July 28, 2022 • 47 mins
Day one of Steelers Training Camp is in the books, and Tom Opferman and Bob Labriola recap the action from yesterday on today's Training Camp Report. They two discuss the QB distribution of reps, we hear from Coach Tomlin after practice to get his thoughts, talk about who stole the show on day one and who made a good impression on Labs, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Man, We're really excited to be here. It's awesome to
get stuarded, and so now we take off. DC's the
training camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on
Steelers Nation Radio, Day one of Steelers two training camp.
In the books, day to practice later on today about
one is when they'll kick things off there, Labs, as always,
(00:29):
like we like to do, I want to start with
the quarterback, and I want to start with Mike Tomlins
telling us the absolute truth at his opening press conference
on Tuesday, saying that we won't see any changes at
the depth chart as far as the quarterback position is concerned,
and he was true to the word. Mas Mitch was
the number one, Mason took two second team reps, and
Kenny was number three, and um It took I think
(00:51):
the first team, first team session first eleven on eleven
session yesterday, first practice, naughty and in pads. Um it
started was it was a past, past heavy period. So
the first most of the players were passes, so tro
Whisky through I think it was two in completions, it
(01:14):
might have been three. But then you hear some love
and leathern lungians or yelled from the stands and chu. Yes, yes,
I didn't think we'd get lucky to have that until
at least the first preseason game. Oh no, no, why wait?
I mean seriously, why wait? So um uh you know
(01:36):
I I had to laugh. A lot of other people
did in attendance. Uh. And I will say this, I
did not personally do this because um, to me, it's
it's just a gigantic over um being overly concerned about
things that don't matter. Um, pick it, um. Trabinsky and
(02:02):
Mason got exactly the same number of reps in the
entire practice, So somebody was actually counting them, which not you.
You aren't counting them with an Italian notebook. No, I
had the notebook and everything, but I mean that's not
one of the things that I was taking notes on.
I can tell you that now. He also mentioned in
(02:24):
his opening press conference on Tuesday about he said, we'll
see when it comes to the offensive line and potential
changes with that starting group, Well, it was exactly the
same that we saw all spring. Just to refresh people's memory.
First team O line left to right was Dan Moore, Dotson,
Mason Cole, James Daniels and Chokes at the right tackle
The second group from left to right was Trent Scott,
(02:45):
Kendrick Greene, J C. Hassenhoward, John Leglue, and Joe Haig.
I gotta think in a perfect world, and of course
this isn't a perfect world, and injuries happened, poor play happens,
great play from people on the second team can happen.
But in a perfect world, this first unit of the
offensive line has to be their dream unit. That's at
least how I read it. Well, you know, the left
(03:07):
guard to me, is is something that could change. Um.
You know, I was really high on Kevin Dotson early
in his rookie year. I thought that this guy, um,
you know, was was going to be a real player.
I like how physical he was. He was a finisher, Um,
you know, like to get up, get on people and
you know, lock up and you know, do the whole
physical dance with them. But then last year, I don't
(03:30):
really know what happened. I mean, I don't know if um,
he came to camp in a condition that disappointed the
coaches or you know, as a second year player. Mike
Tomlin always expects dramatic improvement, significant steps forward. Maybe he
didn't see that enough because Dotson lost his you know,
starting job in camp and then you know his in
(03:53):
and out of the lineup got injured miss time. So
I really don't know what to think of Kevin Dotson.
I don't know of you know, the real hymn is
what we saw as when he was a rookie, or
the real hymn is what we saw after he experienced
a little bit of success and kind of fell back
into the pack. So, you know, I think Kevin Kendrick
Green um has a chance to get himself into the
(04:19):
into the starting lineup. He played primarily guarded Illinois. Uh,
and I you know what I've been told is that's
supposedly his better position, at least by everyone who writes
the ass and answered they told me that all the time. Um, well,
you know, I mean I cannot argue seriously with you
(04:40):
know the fact that Kendrick Green was at times overmatched
physically as a center. Now, um, people who understand you know,
the position and um playing that and at the NFL
and all that stuff. Uh, you know, Craig Wolfley and
Max starks Um both said that you know, there are
(05:00):
techniques that Kendrick Green can learned to use better than
he did last year. And again, as I mentioned, he
was primarily a guard in college. Um that he had
a lot of the things, you know, the raw physical
tools that could make him a good center. He was athletic,
had some um movement ability. Um. He was likened by
(05:21):
Mike tom Tomlin a little bit you know in that area.
I don't want to you know, overstate this, but compared
him a little bit the Marquise Pounds as that kind
of guy at that position. Kendrick Green spent some time
this offseason working with poundcy so uh yeah, So I
mean I don't know, I'm not ready to give almost
(05:43):
a give up on him, but um uh label him
an odd starter. So I think that he has a
he has a chance. Um. And you know the other guys,
I really think, um, you gotta you've got a root
for good health question, especially at that position. Group. Yes, uh,
(06:06):
you know, I think trans Scott has some potential to
be a decent swing tackle. Um because I don't think
you want Joe Haig to play a lot there unless
it's really necessary. I think he would be He's better
as an interior back up. And you know, La Glue
was just kind of a guy last year. He did
some good things, but I mean you could see why,
(06:28):
you know, he bounced around a little bit. Wasn't a
high draft pick when he entered the league. Um so
you know again, I have some hope slash expectation for
Kendrick Green. Uh, some hope for Transscott, but mostly you
pray for good health. Go to the Basilica Steelers fans,
you know, plunk a bucker two down into the collection
(06:51):
of asking a lighted candle, because that's going to be important.
And of course, nothing can be gleaned from the offensive line.
You can't determine who's good who's playing well until they
actually put the pads on. First padded practice being this
coming Monday, August one. That's really you know, you can
kind of say, oh, this receiver gets out of his
brakes really well, or oh, this corner can really stay
(07:12):
in man coverage really well. Or what a good pass
from Mitch or great play from Kenny, or wow, Naji
looks explodes. You can see all of that stuff in
the shorts and T shirts portion when you're just wearing helmets,
but that offensive line, you're not going to really be
able to tell what you got there until it's it's
actual live football. So these couple of practice yeah's, you
get a little feel for them, but you're not going
to know until the pads get strapped on, right And
(07:35):
you know you mentioned some of the other guys too.
Um you know, for me, I always watched the wide
receivers once the pads go on to see who I
won't say, you know, maybe shrinks a little bit once
the threat of physical violence is introduced. I mean, you
know who's aggressive going over the middle and shorts and
(07:57):
who's aggressive going over the middle when the pads are on.
Uh not that there's a lot of big hitting, um
tolerated and training camp because you know, as it's as
it's said about it. You know, it's Steelers on Steelers.
You don't want um your dbs injuring your receivers. But
you also have to in to me introduce the threat
(08:20):
of the violence and see if these guys can continue
to be aggressive and do their jobs, because that's what's
gonna happen on Sundays or Mondays or Thursdays or you
know whatever days. Yeah, yeah, there was a Saturday in there,
and hey, who knows once the streaming starts, I mean
it could be like college football, you know, playing on Tuesday,
(08:41):
when Thursday night, you know whatever. So, um, yeah, that
that's something that I am interested in watching. We're gonna
hear from Mike Tomlin and his post practice thoughts in
just a second. But before we get there, did you
have any surprises to you when it came to you know,
the guys starting the starting eleven on the offense and
the defensive side of Deante Unson excluded. Obviously, Cody White
(09:02):
got run with the first team because of Deonta holding
in or not participating in team drill as likely as
a negotiation with a contract, uh, and of course Kazi
playing for an injured makeup Fitzpatrick. But other than that,
anything kind of you know, raise an eyebrow. I know
it's only day one, it's early, but anything you know
that caught your attention, Well you mentioned it already, but yeah,
(09:24):
to answer your question, Yeah, Deonte Johnson's uh decision to
hold in as that is now being called I I
I question whether that's a good move on his part. Um,
you know, I don't know that. Um, there's gonna be
a meeting of the minds in terms of, um, what
(09:45):
what the number is? Going to be to get that
deal done. And so let's just pretend that it doesn't
get done and that the two sides are not of
the same mind in terms of you know what, uh,
Deontae john and it's worth what the Steelers are willing
to pay, you know, the availability of what more wide
receivers on an annual basis. You know that the Steelers
(10:08):
have the stomach to continue to roll the dice every draft,
you know, and trying to pick guys to replace established
pros or you know how that all comes together because
you know what, what really kind of makes it more
dicey this summer is the quarterback situation. I mean, it's
not uh a quarterback. It's not going to be a
(10:28):
quarterback that Deante Johnson never really played with. Whoever wins
the job, it's not going to be a guy that
he spent a lot of time with on the field
together in regular season NFL games. And so, you know,
I believe this all along that you need you need
to develop if you're a receiver, you need to develop
(10:50):
a relationship with the quarterback. I mean that's something that
Lynn swan um new understood, perfected right away in nineteen
seventy with Terry Bradshaw, because when it's third and eight
and pressures on the quarterback, he's gonna go to somebody
he either likes or is confident in, or you know,
(11:10):
whatever it is or has to be some you know,
as Wolfley would say, some good mojo there, because you know,
it's an instant decision to three seconds, the quarterback has
to assess what's going on down the field and get
rid of the ball. So he's gonna go to someone
that the trusts. And if there's no relationship that has
been built over time in practice, not that he's freezing
(11:33):
the guy out or anything, but it's just not you know,
it's just not his instinct. So I think that there
is somewhat of a uh potential danger for that relationship
not to develop. And then you know, Deante Johnson doesn't
have the kind of season he wants, and then his
market value is in the dumper, you know, so that
(11:53):
this could all blow up in his face and also
maybe impact the Steeler's offense. So I just I think
that that surprised me a little bit that he would
not view the situation or his agent, he or his
agent and or both of them whatever will not view
the situation. Um, you know, thinking it through all the way. Um,
(12:15):
like I just tried to explain it. Hey, maybe I'm
wrong though, but that's what I think. And I think
it kind of caught the dealers a little bit by
surprise too, because Tomlin's comments just two days ago was
expecting everybody to be a participant. He it was as
point blank, do you expect to have any hold ins
kind of like you saw with what last year, And
he said he doesn't think that he's going to have
to deal with that with Deonte. And then fast forward
to first day of practice and Deante is sitting on
(12:37):
the side watching team drills. We'll not sitting on the side.
He's still It's not like he's in a lawn chair,
you know, drinking a dak or watching them practice. He
still did Um right, Yeah, So yeah, that that would
that would for me, that qualifies as a as a
surprise in terms of when they rolled out the first teams. Well,
(12:58):
let's hear from the man himself if that's enough out
of us. Coach Tomlin spoke to the media following the
Stealer's first training camp practice yesterday, and here's what coach
t had to say about getting started today. Um, this
team developmental process and and doing it in this environment
in front of our fans, Man, just makes it doubly special. Um.
I've been coming here a long time. Man, It's not
(13:18):
something that I take for granted. It's something that's appreciated.
Their presence aids in the team development and the fund
and the competition component of what it is that we're doing.
And so we're appreciative. Man. We hope they keep coming.
I know we'll keep coming out with the intentions of
working to get better. UM. From an availability standpoint of
injury standpoint, Larry Oh was a limited participant. Will managed
(13:40):
Larry Man. We're just getting to know him. He's coming
off of surgery. He's ready to go, but we'll we'll
manage him and proceed with caution because not only is
he dealing with injury, but he's new to us and
so that requires a little bit of management. No issues there,
Miles Killer Brew Um had a peck injury will be evaluated.
I think T d Um had some cramps. Uh, don't
(14:00):
expect that to be a significant issue. UM. Other than that,
um Man, just a lot to teach and learn. I
could go on and on about what I saw. Just
rest assured that it was a good start and and
we have my owls to go. I partial questions, make
you ready to name a starting quarterback? I'm not. I'm not.
But asked me tomorrow, ask me tomorrow, and no question,
(14:24):
no question. My god, it didn't look like Deante was
doing any of the team stuff. Is that any level
of concerning first aid camp? Absolutely not. You guys know me. UM.
I acknowledge that he was less than participant. Will continue
to manage the circumstance. But right now, my energy of
focus is on those that are participating, UM, and I
think that's the appropriate mindset to have. From time to
(14:45):
time you get in a setting like this, you manage
situations and circumstances and people, but largely my energy is
devoted to those that are working and in the larger body.
And That's where I'm at with it. Your decision was
not no, what he doesn't participations because you're more a
chance to see some different guys on the outside, or
do you bump different guys around. We're doing that situation.
(15:08):
When you get in a setting like this and you've
got ninety guys to get to know. Um, I've just
learned over the course of time is to to look
at it from the perspective of those that get increased
wrapped opportunities. And boy, we've got some young guys at
that position that you know, gonna take advantage of some
of those opportunities and hopefully for the good. You're not
ready to name this charter today, But what did you
see from each of the quarterback? I saw good working,
(15:29):
attentiveness and good communication. And we're crawling, you know, I
can I can tell you guys some things, but it's
the early portion of the process. And I appreciate their
attendiveness and professionalism and and they'll continue to write their
stories and sort themselves out like what you've seen the
monthly teams, drains and pet you know. And it's just
the first practice about meeting us. But how did he
mark these community? Exactly what you just said, Man, it's
(15:51):
the first practice. You know, we're in helmets and so um,
you know, he is a veteran, He's been there, done,
Get that guy. I'm appreciative of that. That's why we
went out and acquired them. But not a lot happened
to day on that front. Might get inside linebacker. You
it seems like you're rotating Jack Bush and Splane. Is
that is that just an early camp thing or is
that something that you could stretch out into a season.
(16:13):
For instance, I am into those things man, and oftentimes UM,
you know, we do this thing largely to give everybody
an opportunity to be ready and show what their capable
of and divide the labor up and so forth. And
so when we got a lot of guys at a position,
sometimes we'll work a pair and the spare uh in
the first group and an effort to see more guys
like Buddy Johnson, for instance, we do it at corner
(16:36):
Um with Spoon and Levi and Cam Sutton. You work
those guys exclusively in in group one, so you get
more of an opportunity to see JP and group two.
So it's not necessarily about the three guys that are
working in group one. Sometimes you're just standing the herd
to make sure that the guys in the second and
third group aren't sharing reps because they got a lot
(16:57):
to learn and and a lot to show us, and
the more opporu tunities they get are significant. And so
I think it probably represents that UM him working with
that first group. We have exposure to him, we know
what he's capable of, and those others that you mentioned.
More than anything, it tends to herd so Buddy Johnson
and and and Mark Robinson and guys like that, um
(17:18):
can learn and show what the capable of. You're taking
that same approach at left guard with thoughtson and the
others behind him. Exactly. You can apply that analogy to
too many positions. He's gentry, coming along developmentally physically at
the point in my tinker was a little bit more
too tight. This year we've been in that mode. Like
you've often talked about splash plays. You got to see
(17:39):
your two rookies just work, working on everybody, how you
feel about them coming the plays, the room. You know,
it's just the early portion of the the process. We've got
one practice down, so you know, I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna crown him today. We talked to you yesterday
about being back there at ladrowe finally seeing the fans
out here. What what was that like? Wing now like
when I opened, I'm just appreciative of it. I am
(18:00):
their presence is appreciated and on a significant component of development.
Coaches there's somebody that's been that's moving a system, whether
it's a rookie or a free Agian acquisition, it's stuck
out to you as far as being able to fit
in the past. That's Mike Tomlin talking to reporters after
practice and ending it very bluntly. No, I haven't seen
(18:22):
anybody jumped up the page. It's been first. I love
how he just kind of you could tell, and he
let it slip in every once in a while, but
he just wanted to scream like, this is ridiculous. It's
been one practice and we even ended it early today.
We didn't know anything out there. Um yeah, a lot
of time to fill, uh, for the media attending camp,
either um, you know, on on the radio or on TV,
(18:44):
or on podcasts or in cyberspace or whatever. And um,
you know, everyone is, you know, and it's it's it's
amusing to some degree because of you know, you can
just you can as the questions are being posed, you
can all is formulated what kind of answer he's gonna give, right,
And um, that's something uh that I always kind of
(19:08):
chart over the course of a training camp. You know,
Mike Tomlin's level of tolerance because He's still pretty tolerant
right now. You know the the whole you know, if
you picked the starting quarterback yet, you know the first question, Yeah,
he laughed about that, and it was it was said
in just you know, I'm not trying to demean the
person who asked the question. But you know, if whoever
(19:29):
it is, and I'm not saying it will be the
same person throughout the summer, but if that question is
the first one every time when practice ends, I mean,
it'll you know it, it's gonna get I won't say ugly,
because you know, Mike tomlin Is is professional. He might
get impatient, you know we're short, or you know, a
(19:50):
little bit gently mocking, but um, you know, you can
see if you're standing down there looking at him as
he's being masked, these things look in his eyes when
you know some of these things continue to get asked,
you can tell. You can hear or almost see the
smoke start coming out of his ears. Like he said,
(20:11):
we've got miles to go when it comes to training camp,
and we still got miles to go. Here on day
two training camp report with myself and Bob Labriola, we're
gonna take a quick break when we come back, we'll
keep breaking down some things that Tomlin said in his
post practice presser and Labs had some notable first impressions
from day one at training camp. That will get into
those as well. It's the Steelers Training Camp Report right
(20:32):
here on SNR. The s the Training Camp Report with
Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio. We
heard from coach Tomlin and the thoughts that he had
following Steelers practice yesterday. To end our last segment had
(20:53):
to hit a break, so we couldn't really discuss everything.
I wanted to get to Labs and a couple of
things that I wanted to touch on was what he
said about the tight end usage gentry in particular. Very
short answer there, but I think it was a little
bit telling. And what he said about the middle linebackers
rotating three guys in now he did say he does
that to, you know, separate reps from second team guys
(21:14):
so they can get a better look at some guys
they're less familiar with than you know, Spillane has been
around the block, Awhile and Jack and Bush are your
for sure nailed on starters at this point, so you know,
he said it was a way that you can see
some second team guys get more reps if you put
some of those, you know, backups in with the first team.
But I also kind of think that it wouldn't be
a bad idea to maybe employ a little bit of
(21:35):
a rotation in that middle linebacker unit, see three guys
as almost the starters and have split snaps. And then
as far as the tight end is concerned, you know,
he talked about Gentry looking a lot better and going
a lot more double tight, and he just said, we've
been in that mindset for a while. So I think
the writings on the wall they're they're gonna be using
double title lot more this year. Yeah, let's let's start
(21:57):
with the tight ends, because you just ended with that. Um.
You know, last year I asked Mike Tomlin, you know,
starting with the kind of the end of training camp
and then a couple of different times over the course
of the season about Gentry and um, you know, his
evolution as a blocker. Is that his development as a blocker,
because you know last year when he came to training
(22:19):
camp or showed up actually for the start of the
off season program, he had totally remade his body I mean,
this is a guy who you know, he went to
college as a quarterback, so not only well you know,
you know it's I'm not making fun of quarterbacks, but
I mean they're not they're they're not on the line
of scrimmage man to man blocking very large people. Um,
(22:42):
So Gentry had to remake himself physically to to get
I think into the you know, correct um physical appearance,
slash shape, to be hand to be able to handle that.
