By Ray Porter Jr.
LATROBE, PA–And just like that, Training Camp is back. Seven months after their disappointing 31-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Pittsburgh Steelers are ready to end their playoff woes and are hoping for a renaissance in 2024.
“Really exciting day for us to get started. First just some necessary business. All are present and accounted for in terms of attendance,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “We just did our conditioning test. Really good experience. Did a little something different this year, but really excited about it. Just exposing them to that and gathering information, just gauging the readiness of this group. Really an impressive collective from that perspective.”
Tomlin and General Manager Omar Khan received a directive from Team President Art Rooney II that the Organization is anxious to take this next step, and all are getting a little impatient that they need to see improvement. In the off-season, Khan responded by getting rid of all the team’s QBs from 2023 (Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky, and Mason Rudolph) and replacing them with veteran Super Bowl winner Russell Wilson, 2021 first-round pick Justin Fields and veteran Kyle Allen. Khan also made other notable signings in LB Patrick Queen, and as they checked in to Saint Vincent’s College in Latrobe, all were excited to be there.
“We appreciate coming up to Latrobe. Don’t take it for granted. We realize that in 2024 we’re in a minority in terms of teams that go away to a destination camp,” said Tomlin “We’re excited about that. We’re really excited about the winning edge that we believe it provides us. We think we have an opportunity to capture that which you can’t measure in an environment like this: that understanding that respect, that growth that’s associated with informal time that groups get a chance to spend together in an environment like this.”
After he checked in to Rooney Hall, Wilson met with the media and said that his expectations are nothing less than a Super Bowl. “Our mission is to win it all, to win the Super Bowl,” said Wilson, “But we’ve got to do the work necessary. It doesn’t just happen overnight. That’s in our control.”
Wilson’s experience is known as he’s been to two Super Bowls with the Seattle Seahawks, winning one. He also appeared in 9 Pro Bowls. “Internally, your expectations for yourself have to be higher than everyone else’s,” Wilson said. “I remember when I was a rookie, I was a third-round pick, the 75th pick overall. I was the third-string quarterback on the roster. I was determined I was going to take that job. That’s got to be the mentality every day. That’s the mentality every day. Try to be your best.”
Tomlin’s comments on Wilson: “He likes to work. That is a good place to begin. He’s highly conditioned. He brings a unique approach to the weight room, for a guy that plays his position. There is a lot of interesting things about him in terms of his appetite for work that’s attractive.”
RB Najee Harris refused to speak to the media during OTA’s and Mini-Camp, but he did speak to the Media when he reported to Latrobe as he did express his disappointment in the Steelers not picking up his 5th-year option, but it has nothing to do with how he feels about the city and staff “I like it here in Pittsburgh. I like Coach T. Mr. Rooney. Omar…. It’s a good city. Obviously, the people here are nice and welcoming. But it’s a business.”
When Tomlin was asked about Harris’s comments, he replied, “No need for me to add any more to his answer to your question. If that’s what he was told, that’s what he was told.”
NFL Training Camps are operating differently this year as their practices are starting as early as 10 am.
When Tomlin was asked about those changes, he replied “We were just really pressed for time after practice in terms of our night meetings. Oftentimes we make corrections and coaching points the following morning. It’s better for teaching and learning when you get that immediate feedback…. It’s just some challenges to the 11-hour workday in a setting like this, so we moved the practice back a little bit in an effort to — for that, but also, oftentimes guys are rushed at dinner and we want to make sure we do a good job of feeding the guys and that they’re bringing an appropriate appetite to dinner. Those are a couple of by-products and reasons why we’re moving the practice to earlier in the day.”
Tomlin also addressed the team’s early injury report: “We’ve got three guys that will be on the list, two PUP guys, Dean Lowry, and Cole Holcomb obviously with a pre-existing injury, and [Cordarrelle]Patterson will be on the non-football injury list. He’s got a [hamstring] that he hurt down south in training. So we got three guys that will start off as nonparticipants in this process. That’s really the laundry list, if you will, of necessary business.”
Despite the changes, Tomlin says his team is ready to roll “We’ve got some regular business that everybody is going to obviously be involved in in terms of practicing and meetings and installs and so forth. Excited about that as well. So really excited about getting started. Got a lot of new people, new coaches, new players. I’m not taking anything for granted. Obviously, I’ve been up here a lot over the years, but I’m just making a real conscious effort to do a good job of communicating, telling people why, making sure people understand locations and things of that nature, the things that you do at the very beginning stages of an environment like that.”
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