Kenny Pickett began his walk off the field at the UPMC-Rooney Sports Complex last Friday as the rest of his new teammates did.
Only the rest of his teammates didn't have a gaggle of reporters waiting to grill them for 10 minutes. They mostly walked right on past the waiting reporters, joking and talking to each other.
Welcome to life not only as a quarterback, but a first-round quarterback in the NFL, Kenny Pickett.
Let's be clear. Reporters were only permitted to watch the walk-through portion of the weekend's practices. And we only got to see those on Friday and Saturday.
Anyone who is telling you they can glean anything substantial out of those is full of it. While Pickett said players were going through the walk-through probably faster than they should have because they were excited to be there, they still weren't going full speed. And there were no veteran players there to test them.
But watching Pickett work on the field and then talking to him after, you could see his poise. You see a player who is comfortable in his own skin and with his abilities. That's huge at the quarterback position.
The quarterback is charged with commanding the huddle. If the quarterback is at all uneasy or tentative in the huddle, things can fall apart quickly. The rest of the team takes their cues from him.
There was none of that from Pickett.
He didn't need to be shown how to lead a group of men. He didn't need to be schooled on how to take a snap from under center or go through his reads.
Those might seem like givens, but they're not with rookie quarterbacks. I can recall former offensive coordinator Bruce Arians saying that had been an issue with quarterbacks the Steelers had drafted in the past. They had never huddled in college. They had never taken a snap under center. They had to be taught how to do those things.
And while it might sound easy, getting a play and then relaying it to 10 other men -- most of whom you've never lined up with before -- when you yourself are just learning, it can lead to mistakes. There was none of that with Pickett this weekend.
• Pickett also throws a nice, catchable ball. And his ball placement is good. Now, to be fair, the receivers weren't going full speed, as mentioned above, but he typically puts the ball right where it needs to be.
• I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that seventh-round draft pick Chris Oladokun also had no issues lining up under center or commanding the huddle.
Like Pickett, he's got plenty of experience. But Oladokun also played at three different schools and thus learned at least three different offenses -- quickly.
Don't think that didn't factor into the Steelers wanting him in the seventh round. The last thing they wanted to do with a fourth quarterback is to have to spend a lot of time working with him on breaking a huddle and relaying plays when they have to spend so much of their time this offseason getting Pickett and Mitch Trubisky up to speed.
• The ball also jumps out of Oladokun's hand. While he didn't display Pickett's pinpoint accuracy, he's got a very strong arm.
And in a draft class in which many of the quarterbacks lacked ideal NFL size, Oladokun and Pickett were outliers.
• Watching the rookie running backs in this camp -- all of whom were undrafted -- it seems the Steelers really like Duke's Mataeo Durant.
Durant rushed for 1,200 yards last season and over 2,500 in his career. He also caught 55 career passes.
Durant is listed at 6-foot-1, 195 pounds. And he looks that. He's a high-cut, lean athlete. In fact, he looks more like a wide receiver than a running back. Then again, so did Le'Veon Bell by the time he got done losing weight by his third NFL season.
The lines of delineation between the two positions is blurred more every year. He'll be interesting to watch in training camp.
• Mike Tomlin didn't mince words when he talked about what diminutive fourth-round wide receiver Calvin Austin brings to his team -- speed.
He also knows what Austin (5-8, 170 pounds) needs to do to be successful in the NFL.
"Run extremely fast," Tomlin said. "When you're small, man, you better be fast in this game. And that's the reality of it. That's nothing new. It's not earth shattering or groundbreaking. That is his distinguishing trade, and it has to show up in all aspects of his play."
• The Steelers signed at least three of the players who were in for tryouts this weekend as defensive tackle Trevon Mason, wide receiver Tyler Snead and defensive back Carlins Platel all announced on social media they had been offered contracts.
Mason, an Arizona product, is intriguing. He's got ideal size at 6-foot-6, 305 pounds, though he had just 3.5 sacks in 26 career games. We'll see if he can develop into something more.
Snead is tiny, even smaller than Austin. He's listed at 5-foot-7, 174 pounds, and while the weight might be right -- he's thick -- he was clearly the shortest player on the field. In fact, seeing him standing next to 6-foot-3 George Pickens made you wonder if they played the same position.
But Snead had 201 career receptions at East Carolina and also returned kicks and punts.
Platel played as a graduate student last season at South Carolina after spending his first four seasons at Assumption, a Division II school.
• The Steelers will open the season with three games in 11 days, a tall task. They travel to Cincinnati for their opener before hosting the Patriots in their home opener and then going to Cleveland for a Thursday night game.
That's a tough way to start. But it beats playing three games in 11 days in the middle or end of the season.
At least doing it at the start of the season means everyone should be relatively healthy -- or at least not as beaten down as they'll be in November and December.
• Outside of that, the schedule is the schedule. We already knew who the 2022 opponents would be.
Now, we just know what order in which those games are played.
One interesting note from the schedule is that the Steelers won't leave Pennsylvania from Oct. 24, when they return from a night game in Miami until getting on a flight to go to Indianapolis Nov. 27.
In between, they have a game at Philadelphia, a bye and two home games.
• The Steelers' over-under for wins is 7.5.
That seems like an easy over bet. This franchise hasn't won fewer than 8 games since going 6-10 in 2003.
NFL.com's Cynthia Freeland runs hundreds of thousands of season simulations and her computer models put the Steelers at 8.1 wins for the season.
That means the majority of her simulations had the Steelers finishing over the total.
The interesting thing is that according to her models, the Steelers defense accounts for 58 percent of the team's win total, the highest of any team projected to win at least seven games.
If the offense takes any strides forward this season -- and with so many young players, it should -- things could be even better.
The Steelers should win between 7 and 10 games this season, which makes them a strong bet to go over 7.5.