And then I also think there had to be some
you know, my end set adjustment going on, because you
(23:03):
have to become you know, the guy who delivers the
first punch, uh when you're in that situation at the
end of the line of scrimmage, whether it's for a
running play or in past protection or whatever. So it
took him a little bit of time, but I think
that last year he really showed the makings of the
(23:23):
ability to be you know, a legitimate uh NFL tight end.
And you know, by the end of training camp, I
asked Mike Tomblin if if it's fair to call Gentry
and the best blocking tight end on the team, and
he said, yeah, but he has to be, you know,
that's his job and if he's not, then the team
is in trouble, you know, and Gentry's future you know,
(23:46):
might not be you know, what he wants and what
the team wants. So I think that last year was
a kind of a turning point for him in in
his development as an NFL tight end and what he needs,
the way he needs to lay it, the position to
continue to be in the NFL. Um, and you know
the Friar move thing, Pat Friar move. I just think
(24:08):
he's gonna be a super um um target for whoever
is the starting quarterback. And I think he's gonna also
be a significant red zone threat. Um. I'm not gonna
say he's gonna be as dangerous of a red zone
threat to opponents as He's Miller was, but he is
(24:30):
in he's on a track to at least be in
that kind of a conversation. Um. He made some catches yesterday. Uh.
Balls were thrown hard, um, and he was making catches
with his hands away from his body. And one of
the things that you know you can do this too
(24:50):
if if you're close enough, the sound that the ball
makes when it hits the receiver's hands, it should almost
sound like throwing it into a pillow. You know, it
makes a little poof sound, but it's not a hard
slap because if it's a hard slap, then um, you
know he's not whoever it is, it's not catching it correctly.
(25:13):
So yeah, when the ball hits Pat farrenmouth saying, you
don't hear much. So, um, you know, kudos to him,
uh for his hands. I'm sure that he worked on
that in the off season, not that it was a
problem last year, but you know, you want to get better.
So I think that the Steelers have two tight ends
who has have defined roles as a way of putting
(25:38):
it and they're good at those roles. So yeah, there's
gonna there's gonna be some you know, more multiple tight endformations.
I think that will help both Nashi Harrison the running
game and I'm sure whoever the quarterback is in a
passing game moving to the linebackers. Now, um, you know
the thing about you know, I can see the advantage
(25:59):
of you know, rotating guys, um, but you do need
you you do need players there who can be successful
against both the run. In the past, because if you
have run down inside linebackers and passed on inside linebackers,
what if the offense doesn't cooperate quarterback able because he's like, hey,
(26:23):
these guys can't cover anything. I'm not going to run
them right or even even um, you know, the because
the other team has guys up in the coaches booth
two and all all teams have this. Um, somebody up
there is either using binoculars or if they have good
eyesight as opposed to me, Um, they can say and
call right down to the coordinator. Hey, um, you know
(26:47):
so and so is in the game, and and they're
in that that team's meetings, game planning meetings during the
week leading up to that game. I'm sure they determined,
you know, who's a good inside linebacker against the run,
who's a good inside linebacker against the past and so
if you know, they can just say so and so
is in the game, and whoever gets that information from
up top immediately tells the quarterback you know what the
(27:09):
play is. And you know that's another thing. You know,
fans always ask, you know, why can't they have a
you know, big run stuffing nose tack. Well, you can
have one, but what if the other team doesn't run
when he's in the game. You know, that's why God,
other team has always thrown ranches in your plans, and
they really are, you know, because um again, it's the
(27:38):
other team doesn't if the other team doesn't cooperate, you know,
that's why you need interior defensive lineman now who have
some ability to rush the past. I'm not saying they've
gotta be Aaron Donald, but you can't be you know.
Let's and all due respect to Casey Hampton, when I
think is one of the great Steelers defensive lineman enfranchise history.
Um to me, he's a Hall of Honor lock sometime
(28:01):
in the future, no doubt. But Casey Hampton was a
two down player. He came out on third downs. And
that was in an era primarily when teams still ran
on first and second downs. You know, now they might
you know, I remember a game in New England in
two thousand and two. It was a close game, a
(28:22):
field goal difference or something. In the second quarter, thought
Brady passed nineteen straight times. I mean, there's just no
attempt to run the ball. They just didn't care. We're
not going to do that. We can't do that, so
forget about it. And teams will do that now. And
so that's why you need your defensive players to be
not so one dimensional and so inside linebacker rotation is fine,
(28:49):
but you've gotta have guys who can be respectable um
in both against both run in the past for to
have any chance to really work. First impressions can be
so valuable for guys in a new environment. That's why
I always been playing from behind in the game of life,
because I'm just awful at first impressions. But you had
(29:10):
a couple of guys yesterday that made some impressions on you.
And let's start with the rookie wide receiver Calvin Austin,
who will honestly probably see more of a workload than
he might have expected heading into camp with Deonte holding
In well, and yeah, the thing with Calvin Austin, I mean,
you know, he's probably and I'm just kind of speculating
here a hundred and seventy pounds sucking wet. So, as
(29:33):
we talked about in the previous segment, you know what
happens when the threat of violence is introduced. Um Now,
as Muhammad Ali used to always say, you know, you
can't hit what you can't catch. So I think Calvin
Austin's path to success in the league. You know, in
addition to his toughness, which seems seemed to be evident
(29:56):
during his college career. But you know, it's a step
up in the NFL in terms of violence. Um, you
have to be hard to catch, and he was that yesterday. Um,
the guy has burst. You can see it. I mean,
let me say this, I can see it, which means
it's really evident, and I don't want to. I don't
(30:19):
want to. Um, you know, damn him by saying this.
But in terms of that burst, he reminds me of
a young Antonio Brown. Um, just as an ability to
separate and then just run away from people. So he
did that a couple of times. Um, and you know
(30:39):
that caught my eye. You never you're never sure. Let
me say that, I'm never sure that when you watch,
you know, during the run up to the draft and
the media post draft, you're seeing highlights of these guys
in college. So you know, Calvin Austin the third Memphis
who they play, he's running away from guys who played
(31:00):
defensive back for opponents of memphisis and how many of
them are in the NFL. Probably not many. So what's
he gonna be able to do? When you know he's
going against um, real NFL players and he was running
away from them too. So good for Calvin Austin. Now
let's you know again, um, there's no violence yet, and
(31:22):
he's going to have to continue to perform with that
when that is introduced and you know, continue to kind
of do the things he did. Um yesterday, the other
guy I thought who stood out to me, and I'm
going to compare him to another guy who came out
of nowhere for me in areas of the position other
(31:43):
than what you normally think the top responsibilities are for
that guy running back, Jeremy McNichols, the guy who has
just added to the roster on opening day of camp, right, Um,
you know it was. It was a blitz. Karl Joseph
came in clear. You know that they schemed it up
nice where uh he Carl Joseph found a hole in
(32:06):
the front. I mean it's not like an offensive line
and blew it or anything. He found a hole in
the front and came straight in. Now, you're not allowed
to hit the quarterback, but Carl Joseph was going right
for him. And again he's not going to hit him,
but you bust up. Yeah, yeah, but Jeremy McNichols stepped up,
(32:26):
you know, because it was I think it was an
under I don't remember specifically, but it seems to me
the quarterback was under center. So he stepped up. He read,
He read where the blitz was coming from, because that's
the first that's job one, because if even if you
take a false step, if you think it's coming from
the left and you step that way and it's coming
from the right, you probably aren't going to be quick
(32:47):
enough to be able to get over there and and
intercept the blitzer and the quarterback's gonna take a hit.
But he knew where it was coming from. He stepped
up and just kind of wrapped his arms around Carl
Joseph to give him a hug, and you know, just
and they stopped it. Uh. He will that they didn't
stop to play, but that part of the play stopped
(33:08):
because again, they're not they're not hitting. That has coaches
eyebrows a lot, right, Well, raise mine, raised mine, because
you need if you're gonna be a running back in
the NFL, you've got to be able to do that.
If you if you're running back in the NFL, who
cannot or who is a liability and pass protection you
(33:28):
what you cannot play. Um, So you know this, I
don't know what Jeremy McNichols is going to turn into
in terms of his nausey. Harris's back up is he
take carries for a nausey and all of that stuff
that you know fans love to debate. I'm not saying
he's gonna be any of that, but what I'm saying
is that he is already showing some things that you
(33:50):
need to have in the NFL from that position, some
of the as I said, lesser things that you don't
automatically think about. So, um, Jeremy McNichols, good job on
that from me, and that means anything. But you know,
as far as that's concerned, these three guys, you put Snell, McFarland,
(34:12):
and McNichols together and say they're competing for that number
two spot. You know, as far as running the football
is concerned, there's nothing that really flashes and nod is
going to be doing most of that heavy lifting for
the entire season, health permitting. But that's could be something
that really separates one from the others. If they are
all pretty similar, O, they're just average carrying the football.
Nothing spectacular, but wow, McNichols can really pick up a
(34:34):
blitz well, that can be the thing that pushes you
over the finish line and gets you that number two
spot on the depth chart, right because you you you
can have some confidence and put having him in the
game because you know that you don't have to. You know,
every time he goes onto the field, UM start saying
in Avina for your quarterback, um. And Willie Parker was
(34:55):
like that. Willie Parker got very very few carries in college,
and you know, he showed up here and this guy
was stepping up and blocking people and picking up blitz is.
And you know, I started looking him up and I
think he had thirty four career carries in North Carolina
and the team was one in ten a senior year,
(35:15):
and I was thinking, how how could this guy not
get on the field. I mean, what is He's fast,
nobody can catch him, He's willing to block, you'll hit people. Um.
And he turned out to be a pretty good player.
So UM. You know, again, it's really early for Jeremy
McNichols um to be compared to Willie Parker by me.
(35:35):
But I'm just saying in that one area, uh, the
ability to do some of the other things that are
required of the position. He had a good first day
as well. And one last guy that you noted on.
Again it's super early, this is the acclamation period of camp.
