LATROBE, PA (93.7 The Fan) – Rain in the morning, led to clear skies as the Steelers announced their Hall of Honor class for 2023. Clouds rolled in and eventually a fairly heavy rain for about 20 minutes or so at St. Vincent College. The Steelers kept on practicing as most everyone else headed for cover.
"I love what transpired today," said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. "I love when we are faced with challenges. Today it was in the form of weather conditions. It's an important component of development. You get an opportunity to develop necessary skills that allow us to operate under these circumstances. You also get to show skills."
Tomlin said it was a challenge for throwing and catching, also for the defense to stay on their feet in the soggy grass. He said on offense it was about preaching ball security, while on defense searching for the ball.
"I called them up in the midst of it and talked directly to them about it because I wanted them to feel it. Oftentimes when we have weather like we did today. That's what this process is about, we never complain about challenges we get in team development. It is an opportunity for growth and that is what today is about."
"Hopefully we will perform a little better in some instances than we did today in some instances. Weather conditions can't be a factor in the quality of our play."
Injuries
· DE DeMarvin Leal 'had a little difficulty breaking', Tomlin doesn't think it's significant
· S Damontae Kazee with an ankle injury-may be out a day or two
· RB Alfonzo Graham suffered a shoulder injury when he fell, awaiting results
· S Minkah Fitzpatrick excused for a personal matter
XFL Opportunity
Catching eight touchdowns in the XFL this spring, the Steelers took a flier on 6'5", 227-pound receiver Hakeem Butler. Saturday, he had his best practice so far including taking a deep ball away from defensive back Luc Barcoo for a touchdown and also ran a nice up-and-out route making a nice grab on a 25-yard pass from Mason Rudolph.
"We were interested in his big playability when he came out of Iowa State a number of years ago," Tomlin said. "It was a guy with somewhat of a short football resume, more of a basketball guy growing up and we saw upside in that. He was a big time one-on-one playmaker. You know, we've kind of followed him and tracked him. He did similar things in the spring league this year, and we had an opportunity to sign him."
Tomlin warned it's still early in the process to make big judgments and Butler said the same thing about it being early in camp. However, Butler is confident in what he can do, even went up to Canada a couple of times and said he was the best player there, but wasn't given a chance because he was American.
"Just proving to myself I can still do it," Butler said. "A lot of people gave up on me. I almost gave up on myself truthfully, almost gave up on the game. Kept fighting, kept my head down, was just another chance to prove I'm that guy, can be that guy."
7 Shots
Steelers held their '7 shots' drill again on Saturday with the ball placed on the two-and-a-half-yard line. Here was the sequence of plays:
· George Pickens dropped TD from Kenny Pickett in the end zone
· Pickett incomplete to Najee Harris
· Cam Heyward knocks down Pickett pass
· Pickett scrambles threads TD pass to Zach Gentry
· Mitch Trubisky perfect pass to Connor Heyward for a TD, Joey Porter, Junior had really good coverage
· Trubisky incomplete on a fade to Cody White, Cory Trice with good coverage
· Darnell Washington false start (but they kept the ball at the 2-point try area), Trubisky completed it to Gunner Olszewski, but Trice held him short of the end zone
Highlights from situational play:
· Mason Rudolph had three straight completions to convert first downs on the 3rd down drills. The other two quarterbacks were two for eight.
· Washington had a nice catch along the left sideline on a throw from Pickett and turned upfield smoothly for extra yards
Steelers will hold another open practice on Sunday at 1:55p at St. Vincent College with the first practice in pads expected to be Tuesday.
