Steelers News: PIT Signs Chuck Clark + Aaron Rodgers Shakes Off The Rust On Day 2 Of Training Camp!

Steelers News: PIT Signs Chuck Clark + Aaron Rodgers Shakes Off The Rust On Day 2 Of Training Camp!

Welcome in to Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jax Sperry. Thank you guys so much for joining me here for our day two Steelers training camp practice report. Practice did end a little bit early today due to storms that were coming in, but it really wasn’t that much of practice that was missed. It was 10 maybe 15 minutes left in practice, maybe one more team period. So, we did get a good amount of football today and we did have more to take away uh after training camp practice today. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already. Uh, because we’re going to be doing these practice reports every single day during Steelers training camp this year. Um, so without further ado, let’s jump into the news of the day and we can start with the signing that the Steelers made today at safety. They brought in veteran safety Chuck Clark who has been in the league for seven years. Uh, he did tear his ACL in 2023, his first year with the New York Jets. Actually, his Jets tenure was the exact same length as uh Aaron Rogers where he had a season ending injury in 2023 and then he played in 2024, but uh didn’t play all that well. We’ll talk about that here in a little bit. Had a chance to take a look at some of his film on the way back to the hotel. Uh but very similar kind of path uh you know in terms of his journey in New York to Aaron Rogers where they’re both there for two years. they’re both injured that first year and then they disappoint in the second year of their Jets tenure. So, he’s somebody that Rogers will know. Um, and he will be a friendly face to him when you know, now that he’s in the building. Um, but you know, last year was not a good year for Chuck Clark on film, guys. I watched I think it was three games on film for him on the way back to the hotel. It’s about an hour and a half drive from Latroe uh back to our hotel here in Pittsburgh, especially with the Pirates game happening so close to our hotel. Uh, so I got a chance to really dive into some Chuck Clark film and you know, I wasn’t able to watch that film at practice obviously because I was sitting in my chair. I was watching practice. Uh, but then on the way home I was like, “Oh my goodness, man. This is not the same Chuck Clark that I’m used to seeing on the Baltimore Ravens. Um, you know, before that ACL injury, Chuck Clark was a very, very good safety in the league that could keep the lid on top of a defense. He could also play in the box. He’s played a lot of free safety and strong safety. Um, and he has a ton of reps at both of those spots. Uh, he was a green dot for the Baltimore Ravens for many years, so he knows what AFC North football is all about. And Mike Tomlin said after practice today that the reason why they brought him in is because he was highly recommended in terms of his football character. I don’t necessarily doubt that Chuck is a hard worker, that he’s a fantastic teammate, um, and he’s going to be bringing uh, you know, a lot of hard work to Latroe to try and make this football team. But just plain and simply guys, last year he was not the same player playing for the New York Jets in 2024 uh as he was the last time he played a full season with the Baltimore Ravens in 2022. He just didn’t look like the same athlete. He was uh getting cooked in coverage. And you know, even though his def his run defense and tackling was still okay, it definitely wasn’t up to his standard uh to that point in his career. like before, you know, when he when he signed with the Jets in 2023, he was known as one of the best rundefending safeties in the National Football League, you know, who was a fantastic tackler, super smart, and he still brings those smarts and that IQ to the table, but last year it just did not go well for him on film, at least in the three games that I watched. I’m probably going to watch more uh tonight, and you know, if he gets better throughout the season, I’ll let you guys know. But it’s just it it’s pretty rough to the to this point what I’ve seen from Chuck Clark. So hopefully he can come in here. um and you know play well and hopefully you know second year off the ACL he’s playing a little bit better. He’s he’s running a little bit faster. I do think he’s going to slot in as a backup. Now technically it’ll be a competition between him and Juan Thornhill and you know kind of Sebastian Castro for that starting free safety spot, but I really think the Steelers like Thornhill. I really like his moxy. I love his confidence. I love the way that he moves out there on the field. Thornhill’s done a good job through two guys through two days at camp. There’s not a whole lot of deep opportunities with Thornhill out there at free safety and he does his job well and I think the Steelers like him. So I think the Steelers will probably plan on keeping Thornhill at starting free safety with of course Deshawn Elliot as starting strong safety. And then you know when it comes to Clark, he’s got a ton of experience playing free and strong safety. So if Thornhill or Elliot, god forbid, goes down with an injury, then you got a guy in Clark that you trust uh can go in there and he knows what it’s all about. So, um, you know, decent depth edition, I guess, but man, it’s just it’s tough seeing film like that and and knowing that that player is on your football team. So, it wouldn’t shock me at all. I’ll say this right now as well, guys. It would not shock me at all if Sebastian Castro, the UDFA out of Iowa, beats out Chuck Clark, uh, for that final safety spot on this football team. Uh, it really wouldn’t shock me at all because they are going to be playing Jaylen Ramsay at safety at times this year. So, you’re not going to have to have a heavier safety room. Um, and I think Sebastian Castro, you know, has a chance to outplay Chuck Clark in the preseason this year and in training camp. I really