Watch Steelers Training Camp Practice on August 2 | Pittsburgh Steelers

Watch Steelers Training Camp Practice on August 2 | Pittsburgh Steelers

[Applause] [Applause] It was just awesome to see the fans. It’s just an honor to to work and get better in front of them. You are looking live at St. Vincent College in Latroe, Pennsylvania and Steelers Training Camp 2025. It is Saturday, August the 2nd, day 11 on campus, day eight of practice and the day after Friday Night Lights. Good afternoon and welcome to Training Camp Live, brought to you by FedEx. I’m Mike Pursuda joined by Max Starks. And Max, uh, we have a lot to talk about today. But it would be a mistake and then some not to begin by reflecting back on Friday Night Lights last night, specifically the mass of humanity that descended upon Memorial Stadium in Latro. I’d never seen anything quite like that. I haven’t been to every Friday night lights, but I’ve been to most of them. And that was by far the uh most overwhelming gathering uh I’ve seen to this point. It was a large amount of people. I think what over 13,000 that were present and 13 653 for those of you keeping score at home. In case you wanted to know where those other 653 that I forgot about were. Um it was a humongous crowd and they were there all day. It felt like we got there I want to say Missy and I got there about 5:45ish 5:50. Practice wasn’t scheduled to start till 7 and the place was packed at that point. So it only got larger as practice started. The Steelers came out. They did a great job signing, you know, for the fans before practice started. And it was just awesome to see. I mean, I didn’t even realize that they did a live show and had a band performance like before everything got started. And it was just cool to kind of see that atmosphere and see everybody just kind of build and wait and then when you saw the yellow buses pulling down the street, the fans erupted. It was complete utter awesomeness and Steelers Nation showed out and and showed out in a in a big way. You know, we mentioned 13653 and uh we also did a show last night and that started I was here on campus and I did, you know, a few minutes of here’s what we’ve seen so far in camp. I threw it over to you guys. So, I got a ride from here over to the stadium. Got there about 7:30. Now, the uh autograph session was supposed to start at 6:45. At 7:30 when I got there at both entrances to the stadium, the line of people was further than you could see. I’m guessing there’s people that didn’t get in. Uh saw some people on the way over to the stadium that were walking in the other direction wearing Steeler gear. Initially, I thought, well, they got their autographs and their pictures and now they’re just going to go home. Um maybe some of them looked at those lines to get in and how late it was and thought, we’re never going to get there. uh 13653. It was more than that that were there in the vicinity. Much more. Yeah. Much more. And you have to realize the fireworks display after after the g after the practice. Um that was a really big hit every single year. In fact, we could see it from right here. If you look across the basilica, you can actually see the fireworks going up in the air. But I would have to say I I felt like with the open field over on the other side where autograph signings were going and they had activations easily you could say at least 17,000 people in the area of that stadium in total uh last evening. I got there and I uh you know I saw Jaws the other day. Oh, you did? And I thought they’re going to need a bigger boat. Yeah. I mean I I don’t know that this I mean it’s it just keeps building and building and building. Yeah. And I think the biggest thing is is that, you know, fans come out year year after year. It’s a pilgrimage site to for a lot of people. And a lot of those people that were there last night are here at practice today sitting behind us on the hill gathered around Chuck Null Field. And it becomes almost like a destination spot for a weekend where fans get treated to a late night Friday, then a midday practice on Saturday, and then you can also catch a Sunday practice if you stay all three days. So, it’s a fun event. The hills are full and alive with people today. So, I don’t know if the full 13K plus is going to get out here, but I’m sure we’re probably going to hit close to probably about five, at least 10K here today. You know, people came from 36 different states and the District of Columbia. Wow. There were only 14 states that were not represented last night at Friday Night Lights. Also people from Mexico, Germany, Canada, Poland, and Puerto Rico. There we go. Steeler nations. Steel Steel. I mean, Steelers Nation is very quickly becoming Steeler Universe. It feels like uh where the fan reach of the Pittsburgh Steelers is going to be humongous. In fact, tomorrow, you know, we have we have Mick McUade coming through who handles a lot of stuff in Steelers Ireland. Um he’ll be here. So, you can add Ireland to the list. If we have a a weekend uh global visitor tally, Mike, you can add Ireland to the mix as we’ll be there later this in September. But it just it’s fun to see and the fans are awesome and it makes old guys like me feel a little appreciated and you are going to say, “Oh my god, we got to get Max Starks.” And then of course one person hears it, then next thing you know you have like 300 people saying your name and it gets awkward. Um you’re big in West Morland County. I am. I am. I’m I’m big everywhere I step with foot in. Sadly, there’s