Jesse James at practice Thursday. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Steelers

Kovacevic: Secondary receiving options? Think Jesse first

By Dejan Kovacevic

Dec 15, 2017 • 12:09 am

6.7K

Twenty years ago, Todd Haley learned about Bill Belichick the hard way.

Haley, a 30-year-old novice in the NFL circle at the time, was coaching the Jets' receivers when Belichick was the defensive coordinator. The two didn't interact much -- "I was a young guy, and he'd been around forever," Haley recalled -- but when they did, it wasn't particularly pleasant.

At one practice ... well, I'll let Haley tell it.

"I was with him for three years, and I learned a lot," he was sharing Thursday after the Steelers' practice. "As a young receivers coach, I had a coach screaming at me that he lined up one yard outside the numbers instead of two, and I’m like, 'What the hell's the difference?' "

Haley laughed at that.

"But I understood it very quick. But it tells you why he’s been one of the best coaches in the league and why some guys are good coaches and why some guys aren’t so good. It’s the details and continuing to harp and push. And sometimes it involves a little yelling and screaming to get guys to understand."

That was 1997. It's 2017 now, and Belichick has taught Haley harsher lessons since then. Chief among them: He'll strip you of your greatest weapon.

He'll double-team, even triple-team a wide receiver, as he did with Antonio Brown in the AFC Championship Game earlier this calendar year. Now, that was made infinitely easier by Le'Veon Bell having limped off the field in the first half with a groin injury, but the plan wouldn't have wavered regardless. Just like intentionally walking a great slugger or shadowing a great skater, Belichick and, in turn, defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, openly opt to face the other 10 players rather than that one.

Ben Roethlisberger and Brown still connected seven times but for only 70 yards. a long of 18, and no touchdowns.

As Haley worded it, "They worry about the people that they think can beat them."

Which might explain why Belichick, when asked in his midweek conference call with Pittsburgh reporters if he thought Brown was a worthy MVP candidate, replied, "Absolutely. Give it to Bell, too. Give it to Roethlisberger, too, if you want to. They are all really good and excel at their position."

It isn't the first time he's sounded almost exasperated when describing the Steelers' talent on offense. And it can't be coincidence. Even though he's been successful more often than not, in that moment, he's taken out of his comfort zone. He's got to apply more bodies, more maneuvering than he'd like.

Contrast that to John Harbaugh of the Ravens this past Sunday, when asked how he could have left Brown in single coverage for a big gain on the Steelers' winning drive.

"You know," he came back, "you can't just go out there and show the same coverage on every play."

Belichick and Patricia can and do.

"They're gonna take AB away, no question," Martavis Bryant was telling me at his stall Thursday. "They're gonna put the house on him."

They can and will. The Vikings did that way back in Week 2, and Brown emerged with five catches for 62 yards despite 11 stubborn targets. The Bengals tried it in the first meeting. The Colts, too.

That leaves three possible positive outcomes for the Steelers in this regard Sunday:

1. AB will be awesome, anyway.

"Ha!" Bryant exclaimed when I mentioned that. "Probably. He always is."

2. Bell will be two challenges too many.

Remember that Bell, not Bryant or any other receiver, is second on the Steelers with 75 catches. Take him away on the ground, as Baltimore did in holding him to 48 yards, and he'll still do damage with 77 yards through the air and one, two, three touchdowns.

3. Jesse James will take another step.

Hey, is anyone still doubting him?

____________________

The Ravens invested so much manpower and energy on Brown and Bell that Mike Tomlin and Haley smartly turned their tight ends to attack the middle of the field. It worked beautifully, with Roethlisberger and James connecting on 10 of his 12 targets, and Vance McDonald contributing four catches before a shoulder injury.

Remember how Ladarius Green was added as James insurance?

And how McDonald was added just before this season for the same reason?

That was on merit, by all accounts. Tomlin and his staff have loved James' 6-foot-7 size, and they'd been happy enough with his relative athleticism and his skill in coming down with the ball. But they hadn't seen that something extra, that dual threat of Heath Miller that spoiled everyone here for a decade. They wanted the third-down reliability and the occasional splash and the run-blocking and the pass protection.

Basically, they've never stopped wanting Heath II.

Well, they don't have that, but they do have this:

Again, Sunday saw the game of James' life. But it's probably more pertinent that it followed a broader upward curve. In the four games before those on the graphic, James was shut out three times.

