Steelers Training Camp All-Access (Ep. 1): Preview of #SteelersCamp | Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers Training Camp All-Access (Ep. 1): Preview of #SteelersCamp | Pittsburgh Steelers

After another off season of change, the Steelers are heading back to St. Vincent College reloaded for another training camp from Latroe. We take a look at the new faces and the upcoming season next. You are watching Steelers Training Camp all access right here on KDK TV. Welcome to Steelers Training Camp All Access sponsored by FedEx. Hello and welcome to training camp all access sponsored by FedEx. I’m Rich Walsh along with the quarterback of our program, Charlie Batch. Today we’ll be previewing all aspects of the upcoming training camp including multitude of new players on the roster. Now Charlie, it has certainly been a memorable offseason. What’s your take on the past few months heading into camp? I’m excited about it at this particular point because right now this has been an unprecedented off season for this team the by the moves that they’ve made. But here we are right now. They feel good about it and everything that we’re talking about heading into Latroe. I want to see it firsthand. All right, tons of new players will make their public debut in black and gold next week. Here’s a complete look at the schedule of practices that are open to the public brought to you by St. Vincent College. Now, after players report on Wednesday, fans will get their first look at the 2025 Steelers on Thursday. Workouts continue throughout the weekend, all at 1:55 in the afternoon. Now, that’s a change from last year. Their first day off is Monday the 28th, but they’ll put the pads on for the first time on Tuesday. Workouts continue through Thursday up at St. Vincent before the annual Friday night lights practice at Lrobe High School on August 1st. While the next day, practice moves back to St. Vincent College for the weekend before another day off on the 4th. Workouts continue the fifth, 6th, and 7th before they take a break for their first preseason game in Jacksonville on the 9th. Camp wraps up with two final practices on August 11th and 12th. And as we mentioned, there will be a ton of new faces and jersey numbers to check out next week. Here’s a look at some of the most notable roster changes. Let’s start on offense and all eyes will be on the quarterbacks with veteran Aaron Rogers on the field for the first time. He’ll be joined by Mason Rudolph in the back field. Other new additions to look at are wide receivers DK Metaf and Robert Woods along with veteran free agents Kenneth Gainwell and tight end John U. Smith switching over to defense. Jaylen Ramsay will make his debut along with former Raven Malik Harrison. And Darius Slay, Juan Thornnehill, and Brandon Eckles will all be working in that defensive backfield for the first time at St. Vincent. So, Charlie, that’s a lot of changes in in one off season. Could it be too many? And do you like the direction that this team is headed? Well, I don’t necessarily think it’s too many because right now there’s they know they need to change. You know, Omar Khan did a great job of revamping this roster, but when you look at how you finished last year, the goal of this organization is always to win the Super Bowl, and right now, you have to make those changes. So, I applaud Omar Khan for doing so. All right, for the second straight off season, the biggest story surrounding the Steelers was their quarterback situation. And for the second straight season, even though this one took a little longer to get done, they go out and get a very accomplished veteran signal caller. A new chapter begins in Pittsburgh, one that nobody saw coming. The Steelers quarterback room has been completely overhauled again. And it starts with a future Hall of Famer again. Aaron Rogers is headed to the Steel City. The four-time MVP signed a one-year deal with the Steelers, bringing veteran leadership, playoff pedigree, and yes, a little bit of drama. Now, Rogers says he’s rejuvenated and ready to chase one more ring, this time in AFC North. I think it starts with Mike Tomlin. I mean, I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. Uh there’s a few iconic franchises in the NFL. I played for one of them for 18 years. This is another one one of those. Uh there’s something special about uh obviously this this area. So many great quarterbacks are from Pittsburgh. I feel like Pittsburgh has been a part of my career from the beginning. Uh playing for Mike McCarthy for 13 years. A lot of yanzers in my life. But the Rogers move isn’t just about now. It’s about grooming the future. Pittsburgh used a sixth round pick on Will Howard. the strong armed mobile quarterback out of Ohio State who just led the Buckeyes to a national championship. Don’t be surprised if he’s the long-term plan. I think like a lot of people um how he responded to that adversity um at the end of their regular season and and the leadership and and playmaking that he displayed uh throughout the playoffs um was really attractive and and it’s really what NFL football is about. There’s going to be some adversity. uh how you respond to it uh defines you and your football team, particularly from the quarterback position. And holding it all together is Mason Rudolph, who’s back with the Steelers, a two-year deal. Steady, reliable, and familiar with Mike Tomlin’s system. Rudolph gives Pittsburgh a safety net they trust. I’ve got a lot of great friends and teammates here. Uh a lot of comfortability uh with with with Mike T and and the staff. And um we you know, Omar’s put together a great roster. And you know, who wouldn’t want to be a part of this team and this offense? Three quarterbacks, three different stories. Rogers chasing a legacy. Howard building his and Rudolph bridging the gap. After years of uncertainty under center, the Steelers finally have a plan. It’s bold. It’s layered. And it just might work. In Pittsburgh, the standard is the standard. Now it’s on Aaron Rogers and whoever’s next to live up to it. It’s been a long a long run. I’ve enjoyed it. What better place to finish than uh in one of the cornerstone franchises of the NFL uh with uh Mike Tomlin and and the great group of uh leadership and great guys in the city that you know expects expects you to win. All right, here’s a visual on the complete overhaul of this year’s quarterback room. Wilson Fields and Allen are all out with Rogers Rudolph and rookie Will Howard into the mix. So Charlie, yet another year where they bring in a future Hall of Famer under center. How excited do you think Steelers fans should be this year? Yeah, if you look at Aaron’s resume, you should be excited about it. But what Aaron Rogers are we getting? Are we getting one at the tail end that you saw with the Jets or the one that you saw for so many years against the Packers? He’s healthy right now, one year removed from that Achilles injury. So he looks healthy, looks ready to go, and these fans should be excited about what he brings to the table. I know. I’m excited. All right. Thanks a lot, Charlie. We’ve been see we’ve seen Rogers at the practice facility on the south side, but fans will no doubt be clamoring to get their first look at him next week when camp opens up at St. Vincent. And the fans will also be looking for their first look at this year’s rookie class. Coming up, we’ll show you a behindthescenes look at this year’s Steelers draft process. [Music] Welcome back to Steelers Training Camp All Access, sponsored by FedEx. FedEx, where now meets next. Well, as there seems to be every spring, there was a lot of anticipation from Steelers fans heading into this year’s draft. Because of that, the team at Steelers Media Production followed the scouting department very closely and put together a great segment for the show called The Standard. Here’s a portion of their finished product. This draft is about starters. This is a very deep group of starters that these teams see wildly differently. Where do you think they will go and or where do they need to go? The strengths of this particular draft are running back is absolutely loaded with high-end talent as well as depth and all across the defensive front. the interior defensive lineman knows three techniques, taller guy. I mean, every shape and size you want. So, I absolutely think running back and Dline are going to get addressed in these next couple days for sure. I think defensive line is on everyone’s list. Quarterback would probably be on some people’s list. I’m not sure uh how high up quarterback is on the Steelers list. It’s got to start with Dline and I think running back has got to be a pretty high priority as well. Steelers pick is in. We’ll see what the pick is. Harmon makes the most sense. Yeah, I mean it really does. You know, we started the uh spring process. We spent time with him in Indianapolis and he came in for a visit and we did a lot of work on him and um the more we got to know him, the more we realized that he was a stealer. He was one of us. I can’t say how excited we were that he was still available for us to uh select when we did. Derek, how you doing? Right. Hey, congratulations to you, man. We’re excited to have you. With the 21st pick, the Pittsburgh Steelers select Derek Harmon, defensive tackle, Oregon. I was truth. I was praying it wasn’t a prank call. Um, but once I asked, it was uh Omar and um nothing but straight joy and excitement went through my body at that time. If you look at the comparison that Lance Seerine wrote up on NFL.com of him, uh I said, first of all, he looks like a Pittsburgh Steeler or Baltimore Raven. Secondly, he plays like Cam Hayward. Mhm. That works. Okay, that works. Yeah, I’ll take another Cam Hayward. You can’t ever have enough bigs. He was a talented big. He had production at Michigan State. He had production at Oregon. Uh he fit all the criteria that we wanted. He was big. He was long. He’s tough. loves football. Some of the feedback I’ve gotten from a Big 10 coordinator made comparisons with Cam Hayward. The word stud was used. You’re going to see the guy playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage. And and when you want to play great defense, it always starts with disruption. It’s the basically the same defense I was running at Oregon. Same position. And I just really got to hone in on the technique and and and the play style of the uh defense and really just get to work. All right. And our thanks to Steelers Media Productions for that story. So Derek Harmon was their first overall pick, but here’s a look at the rest of their draft. They had no second pick due to that DK Medaf trade. So their next pick was Caleb Johnson. I love that pick. The running back from Iowa. They stayed in there the Big 10 for their next three picks, selecting outside linebacker Jack Sawyer in the fourth, D lineman YA Black in the fifth, and Will Howard in the sixth. They finished off with the draft with Carson Bruner and Dante Kent in seven. So Charlie, what are your initial thoughts on Harmon? Do you do you like the pick? Were you surprised they took a defensive lineman in the first