The Steelers wrapped up their second day of practices 20 minutes early today due to storms in the area.
https://twitter.com/steelers/status/493503540266954752
“We got the bulk of the work in before the weather shut us down,” said Coach Tomlin after practice. “We’re not going to lose a lot of sleep over that. There’ll be plenty of opportunities for these guys to get better and prove themselves.”
Ramon Foster, who has been mourning the loss of his mother this weekend, is expected to join the team tomorrow. In his absence today, Chris Hubbard was the starting left guard. Cody Wallace had filled in for him yesterday, but saw time today as the #2 center. Yesterday, Mike Adams was the #2 left tackle, but today he was in at right. Here are a couple quick videos taken at practice today. You can see Coach Munchak working on technique and running drills with the linemen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlf_vDo7WEk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAS4vSHMUWI
https://twitter.com/MarkKaboly_Trib/status/493485220482412544
Antonio Brown hasn’t had any return duty yet. Today’s returners were Dri Archer, Markus Wheaton, Lance Moore and Jordan Hall. While the rest of the team worked on special teams, Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown worked on rollout throws to the endzone pylon.
Markus Wheaton drew lots of cheers as he split the corner and the safety to catch a deep touchdown pass from Roethlisberger. Archer was wowing the crowd with his speed on swing passes and check downs today. According to Scott Brown of ESPN, Justin Brown was “catching everything again today”. Here’s a quick video of some receiver drills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O9HkmKs2W0
Just because, here’s Heath Miller hitting a sled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARwI27_7TvU
Some things of note on the defensive side of the ball. DE Josh Mauro and DE Stephon Tuitt saw time at second team defensive end during sub-packages. Cam Thomas saw time as left defensive end during first team 11 on 11 drills. According to Bob Labriola, Stephon Tuitt was getting a lot of tough love from defensive line coach John Mitchell.
https://twitter.com/BobLabriola/status/493498224741986304
Last note on the defense today- Ryan Shazier put some of that renowned speed on display. Here’s a tidbit from Dale Lolley’s blog:
“(Antonio) Brown caught a ball in the flat that Jarvis Jones nearly knocked free before Brown re-caught it, split a pair of defenders and then raced down the sideline . . . where he was caught 25 yards downfield by rookie linebacker Ryan Shazier.” That’s not something you see everyday.
The Steelers resume practice tomorrow where they’ll be wearing pads and hitting each other. The NFL Network will also be covering camp from Latrobe tomorrow.