Better than that, check out Haley's answer when I asked him to go a little deeper on James' progress over the full season.

"Obviously, statistically, he had a good game last week but he’s been getting better and better for us," Haley began. "Not just the obvious things where you can see him catch 10 or 11 passes. In all areas of the run game. He’s a very dependable guy mentally. It doesn’t matter if he’s banged up. He went through a stretch where he was pretty beat up, and I think a lot of guys may not have even played, and he never missed a practice."

That was a shoulder injury, which is no picnic at his position. James told me about it several weeks ago after a road game. He's never missed so much as a drill since then.

"There's a lot of value put on a guy like that that you can count on every day," Haley continued. "We say similar things about Heath. He was the same guy every day. You appreciate, as a coach, being able to count on that."

Yeah, he went there. Used the H-word.

James visibly doesn't mind that, any more than he minds that the fans at Heinz Field still, astoundingly, chant 'Heeeeeeeeeeath!' with each catch.

"Hey, if they're making any noise at all when I do something, it means I'm doing something right, you know?" James was telling me as part of a long talk we had Thursday. "Besides, it's respect. I get that."

He should. Born and raised in Glassport, graduate of South Allegheny High School, product of Penn State.

"I watched him growing up, too, like everyone else here," James said with a small smile. He isn't exactly a man of many words, so it's telling to see him light up when discussing Miller. "He's the best tight end who ever played here, and it'll probably be that way for a long time. What he's done here ... he's a legend. I looked up to him then, and I still look up to him now."

Now?

"I still go back and look at film of things he could do, try to pick things up I didn't catch when I was with him."

Wait, now?

"I just did some this week. Film from three years ago. Mostly run-blocking. That's always there for me."

If James comes across here as almost surreally humble, it's safe to assume that's an asset in his favor, as well. Seeing other tight ends occasionally slotted ahead of him has hurt, and he's made no secret of that. But he sure hasn't pouted, either.

"I enjoy all of it," he said of his position. "I want to be that complete tight end. When they ask me to be part of run-blocking and we're knocking a team backward, I enjoy that. When we go aerial like we did last week and we're slicing 'em up that way, I enjoy that, too. The pass-blocking ..."

He paused a moment.

"That's been what I've worked on the hardest in the NFL. I take a lot of pride in it. Coach T and Coach Haley are tough critics, but I'm my toughest critic. I appreciate that they trust me, that my quarterback trusts me ..."

He nodded his head toward Roethlisberger a few stalls away. They'd been joking around minutes earlier.

"There's nothing that means more to you as a football player than your teammates' trust. It's been good, man. It has."

____________________

It'll all be that much better when beating New England, no doubt.

The defense will have to step up, partly because of Tom Brady, partly because of the huge hole left by Ryan Shazier. But the offense will need some of that, too. Bryant's still looking for that first monster play, and he insists, "It's coming. It's definitely coming." JuJu Smith-Schuster will be back from his one-game suspension, hamstring willing. Both are options the Steelers didn't have back in January, when Sammie Coates was letting that touchdown slip through his broken fingers.

So if Belichick and Patricia somehow minimize Brown and Bell as Roethlisberger targets ...

"They are capable of taking two guys away," Haley cautioned. "As the game progresses, as you get into the game, you figure those things out and you make necessary adjustments. If it’s different than what you thought it was going to be ... the bottom line is you have to make plays."

The 'you' most definitely was the plural form.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY

Steelers practice, Rooney Sports Complex, Dec. 14, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

WHAT'S BREWING

• Our Christmas gift subscriptions are here!

• Hey, it's Friday Insider day. Written by our entire staff, sponsored by Point Park University.

• Tomorrow's Site Stuff will get into this more deeply, but you'll see a modification to our main game stories beginning with Chris Bradford's coverage of the Penguins' loss last night from Las Vegas. In short, it's taking Chris' terrific Five in the Box format we've been using for hockey, blending it with Dale Lolley's 10 thoughts and Matt Gajtka's imaginative singular-focus pieces, and producing this one new thing. Look forward to hearing from you about these.

• We're ramping up our Steelers coverage this week, as we hope you've noticed, treating Patriots week almost like a playoff. In addition to the column above, Dale offers a look at the Steelers' real focus on the New England offense, Christopher Carter's got a new Video Classroom coming much later tonight, and we've got a Greg Bedard analysis of Brady's Monday night dud, shared from our friends at the Boston Sports Journal.

VIDEO

Carter and Lolley on Java: