PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) Day Two of Steelers camp with fans but without pads took some of the advantages away from the defense and the offense was able to make quite a few plays but not all of them.
The defensive highlights included a pair of interceptions by 7th round pick Tre Norwood who, so far, is being used exclusively at safety although he may have slot corner potential. Norwood's second pick was also a poor decision by Mason Rudolph who threw into coverage. Rudolph did make a nice play a couple of throws later when he threaded a medium ranger pass to Ray Ray McCloud over Arthur Maulet.
It was a mixed bag for Rudolph all afternoon. He threw a beautiful deep ball to JuJu Smith-Schuster hitting him in full stride but JuJu dropped the ball, denying him the chance to do another elaborate end zone dance for those in attendance and his TikTok followers alike.
Later in the 2-minute drill, with time running down, Rudolph threw a pass over the middle to Matthew Sexton who was tackled by Minkah Fitzpatrick to end that drill. "At 15 seconds we've got to take shots at the end zone," scolded Tomlin, "When Minkah tackled that guy in the field of play right there the game's over. We've got to have that of awareness." Tomlin expressed his "annoyance" but chalked it up to a learning experience.
Meanwhile, both Dwayne Haskins and Josh Dobbs made some deep nice throws. Haskins hit McCloud for a TD and threw another long ball to rookie Rico Bussey who made a juggling catch out-fighting Justin Layne. Josh Dobbs made a perfect throw to Bussey a few passes later during 7-on-7
But Rico Bussey – who wears number 84 incidentally - officially became a training camp legend when he caught a TD pass from Haskins to end the second 2-minute drill and all the offensive players went nuts. The head coach, though, wasn't buying. "He made a play or two," Tomlin deadpanned before breaking into a grin.
7 Shot Goal Line – Ben Roethlisberger was 2-for-3. He threw incomplete to JuJu covered by James Pierre then threw 2 TDs to Chase Claypool, one in the corner over Cam Sutton and one over the middle. Rudolph's mixed bag actually began here. He missed overthrew McCloud in the corner then hit McCloud over the middle. Haskins tossed a nice pass to Tyler Simmons on a bit of a pick play then thre incomplete to TE Dax Raymond.
Injuries – RB Jaylan Samuels "limped off," per Tomlin, same for Raymond during the 2-minute drill – "don't know much about them," Tomlin said.
Several vets remained sidelined – Eric Ebron nursing an elbow injury from the day before; Joe Haden had the day off. Stephon Tuitt and TJ Watt worked on the side; Tomlin is unconcerned.
Next Up – "Friday Night Lights" according to Tomlin but the practice starts at 5:00 so they won't ever really need the lights, but Tomlin hoping for a lively crowd and it is typically a padded practice so you never know if a live goal line drill will pop up.