This is a guy that you really won't get a
read on until those pads come on Monday, August first.
But you thought rookie defensive lineman to Marvin Lee was
(35:57):
flashing a couple of times, even though it's in shorts
and t sure it's he got into the backfield pretty decently. Yeah,
and you know he's that's the way he's gonna have
to play. I think he's not a he's not a
big two gap kind of guy, you know, head button,
big offensive lineman and stopping their charge and you know,
(36:17):
playing that way, I mean he's gonna get by with penetration.
I think quickness being disruptive more than immovable. Let me say,
try and explain it that way. And he showed flashed
a couple of times where you know, he got off
the ball, defeated his man quickly, and you know he
was running around in the backfield chasing the guy with
(36:39):
the ball. Now again, you're not tackling him and you
know all that other stuff. So you don't know if
he finishes the play or not. But again, for what
we were looking at yesterday and what the rules were
of participation, he showed me some things that Again, um,
you heard about these traits that he was going to
(37:00):
bring and you wonder if that's actually going to transfer
for him from college of the NFL, and you saw
a little bit of that working for him yesterday. I
want to get into the Steelers secondary. They have themselves
a pretty decent opening day of practice the training camp,
so will do that. On the other side, we'll talk
about what to look forward to in today's practice and
wrap up today's training camp report right here on Steelers
(37:23):
Nation Radio. PC is no Training camp report with Tom
Opperman at Bob Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio, wrapping things
up here on day two of the training camp reports.
Steelers Training Camp two from St. Vincent's is in full swing.
(37:44):
We're gonna get into the secondary's performance yesterday and talk
about some things to look forward to today's practice. If
there is a practice today, Labs, you're saying they've got
some bad weather up there in the trouble right now, well,
as we were ending the previous segment, Um, you know,
I heard what sounded like rain, so um, one of
the hard rain and one of the things one of
(38:06):
the sites I always have bookmarked when I'm up here
at the National Weather Service dot gov, and so I
looked it up for today and it says, um chance
of UM scattered thunderstorms is Well, I can tell you
it's a hundred at the moment, because if it's actually raining,
I think that means that it's a chance. Um. I'm
(38:28):
not a meteorologist, but yeah, it's yeah. Um, it's not
raining as hard as it was maybe three or four
minutes ago. Uh. And uh you know, no, no, no
disrespect meant to Bill Coward, but Mike Tomlin is not
a guy who is any bit reluctant. Two practice in
(38:53):
the rain. Um, they will be careful. They will be
careful not to you know, destroy the grounds, because you
don't want that, especially this early. Um. But there's a
drainage system installed by the steelers up here for these fields,
and so you know they usually you know, drained pretty well,
and they also have the equipment that you know can
(39:13):
help that. So UM. And you also have to be
the other thing you have to be careful for with
you know, wet conditions is slippery because you don't want
guys pulling growing muscles, you know, slipping and slide out there.
So you know, we'll have to see how it how
it turns out. You know, we've got a long way
before one, which is the schedule started training, training camp
(39:36):
practice today, but it is it is raining, it has
been rained. So if you're driving up to the trail
listening to us right now, I hope you brought an
umbrella if you're gonna head up bringing umbrella to today's festivities,
and like you said, hopefully it'll clear up by one win.
The team takes the field for practice yesterday's practice. It's
kind of ridiculous to give an m v P to
(39:57):
a position group in day one of training camp, but
you probably you have to give it to the secondary.
They really popped um you mentioned and you're right up
on Steelers dot com. If you haven't had a chance
to read that yet, go to Steelers dot com and
check out Labs practice reports. I'll be writing those up
every day after practice. But you talked about Sutton opening
up in the slot, showing great technique and breaking up
a pass from Trabinsky early. Justin Lane had a broken pass,
(40:19):
a pass break up later in the practice session and
then they ended it with the cherry on the top. Yeah.
Cam Sutton was playing in the slot that when when
they opened on defense, the outside corners you know, as
I mentioned earlier, the offense and it was a past period,
so there were five defensive backs. So if guys on
the outside were Levi Wallace and Akello Witherspoon and Cam
(40:44):
Sutton lineup inside, the safeties were Terrell Edmonds and um
the Monte CAZy CAZy for Minka Fitzpatrick who during you know,
he's on n f I and no on football injury
list with that wrist injury from falling off the bike
that somebody asked him, Jerry do Lack asked him about
(41:06):
something something about it and he says, yeah, I guess
I need training wheels, which is clever. Um, But uh,
I was watching me Inca Fitzpatrick. He's off on the
other field and he was dressed as the other players were,
Um just not participating with them because he's on that list.
But so he and the one of the assistant trainers
(41:29):
were running across the field with Wise and the trainer
was there were about ten yards apart, and he's flipping
him the ball and he's catching it with one hand
while he's running back and forth back, and I'm thinking,
you know, quit showing on right. But Sutton did a
(41:50):
nice job his his past break up George Pickens as
the guy who ran the route. Um, Sutton stayed with him,
read his break correctly, landed, drove on the ball, cut
underneath the receiver, and knocked the past down. Um. And
then you know practice was ended um by that Kenny
Picking interception. UM. Let me let me get the correct
(42:14):
way to say the defensive back's name, because I don't
want to uh uh Carlin's PLATEL. I don't want to. Um. Okay,
but yeah, he made a nice play. The ball wasn't
greatly thrown by Kenny Picking. I mean he was trying
(42:36):
to make something happen, um whatever. Uh. So you know,
I guess I was waiting for any guys from the
fans from the stands to comment on that, but you
didn't get any of those. So you know, I guess
you only get the people. You only yell out good
things for him. But that will change too. Yeah, where
(42:56):
is the yeah's a good point. Where was the guy
from the first segment that you said was yelling for
Kenny Pinkett wasn't yelling for n at that point? Well,
and um, one of the things you notice here, uh,
is the cheering from the stands at chuckmull Field and
along the hillside usually is for good offensive place and
(43:18):
some of the defensive guys get honked off because like
when they make a play, you know, bat up the
ball or bat the ball down, excuse me, or you know,
do something to disrupt the play. Usually it's not greeted
with booing or anything, but aren't allowed cheers or you know,
when George Pickens gets behind you and catches the ball
(43:40):
and runs for a touchdown, you get a big roar.
But you know, it's it's it's it's all part of
the process. I enjoy the the theater of it a
lot of times, and it you know, breaks up the
monotony too. Well. Day two practice starts at one today,
of course, weather permitting anything you might be looking forward to.
You think we'll see seven shots. You made a note
(44:01):
that they didn't do seven shots in yesterday's practice, And
it's really one of the rare times that you can
remember since they didn't do the drill. Yeah, since since
was instituted by Mike Tomlin. And I can't remember, um
exactly the year, but levy On Bell and uh Antonio
Brown were both playing then It wasn't one of those
whole out of years for Bell or you know, weird
(44:22):
years for Antonio Brown or any of that stuff. So
it was in the mids. I'm guessing, and I really,
you know, even in regular season practices. And now I
haven't seen every practice every day. I'm not going to
try and pretend that I have. But typically seven shots
was one of the first competitive drills of every practice session.
(44:43):
They didn't do it yesterday. Now I don't know if
it was because Ben is retired or or what, but
it was just noticeable and so I noted it. Uh
don't know, I mean, I don't know if it's something
that's passe in in in the minds of Mike Tomlin
and Matt Canada. Um, no one asked them about it.
(45:03):
Didn't really think to ask them about it. It's not
that big a deal. Um, But you know, when you're
when you're trying to fill cyberspace with a practice report,
the first practice of a training camp with no pads. Um,
you grab whatever low hanging fruit you can find. Well,
one thing that fans who are going up to the
Troube today and for the rest of the training camp
can look forward to is the Steelers Legend photo op
(45:26):
opportunity that they can get. Um uh, from noon to
one at St. Vincent, there'll be a photo op each
day with a different Steelers legend. Today Randy Grossman is
the legend and I understand Labs you have a little
inside information about the schedule for the Steelers Legends coming up. Yeah, um,
you know it's it's evolving naturally. I mean, um, Lynn
Molino is the person from the Steelers in charge of
(45:49):
trying to you know, align these guys up. And you
know there are a lot of them. You know, they
have their own lives. That is the summer trying to
get them to come to the trube. They're not. All
of them have remained at in the area. So there's
there's some hoops that have to be jumped through. But anyway,
you mentioned Randy Grossman, Chris Hoke is on the twenty nine. Um,
Chris Hope will only be doing the photo opportunity from
(46:12):
noon to twelve thirty. Because of twelve thirty he starts
playing Madden. Um. You know the professional video team, the
Pittsburgh Nights, I think they're called um. Yeah, he will
be playing against John Beast of the Night the Pittsburgh
Nights from twelve thirty to one. Son, still watch that,
of course. Yeah. Well, I'm sure it's gonna be right
(46:32):
there privately, no one can see it. Hopefully it doesn't ring.
I just hope it doesn't rain. Charlie Batch is the thirtie,
Mike Logan August the one, Larry Brown August the swond
and then you start getting into the t b d
S UM. John Bannonzak is August the fourth, Dwayne Woodruff
(46:53):
the sixth because the fifth is Friday night lights, UM,
then eight because seventh is a day off, Brian McFadden uh.
And then you're pretty much tb d S from August
and nine until whenever campus closed or practices are close
to the public. So you know, we may have some
more updates on that as it as time goes on,
(47:16):
but that's what you got right now. So get up
to camp today and get your picture taken with Steelers
legend Randy Grossman. Like we said, noon to one pm,
he'll be taking photo ops with the fans. That's gonna
do it for day two's training camp report. Always appreciate
you guys giving us a listen for Bob Labriola. I'm
Tom Opferman. Day two practice starts at one at Chuck
and noll Field in St. Vincent's at Latrobe Today, Wolf
(47:40):
and Starks up next right here on your home in
the Steelers Steelers Nation Radio
Man, We're really excited to be here. It's awesome to
get stuarded, and so now we take off. DC's the
training camp Report with Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on
Steelers Nation Radio, Day one of Steelers two training camp.
