Brief and to the Point ...
• At 2:55 p.m. today, give or take a Mike Tomlin minute, the Steelers will take to Chuck Noll Field after a one-day respite from the rigors of training camp. I'll be driving out to Latrobe to check it out, and I'm genuinely looking forward to it.
But I won't take any of it too seriously.
And candidly, I can't understand why so many do.
Le'Veon Bell won't be there, of course. And yeah, that's still spectacularly pointless. He's achieving nothing. He's been hit with the exclusive franchise tag, he can't go anywhere and, upon being faced with the gee-what-should-I-do choice of taking $12 million to play football for one year or ... you know, not playing at all, here's guessing he'll take the money. And if Tomlin follows through on that vague threat of 'consequences' for Bell's absence, then he'll probably bench Bell for the opener in Cleveland.
Oh, no. How will they ever beat the Browns without him?
Martavis Bryant might or might not be participating. That's also pointless, but I'll point the finger at the NFL rather than the athlete. The league's bungled this process every step of the way, based on what our site's been told, and not even allowing the Steelers or the athlete or his agents to address what's wrong is beyond unconscionable.
Regardless, Bryant probably will be back this week. And that'll give him all of a month to prepare for the Browns. If that somehow isn't enough, JuJu Smith-Schuster will do just fine.
What else?
Oh, yeah, Ryan Shazier is hurt!
Also, water is wet, the sky is blue and, hey, would you believe both Vince Williams and Tyler Matakevich are having exemplary camps?
Team Matakevich, baby!
In fact, between Matakevich, Terrell 'Nightmare' Watson, and the budding battle at backup QB between Landry Jones and Absolutely Anyone But Landry Jones, I'm OK with seeing the Steelers bound for Cleveland with one and only one concern addressed over the entirety of camp.
Keep that guy on the left down there healthy:
