays, you know, Wednesday
one week and then Thursday the next week, and then
(07:43):
you know, Monday, you know whatever. Who knows? I mean,
and I don't know anything. I just read a lot
of stuff on the internet, and you know, once it's
on the internet as so. Um. But yeah, you know,
I think that keeping every light on their feet or
as Mike Thomlins says thoughtfully non rhythmic, um, you know,
(08:06):
it breaks things up, but it also keeps you know,
I want to say, their interest, but their concentration, UH
is maybe tested a little bit more that way. And
one of the things and we'll hear when we get
to the Mike Tomlin post practice UH presser from Saturday,
that was one of the things that he praised the
(08:28):
team for was that despite all of the changes, you know,
and the weird stuff that was happening starting with Thursday.
Last Thursday when at the last eleven plays had to
be shaved off the the practice script because lightning moved
into the area. You know, Thursday was a change day.
Friday was a changed day. Saturday was a change day.
(08:49):
He praised the team in the players for their focus
and intensity. Um, obviously he liked what he saw in
that respect on Saturday afternoon to you PMC Rooney Sports Complex. Why,
as you mentioned, Tomlin did speak to the media following practice.
Business as usual as far as that's concerned. But before
we get to that, labs, I was just handed some
(09:10):
breaking news here in the studio. Are you ready for this?
According you are, according to you already knew this breaking
news too. But now we can officially make a public
According to the Steelers via recent press release, practice today
will be at Latrobe, but it is moving to Latrobe
Memorial Stadium, so the Friday Night Lights Stadium is going
to be used today. Practice is still at one, but
(09:33):
it is open to the public. So I want to
make sure you guys know if you're listening and driving
up to Latrobe today, Do not go to Saint Vincent College,
Chucknell field practice will be at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. Glad
we could finally get the green light to tell people
that so we can kind of push them into the
right direction if they're headed up today. And awesome to
hear that they're still going to have a practice even
(09:53):
though it's not under the lights and doesn't have the
exact you know, Gravitas is a Friday, since it's a Monday,
it's still nice to see them doing it there this year. Yeah,
it's um, you know, the it's a it's a big
event for the UH community and uh, you know that
was always kind of one of the underlying purposes of it,
you know, Bill Kauer, certainly as you mentioned, you know
(10:16):
that was the football aspect, changing it up a little bit,
keeping you know, the players, um from getting I don't know,
too comfortable with the sketch with the times of being
ready to play football in the days, being ready to
play football because as you mentioned, the NFL schedule, as
(10:36):
much as we would like wish it, like to wish
it back to reality Sunday at one pm am, it's
not anything anything, anything okay to be done by seven
pm on Sundays anything, um, but you know that's just
not the reality. So uh, you know, it's uh, it's
(11:00):
it's a teaching tool, I think, and um as we
have learned, it's beneficial to the community, the programs at
Latrobe and in the Latrobe School district. I don't think
it's just the high school the old school district. So yeah,
it's a good thing, you know, and as long as
um everybody cooperates, including you mother nature. Uh, could be
(11:24):
a fun afternoon most definitely. So if you're headed up,
make sure you get to Latrobe Memorial Stadium today for
practice at one. Like we said, though, Tomlin spoke to
the media following Saturday's practice at the South Side facility.
Let's hear what coach had to say. You know, I
first started by saying, we're just really disappointed for the
fans this weekend. We were looking forward to entertaining them
(11:44):
and gaining a lot of energy from those guys Friday
night lights and today, but unfortunately the weather dictated otherwise.
I really was pleased by the guy's intensity and urgency.
In spite of that, we had to come back into
the city to get our work done today, and UM,
I just thought we had a really good practice in
spite of some of the UH, some of the hurdles
(12:04):
that we had to deal with. From a weather standpoint,
we don't run away from those issues. We want to
run to those issues. We're playing all weather conditions, just
just not lightning, and so it was good to see
them remain singlely focused and have good competitive days. UH.
In spite of the adjustments. UM, no real news from
an injury standpoint. The guys have been described as day
(12:25):
to day or continue to do so. There's been some
guys who had increased participation, like Maka and others, and
it's reasonable to expect that to continue, particularly as we
push in the next week and start leaning in on
the preseason game week. I'll be happy to answer the
questions serious and with Kim No, no, no, not at
all like that Chase has the pads on out there.