In the books, day to practice later on today about
one is when they'll kick things off there, Labs, as always,
(00:29):
like we like to do, I want to start with
the quarterback, and I want to start with Mike Tomlins
telling us the absolute truth at his opening press conference
on Tuesday, saying that we won't see any changes at
the depth chart as far as the quarterback position is concerned,
and he was true to the word. Mas Mitch was
the number one, Mason took two second team reps, and
Kenny was number three, and um It took I think
(00:51):
the first team, first team session first eleven on eleven
session yesterday, first practice, naughty and in pads. Um it
started was it was a past, past heavy period. So
the first most of the players were passes, so tro
Whisky through I think it was two in completions, it
(01:14):
might have been three. But then you hear some love
and leathern lungians or yelled from the stands and chu. Yes, yes,
I didn't think we'd get lucky to have that until
at least the first preseason game. Oh no, no, why wait?
I mean seriously, why wait? So um uh you know
(01:36):
I I had to laugh. A lot of other people
did in attendance. Uh. And I will say this, I
did not personally do this because um, to me, it's
it's just a gigantic over um being overly concerned about
things that don't matter. Um, pick it, um. Trabinsky and
(02:02):
Mason got exactly the same number of reps in the
entire practice, So somebody was actually counting them, which not you.
You aren't counting them with an Italian notebook. No, I
had the notebook and everything, but I mean that's not
one of the things that I was taking notes on.
I can tell you that now. He also mentioned in
(02:24):
his opening press conference on Tuesday about he said, we'll
see when it comes to the offensive line and potential
changes with that starting group, Well, it was exactly the
same that we saw all spring. Just to refresh people's memory.
First team O line left to right was Dan Moore, Dotson,
Mason Cole, James Daniels and Chokes at the right tackle
The second group from left to right was Trent Scott,
(02:45):
Kendrick Greene, J C. Hassenhoward, John Leglue, and Joe Haig.
I gotta think in a perfect world, and of course
this isn't a perfect world, and injuries happened, poor play happens,
great play from people on the second team can happen.
But in a perfect world, this first unit of the
offensive line has to be their dream unit. That's at
least how I read it. Well, you know, the left
(03:07):
guard to me, is is something that could change. Um.
You know, I was really high on Kevin Dotson early
in his rookie year. I thought that this guy, um,
you know, was was going to be a real player.
I like how physical he was. He was a finisher, Um,
you know, like to get up, get on people and
you know, lock up and you know, do the whole
physical dance with them. But then last year, I don't
(03:30):
really know what happened. I mean, I don't know if um,
he came to camp in a condition that disappointed the
coaches or you know, as a second year player. Mike
Tomlin always expects dramatic improvement, significant steps forward. Maybe he
didn't see that enough because Dotson lost his you know,
starting job in camp and then you know his in
(03:53):
and out of the lineup got injured miss time. So
I really don't know what to think of Kevin Dotson.
I don't know of you know, the real hymn is
what we saw as when he was a rookie, or
the real hymn is what we saw after he experienced
a little bit of success and kind of fell back
into the pack. So, you know, I think Kevin Kendrick
Green um has a chance to get himself into the
(04:19):
into the starting lineup. He played primarily guarded Illinois. Uh,
and I you know what I've been told is that's
supposedly his better position, at least by everyone who writes
the ass and answered they told me that all the time. Um, well,
you know, I mean I cannot argue seriously with you
(04:40):
know the fact that Kendrick Green was at times overmatched
physically as a center. Now, um, people who understand you know,
the position and um playing that and at the NFL
and all that stuff. Uh, you know, Craig Wolfley and
Max starks Um both said that you know, there are
(05:00):
techniques that Kendrick Green can learned to use better than
he did last year. And again, as I mentioned, he
was primarily a guard in college. Um that he had
a lot of the things, you know, the raw physical
tools that could make him a good center. He was athletic,
had some um movement ability. Um. He was likened by
(05:21):
Mike tom Tomlin a little bit you know in that area.
I don't want to you know, overstate this, but compared
him a little bit the Marquise Pounds as that kind
of guy at that position. Kendrick Green spent some time
this offseason working with poundcy so uh yeah, So I
mean I don't know, I'm not ready to give almost
(05:43):
a give up on him, but um uh label him
an odd starter. So I think that he has a
he has a chance. Um. And you know the other guys,
I really think, um, you gotta you've got a root
for good health question, especially at that position. Group. Yes, uh,
(06:06):
you know, I think trans Scott has some potential to
be a decent swing tackle. Um because I don't think
you want Joe Haig to play a lot there unless
it's really necessary. I think he would be He's better
as an interior back up. And you know, La Glue
was just kind of a guy last year. He did
some good things, but I mean you could see why,
(06:28):
you know, he bounced around a little bit. Wasn't a
high draft pick when he entered the league. Um so
you know again, I have some hope slash expectation for
Kendrick Green. Uh, some hope for Transscott, but mostly you
pray for good health. Go to the Basilica Steelers fans,
you know, plunk a bucker two down into the collection
(06:51):
of asking a lighted candle, because that's going to be important.
And of course, nothing can be gleaned from the offensive line.
You can't determine who's good who's playing well until they
actually put the pads on. First padded practice being this
coming Monday, August one. That's really you know, you can
kind of say, oh, this receiver gets out of his
brakes really well, or oh, this corner can really stay
(07:12):
in man coverage really well. Or what a good pass
from Mitch or great play from Kenny, or wow, Naji
looks explodes. You can see all of that stuff in
the shorts and T shirts portion when you're just wearing helmets,
but that offensive line, you're not going to really be
able to tell what you got there until it's it's
actual live football. So these couple of practice yeah's, you
get a little feel for them, but you're not going
to know until the pads get strapped on, right And
(07:35):
you know you mentioned some of the other guys too.
Um you know, for me, I always watched the wide
receivers once the pads go on to see who I
won't say, you know, maybe shrinks a little bit once
the threat of physical violence is introduced. I mean, you
know who's aggressive going over the middle and shorts and
(07:57):
who's aggressive going over the middle when the pads are on.
Uh not that there's a lot of big hitting, um
tolerated and training camp because you know, as it's as
it's said about it. You know, it's Steelers on Steelers.
You don't want um your dbs injuring your receivers. But
you also have to in to me introduce the threat
(08:20):
of the violence and see if these guys can continue
to be aggressive and do their jobs, because that's what's
gonna happen on Sundays or Mondays or Thursdays or you
know whatever days. Yeah, yeah, there was a Saturday in there,
and hey, who knows once the streaming starts, I mean
it could be like college football, you know, playing on Tuesday,
(08:41):
when Thursday night, you know whatever. So, um, yeah, that
that's something that I am interested in watching. We're gonna
hear from Mike Tomlin and his post practice thoughts in
just a second. But before we get there, did you
have any surprises to you when it came to you know,
the guys starting the starting eleven on the offense and
the defensive side of Deante Unson excluded. Obviously, Cody White
(09:02):
got run with the first team because of Deonta holding
in or not participating in team drill as likely as
a negotiation with a contract, uh, and of course Kazi
playing for an injured makeup Fitzpatrick. But other than that,
anything kind of you know, raise an eyebrow. I know
it's only day one, it's early, but anything you know
that caught your attention, Well you mentioned it already, but yeah,
(09:24):
to answer your question, Yeah, Deonte Johnson's uh decision to
hold in as that is now being called I I
I question whether that's a good move on his part. Um,
you know, I don't know that. Um, there's gonna be
a meeting of the minds in terms of, um, what
(09:45):
what the number is? Going to be to get that
deal done. And so let's just pretend that it doesn't
get done and that the two sides are not of
the same mind in terms of you know what, uh,
Deontae john and it's worth what the Steelers are willing
to pay, you know, the availability of what more wide
receivers on an annual basis. You know that the Steelers
(10:08):
have the stomach to continue to roll the dice every draft,
you know, and trying to pick guys to replace established
pros or you know how that all comes together because
you know what, what really kind of makes it more
dicey this summer is the quarterback situation. I mean, it's
not uh a quarterback. It's not going to be a
(10:28):
quarterback that Deante Johnson never really played with. Whoever wins
the job, it's not going to be a guy that
he spent a lot of time with on the field
together in regular season NFL games. And so, you know,
I believe this all along that you need you need
to develop if you're a receiver, you need to develop
(10:50):
a relationship with the quarterback. I mean that's something that
Lynn swan um new understood, perfected right away in nineteen
seventy with Terry Bradshaw, because when it's third and eight
and pressures on the quarterback, he's gonna go to somebody
he either likes or is confident in, or you know,
(11:10):
whatever it is or has to be some you know,
as Wolfley would say, some good mojo there, because you know,
it's an instant decision to three seconds, the quarterback has
to assess what's going on down the field and get
rid of the ball. So he's gonna go to someone
that the trusts. And if there's no relationship that has
been built over time in practice, not that he's freezing
(11:33):
the guy out or anything, but it's just not you know,
it's just not his instinct. So I think that there
is somewhat of a uh potential danger for that relationship
not to develop. And then you know, Deante Johnson doesn't
have the kind of season he wants, and then his
market value is in the dumper, you know, so that
(11:53):
this could all blow up in his face and also
maybe impact the Steeler's offense. So I just I think
that that surprised me a little bit that he would
not view the situation or his agent, he or his
agent and or both of them whatever will not view
the situation. Um, you know, thinking it through all the way. Um,
(12:15):
like I just tried to explain it. Hey, maybe I'm
wrong though, but that's what I think. And I think
it kind of caught the dealers a little bit by
surprise too, because Tomlin's comments just two days ago was
expecting everybody to be a participant. He it was as
point blank, do you expect to have any hold ins
kind of like you saw with what last year, And
he said he doesn't think that he's going to have
to deal with that with Deonte. And then fast forward
to first day of practice and Deante is sitting on
(12:37):
the side watching team drills. We'll not sitting on the side.
