LATROBE, Pa. -- Want to gauge how serious the Steelers are about getting their best players on the field?
On defense, that's easy: Count the defensive backs. If there are seven on the field, as was the case several snaps in a row at one stage of the team's training camp session Sunday at sun-drenched Saint Vincent College, then that's a pretty powerful indicator. Because the alpha males in this setting, unquestionably, are in the secondary.
Put it this way: "Mike Hilton."
That was Ben Roethlisberger's no-hesitation reply afterward when asked if anyone's standing out in this set.
"He's the guy I look at out there," Roethlisberger continued. "He's that guy I look at a lot, who's in the slot, guarding guys ... really good blitzing and really good covering."
Sure is. And it was to the credit of all concerned at this time last summer, from Mike Tomlin on down, that this undersized, undrafted, twice-cut, never-even-invited-to-the-NFL-Combine commodity was valued enough to get a fair shake, never mind an eventual shot to start.
Wonderful. So extend the same to the offense this summer.
Meaning, of course, at wide receiver.
Antonio Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Washington will start. That leaves either two or three open spots, depending on how other positions -- say, cornerback -- shake out. And the players vying for those are Darrius Heyward-Bey, Eli Rogers, Marcus Tucker, Justin Hunter and so-far-camp-darling Damaun Patterson out of Youngstown State.
Rogers remains on the PUP list coming off major knee surgery, so cross him out. That now leaves one or two spots.
Which, in turn, leaves me with this thought: Why should DHB be guaranteed a roster spot?
He's 31, he contributed two catches over all of 2017, and his special teams play and leadership -- while both facets valuable in their own way -- shouldn't rise above what it would mean to keep one or two visibly, demonstrably better receivers in Patterson and/or Tucker. (Hunter's insanely inconsistent and wouldn't make this cut for me under any condition.) Session after session, and now even including a preseason game, they've been head and shoulders above DHB.
Not to inflate a solitary sequence, but those three took successive turns on a receiver-vs.-DB drill Sunday: Tucker blew across the middle and created ample separation for an easy catch, Patterson glided under a 40-yard strike in the left corner of the end zone, and DHB ... dropped a quick out route right in his mitts.
To repeat: That's one sequence. Except that it also was representative of what's been witnessed here the first two-plus weeks.
Patterson must make this 53-man roster. There's zero chance, after what's already been put on tape in Philadelphia alone, that he'll get sneaked through to the practice squad. Tucker's not in that category, but again, he's been well above DHB and Hunter.
Keep the best players. Put the best players on the field. Teach them special teams.
• I asked Roethlisberger if this camp offered maybe the deepest group of receivers he's had:
That wasn't a no.
• Roethlisberger also described the defense as "really coming together," adding, "It's been fun to watch." That's uncommon, in any context, coming from a quarterback. But he summed up a lot of the sentiment around here. There's bona fide excitement about the added athleticism on that side.
• Smith-Schuster's got growing up to do. I've written that a lot since his arrival, in large part because he was 21 upon that arrival. Being obsessed with a social media persona is one thing -- I've never had an issue with that -- but being duplicitous, meaning exhibiting that already-famous gregarious behavior online while then being outright boorish with people face-to-face ... yeah, that's not a great look.
Whatever. Growing up is growing up.
What matters most is how seriously he takes his work. And I've really liked what I've seen out here in that regard. He's battled for the ball, drill after drill, he's expressed vocal, visible displeasure when he doesn't come down with it -- one of those was vocal (and naughty) enough that it drew a hilarious rebuke from a young fan within earshot: "Watch your mouth, JuJu!" -- and he also spent a striking few minutes isolated on the field with Darryl Drake, the new wide receivers coach.
JuJu's part of the solution, not part of the problem. But he's also got growing up to do. It's possible for both concepts to be true.
• Artie Burns made maybe the most beautiful practice interception I've ever seen, picking off a ball -- one-handed and bleeping overhand -- while in a full sprint with his back to the quarterback.