(12:48):
Is he getting closure maybe and and he's a guy
that I'm describing and that working their way back and
so UM, hopefully we'll get a lot of those guys
back to us next week as we start to lean
in on some game action and speaking to the wather
we You're happy to see the skies open up there
in the seven shots show simulas and football of them.
I embrace all weather conditions except lightning. Uh So, because
(13:08):
it's an opportunity to learn about ourselves and each other.
Ball security uh an, increase opportunity to ball search from
a defensive perspective, um Man, we gotta take those opportunities
to teach and to learn, and and to set our
focus on opportunities and minimize risk. Mike, what growth did
you see from Alex how Smith? What are you expecting
him in year three? You know, I expect grown man
(13:30):
varsity ball, and he's given us that thus far. Um.
He's highly motivated, highly conditioned. Um. He's excited about taking
a step on the depth chart taking out yesterday. Is
that just now? No, it's just the fact that I
have to give you guys a depth chart that's comin
(13:50):
speaking to the media following practice on Saturday. God, he
loves those early season depth charts, doesn't he. It's his
favorite head coach. I think he got into it to
do that. Actually, probably, you know, I'm I'm just you know,
he could probably do a little contest, you know, among
people who work for the team rotated around and everybody
(14:15):
gets a turn. Who knows. If I ever get that chance, though,
I'll certainly consult with you, thank you, and we'll be
putting picket at number one, not just the quarterback, but
in a couple other positions as well. Maybe he'll return punts,
maybe the kick returner. Maybe he'll punt the ball as well.
Who knows, a couple of things I wanted to jump
into with Tom one there before we hit our break
was the injury report and a couple of the guys.
(14:35):
He mentioned Cam Sutton. He was asked about him, Um,
he said, you know, he's just dealing with an injury.
That's day to day. Everybody seems to just be day
to day, which is the good news as far as
you see some names on this injury report and they
make you cringe a little bit, but then you see
the status and it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Uh. Claypool,
he mentioned, was carrying his pads around, didn't really give
any participation though. As he works his way back, I expect,
(14:59):
and I'm sure you ex back to see these guys
get worked more and more into the fold because they
want to have especially on the offensive side. I have
to think they want to have as many of their
main components as possible before Saturday night. Yeah, it's gonna
be interesting. Um. You know, Mike Tomlin has his during
the preseason. His news conferences are always two days before
(15:21):
the whatever game of the week it is, so with
Saturday games, you know, he would be meeting with the
media on Thursday, so you know, looking forward to that
Thursday session and well, because he will certainly be asked
about his plan for playing um, who and when and
how long and you know all that kind of stuff.
(15:41):
And certainly we'll start with the quarterbacks. And you know,
what we have learned from the previous several seasons is
that Ben Roethlisberger would rarely even dress for the first
preseason game. Um. You know, it's gonna be interesting to
me to see, you know how Mike Tomlin addresses that
(16:02):
when asked. My my suspicion would be that he would
kind of try and maybe deflected a little bit and
not really pin himself down to too much specific information
because you know, I really think no matter what he
decides to do, he wants to be or allow himself
to be flexible, you know, based on how the game unfolds,
(16:24):
so it will be interesting to see how he, you know,
uses the quarterbacks. UM, since we're guessing right now and
that's all that this is. UM. You know, I would
think that maybe Chris Oladokin would be the guy who
didn't get to play on Saturday against Seattle, that the
playing time would be divided up among Mitch ter Biscuite,
(16:45):
Kenny Picket, and Mason Rudolph in some order for various
lengths of time. But some of those other guys that
you know, Mike Tomlin was referencing in his injury report,
you know, I would be surprised if Minka as an example,
I don't know that you need him to play in
that first preseason game, and you know, I don't know
(17:07):
how how much he would have progressed at you know,
to this point. But even if he had reported the
camp and health and practiced every day from then until
the last padded practice of the week before leading up
to the game would be Thursday, UM, I don't know
that he would have started anyway. You know, you got
(17:27):
the monte casey. UM. He's a new guy to the Steelers,
certainly is not new to the NFL. UM, But you
know you want to. I think you want to see
some other guys uh, you know, working uh in with
their teammates and you know those kinds of things. So uh,
that'll be interesting to some degree. And it's probably would
(17:48):
be a little bit of reverse of a little bit
of a reversal from what we had become used to
in that the quarterbacks will not necessary early be arrested
like some of the other positions, you know, and guys
like camp Heyward, what do you need him out there
(18:09):
for a lot? You know? I mean, if you're expecting
to see the elite members of the defense play a
lot in the preseason, you're gonna have to wait until
September eleven for that, well, in the preseason opener. Besides,
at the least, yes, so um, some of these guys
that you and I have been talking about daily, uh
(18:30):
in terms of flashing at practice and you know, the
observations and doing those kinds of things, I think we're
gonna get a chance to see them in game action.
