Jack Sawyer, Derrick Harmon and the other rookies on the Steelers' roster have experienced a gauntlet of activities over the last month. They took part in rookie minicamp in early May, joined a fuller group for two weeks of voluntary OTAs later in the month and just wrapped up three days of mandatory minicamp at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. 

There's still plenty for them all to learn and plenty of work to be done before players report to Saint Vincent College in Latrobe for training camp on July 23. But there's a level of comfortability some of these newcomers have now that they've experienced what the day-to-day process looks like at the NFL level.

"I think for me and the rest of the rookies, this time has been great for us to kind of get into the swing of what it's like to be a professional," Sawyer said following the final minicamp practice session this afternoon. "For me, that's a big takeaway." 

Harmon, the Steelers' first-round pick in this year's NFL Draft, said his main goal was to learn the defense, learn about the organization and get himself acclimated with the team's culture. He feels like he accomplished those tasks. Of course, coming from a college program like Oregon may have helped expedite the learning curve for Harmon. 

"I feel like coming from Oregon, we had the same defense and I play the same position," Harmon said. "The biggest thing for me is learning the speed of the game and understanding the speed of the game is way different than college." 

I asked Harmon about the areas in which he feels like he's grown over the past month since he first donned a Steelers uniform during rookie minicamp and, again, adapting to the speed of the game was a topic within his response. 

"For me, it was my conditioning, and I got the tempo and the speed of the game down a lot quicker," Harmon said. "Coming into training camp and having that same mentality and same speed (will be key)." 

There's plenty of talent within the Steelers' rookie class. On both sides of the ball. Harmon is already considered the team’s starting left defensive end, according to Karl Dunbar, Sawyer has seemingly fit in nicely with the linebackers group and Will Howard continues to get valuable reps in a quarterback room that now features Aaron Rodgers along with Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson. 

There's more for this rookie class to prove, though, as they now work to prepare for their first training camp experience. They've already been given a heads up on what to expect. Sawyer said Tomlin has preached the importance of heading into camp "in the best shape of your life," and being mentally and physically ready to perform. Now, they just have to make sure that they take the level of comfortability they've developed over the last month and build on it moving forward. 

"We're all talented," Sawyer said. "Talent gets you this far, but it's harder to stay in the league than it is to get to the league. For us, we're just trying to come in here with our heads down, do whatever is asked of us to the fullest potential and play our role to the fullest, whatever that is, whatever we earn. I think that's the mindset of all of us right now."