With the Steelers set to wrap up their training camp here at Heinz Field and return to the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, it’s a good time to take a look at what we learned in this strange new environment.
The pandemic caused the team to hold a camp unlike any we’ve ever seen before. Rules were changed on the fly at the NFL level. The Steelers were forced to move camp from Saint Vincent College, where they had trained for 50 years, to Heinz Field.
But they made it work.
And we learned some things. We weren’t permitted to report them all given the rules in effect for this camp, but the knowledge is there.
That said, let’s take a look at the five things we now know.
Chase Claypool looks like a star in the making. He wasn’t a first-round draft pick. Heck, he wasn’t even one of the top 10 players selected in this draft at his position -- he was 11th. But don’t let any of that fool you. The second-round pick has all kinds of star quality.
Don’t think so?
Realize that he has been raved about in interviews by Mike Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger, Randy Fichtner, Joe Haden and others. The fact Tomlin spoke highly of both him and rookie outside linebacker Alex Highsmith, a third-round pick, speaks volumes.
“Over the course of this camp process, they’ve got more opportunity against known veteran guys,” Tomlin said. “And really, they don’t appear to be out of place in that company. So far, so good. As they continue to prove themselves, that will increase and thus the growth process for those two and others. But those two you mentioned specifically are one of the ones I’m thinking about when I’m talking about guys that have had an opportunity to ascend and are taking advantage of it.”
One of the rules to what we can and can’t report in this camp is that we’re not permitted to say who was working with what unit.
But take this for what it’s worth, Claypool was mentioned on the pool reports from the practices catching an awful lot of passes from Roethlisberger while working against the likes of Haden and Steven Nelson.
Last I checked, Roethlisberger was the team's starting quarterback, while Haden and Nelson are the starting corners. Take from that what you will.
Roethlisberger is back It was the biggest question of this camp: What would Roethlisberger look like in his return from having three flexor tendons reattached in his throwing arm? That question has been answered.
Roethlisberger looks, dare we say, spry. His arm strength looks to have returned to form. In fact, in his own words, his arm might be stronger than it was a year ago.
“One of the practices, I think, last week I wasn’t able to step into it, and I threw a go ball down the left sideline,” Roethlisberger said last week. “It felt like when it came off my hand it was going to be short, and it ended up making it there in stride. I was pleasantly surprised with how my arm strength has kind of come back to what I think maybe even a little better than it was before.”
And the quarterback is highly motivated. If you watched the docuseries that has been airing on YouTube, titled “Bigger than Ben,” you didn’t have to watch very long to see Roethlisberger showing that he heard all the criticisms and attacks on his character that took place last offseason. Heck, the entire first couple of minutes were dedicated to that.
And Roethlisberger was very much involved in the production of the series. He wants to prove the critics wrong. A healthy Roethlisberger and an offense that will use plenty of pre-snap motion and jet sweep motions could spell major problems for opposing teams.
The depth is better than we thought When camp opened, there were questions about depth at outside linebacker, inside linebacker and safety on a very talented defense.
But the play of the aforementioned Highsmith, veteran safety Curtis Riley, who was signed Aug. 3 and the continued growth of Ulysees Gilbert at inside linebacker have eased some of those concerns.
Highsmith looks like a guy who can not only come in and just give starters T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree a breather, but make plays, as well. That's more than the Steelers got out of Anthony Chickillo last season -- or any season, for that matter.
Riley was a full-time starter two years ago for the Giants and started a handful of games for the Raiders last season. He’s not Minkah Fitzpatrick or Terrell Edmunds, but he’s certainly capable of playing valuable snaps without things breaking down as they did last season when the Steelers were forced to play Kameron Kelly.
And Gilbert looks fully recovered from the back injury that ended his 2019 season prematurely. The 2019 sixth-round draft pick looks fast and is, more importantly, playing fast.
Add to that the transition of safety Marcus Allen to the inside linebacker position and the Steelers are faster at inside linebacker than they have ever before been. And speed in the middle of the field is key in today’s NFL.
Watt is an unstoppable force Like Claypool, you can’t look at one of the pool reports from these practices and not see Watt’s name all over the place. Still just 25 years old, he’s already a star. But he seems poised to be even better in 2020, if that’s possible.
Watt had 14.5 sacks, a league-best eight forced fumbles and a couple of interceptions in 2019, when he finished third in the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award voting. Watt isn’t mentioned as often as some other players when it comes to winning that award outright this season. But he’s got as good a chance as anyone.
This figures to be a very good defense, and he’s the best player on it, all apologies to Fitzpatrick, Cam Heyward and others. Let the games begin The NFL performed 58,621 COVID-19 tests last week. Of those, it had 10 positive tests, four among players and six among league personnel. That testing was for 2,747 players who were obviously tested multiple times.
That means that .001 percent of players tested positive for the virus last week. That’s pretty good. And it shows the players are absolutely all-in when it comes to keeping themselves safely distanced from others.
There were 5,992 personnel tested, which includes cleaning people, doctors, coaching staff and anyone who might have contact with players. That same .001 percent of the people tested were positive. This doesn’t mean the league can slack off once the season begins. Teams will obviously be traveling, which opens players up to a whole new set of circumstances.
But the NFL and its players have done a marvelous job to this point of avoiding a catastrophe that so many people thought might happen when the league opened camps.
This doesn’t mean there won’t be some bumps in the road. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, when a lab had some random false positive tests – including several Steelers – things will happen that could affect things adversely. Right now, however, it’s full speed ahead.
In fact, the team treated Wednesday’s practice like an in-season Wednesday, working with scout team units and such. We can now assume that tomorrow with be like an in-season Thursday and Friday, their final practice at Heinz Field, will be treated like an in-season Friday practice.
The start of the season and the opener against the Giants is just around the corner.
“We weren’t necessarily focused specifically on the Giants even though we went through a mock structured regular season Wednesday,” Tomlin said after Wednesday’s practice. “We were still just focused on our high-volume things, things that we can execute in really all circumstances. There are a lot of unknowns about the Giants. It is the first game. There’s no preseason. They are a new staff. The things that we focus on in environments like this better be things that we can execute regardless of circumstance. Really, that was our focus. It was more about us and our ability to perform.”