There's only three preseason games, you know, there are three
roster cuts there. There's ninety men on ninety men on
the roster right now. August sixteenth, they cut from eighty five.
(18:53):
Then from on August three they cut from to eighty
and then August thirtieth they cut from eight to fifty three. So, um,
you know you've got you gotta start looking at who
you like, who you don't like, who you want to
continue to try and work with, who you think just
(19:14):
as not an NFL caliber player, um, you know, and
and kind of move on. But all the while, when
you're doing those things too, you gotta make sure you
have enough guys at every position so that you can
continue to practice every day. So you know, there's a
lot of things that go into u making those decisions
early in training camp. Even though you know, fans might say, hey,
(19:37):
I could cut the roster from and I'm sure most
of them could. I'm sure most of them could, but
there are some other things that you have to consider
that made that they may not, and you know, maybe
it's not time to get down to I don't know
X number of running backs because on the first cut,
(19:58):
because you need running backs, you know, to practice. So
those are the some of the kinds of things going
on behind the scenes a little bit. We're gonna keep
kicking around the quarterback talk on the other side of
the break, We're also going to hear from Kenny Pickett
and from Connor Hayward as well as we continue to
dig into the offense that's on the other side here
on the Training camp report right here on SNRDC start
(20:28):
Training Camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on
Steelers Nation Radio. Steeler's first preseason game is this Saturday
at Akershore Stadium, Seattle Seahawks come to town. Labs, people
haven't been over analyzing the quarterback reps through training camp
practices so far, so I'm sure the world won't be
on fire Sunday morning, Monday morning when people recap the
(20:49):
game and how the three quarterbacks did right, It'll it'll
all be taken with a grain of salt and everybody
will be remaining patient when it comes to their development.
I'm sure. Well, let me ask you this, let's just
kind of look into the crystal ball of the future.
Do you think it will okay? Good? Because I I
just used my magic eight ball. Um, do you think
(21:12):
that the overreaction, because there's bound to be some about
the quarterback playing the preseason opener, will be more towards
this is the guy clearly who's the starter he should
be it, or this guy stinks, Um, he's he's out
of the competition. Well, it is Pittsburgh after all, so
(21:32):
I'm gonna have to go with this guy stinks, not
only the out of the competition, Trade him to Cleveland
or cut him from the roster. That's probably the way.
They'll lean yards and two touchdowns and have that one
interception at the very end, and it's there, it is
one interception. Get him out of there. Where's Pickett. It's
a very it's a very steep, uphill battle for all
(21:54):
three of these guys. You mean in the court of
public opinion. Mhm, But I mean it's natural when you
follow number seven. I guess, hey, even for him then
at different times, you know. So, yeah, it's a tough time,
certainly is. Kenny Pickett seems like he is mature beyond
(22:16):
his years. Though he spoke to the media following practice
on Saturday and shared his thoughts on how he and
the offense did. Let's take a listen to Kenny Picker
right here on SNR. But I definitely thought I had,
you know, a really good week, and I think as
an offense, we had a great week and just kind
of building off each day. How difference does it feel
from week one the week two with training camp? Now
you're you're gotten, You're gotten into pad faster. How are
(22:37):
you with justin Yeah? Yeah, I feel a lot better honestly,
like just being able to play with these guys for
a little bit. I thought it was a lot cleaner
this week. Um, you know, being to play at at
a much higher level. So you know, definitely feel good
going in a week three because it was much of
a thanjustment shifting down here and do it all. It
was just just kind of go with the flow. I mean,
coach always says, you know, I gotta be lying your
feet and just react and be ready to go play.