like Castro’s game. I think he’s a really smart player. Um, and I really liked his film coming out of Iowa uh this year and Clark’s film from last year based on what I’ve seen so far. Um, definitely doesn’t look promising, especially now that he’s getting older and he’s already coming off an ACL um seven years into his NFL career. So, keep your eye on Sebastian Castro uh throughout training camp and throughout the preseason. He’ll be a name to watch for sure. But now, let’s get into the actual practice report because today I thought it was a much better day for the offense. We’ll get into that. But first, uh we’ll talk a little bit here about John Smith and his kind of update. Mike Tomlin after practice today alluded to the potential for him to to start actually practicing during individual periods uh and team periods, but today it was just warm-ups and uh he caught passes from the quarterbacks during the first individual period today, but he did not work with the tight ends. Not still not sure what his injury actually is, but Mike Tomlin definitely doesn’t seem too concerned about it and he actually, you know, hinted that he might be able to go tomorrow. So, it’d be great uh my final day at Steelers training camp this year. Janu actually gets in on some of that team period action. We see him on the practice field tomorrow. Uh but when it came to the actual practice, like I said, I thought the offense played a lot better today, guys. Uh it was the first seven shots uh of training camp. They didn’t do it on the first day, but they did do it today. And if you guys don’t know what seven shots is, it’s the first seven plays of team period uh where they’re right at the goal line and the offense has to score a touchdown or it’s a failure and it’s the first of four wins offense versus defense. So, um the first play didn’t go too well. Uh it was a bad snap from Zack Frasier, the center. He actually uh had a snap issue yesterday as well. So, something to keep, you know, your eye on when it comes to Zack Frasier is he had some snap issues with Justin Fields last year and now it seems like he’s had a couple of uh snap issues with Aaron Rogers to start camp as well. So, that’s something to keep your eye on in terms of Zack Frasier. Um, not particularly worried about it. I think they’re going to figure it out, but he has had a couple of mistakes there to start camp. But then after that, um, the offense did a pretty decent job. They won seven shots, four to three. Um Aaron Rogers, I thought every time that he threw the football during that period, he put it right where he wanted it to. Now, there was one incompletion because of a really good PBU. Um or maybe it wasn’t exactly a PBU, but it was a good coverage play by Joey Porter Jr. Rogers tried to throw a fade to DK Metaf in the end zone. Rogers put it on him perfectly. One of the best fade throwers uh in NFL history, but Metaf couldn’t bring it down. It was good coverage by Joey Porter Jr. But we did see Rogers get a touchdown pass today to DK Metaf. Metaf beat Darius Slay on an out route in the end zone. It was good coverage from Slay, but Rogers had a really small window to fit it in there and he did. So really good play there by Rogers. Really encouraging to see that uh connection get it going a little bit and then Rogers came in for the final play when it was tied three to three and threw a touchdown pass to Pat Fmouth to finish it out on a quick out route in the end zone. So Rogers looked good during that period today. Um you know and of course the offense has to feel good about winning the first seven shots of the year after yesterday the defense really dominated the whole day. So the first thing that I’ll say here guys about the offense is that the first team definitely stepped up today. Whether they were running the football, whether they’re passing the football, Rogers and that unit was moving the football. They were completing their passes. Rogers was getting the ball out fast when pressure was getting in. He was getting the ball to his outlet options. Um, and you know, Rogers, I thought this was for sure his sharpest day of the first two days. Yesterday, uh, you know, there was a couple of of poor accuracy misses. You know, he overshot DK Metaf a couple of times. You know, it just didn’t really look like he was settled in. Today, it looked like he had that comfort level back a little bit where uh he was getting it to his receivers. He was going through his progressions really quickly. Um, he was getting it to the right person. Um, and it was leading to completions. It wasn’t any interceptions. It wasn’t many sacks today. I think he only got sacked once today. Um, and then that touchdown to DK was really nice. And Rogers had the longest completion of camp so far, throwing a deep corner route to Calvin Austin the third for a big game. Calvin absolutely cooked Joey Porter Jr. on the route. Uh, Calvin’s looking as good as ever out there running those routes that we’ve been saying on this channel for weeks. Um, you know, were there last year, but Justin Fields and Russell Wilson just weren’t seeing. So, that’s really good to see from Calvin. Also an offensive note that I have here on the running back, Caleb Johnson. He had another really nice run today on the outside. He just runs away from people, man. And he just moves differently for a guy his size. And um you know, through the first two days, he has been a big-time offensive standout for me, man. He’s It seems like every time he’s touching the football, he’s picking up a pretty decent game. And he had another one today. Um now, kind of shifting over to the offensive line again. We talked about Zack Frasier having some snapping issues. Brick Jones has had some early lapses in pass protection. Now, keep in mind, guys, it’s early in camp. The pads are not on. We’re not really going to know how good these guys are doing until you put the pads on and it’s actual football, right? So, um we’ll see how Brick does as the days go on, but he gave up another pretty quick pressure on on Nick Herbig. Um, you