round? Like it, Rich. I love it. And I love it because all I can remember is that Derek Henry running and Baltimore running on that Steelers run defense in the playoffs. So, you need to address it and you bring Harmon in here. This guy’s from Detroit, big body, 6’4, 315. This guy knows how to play. And I love when you talk about listen to him because he talks about the defense that he played in at Oregon. So, he’s familiar with it. And he’s going to come in here as a day one starter and learn alongside Cam Hayward. So, it’s nothing but a benefit to him. I know a lot of Steelers fans wanted them to take a quarterback high, but they waited until the sixth round to draft a quarterback. Do you like that they took a shot on Will Howard? I I do like it because now you have a chance to develop him. You don’t have to rush him into playing right away. He’s going to learn about it from a veteran who’s a future Hall of Famer and Aaron Rodgers. But again, how much time can he get in training camp? Because again, you don’t have to two a day practices. Aaron Rogers missed the entire off seasonason. If you’ve been around Mike Tomlin, he loves to get his veterans a day off. But can you afford to do that with Aaron now on a learning curve? How does that look for the development from Will Howard? Expect him to play a lot in this preseason, this guy’s season, and he’s willing to put his hand in the pile and do whatever it takes for him to hopefully at some point be able to contribute to the stand and he’s a winner. Uh it’ll be interesting to see what these rookies look like once they start mixing it up with the veterans in Latroe. And speaking of which, here are a few things. Remember, if you’re headed up to camp over the next few weeks, all practices are open to the public at St. and Vincent College start at 1:55 in the afternoon with parking lots opening at 11:45. Afternoon tickets are free, but the Friday night lights practice requires a $10 donation and tickets to every practice need to be downloaded through ticket master food trucks. Fan activities will be available on site. And very important, be sure to pack plenty of sunscreen for those midday workouts. It gets hot and not much shade out there. And if you can’t make it to camp, the Steelers have you covered each day. Watch Training Camp live presented by FedEx at 1:45 on Steelers.com for live looks at practice and Steelers discussion and analysis with Mike Pazuda and Max Starks of the Steelers Audio Network. You can catch it on demand later that day on Steelers YouTube. Well, we’ve already profiled the rookies. Coming up, we focus in on the veteran free agent edition. Stick around. [Music] Welcome back to Steelers Training Camp All Access, sponsored by FedEx. FedEx, where now meets next. This offseason, the Steelers made perhaps their biggest free agent signing in franchise history by adding Aaron Rogers. Here’s a look back on how it all went down from Steelers Media Productions. We have some breaking news rippling throughout the land of the NFL. What we’ve been anticipating for what feels like months now, Aaron Rogers is finally heading to Pittsburgh. [Music] It’s not every day that you get to add a fourtime MVP to your roster. When you do, it can cause a little excitement. Different feel to it. There’s a buzz here today. There’s a buzz. Mike, what does Aaron Roger recently see in your eyes? I mean, read his resume. We’re excited about him being here. He’s excited about being here, but we’ll make no bold predictions. We’re just going to roll our sleeves up and go to work and let our efforts do the talking. [Applause] I mean, you’re talking about one of the all-time great quarterbacks and and the things he’s accomplished in this league. Not many guys have thrown the football like Aaron Rogers. And obviously, he’s still doing that at a high level. really excited to have him here. It’s going to be a fun journey. A big attraction was Mike Tomlin. The way that the conversations went between him and I was some of the coolest conversations I’ve had in the game. Definitely with the head coach. So, he’s a big reason I’m here. I believe in him and uh excited to play for him. I just want to have fun. I want to enjoy the game. The game’s given me a ton. It’s hard to think of anything in my life that’s positive that wasn’t impacted by directly or indirectly by playing this game. So, just want to give love back to the game, enjoy it, pass on my knowledge to my teammates, and you know, try and find ways to help lead the team. All right. Our thanks to the Steelers for that segment. And Rogers wasn’t the only veteran at it. And you can see he’s at the top with an amazing 260 games played, but there are five other players with at least 100 career games. Now, Charlie, does it look like the Steelers are all in for this season? They I mean, when you look at that experience on the defensive side of the ball, yes, they’re trying to go out there to hopefully be a top five defense, which people, many people believe that they can be a top 10, but they feel like they can be a top five right there. But I think ultimately when you look at what Jaylen Ramsey brings to that secondary right there, he brings a lot of experience and when you’re a sore in somebody’s side for so long, why not add him to the equation? And Mike Talin was able to do that. Well, I think everyone was stunned when they made that trade for Jaylen Ramsay and John Smith. Let’s focus on Ramsay. What do you see his role being here in Pittsburgh? Will he be outside, inside, or maybe even a position change of safety? Yeah, I mean, you