So um yeah, maybe adjustment came down here and I
(22:58):
thought we had a really productive day of that. There's
an even surroundings for you, right, I mean you know
on the seven shot, all nice fade pass there and
you've done a lot of times I'm gonna yeah, yeah,
I mean getting like I said, it's just really reps
with these guys people to know how fast they're getting
to certain points. Um, you know, so I've telling that
to the DV a couple of times. It was good
to get into seven shots there. I think it was
(23:19):
I was listening to helmets. It sound a little loud
of hitting off the top of the home yet. Well,
so what was it like working in that I mean
it was just like that period. Yeah, it was weird.
It was one period that it cleared up for So
it was good. Just played through it. Can you do
you think you're building? Uh, you're fast counting. Um, I
mean right now, it's still early. I mean I would
say all the guys that I've in my in that
two three group that I've gotten to play with the
(23:40):
majority of the snaps, like those are the guys I'm
most comfortable with just because of the time. Um, so
i'd say that group right now. You have a nice
pas to Heyward two that led to a touchdown. He
got pretty wide open. There was a play action, right
we think one well on that one, um, just to
run action the guys coming off the ball, you know,
kind of doing a great job is selling the route
and coming out and getting his eyes up. So uh,
you know, great play, great callback. Coach. You saw two
big plays by Calton the Dade, a big corner in
(24:01):
the route. What have you seen from Calvi, you'r rookie
with him growing with him, what has been his maturation talking? Uh,
just like all of us is is we always talked
about like every day we just feel like we're getting
better and more comfortable in the offense. Is kind of
everything is slowing down for us the more rust we get.
And obviously when he knows what he's doing and he
plays at the speed that he has, I mean, he's
really tough to cover. So he's doing a unbelieva with job.
(24:21):
He on his back now and Chase looks like he's
getting close excited to kind of maybe get some time
then yeah, yeah, I mean that would be huge. Get
those guys healthy, you know, get papped back hopefully soon,
and get the whole team out there so we can
really start clicking. And it gets a bit word that
Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett, speaking to the media following
practice on the South Side on Saturday, laughs. I don't
(24:42):
want to assume, because you know what they say about
people that assume. But I think it's fair to say
that I expect the repetition breakdown at least the order
in which they appear in the first preseason game for
the quarterbacks to mirror the first depth chart that the
Steelers have released. Unless there's some dramatic changes throughout practice
the this week, I expect Mitch to get the start,
(25:02):
Mason rolls in after him, and Kenny's the closer. Um yeah,
that would that would follow I believe Mike Tomlin's history. Um.
The only issue to me would be how long you know,
would guys be out there? Um? Would they divided equally
(25:24):
among the three of them? Would Mitch play the first half?
I don't know. I mean, it's gonna be interesting to
see and then the other thing that's going to be
somewhat interesting. But I do believe it if it turns
out the way that you your crystal ball predicted, you know,
Kenny Pickle will not be playing with any first teamers,
any frontline people, because I can't imagine a realistic scenario
(25:48):
where in the preseason opener Mike Tomlin has, as an example,
you know, a couple of starting offensive linemen out there,
and or Deonte Johnson and Pat farm if he's available
to play, just picking out names. So, um, you know
it's it's gonna be interesting. I do think you know
(26:08):
that watching Steelers preseason games all the way to the end.
This summer will have value. I really do believe that.
And let me let me just throw this out for fans,
you know, just as a way to put things in
a little bit of perspective. Terry Bradshaw four known Super Bowls.
He was the first overall pick of the nineteen seventy
(26:30):
NFL draft. He did not have a regular season that
ended with him throwing more touchdown passes than interceptions until
okay and then in uh. In his first eight seasons,
he finished with more touchdown passes than interceptions twice. M
(26:55):
So if he was getting in today's shortly Sharra, I mean,
who knows how much rope he would have gotten. Well,
you know, Bradshaw, let's you know this. This is to me,
this is um frightening that he performed this way um
and was not was not pulled, but then became what
(27:16):
he became. Okay, completed thirty eight point one percent of
his passes, thirty eight point one, six touchdowns, twenty four interceptions,
his passer rating thirty point four. I mean, imagine you're
out of the league in this day and age. If
that's the case, have a full season like that um so, um,
(27:40):
you know, sometimes it takes time. And you know sometimes
if you wait, um and continue to water and fertilize
the flower, it really gets beautiful. Uh. It may not
be beautiful in the first you know whatever, but continue
to nurture it, nurture in and work with it, and
(28:00):
you never know what what you might end up with.