know, yesterday he had a he had a big viral mishap where he allowed Alex Heismith to cross his face immediately at the snap, which it’s just not what you want to see. You want to see Project be more competitive um, you know, at those spots, especially because he’s going to be this team’s starting left tackle this year. Um, and he definitely needs to step it up. But again, it is early. The pads are not on, so not too much to panic about there. Shifting over to the defensive side of the ball, Dererick Harmon, the rookie out of Oregon, once again had another pressure today. He probably got the only sack of the day against the first team offense. Um, so Harmon was getting a lot of first team reps. He was out there first with Cam Hayward. It wasn’t Keo Benson out there. It was Dererick Harmon today getting the first first team reps on defense. And he looked damn good again, man. He has been absolutely fantastic. And uh there’s a reason why this coaching staff is already trusting him with first team snaps this early uh into his NFL career, not even into his first preseason game. Another note that I have on defense, guys, is that Jaylen Ramsay is being used as a blitzer quite a bit in the slot. And this is what I’ve been telling you guys ever since this move happened. All right, this team loved using Mike Hilton as a slot corner blitzing kind of extraordinaire. Um, and Ramsay’s bigger and he’s just more talented than Hilton ever was. So, this is going to be a huge weapon that the Steelers use in their defense. And frankly, you know, this defense was really at its best and most elite over the last, I would say, 5 years when Mike Hilton was in there uh as that blitzing uh slot corner. So, I think Ramsay brings a big-time element to this defense that it’s been missing for at least a couple of years at this point. And uh Ramsay looks like he’s having an absolute ball out there. And uh I think that he’s very happy with the role that Mike Tomlin and Terrell Austin Lawson are giving him in this defense, allowing him to be the disruptive type of player uh that we all know that he’s capable of of being. And the final thing I want to talk about here when it comes to what I’m noticing from practices is that they are moving the outside linebackers around quite a bit on the defense. TJ Watt and Alex Heismith, you know, they’re switching up where they’re coming in from. Um same thing with Nick Herbig, like they’re switching up where these guys are coming in on. And even TJ Watt is playing a little bit on the interior as well. I’ve seen them drop TJ into coverage a couple of times on some of these reps as well. They are really making a point for this defensive line to not be predictable this year as it has been in years past. And you know, Alex has talked about this, TJ’s talked about this that they want to be more multiple, they want to move around, and they have absolutely uh implemented that to start here in training camp. and Mike Tomlin. My final note here uh guys is that when it comes to the defensive scheme, expect a lot of man coverage. Okay, Jaylen Ramsay has been uh doing a lot of uh man indicators uh pre- snap uh on the plays that I’ve noticed where he’s following the slot receiver who’s shifting to different sides of the formation. that indicates man coverage and man Mike Tomlin did say earlier this week that they want to play a lot of man a lot of man coverage and they feel like they can match up against anybody in man and I love that plan for the Steelers defense guys because if you got a defensive line and a pass rush as dangerous as this unit is especially adding Derek Carman to DJ Watt Cam Hayward Alex Heismith Keano Benson all these guys that we know can ball out um you know you you have a good secondary there and you can pretty much just go out there and say, “All right, um, you know, we’re going to go man coverage. Try to beat our really good, uh, pass coverage uh, players in our secondary before our pass rush gets to you.” And with this talent that the Steelers have on defense in the secondary, Darius Slay, Joey Porter Jr., and Jaylen Ramsay, um, you know, there’s not going to be many opportunities, I think, for teams to get the ball out, especially down the field in time for that before that pass rush gets to them. So, I I think that this defense is shaping up to be really really good this year. It was really promising to see Rogers play efficient football against that defense today, and I’m hoping to see more of that efficiency from Rogers and the offense tomorrow uh for my final day at Steelers training camp tomorrow afternoon. Make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already, guys. It was great to meet a lot of you guys out there at Latro. A lot of people came up to me um and wanted to take pictures and said hi and and said a lot of nice words about the channel. So, uh, if you’re watching this and you came and say hi to me today, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate you. And then also, I’ll be there tomorrow. So, if you’re going to training camp practice tomorrow, um, you know, I’ll probably be posting on Twitter where where I’m going to be sitting. So, you guys can come say hi to me and Cassie. We love uh talking with the fellow Yenszers. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already for our practice report tomorrow. And until then guys, here we go.

Pittsburgh Steelers news on Friday, July 25th, centers once again around Steelers training camp and a new signing that joined the Steelers secondary today. On today’s show, Steelers Talk host and Chat Sports NFL Analyst Jack Sperry reacts to the Steelers signing veteran safety Chuck Clark to compete with the other safeties on the Steelers’ roster such as Juan Thornhill and Sebastian Castro, and breaks down what he saw from day 2 of Steelers training camp practice, where Aaron Rodgers looked a lot better than he did on day 1 yesterday.

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Steelers Returning Defensive Starters:
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