always talk about multiplay position, and that’s what he brings to it. He can go into the slot, he can go into the safety position, but that’s going to be something that really comes with him learning this defense right now. But when you have a shutdown corner in the manner that you do, Ramsay, he can take away the entire half of the field. So, that’s a great problem to have at this particular point. So, I think the question that you have will be sorted out very quickly here as we enter into training camp. No matter what, he’s going to be on the field. That is for sure. Should be interesting to see how these new players fit in when camp starts next week and during those preseason games. Coming up, we’ll preview those three games and ask Charlie what he’ll be looking at most from his perch inside the broadcast booth. Welcome back to Steelers Training Camp All Access, sponsored by FedEx. FedEx, where now meets next. Well, the upcoming training camp will be taking a pause after two weeks of practice so the team can travel to Jacksonville for their first of three preseason games. Here’s a look at that complete preseason schedule. That game against the Jaguars is Saturday, August 9th. the following weekend. They’ll host the Bucks in their only home preseason game on the 16th before heading down to Charlotte to face the Panthers on Thursday the 21st. All three games kick off at 7 p.m. and all will be televised exclusively right here on KDK TV. So, Charlie, a lot of questions will be answered during the preseason, but not necessarily at quarterback. How much do you expect to see Rogers play and how do you think they’ll divide those reps for those games? Yeah, it’s going to be interesting because Rogers is coming here learning a new offense. Essentially, all three of them are learning a new offense. But again, you’re going to have that conversation with them. Hey, how much work do you need in the preseason to work with your guys? Once you get that answer, then you’ll see Mason Rudolph. Then you’ll see Will Howard get the time in that particular manner. You saw you work with Mason Rudolph before, but at this particular juncture, you’re going to want to see more of Will Howard in the precinct than you do Mason Rudolph. All right. There also quite a few new faces at the wide receiver position this year. DK Metaf may not be uh you may not see a ton of action, but who are the other wide receivers that you think will be able to raise their stock? Maybe like a Roman Wilson or something. Yeah, that’s the one right there. We’ve seen Calvin Austin, but when you look at Roman Wilson, this was a guy that expected a whole heck of a lot last year. Got injured the first day of pads last year. Didn’t see it or two years ago. So, I think this is something that really ultimately you’re going to see what he brings to the equation. How well can or how fast can he jail with Aaron Rogers? and that’s going to be one of those ones that we pay attention to because he has an opportunity to push for that starting job and which we which he wants. All right, I’m definitely looking forward to being in that stadium with you watching those games and again all three are right here on KDK TV. Now coming up we’ll give our final thoughts heading into camp and Charlie will tell you about a very unique opportunity that you could be a part of. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Steelers Training Camp All Access sponsored by FedEx. FedEx, where now meets next. Welcome back to training camp all access. And speaking of all access, Charlie, you have a pretty cool opportunity for fans to have some access to players later this year. Yes, we just announced our in the pocket date. This is our pool poker and ping pong event. So, we want you to save the date. This is Thursday, November 13th. We are doing it big for our 16th annual in the pocket event. We’re doing it tailgate style. So, as everybody anticipating getting ready for that Bengals game on Sunday, set your calendars for that date. It’s going to be a big opportunity for you. You can go to batchfoundation.org for more information. Hey, let’s take a look at the this year’s training camp schedule. Again, for those who plan to attend. And remember, all practices are now at 155. A switch from last year. Players report Wednesday. First practice is Thursday. The first day off is Monday the 28th. They’ll put the pads on uh for the first time on Tuesday. Workouts continue through Thursday. Then it’s their Friday night lights there on Friday. And then they’re back at St. Vincent for the weekend off Monday. Uh they’re up there on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. First preseason game is in Jacksonville on Saturday the 9th. Two more practices after that on the 11th and 12th. All practices open to the public at St. Vincent College. Parking lots, remember, open at 11:45. Tickets at St. Vincent College are free. Mobile tickets only through Ticket Master. Food trucks and fan activities up there. So, final thoughts, uh, Charlie, anything you’ll be watching, paying attention to other than Aaron Rogers? I’m watching Patrick Queen because this guy with the additions up front, I think he’s he’s setting himself up for an allp pro season. Well, it all starts on Wednesday with the first workout Thursday. I know we’re looking forward to it. For Charlie Batch, I’m Rich Walsh. Thanks for watching. Have a great night and we’ll see you next week from Latroe.

KDKA’s Charlie Batch & Rich Walsh preview the Steelers 2025 Training Camp and more

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