So I just used that as a little bit of
a cautionary tale, just as a reminder that you know,
sometimes it takes time for these guys to blossom. So
hopefully no one really needs the amount of time that
(28:20):
Terry Bradshaw did in terms of years, because I really
don't know, uh if in today's day and age, when
quarterbacks hit free agency and the money that those guys
end up making, whether there would have been that kind
of patience with him. Um. So it's a different game,
different era, We're all different. Um. So we'll see what happens.
(28:44):
But as I said, I'm gonna just continue to keep
falling back on this. I do believe that this might
be the most compelling Steelers preseason in a while. Said that,
no question, you know, patients paid off big time for
Terry Bradshaw. We know that patients is paid off with
other quarterbacks around the league as well as far as
developing them into their best version of themselves. When it
(29:09):
comes to, you know, the fertilization process of a Kenny Pickett.
I think, and this is again be looking into a
crystal ball and speculating on what I think would be
best case scenario. It would really be great if Mitch
could wrap this thing up after the second preseason game Tomlin,
that practice week following that game comes out. My number
one quarterback in Cincinnati September eleventh is Mitch Drabinski. Competition over.
(29:33):
We know who we're riding with at least in week one,
and then that way you can kind of give Kenny
Pickett the Dwayne Haskins treatment from last year, where you
just kind of roll the ball out and say, final
preseason game Detroit Lions, it's all you for all four quarters. Kenny,
maybe maybe three quarters, and then all of Dokin can
come in for the fourth. But this is mainly gonna
be your game. I don't want to stay trial by
(29:55):
fire because it's not a regular season game, but I
think that'd be a great way to get him really
acclimated and give him that fool game under his belt.
As then he transitions to, you know, sitting on the
sidelines with a year piece in or being the backup
quarterback for at least the beginning portions of the season.
That's all well and good to hope that that happens,
But you need Mitch to take the job first. That's
(30:17):
step one in that equation. And if he needs reps
in game three, he needs reps in game three, and
this Kenny Pickett scenario I've laid out just goes out
the window. Okay, coach off from and I'm not I'm
not letting you off the hook that easy. So let's
just let's let's just pretend not I'm not. I'm just
gonna let you. I'm just gonna let you continue down
(30:37):
this train of thought and either drive the train, you know,
through the tunnel or into the wall of the bridge. Yeah.
So okay, let's pretend that it works that way for you,
and Mitch Drobisky clinches the starting job. Mike Tomlin makes
the announcement that you said Kenny pick is going to
play the entire third game. Who plays with them? I
(31:02):
would say, see that's stuff, because it really you don't
want anybody you don't want anybody have significance out there.
You don't want Naddie out there, you don't want Friarmouth
if he's healthy out there. You don't want the receivers
out there. So you're right, he might. You know what
about the alignment, right And you know, going off of
your point even further, we saw that last year when
(31:22):
Dwayne Haskins got that chance. He didn't get to go
with the ones for the Steelers, but guess who was
playing their ones the Carolina Panthers defense. So you're right,
I mean, just because you know it might work out
the way where Kenny gets to start the whole game,
He's not going to have the pieces around him that's
necessary to give him a fair shake, i'd say, or
at least show his full potential. So yeah, it's definitely
(31:43):
a good point that you bring up. And you know,
that's why I'm not a coach. That's why I speak
into a microphone and not you know, out on the
south side or out on the Latrobe practice field. Right now. Okay, Well,
like I said, I just wanted to know him there
being legit, Yeah, I would have to tend to agree.
(32:05):
I mean, if that's the case, if you, if you
as the coach, me as the coach, would be going
into the third preseason game convinced that, um, who you're
starting quarterback was going to be September eleven, I wouldn't
necessarily play him. And then, you know, I think that
you have to vend um, you know, extrapolate that out
(32:27):
with the rest of the offensive unit too, um, because
you know, again, you don't want to be losing a
frontline uh starter, especially on offense where there's gonna be uh,
there's gonna be perceived to be so much uh different
from you know, the last year, the year before that. Uh,
(32:50):
you don't want to create your own upheaval on top
of the normal upheople that you're going to be facing
offensively in terms of style person now you know whatever,
play calling. I don't know. We'll have to see how
this evolved. So um, yeah, again, I'll go back to
what I said in the previous segment. This is going
to be a pretty compelling preseason compared to others in
(33:13):
recent Steelers history. One guy that would definitely be playing
in that third preseason game with Kenny is Connor Hayward.