He's still It's not like he's in a lawn chair,
you know, drinking a dak or watching them practice. He
still did Um right, Yeah, So yeah, that that would
that would for me, that qualifies as a as a
surprise in terms of when they rolled out the first teams. Well,
(12:58):
let's hear from the man himself if that's enough out
of us. Coach Tomlin spoke to the media following the
Stealer's first training camp practice yesterday, and here's what coach
t had to say about getting started today. Um, this
team developmental process and and doing it in this environment
in front of our fans, Man, just makes it doubly special. Um.
I've been coming here a long time. Man, It's not
(13:18):
something that I take for granted. It's something that's appreciated.
Their presence aids in the team development and the fund
and the competition component of what it is that we're doing.
And so we're appreciative. Man. We hope they keep coming.
I know we'll keep coming out with the intentions of
working to get better. UM. From an availability standpoint of
injury standpoint, Larry Oh was a limited participant. Will managed
(13:40):
Larry Man. We're just getting to know him. He's coming
off of surgery. He's ready to go, but we'll we'll
manage him and proceed with caution because not only is
he dealing with injury, but he's new to us and
so that requires a little bit of management. No issues there,
Miles Killer Brew Um had a peck injury will be evaluated.
I think T d Um had some cramps. Uh, don't
(14:00):
expect that to be a significant issue. UM. Other than that,
um Man, just a lot to teach and learn. I
could go on and on about what I saw. Just
rest assured that it was a good start and and
we have my owls to go. I partial questions, make
you ready to name a starting quarterback? I'm not. I'm not.
But asked me tomorrow, ask me tomorrow, and no question,
(14:24):
no question. My god, it didn't look like Deante was
doing any of the team stuff. Is that any level
of concerning first aid camp? Absolutely not. You guys know me. UM.
I acknowledge that he was less than participant. Will continue
to manage the circumstance. But right now, my energy of
focus is on those that are participating, UM, and I
think that's the appropriate mindset to have. From time to
(14:45):
time you get in a setting like this, you manage
situations and circumstances and people, but largely my energy is
devoted to those that are working and in the larger body.
And That's where I'm at with it. Your decision was
not no, what he doesn't participations because you're more a
chance to see some different guys on the outside, or
do you bump different guys around. We're doing that situation.
(15:08):
When you get in a setting like this and you've
got ninety guys to get to know. Um, I've just
learned over the course of time is to to look
at it from the perspective of those that get increased
wrapped opportunities. And boy, we've got some young guys at
that position that you know, gonna take advantage of some
of those opportunities and hopefully for the good. You're not
ready to name this charter today, But what did you
see from each of the quarterback? I saw good working,
(15:29):
attentiveness and good communication. And we're crawling, you know, I
can I can tell you guys some things, but it's
the early portion of the process. And I appreciate their
attendiveness and professionalism and and they'll continue to write their
stories and sort themselves out like what you've seen the
monthly teams, drains and pet you know. And it's just
the first practice about meeting us. But how did he
mark these community? Exactly what you just said, Man, it's
(15:51):
the first practice. You know, we're in helmets and so um,
you know, he is a veteran, He's been there, done,
Get that guy. I'm appreciative of that. That's why we
went out and acquired them. But not a lot happened
to day on that front. Might get inside linebacker. You
it seems like you're rotating Jack Bush and Splane. Is
that is that just an early camp thing or is
that something that you could stretch out into a season.
(16:13):
For instance, I am into those things man, and oftentimes UM,
you know, we do this thing largely to give everybody
an opportunity to be ready and show what their capable
of and divide the labor up and so forth. And
so when we got a lot of guys at a position,
sometimes we'll work a pair and the spare uh in
the first group and an effort to see more guys
like Buddy Johnson, for instance, we do it at corner
(16:36):
Um with Spoon and Levi and Cam Sutton. You work
those guys exclusively in in group one, so you get
more of an opportunity to see JP and group two.
So it's not necessarily about the three guys that are
working in group one. Sometimes you're just standing the herd
to make sure that the guys in the second and
third group aren't sharing reps because they got a lot
(16:57):
to learn and and a lot to show us, and
the more opporu tunities they get are significant. And so
I think it probably represents that UM him working with
that first group. We have exposure to him, we know
what he's capable of, and those others that you mentioned.
More than anything, it tends to herd so Buddy Johnson
and and and Mark Robinson and guys like that, um
(17:18):
can learn and show what the capable of. You're taking
that same approach at left guard with thoughtson and the
others behind him. Exactly. You can apply that analogy to
too many positions. He's gentry, coming along developmentally physically at
the point in my tinker was a little bit more
too tight. This year we've been in that mode. Like
you've often talked about splash plays. You got to see
(17:39):
your two rookies just work, working on everybody, how you
feel about them coming the plays, the room. You know,
it's just the early portion of the the process. We've got
one practice down, so you know, I'm not gonna I'm
not gonna crown him today. We talked to you yesterday
about being back there at ladrowe finally seeing the fans
out here. What what was that like? Wing now like
when I opened, I'm just appreciative of it. I am
(18:00):
their presence is appreciated and on a significant component of development.
Coaches there's somebody that's been that's moving a system, whether
it's a rookie or a free Agian acquisition, it's stuck
out to you as far as being able to fit
in the past. That's Mike Tomlin talking to reporters after
practice and ending it very bluntly. No, I haven't seen
(18:22):
anybody jumped up the page. It's been first. I love
how he just kind of you could tell, and he
let it slip in every once in a while, but
he just wanted to scream like, this is ridiculous. It's
been one practice and we even ended it early today.
We didn't know anything out there. Um yeah, a lot
of time to fill, uh, for the media attending camp,
either um, you know, on on the radio or on TV,
(18:44):
or on podcasts or in cyberspace or whatever. And um,
you know, everyone is, you know, and it's it's it's
amusing to some degree because of you know, you can
just you can as the questions are being posed, you
can all is formulated what kind of answer he's gonna give, right,
And um, that's something uh that I always kind of
(19:08):
chart over the course of a training camp. You know,
Mike Tomlin's level of tolerance because He's still pretty tolerant
right now. You know the the whole you know, if
you picked the starting quarterback yet, you know the first question, Yeah,
he laughed about that, and it was it was said
in just you know, I'm not trying to demean the
person who asked the question. But you know, if whoever
(19:29):
it is, and I'm not saying it will be the
same person throughout the summer, but if that question is
the first one every time when practice ends, I mean,
it'll you know it, it's gonna get I won't say ugly,
because you know, Mike tomlin Is is professional. He might
get impatient, you know we're short, or you know, a
(19:50):
little bit gently mocking, but um, you know, you can
see if you're standing down there looking at him as
he's being masked, these things look in his eyes when
you know some of these things continue to get asked,
you can tell. You can hear or almost see the
smoke start coming out of his ears. Like he said,
(20:11):
we've got miles to go when it comes to training camp,
and we still got miles to go. Here on day
two training camp report with myself and Bob Labriola, we're
gonna take a quick break when we come back, we'll
keep breaking down some things that Tomlin said in his
post practice presser and Labs had some notable first impressions
from day one at training camp. That will get into
those as well. It's the Steelers Training Camp Report right
(20:32):
here on SNR. The s the Training Camp Report with
Tom Opperman and Bob Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio. We
heard from coach Tomlin and the thoughts that he had
following Steelers practice yesterday. To end our last segment had
(20:53):
to hit a break, so we couldn't really discuss everything.
I wanted to get to Labs and a couple of
things that I wanted to touch on was what he
said about the tight end usage gentry in particular. Very
short answer there, but I think it was a little
bit telling. And what he said about the middle linebackers
rotating three guys in now he did say he does
that to, you know, separate reps from second team guys
(21:14):
so they can get a better look at some guys
they're less familiar with than you know, Spillane has been
around the block, Awhile and Jack and Bush are your
for sure nailed on starters at this point, so you know,
he said it was a way that you can see
some second team guys get more reps if you put
some of those, you know, backups in with the first team.
But I also kind of think that it wouldn't be
a bad idea to maybe employ a little bit of
(21:35):
a rotation in that middle linebacker unit, see three guys
as almost the starters and have split snaps. And then
as far as the tight end is concerned, you know,
he talked about Gentry looking a lot better and going
a lot more double tight, and he just said, we've
been in that mindset for a while. So I think
the writings on the wall they're they're gonna be using
double title lot more this year. Yeah, let's let's start
(21:57):
with the tight ends, because you just ended with that. Um.
You know, last year I asked Mike Tomlin, you know,
starting with the kind of the end of training camp
and then a couple of different times over the course
of the season about Gentry and um, you know, his
evolution as a blocker. Is that his development as a blocker,
because you know last year when he came to training
(22:19):
camp or showed up actually for the start of the
off season program, he had totally remade his body I mean,
this is a guy who you know, he went to
college as a quarterback, so not only well you know,
you know it's I'm not making fun of quarterbacks, but
I mean they're not they're they're not on the line
of scrimmage man to man blocking very large people. Um,
(22:42):
So Gentry had to remake himself physically to to get
I think into the you know, correct um physical appearance,
slash shape, to be hand to be able to handle that.
And then I also think there had to be some
you know, my end set adjustment going on, because you
(23:03):
have to become you know, the guy who delivers the
first punch, uh when you're in that situation at the
end of the line of scrimmage, whether it's for a
running play or in past protection or whatever. So it
took him a little bit of time, but I think
that last year he really showed the makings of the
(23:23):
ability to be you know, a legitimate uh NFL tight end.
