LATROBE, Pa. -- There's no doubt that Brandon Aiyuk or any other wide receiver tied to the Steelers in trade rumors would make their group better.
But, despite trade winds picking up in recent days, there's no guarantee they would upgrade the position with an external player. And to hear him tell it, new wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni doesn't have time to sit around and wait for Omar Khan to bring new toys.
"I don’t talk about it at all," Azzanni told a handful of reporters after practice Tuesday at Saint Vincent College, regarding trade news or rumors. "I know where my job is, holding the whistle, getting these guys that they get me to go real hard. That’s my job and whoever they put in that room, I’ll take them and we’ll do it."
Either way, the Steelers need more from their wide receiver group in 2024, and that won't be easy without Diontae Johnson. Regardless of personnel, Mike Tomlin made the decision to replace Frisman Jackson with Azzanni in an effort to get more out of the players that are already in house.
And Azzanni is absolutely here to shake things up.
"I see some guys that have really been trying to buy in to what we've been selling offensively, what we've been selling in our room," Azzanni said. "Building a culture, a hard edge -- things that, quite honestly, have fallen off maybe a little bit in the past. We're trying to get back to that. That's Steeler football. They've been doing a good job of buying in, and I'm proud of them."
It doesn't take long to notice a difference in Azzanni's coaching style. He's very vocal, and I'd dare even describe him as aggressive with his players. Not in a bad way, but in a bold way to hold them accountable. He's just very hands on, and he's definitely not afraid to have his voice heard.
"Coach Azzanni's a great coach. He's pushing us hard. He doesn't let anything slide at all," Van Jefferson said Tuesday. "You've gotta be on your Ps and Qs with him."
The motivation Azzanni gives for his coaching style is to ultimately make each receiver better by getting them moving in a direction that they might not have previously thought they can go. He doesn't just want to take the great things a receiver already does and elevate it. He wants to challenge them to round out their game, whether it be as a blocker, as a route runner or any other way possible.
"I know how I am," Azzanni said. "I’m gonna be up their tail all the time and sometimes that’s not fun … but it’s my job to get these guys to go somewhere that they don’t think they can go."
Azzanni's approach was obvious during OTAs and minicamp, but it went to another level here. In the first couple days, there were times that Azzanni and George Pickens got a little heated, so much so Pickens actually picked Azzanni up off the ground a bit when Azzanni got in his face after a rep.
One might think that's just Pickens being a diva. One might think that Azzanni's overstepping his bounds as a coach. But, just as Pickens previously denied having any issues with his coach, Azzanni reassured everyone that it's just part of the process and that things are just fine with his No. 1 receiver:
"Everyone wants to make this ginormous thing of George," Azzanni said. "Me and George are great. Listen, it's football. It's hard. My job as a coach is to coach, critique and correct. Sometimes as players, that's not always a fun thing. My job is also to push these guys to a place maybe they don't think they can go. And sometimes that's uncomfortable. George knows it. I know it. The players know it. But we're all going to hold each other to a standard, and we're not going to fall below that standard. That's why George has been getting better. Me and him are great. I love how everyone throws a big deal about it. George is awesome. He's been awesome. He continues to get better, and I'm pleased with where he's going."
A lot's riding on Pickens to build upon his first two seasons. But, barring a trade, the Steelers need more out of other guys on the depth chart, as well. Jefferson's the most likely candidate to step into the WR2 role, as he'd once hauled in 50 passes for 802 yards and six touchdowns for a Rams team that won the Super Bowl in 2021.
The capability is there, and Jefferson's gone above and beyond by unsolicitedly adopting Antonio Brown's old regimen of catching 300 balls off the Jugs machine after every practice:
Azzanni sees Jefferson as a guy who can step up into an elevated role.
"Van's been great," Azzanni said. "He respects the game. He plays it the way it’s supposed to be played. He plays with a hard edge. He finishes. He’s trying to create great habits. He’s extremely coachable. I can’t say enough good things about where he’s at as a player."
Now, everything looks great when it's Steelers vs. Steelers on the fields at Saint Vincent. What's seen in practices can often be overhyped. But, to paraphrase Allen Iverson, we're talking about practice. Finding ways to define success and failure in this environment goes way beyond the stat-trackers on social media.
Azzanni seems to take pride in the ability to get down to the nitty-gritty -- the intangibles, specifically -- and find those successes and failures in each day's work.
"Whatever you're emphasizing that day, you go press play, you're getting it and you're seeing it. If you have to keep going back like '50 First Dates,' that's a failure, right? If we put the ball on the ground too much as an offense, that's a failure. We can measure those kinds of things. Every day's a little bit different. Whatever we challenge them to do that day, if we don't see it, then we've gotta go back and do it again rather than stacking."