When we heard Kenny speak just moments ago. He mentioned
that play action passed that he completed to Connor in
the end zone for a touchdown in seven shots. Hayward
has been impressing so far, uh in the early goings
in camp, and he ended up speaking to the media
(33:33):
as well following practice on Saturday. Let's take a quick
listen to Connor Hayward here on SNR. We're you seeing
that robot by Mitch really command the offense and being
able to get you guys down there. Just Mitch being Mitch,
you know, being composed, you know, and you know, leading
us to drive, leading us to drive the ball down there. Um,
you know he didn't flinch with a quarterback like that,
and all the other quarterbacks not flinch, and that just
(33:55):
makes us have so much more confidence in our team.
I know you're see so you've you've grown with Kenny
Brunts the Tiret Pross. How have you seen Kenny grow?
Already been asking row each day, just coming in getting better, uh,
being more vocal and just being himself. You know, Kenny
had a lot of good qualities, so you know as
a leader and has a quarterback, but uh, you know
it's hard. You know, your first day it was even
(34:17):
hard for me and all the rookies. Sometimes you're gonna
have those days. Not saying you did so, but uh,
you know, coach always just talks about getting better, Uh,
you know, showing growth, and uh, I can definitely say
that he has. I know it's not completely live yet,
but Mitch Kenny Mason, they all tried to extensive place
you guys have gotten looking to scrambling. Ruh, Mitch had
wanted to pick him there. How's that kind of working
with you guys and learn how to figure out that
(34:37):
it be Mitch Kenny Mason kind of how to work
that out structor stuff. I mean, obviously all of them
have different skill sets, but uh, you know, to be
an NFL quarterback in this league, you've got to be
able to scramble and be able to make plays on
the run, and all three of them can. And uh,
you know, none of the rules change means scrambled drill.
Uh when he's scrambling, you, you know, you gotta find
space and grow on that sideline. And uh, you know,
(34:58):
it's all about chemistry and uh, just having a good
deal for the game. And you know, if you're out
there on the field, you know the coaches have more
more of the compuments that you have that that Steelers
sixth round pick Connor Heyward, speaking to the media following
practice on Saturday, labs he's been turning heads with his
tight end play so far. But if he wants to
get a helmet on game day, if he wants to
be that third string on the depth chart, it's all
(35:19):
about special teams right now for him. Would you say, yeah, absolutely?
I mean it's uh because, uh, you know Jay Sternberger. Uh,
he's one of the other candidates for a third tight
end spot. As an example, Um has shown me a
lot more than I ever expected. And I'm no personnel guy,
(35:43):
so you know, uh Ja Sternberger, you know, impressing me
doesn't really matter, but I'm impressed anyway. Uh So, Um,
you know, he's a candidate, Kevin Ragers a candidate, and
then you just never know. Also, how the you know,
the roster is gonna work out, because we were talking
(36:07):
in the previous segment about playing guys, um, you know
in the preseason finale. Okay, one of the one of
the tricky things that a coach can sometimes encounter is, Okay,
let's say you're heading into the regular season with a
few guys who you plan on either starting or having
(36:28):
significant roles, you know, in one phase of the group,
and they have like minor nagging type injuries that may
only keep them out for a week or two, but
they're not gonna necessarily be ready for the opener. Okay,
So now when you're putting your fifty three man roster together,
say you want to keep six receivers, I'm just spitballing here,
(36:50):
and one of those six or two of those six
are the kinds of guys that I just described, people that, um,
you wanted to play, had planned to play, but aren't
gonna be able to slash ready to physically when the
season opens. So you can't i R them because we
don't exactly know what those rules are going to be yet.
(37:12):
That's still kind of in the league office and they're
trying to figure out whether there's gonna be that short
term i R um or just it's going back to
pre pandemic rules. Um, okay, so now you can't put
them on i R. But if you only want so,
you keep them, so you may have to go shorter
at the other position then you had originally planned, because
(37:37):
you know, you need to account for these guys that
you're gonna have to carry on the roster but aren't
necessarily going to be able to play when the season opens.
So you know, there's a lot of that stuff going
on too. So if you're a player or trying to forecast, uh,
you know, who's gonna be at the bottom of the
depth chart at the different positions, that's a factor you
(37:57):
have to consider because it's not necessar serily just cut
and dry the best fifty three. You know, it's not
like you make a list, you know, when you go
down and co fifty three names and then you rip
the list off and throw the bottom part of it
in the garbage. So, uh, if you're one of those
players that's you know, on the bubble like that, you know,
(38:19):
you better make yourself really valuable somewhere else. And you know,
Danny Smith always says, you know, first group, second group,
third group on training camp opens when September one Worlds
are on, there is no third group that's either practice
squad or working at seven eleven. So, um, you know,
(38:40):
you you if you're not if you're not a starter,
this is what he tells the players. He told me this,
He tells the players this in the first meeting. That's
a training camp. If you're not first team on offense
or defense, you better find a way to be first
team on special teams. So, um, you know, one of
the other things and end back to my I'm beating
(39:01):
this dead horse consistently today about this compelling preseason. Another
thing to look about look at and maybe you know,
instead of cracking how many yards a quarterback throws for
in a in a practice at St. Vincent College, maybe
you want to start tracking who are the uh courts
special teams guys, just to use Connor Heyward as an example,
(39:24):
And you know, is he on kickoff, kickoff return, punt
punt return? You know, does he have a role on
you know, field goals and extra points? Is one of
those wing guy block guys or something? You know, those
are the guys you know when you're watching that those
players who are keep showing up on these very special
teams units. You know, they're showing up there because they're
(39:47):
they're proving themselves capable of doing it all. Because if
you know, you may get a chance one game or
one week in practice with being a quote unquote starter
on special teams and all those spots. But if the
the video that they're watching grade doesn't justify you continuing
in that role, then you get the motive or maybe
(40:09):
taken off or whatever. So you know, these are the
guys to a lot of times that become a factor
on the final cutdown day. Return guys. Steelers are always
looking for return guys. If you plan on making a
football team as a return guy, you better bring one
back for a touchdown at least one unless you are
(40:31):
and again I'm picking out a name here, Calvin Austin third,
who's again just speculating the starting slot receiver. Okay, so
that's different. But if you're you know, Stefon Logan. I
don't love many Steelers fans remember him? Uh oh nine,
I think it was well yeah, okay, but general Schefsky,
(40:54):
if he if he can't help as a receiver, which
he has shown some ability to do by the way
in the training game to this, okay, uh, if he
can't help as a receiver, he better get in the
end zone on a punt return or two. I'm just
saying because um, I don't mean. I'm not trying to
be mean or I don't like Gunn Rochefski or any
of that stuff. I'm just telling you what it is,
(41:17):
and that's how it's viewed. I mean, I've heard Mike
Tomlin tell me, you know, I've asked him what do
you need to do to make the team strictly as
a return guy? I mean he pretty much has said
you better get in the end zone. Uh. You know,
catching them all isn't good enough. Uh catching all the punts. Uh,
knowing when they'll let the punt roll into the end
(41:39):
zone as opposed to catching it you know, the ten
yard line or whatever. That's not good enough by itself.
You need to you need to be dynamic. And so uh,
these roster spots as they're being fought for. And again
we're just using this as a name as an example.
Tight ends Connor Hayward. Well, you might say, okay, well
there's Friarmouth Gentry. He's the third best tight end. Okay,
(42:03):
what's he giving you on special teams? Though? Because if
he's not giving you a lot, then maybe you go
with Sternburger because maybe Sternburger has given you more. Again,
this is all speculation, and I'm just picking names out
and throwing them out here. I don't want anyone to
think that, you know, I'm uh making any decisions or
(42:24):
predicting anything because I don't know what the pecking order
is at this point. But it'll be determined in these
first couple of preseason games. And um, you know, guys
who have their eyeballs on one of those final fifty
three on after four pm on August, Um, you know
they better have Danny Smith in their corner, saying, and
(42:47):
you know when he has his meeting with Mike Tomlin,
I need this guy. We're gonna wrap things up here
on the Training camp Report when we come back, talk
a little bit about the defensive side of the ball
and give you again an update on today's actus up
at Latrobe. That's all on the way. Next here on
the Training Camp Report on SNR, he sees the training
(43:10):
camp Report with Tom Opperman at Bob Labriola on Steelers
Nation Radio. Only a few more minutes left here on
today's training camp Report, but Labs, one guy I did
want to get into on the defensive side of the
ball was someone that Tomlin was asked about in his
press or following practice on Saturday, and that's outside linebacker
Alex Highsmith. You know he was asked what he expects
(43:31):
and what he needs from him this year, and he
put it as Tom and often does. He just needs
varsity football from high Smith. Uh, this is a big
year for him. I don't want to say that he's
you know, way behind the eight ball, because he had
a pretty solid season last year and I'd say for
a middle round draft pick out of the University of Charlotte,
he's actually done pretty well in his first two seasons
in the NFL. But I think this third season now,
(43:53):
the coaching staff wants to see it a little bit
more of an uptick from him, even if the numbers
don't necessarily bear it out. I think we've talked about
this before. Hey, sometimes you're gonna get to the quarterback,
but number nine he's just gonna get there a step
faster and he's gonna take some sacks out of your pocket.
But just to see you know, more consistency, uh, not
getting pushed to the outside, you know, cutting his angle
down a lot sharper on the quarterback. Things like that
(44:15):
are are really needed to be seen from Highsmith this season. Yeah,
and it's picked for him too, because you know, as
a third round pick, he signs a four year contract
coming into the NFL, so the fifth year option thing
is only available to first year guys. So he's going
into his third season. So now it's you know, it's
getting up to a point where uh, and this was
(44:38):
explained to me once by a long time assistant coach. Um,
a lot of times teams make decisions on whether you're
worth the money if they're gonna have to spend. So,
you know, Alex Highsmith not only for him in terms
of you know, if he wants a second contract and
what that number might be. Um, you know those kinds
(44:59):
of things. Uh, that's happening on the other on the
other side too, of that bargaining table. Um, you know,
do we like this guy or do we need to
start looking for a replacement Because, um, when Bud Dupre
was heading towards free agency and he was really lightening
it up, you know, the Steelers made a conscious move
(45:20):
to draft Alex Highsmith. I mean they didn't wait until
Bud was gone to pick Highsmith on the next draft.
They picked them while Bud was still here. So let's
just flip it around a little bit. Maybe it's not
uh so much of a situation that we're gonna lose him.
There's an undrestricted free agent. It's more like we don't
know if we want to sign him back to a
(45:41):
second contract, so let's prepare for that. So, yes, this
is a big season for Alex Highsmith personally. Uh. The
Steelers need him. You know you were mentioned his production.
Uh you know, the the defense certainly needs that. And
for that to improve, as you mentioned, Uh, he needs
to not allow himself to be run past the quarterback
(46:04):
so much and finish because there are a lot of
times when you know, Alex hi Smith is almost there,
almost doesn't cut it. Uh, So we are not. So Uh,
it's a big season for him. It's a big season
uh for the Steelers in terms of what he can produce.
And here's the other thing. He needs to stay healthy
(46:27):
because uh, there is not a lot of depth right now,
or let me put put it this way, proven depth
uh behind the two starters t J. Watt and Alex Eismith.
And so you know, you have to find a way
to keep yourself available. He needs to do what he needs,
whatever needs to be done in terms of, you know,
preparing his body and then taking care of his body
(46:49):
on a regular basis. So that you know, he's able
to line up and and assume the role that they
need him to assume. So yeah, in a lot of
different ways, it's a big year for alex II Smith,
how it impacts the Steelers and then how it impacts
his future. Steelers are back in Latrobe for practice today,
but the practice will be at Latrobe Memorial Stadium, the
(47:11):
usual home for Friday night lights. So if you are
headed up to Latrobe, make sure you stop there because
that is where practice will be taking place at one today.
That's gonna do it for us today. On the Training
Camp Report, we're gonna hand things off to the locker
room next as Wolf and Starks will take you for
the next two hours right here on SNR. For Bob Labrielle,
I'm Tom Offerman. We'll talk to you at nine am
(47:33):
tomorrow right here on Steelers Nation Radio.
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