And you know, by the end of training camp, I
asked Mike Tomblin if if it's fair to call Gentry
and the best blocking tight end on the team, and
he said, yeah, but he has to be, you know,
that's his job and if he's not, then the team
is in trouble, you know, and Gentry's future you know,
(23:46):
might not be you know, what he wants and what
the team wants. So I think that last year was
a kind of a turning point for him in in
his development as an NFL tight end and what he needs,
the way he needs to lay it, the position to
continue to be in the NFL. Um, and you know
the Friar move thing, Pat Friar move. I just think
(24:08):
he's gonna be a super um um target for whoever
is the starting quarterback. And I think he's gonna also
be a significant red zone threat. Um. I'm not gonna
say he's gonna be as dangerous of a red zone
threat to opponents as He's Miller was, but he is
(24:30):
in he's on a track to at least be in
that kind of a conversation. Um. He made some catches yesterday. Uh.
Balls were thrown hard, um, and he was making catches
with his hands away from his body. And one of
the things that you know you can do this too
(24:50):
if if you're close enough, the sound that the ball
makes when it hits the receiver's hands, it should almost
sound like throwing it into a pillow. You know, it
makes a little poof sound, but it's not a hard
slap because if it's a hard slap, then um, you
know he's not whoever it is, it's not catching it correctly.
(25:13):
So yeah, when the ball hits Pat farrenmouth saying, you
don't hear much. So, um, you know, kudos to him,
uh for his hands. I'm sure that he worked on
that in the off season, not that it was a
problem last year, but you know, you want to get better.
So I think that the Steelers have two tight ends
who has have defined roles as a way of putting
(25:38):
it and they're good at those roles. So yeah, there's
gonna there's gonna be some you know, more multiple tight endformations.
I think that will help both Nashi Harrison the running
game and I'm sure whoever the quarterback is in a
passing game moving to the linebackers. Now, um, you know
the thing about you know, I can see the advantage
(25:59):
of you know, rotating guys, um, but you do need
you you do need players there who can be successful
against both the run. In the past, because if you
have run down inside linebackers and passed on inside linebackers,
what if the offense doesn't cooperate quarterback able because he's like, hey,
(26:23):
these guys can't cover anything. I'm not going to run
them right or even even um, you know, the because
the other team has guys up in the coaches booth
two and all all teams have this. Um, somebody up
there is either using binoculars or if they have good
eyesight as opposed to me, Um, they can say and
call right down to the coordinator. Hey, um, you know
(26:47):
so and so is in the game, and and they're
in that that team's meetings, game planning meetings during the
week leading up to that game. I'm sure they determined,
you know, who's a good inside linebacker against the run,
who's a good inside linebacker against the past and so
if you know, they can just say so and so
is in the game, and whoever gets that information from
up top immediately tells the quarterback you know what the
(27:09):
play is. And you know that's another thing. You know,
fans always ask, you know, why can't they have a
you know, big run stuffing nose tack. Well, you can
have one, but what if the other team doesn't run
when he's in the game. You know, that's why God,
other team has always thrown ranches in your plans, and
they really are, you know, because um again, it's the
(27:38):
other team doesn't if the other team doesn't cooperate, you know,
that's why you need interior defensive lineman now who have
some ability to rush the past. I'm not saying they've
gotta be Aaron Donald, but you can't be you know.
Let's and all due respect to Casey Hampton, when I
think is one of the great Steelers defensive lineman enfranchise history.
Um to me, he's a Hall of Honor lock sometime
(28:01):
in the future, no doubt. But Casey Hampton was a
two down player. He came out on third downs. And
that was in an era primarily when teams still ran
on first and second downs. You know, now they might
you know, I remember a game in New England in
two thousand and two. It was a close game, a
(28:22):
field goal difference or something. In the second quarter, thought
Brady passed nineteen straight times. I mean, there's just no
attempt to run the ball. They just didn't care. We're
not going to do that. We can't do that, so
forget about it. And teams will do that now. And
so that's why you need your defensive players to be
not so one dimensional and so inside linebacker rotation is fine,
(28:49):
but you've gotta have guys who can be respectable um
in both against both run in the past for to
have any chance to really work. First impressions can be
so valuable for guys in a new environment. That's why
I always been playing from behind in the game of life,
because I'm just awful at first impressions. But you had
(29:10):
a couple of guys yesterday that made some impressions on you.
And let's start with the rookie wide receiver Calvin Austin,
who will honestly probably see more of a workload than
he might have expected heading into camp with Deonte holding
In well, and yeah, the thing with Calvin Austin, I mean,
you know, he's probably and I'm just kind of speculating
here a hundred and seventy pounds sucking wet. So, as
(29:33):
we talked about in the previous segment, you know what
happens when the threat of violence is introduced. Um Now,
as Muhammad Ali used to always say, you know, you
can't hit what you can't catch. So I think Calvin
Austin's path to success in the league. You know, in
addition to his toughness, which seems seemed to be evident
(29:56):
during his college career. But you know, it's a step
up in the NFL in terms of violence. Um, you
have to be hard to catch, and he was that yesterday. Um,
the guy has burst. You can see it. I mean,
let me say this, I can see it, which means
it's really evident, and I don't want to. I don't
(30:19):
want to. Um, you know, damn him by saying this.
But in terms of that burst, he reminds me of
a young Antonio Brown. Um, just as an ability to
separate and then just run away from people. So he
did that a couple of times. Um, and you know
(30:39):
that caught my eye. You never you're never sure. Let
me say that, I'm never sure that when you watch,
you know, during the run up to the draft and
the media post draft, you're seeing highlights of these guys
in college. So you know, Calvin Austin the third Memphis
who they play, he's running away from guys who played
(31:00):
defensive back for opponents of memphisis and how many of
them are in the NFL. Probably not many. So what's
he gonna be able to do? When you know he's
going against um, real NFL players and he was running
away from them too. So good for Calvin Austin. Now
let's you know again, um, there's no violence yet, and
(31:22):
he's going to have to continue to perform with that
when that is introduced and you know, continue to kind
of do the things he did. Um yesterday, the other
guy I thought who stood out to me, and I'm
going to compare him to another guy who came out
of nowhere for me in areas of the position other
(31:43):
than what you normally think the top responsibilities are for
that guy running back, Jeremy McNichols, the guy who has
just added to the roster on opening day of camp, right, Um,
you know it was. It was a blitz. Karl Joseph
came in clear. You know that they schemed it up
nice where uh he Carl Joseph found a hole in
(32:06):
the front. I mean it's not like an offensive line
and blew it or anything. He found a hole in
the front and came straight in. Now, you're not allowed
to hit the quarterback, but Carl Joseph was going right
for him. And again he's not going to hit him,
but you bust up. Yeah, yeah, but Jeremy McNichols stepped up,
(32:26):
you know, because it was I think it was an
under I don't remember specifically, but it seems to me
the quarterback was under center. So he stepped up. He read,
He read where the blitz was coming from, because that's
the first that's job one, because if even if you
take a false step, if you think it's coming from
the left and you step that way and it's coming
from the right, you probably aren't going to be quick
(32:47):
enough to be able to get over there and and
intercept the blitzer and the quarterback's gonna take a hit.
But he knew where it was coming from. He stepped
up and just kind of wrapped his arms around Carl
Joseph to give him a hug, and you know, just
and they stopped it. Uh. He will that they didn't
stop to play, but that part of the play stopped
(33:08):
because again, they're not they're not hitting. That has coaches
eyebrows a lot, right, Well, raise mine, raised mine, because
you need if you're gonna be a running back in
the NFL, you've got to be able to do that.
If you if you're running back in the NFL, who
cannot or who is a liability and pass protection you
(33:28):
what you cannot play. Um, So you know this, I
don't know what Jeremy McNichols is going to turn into
in terms of his nausey. Harris's back up is he
take carries for a nausey and all of that stuff
that you know fans love to debate. I'm not saying
he's gonna be any of that, but what I'm saying
is that he is already showing some things that you
(33:50):
need to have in the NFL from that position, some
of the as I said, lesser things that you don't
automatically think about. So, um, Jeremy McNichols, good job on
that from me, and that means anything. But you know,
as far as that's concerned, these three guys, you put Snell, McFarland,
(34:12):
and McNichols together and say they're competing for that number
two spot. You know, as far as running the football
is concerned, there's nothing that really flashes and nod is
going to be doing most of that heavy lifting for
the entire season, health permitting. But that's could be something
that really separates one from the others. If they are
all pretty similar, O, they're just average carrying the football.
Nothing spectacular, but wow, McNichols can really pick up a
(34:34):
blitz well, that can be the thing that pushes you
over the finish line and gets you that number two
spot on the depth chart, right because you you you
can have some confidence and put having him in the
game because you know that you don't have to. You know,
every time he goes onto the field, UM start saying
in Avina for your quarterback, um. And Willie Parker was
(34:55):
like that. Willie Parker got very very few carries in college,
and you know, he showed up here and this guy
was stepping up and blocking people and picking up blitz is.
And you know, I started looking him up and I
think he had thirty four career carries in North Carolina
and the team was one in ten a senior year,
(35:15):
and I was thinking, how how could this guy not
get on the field. I mean, what is He's fast,
nobody can catch him, He's willing to block, you'll hit people. Um.
And he turned out to be a pretty good player.
So UM. You know, again, it's really early for Jeremy
McNichols um to be compared to Willie Parker by me.
(35:35):
But I'm just saying in that one area, uh, the
ability to do some of the other things that are
required of the position. He had a good first day
as well. And one last guy that you noted on.
Again it's super early, this is the acclamation period of camp.
This is a guy that you really won't get a
read on until those pads come on Monday, August first.
