Steelers training camp is a wonderful occasion. Full of hope.
Full of excrement, too. That’s why I get nowhere near it. Dino’s and Sharkey’s are the closest I come.
On Tuesday, the first day of practice in pads, the offense used six running plays during the “Seven Shots” segment. That’s when the offense and defense run seven plays at the goal line. The offense scores, or doesn’t.
“Seven Shots” is a godsend to the media. It serves up a tangible result every day.
The offense scored four times. The headlines: “Offense bullies defense” or some variation thereof. “Physical football is back.”
The run-heavy spell of Oppenheimer (b/k/a new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith) is being cast. We draw the conclusions we want to draw.
Nobody noted that the Steelers are paying their defense $160 million, most in the NFL.
They’re paying their offense $65 million.
Is anybody concerned that the cheap offense “bullied” the expensive defense? $160 million doesn’t buy what is used to.
The reality: It’s just seven plays. The smallest of samples at a meaningless time. The Steelers will go 9-8 regardless.
But I’m no better. The media has word counts to meet, hours of air time to fill.
Russell Wilson getting injured pushing a blocking sled when camp started was also a godsend.
Few among the media discussed the absurdity that is a quarterback pushing a blocking send, let alone lambasted it with the proper venom. Don’t want to bite the hand that feeds a free lunch.
But Wilson’s absence gave Justin Fields first-team reps, allowing him a chance to display the incredible inconsistency which has marked his brief career and betrayed his undeniable athleticism. He alternates between great and horrible, not much middle ground, and wait till he starts fumbling.
But, if you only show the clips where Fields plays great, you can support ESPN’s totally fabricated notion that there’s a quarterback competition in Pittsburgh, which is discussed constantly during the Worldwide Leader’s six hours of nonstop yelling and mugging from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays.
Ex-quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said that Wilson’s injury and Fields’ opportunity could trigger a chain of events that sees the Steelers cut Wilson. (This is what I mean by “hours of air time to fill.”)
The Steelers are paying Wilson $1.2 million. Even if fiction becomes fact and Fields becomes the starter, Wilson is a cheap backup.
By the way, Wilson hasn’t put a single foot wrong since signing with the Steelers, except maybe when he pushed the blocking sled. He’s said and done everything right. Wilson is running a better campaign than the Republicans or Democrats.
There was a fight Wednesday when Fields got tackled. Defense vs. offense. Nothing that would interest Dana White.
“Why is Broderick Jones still at right tackle?”
That should be a headline every day.
The Steelers traded up to draft Jones in last year’s first round specifically because Jones was to be their franchise left tackle.
It’s over a year later, and Jones is still at right tackle. It’s like a hostage crisis. We don’t negotiate with terrorists, or with Mike Tomlin.
It’s assumed that, as camp progresses, Jones moves to left tackle and this year’s first-round pick, Troy Fautanu, ascends from the second team and plays right tackle.
I’m not assuming that. Incumbent left tackle Dan Moore Jr. isn’t good, but the Steelers like him. “Like” can matter too much with this franchise.
But if that is the plan, do it now.
Making a second-year player switch positions mid-camp is asking a lot, even one as gifted as Jones.
This lunacy is denying Jones reps at left tackle, and costing the offensive line a chance to coalesce as a unit.
Right now, journeyman Nate Herbig is the starting center. He’s played 48 snaps at center during his NFL career, none since 2021. He didn’t play center in college. Herbig just isn’t a center.
The Steelers’ other center is Zach Frazier, chosen in this year’s second round. He was all-Big 12 in 2023 and is an actual center.
But rookies can’t start. Not right away. That’s the Steelers’ method.
It’s the same method that hasn’t won a playoff game in seven years, won’t this season, but is accepted as utter gospel. The hypocycloid is always right, especially when it’s wrong.
Did you know Coach T has never had a losing season?
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That’s why I’m full of hope. Maybe excrement. See you at Dino’s. Or Sharkey’s.
P.S. — T.J. Watt got rated 97 in Madden 25 (no relation). Fellow pass rushers Myles Garrett and Micah Parsons got rated 98. You know Watt is steamed. Perhaps this is the motivation Watt needs to finally win a playoff game.