I'd love to share an original image of that here, but he also nearly steamrollered our football staff — Dale Lolley, Chris Carter and me — into oblivion along the sideline after making the catch. Hey, your subscription dollars only go so far.
You'll have to settle for this video captured from the upper bleachers at Chuck Noll Field:
O que fizeram com Artie Burns? Interceptação com apenas uma das mãos no treino hoje. pic.twitter.com/HP9bEpKMhN
— Black Yellow Brasil (@blackyellowbr) August 12, 2018
• On-again, off-again painfully sums up, I think, the Pirates' predominant identity this summer. When they put up 10 runs, as they have three times already through seven games on this ongoing trip, no one's surprised. When they give up 10, no one's surprised. Since the 11-game winning streak, they're 8-9.
Show me inconsistent baseball, and I'll show you baseball that doesn't get it done over 162.
Think ahead. Look ahead. Much further ahead.
• The front office's decision to rest the rotation for a day in San Francisco won't quite rank up there with the Juan Nicasio fiasco, but it's in the neighborhood. There was, quite literally, no benefit to be gained by doing that one week vs. the next. And according to my pocket schedule, the Pirates are off today in Minneapolis.
They engage in nonsense like this, Neal Huntington and a lot of the people who surround him, in an attempt to impress others in the 'industry,' as they all call the rest of the baseball world. They love being seen as innovators, as the smartest people in the room.
How dumb.
• Huntington didn't participate in his own weekly radio show Sunday, a staple for nearly a half-century for the Pirates' GMs going all the way back to Joe L. Brown. Huntington instead dispatched Kevan Graves, his assistant GM, in his place, and Graves openly stated that the call was made at the front office level, something I'd been telling our readers all weekend.
This was one of Graves' quotes: “This was something that really began to come together shortly after the All-Star break. It was something we had in motion for really a good window of time. Part of it was the challenge of the hitter’s ballpark, the depth of that lineup in Colorado. The other challenge, obviously, is the altitude and the ability of folks to recover coming out of that ballpark.”
Try to begin to fathom the stupidity in that thought process.
These guys started contemplating this -- wait, no, it "really began to come together" -- roughly six weeks ago. When not a soul on the planet could have known how the Pirates would be doing, where they'd be in the standings or -- whoa! -- how their pitchers might actually be feeling!
All that interested them was the maneuver itself!
• Oh, and for everyone who ignored what I was writing and spent the weekend incorrectly blaming Hurdle for this particular move:
• It's so tempting to suggest that the Pirates put Francisco Cervelli at first base and leave him there, but he's too good a bat to platoon and, besides, Josh Bell is finally figuring it out from the right side. At the same time, experiencing concussion symptoms with every other foul ball off the mask is dangerous territory.
• Barry Bonds cheated. The Hall of Fame instructs voters -- not advises, instructs -- voters to apply a character clause when voting. If the Hall wanted Bonds or any cheater to be inducted, the Hall could ditch the clause, and he'd be in right away.
I have a Hall vote. Bonds will get my Hall vote when the Hall ditches the character clause. If the clause remains intact, he'll get my Hall vote in Two Thousand and Never.
All the other silliness that comes up in this debate -- reporters didn't like Bonds, he was rude, he was mean to autograph-seekers -- have not a thing to do with my vote. The guy cheated. That's it.
The Hall doesn't want him or any cheater enshrined. The Hall's getting its wish.
• On that note, the single weakest counter I'll ever hear regarding Bonds is that the Steelers of the 1970s also used steroids. Well, sure, but steroids weren't banned by the NFL until 1983. Major League Baseball banned steroids in 1991, Bonds' next-to-last season in Pittsburgh. So when his head became wider than the Golden Gate Bridge once in San Francisco, it was happening because he was cheating.
It isn't about steroids. It's about cheating. Breaking the rules is cheating. And cheating violates the character clause.