But you thought rookie defensive lineman to Marvin Lee was
(35:57):
flashing a couple of times, even though it's in shorts
and t sure it's he got into the backfield pretty decently. Yeah,
and you know he's that's the way he's gonna have
to play. I think he's not a he's not a
big two gap kind of guy, you know, head button,
big offensive lineman and stopping their charge and you know,
(36:17):
playing that way, I mean he's gonna get by with penetration.
I think quickness being disruptive more than immovable. Let me say,
try and explain it that way. And he showed flashed
a couple of times where you know, he got off
the ball, defeated his man quickly, and you know he
was running around in the backfield chasing the guy with
(36:39):
the ball. Now again, you're not tackling him and you
know all that other stuff. So you don't know if
he finishes the play or not. But again, for what
we were looking at yesterday and what the rules were
of participation, he showed me some things that Again, um,
you heard about these traits that he was going to
(37:00):
bring and you wonder if that's actually going to transfer
for him from college of the NFL, and you saw
a little bit of that working for him yesterday. I
want to get into the Steelers secondary. They have themselves
a pretty decent opening day of practice the training camp,
so will do that. On the other side, we'll talk
about what to look forward to in today's practice and
wrap up today's training camp report right here on Steelers
(37:23):
Nation Radio. PC is no Training camp report with Tom
Opperman at Bob Labriola on Steelers Nation Radio, wrapping things
up here on day two of the training camp reports.
Steelers Training Camp two from St. Vincent's is in full swing.
(37:44):
We're gonna get into the secondary's performance yesterday and talk
about some things to look forward to today's practice. If
there is a practice today, Labs, you're saying they've got
some bad weather up there in the trouble right now, well,
as we were ending the previous segment, Um, you know,
I heard what sounded like rain, so um, one of
the hard rain and one of the things one of
(38:06):
the sites I always have bookmarked when I'm up here
at the National Weather Service dot gov, and so I
looked it up for today and it says, um chance
of UM scattered thunderstorms is Well, I can tell you
it's a hundred at the moment, because if it's actually raining,
I think that means that it's a chance. Um. I'm
(38:28):
not a meteorologist, but yeah, it's yeah. Um, it's not
raining as hard as it was maybe three or four
minutes ago. Uh. And uh you know, no, no, no
disrespect meant to Bill Coward, but Mike Tomlin is not
a guy who is any bit reluctant. Two practice in
(38:53):
the rain. Um, they will be careful. They will be
careful not to you know, destroy the grounds, because you
don't want that, especially this early. Um. But there's a
drainage system installed by the steelers up here for these fields,
and so you know they usually you know, drained pretty well,
and they also have the equipment that you know can
(39:13):
help that. So UM. And you also have to be
the other thing you have to be careful for with
you know, wet conditions is slippery because you don't want
guys pulling growing muscles, you know, slipping and slide out there.
So you know, we'll have to see how it how
it turns out. You know, we've got a long way
before one, which is the schedule started training, training camp
(39:36):
practice today, but it is it is raining, it has
been rained. So if you're driving up to the trail
listening to us right now, I hope you brought an
umbrella if you're gonna head up bringing umbrella to today's festivities,
and like you said, hopefully it'll clear up by one win.
The team takes the field for practice yesterday's practice. It's
kind of ridiculous to give an m v P to
(39:57):
a position group in day one of training camp, but
you probably you have to give it to the secondary.
They really popped um you mentioned and you're right up
on Steelers dot com. If you haven't had a chance
to read that yet, go to Steelers dot com and
check out Labs practice reports. I'll be writing those up
every day after practice. But you talked about Sutton opening
up in the slot, showing great technique and breaking up
a pass from Trabinsky early. Justin Lane had a broken pass,
(40:19):
a pass break up later in the practice session and
then they ended it with the cherry on the top. Yeah.
Cam Sutton was playing in the slot that when when
they opened on defense, the outside corners you know, as
I mentioned earlier, the offense and it was a past period,
so there were five defensive backs. So if guys on
the outside were Levi Wallace and Akello Witherspoon and Cam
(40:44):
Sutton lineup inside, the safeties were Terrell Edmonds and um
the Monte CAZy CAZy for Minka Fitzpatrick who during you know,
he's on n f I and no on football injury
list with that wrist injury from falling off the bike
that somebody asked him, Jerry do Lack asked him about
(41:06):
something something about it and he says, yeah, I guess
I need training wheels, which is clever. Um, But uh,
I was watching me Inca Fitzpatrick. He's off on the
other field and he was dressed as the other players were,
Um just not participating with them because he's on that list.
But so he and the one of the assistant trainers
(41:29):
were running across the field with Wise and the trainer
was there were about ten yards apart, and he's flipping
him the ball and he's catching it with one hand
while he's running back and forth back, and I'm thinking,
you know, quit showing on right. But Sutton did a
(41:50):
nice job his his past break up George Pickens as
the guy who ran the route. Um, Sutton stayed with him,
read his break correctly, landed, drove on the ball, cut
underneath the receiver, and knocked the past down. Um. And
then you know practice was ended um by that Kenny
Picking interception. UM. Let me let me get the correct
(42:14):
way to say the defensive back's name, because I don't
want to uh uh Carlin's PLATEL. I don't want to. Um. Okay,
but yeah, he made a nice play. The ball wasn't
greatly thrown by Kenny Picking. I mean he was trying
(42:36):
to make something happen, um whatever. Uh. So you know,
I guess I was waiting for any guys from the
fans from the stands to comment on that, but you
didn't get any of those. So you know, I guess
you only get the people. You only yell out good
things for him. But that will change too. Yeah, where
(42:56):
is the yeah's a good point. Where was the guy
from the first segment that you said was yelling for
Kenny Pinkett wasn't yelling for n at that point? Well,
and um, one of the things you notice here, uh,
is the cheering from the stands at chuckmull Field and
along the hillside usually is for good offensive place and
(43:18):
some of the defensive guys get honked off because like
when they make a play, you know, bat up the
ball or bat the ball down, excuse me, or you know,
do something to disrupt the play. Usually it's not greeted
with booing or anything, but aren't allowed cheers or you know,
when George Pickens gets behind you and catches the ball
(43:40):
and runs for a touchdown, you get a big roar.
But you know, it's it's it's it's all part of
the process. I enjoy the the theater of it a
lot of times, and it you know, breaks up the
monotony too. Well. Day two practice starts at one today,
of course, weather permitting anything you might be looking forward to.
You think we'll see seven shots. You made a note
(44:01):
that they didn't do seven shots in yesterday's practice, And
it's really one of the rare times that you can
remember since they didn't do the drill. Yeah, since since
was instituted by Mike Tomlin. And I can't remember, um
exactly the year, but levy On Bell and uh Antonio
Brown were both playing then It wasn't one of those
whole out of years for Bell or you know, weird
(44:22):
years for Antonio Brown or any of that stuff. So
it was in the mids. I'm guessing, and I really,
you know, even in regular season practices. And now I
haven't seen every practice every day. I'm not going to
try and pretend that I have. But typically seven shots
was one of the first competitive drills of every practice session.
(44:43):
They didn't do it yesterday. Now I don't know if
it was because Ben is retired or or what, but
it was just noticeable and so I noted it. Uh
don't know, I mean, I don't know if it's something
that's passe in in in the minds of Mike Tomlin
and Matt Canada. Um, no one asked them about it.
(45:03):
Didn't really think to ask them about it. It's not
that big a deal. Um, But you know, when you're
when you're trying to fill cyberspace with a practice report,
the first practice of a training camp with no pads. Um,
you grab whatever low hanging fruit you can find. Well,
one thing that fans who are going up to the
Troube today and for the rest of the training camp
can look forward to is the Steelers Legend photo op
(45:26):
opportunity that they can get. Um uh, from noon to
one at St. Vincent, there'll be a photo op each
day with a different Steelers legend. Today Randy Grossman is
the legend and I understand Labs you have a little
inside information about the schedule for the Steelers Legends coming up. Yeah, um,
you know it's it's evolving naturally. I mean, um, Lynn
Molino is the person from the Steelers in charge of
(45:49):
trying to you know, align these guys up. And you
know there are a lot of them. You know, they
have their own lives. That is the summer trying to
get them to come to the trube. They're not. All
of them have remained at in the area. So there's
there's some hoops that have to be jumped through. But anyway,
you mentioned Randy Grossman, Chris Hoke is on the twenty nine. Um,
Chris Hope will only be doing the photo opportunity from
(46:12):
noon to twelve thirty. Because of twelve thirty he starts
playing Madden. Um. You know the professional video team, the
Pittsburgh Nights, I think they're called um. Yeah, he will
be playing against John Beast of the Night the Pittsburgh
Nights from twelve thirty to one. Son, still watch that,
of course. Yeah. Well, I'm sure it's gonna be right
(46:32):
there privately, no one can see it. Hopefully it doesn't ring.
I just hope it doesn't rain. Charlie Batch is the thirtie,
Mike Logan August the one, Larry Brown August the swond
and then you start getting into the t b d
S UM. John Bannonzak is August the fourth, Dwayne Woodruff
(46:53):
the sixth because the fifth is Friday night lights, UM,
then eight because seventh is a day off, Brian McFadden uh.
And then you're pretty much tb d S from August
and nine until whenever campus closed or practices are close
to the public. So you know, we may have some
more updates on that as it as time goes on,
(47:16):
but that's what you got right now. So get up
to camp today and get your picture taken with Steelers
legend Randy Grossman. Like we said, noon to one pm,
he'll be taking photo ops with the fans. That's gonna
do it for day two's training camp report. Always appreciate
you guys giving us a listen for Bob Labriola. I'm
Tom Opferman. Day two practice starts at one at Chuck
and noll Field in St. Vincent's at Latrobe Today, Wolf
(47:40):
and Starks up next right here on your home in
the Steelers Steelers Nation Radio
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