not a lot larger than me. Well, Darnell Washington might be bigger than me right now. Might might. We’re not going to do the scale battle. No. Uh Steelers were uh of course looking forward to this. The guys who have done it before always look forward to it and uh tell the guys who haven’t done it before what they are in for. And uh one of the guys who did that was Pat Frymouth. Uh he spent a little time talking to the new quarterback Aaron Rogers just kind of cluing him in on uh what they were about to experience yesterday. Let’s give a listen now to uh what Pat Frymouth had to say after Friday Night Lights. How special is a nightlight for practice? Yeah, it’s awesome. I mean, this is by far the biggest I’ve seen it since I’ve been here and uh it was just awesome to see the fans and it kind gets you juiced up for the season. So, I’m excited. What about what do you talk of the the biggest crowd you’ve seen in studio? Oh, like just in general? Yeah. Like what do you think? Oh, just like driving in. Everyone was packed out in the streets. Um, you know, I saw people tailgating at the house over there, jumping, like sitting in the pool, watching us. Like it was cool and like everyone out here. Um, it was just an awesome experience and you know, you expect nothing less from Ste fans. Why do you think there were so many fans here? I think, you know, we everyone has a lot of high expectations for us and we do as well and I think we got a lot of big-time players in our team and I think everyone’s excited to see how obviously with Aaron coming in and DK and and Jaylen and Janu just seeing how we’re all clicking together and um we got a lot of exciting things on the team right now and a lot of a lot of exciting times ahead. So, we’re looking forward to that and I think the fans feel that as well. Did it seem like anything to you about the crowd or he was he was asking me today like what to expect and all that and I was like dude it’s literally like going to play for like a state championship out of high school and you know he was like all right cool and then he came and he was like this is awesome. So he loved it and it was just great to be a part of that. I’m sure he appreciated it you know um being later in his career just kind of experiencing that and I think he’s been loving it so far. Did it seem like there’s any extra juice out there tonight? Like you guys were extra should be extra just to kind of like show up. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Obviously, you know, we practice in front of fans like every single day in camp, but you know, here it’s like an extra juice. Um, once the music turned on, everyone was dancing. I was loving it. I was dancing. It was it was great. It was uh it was awesome. Pat, did they do anything to confuse you guys on that last two minutes? What went wrong there? Uh, yeah. You know, obviously we didn’t execute how we wanted to. Um, but, you know, we got to continue to build on that. Um it was our first two-minute all camp and so uh you know obviously we wish it ended differently but you know we’re we’re working towards you know the end goal of of week one and being able to execute and then so there’s going to be some ups and downs and we’ll get it corrected. We’ve always been pretty good at two-minute. What do you think the offense is right now in terms of jingling? Yeah, we’re we’re coming together for sure. You know, I think you see a daily improvement and there’s going to be ups and downs and um all that that comes with it and um it’s been great. I mean it’s just been it’s been cool to learn from Aaron. I think everyone’s appreciated it. It’s been a grind to get on the same page with everyone, but you can see it starting to progress and starting to get there and and that’s the exciting part about camp. We have what, two more weeks, three more weeks of in games, then we then we’re ready to go. And so, I think we’re all getting getting there to the point where um you know, we’re getting on the same page and it’s and it’s feeling fun. Yeah, good stuff there from Pat Fri, particularly the uh impression that it made on Aaron Rogers. But, uh, we’ll get to the the two-minute drills that they ran a little bit later in the show today, but I just want to point out now since, uh, I asked Primouth about it, the first team didn’t get a first down and the second team threw an interception. So, if you’re a fan of the defense, yay. If you’re a fan of the offense, ah, it’s kind of how camp goes, right? That that’s how camp goes, especially when you have a new install. I think the other thing to keep in mind, which Pat talked about, this is the first time they had ran twominute drill and which also means this is the first time that Aaron Rogers has heard the calls for two-minute drill and running that with personnel trying to figure it out. You know, there’s a lot of operations like two-minute drill isn’t something that just all of a sudden comes at the at the drop of a hat. Like it’s not just go faster. No, it’s not just oh my gosh, we’re not going to huddle. That like that leads to even more issues. You know, now if in week eight we’re having problems with the two-minute drill, then you start worrying. But for the first night, it being unveiled and of course in the midst of Friday Night Line is going, the mentality, you know, guys are kind of half listening and h the other half of it feels like Q-tips are rubbing in your ears. Like it’s just it’s frenzied. It’s and it’s awkward, but yet, you know, it’s necessary that you have to go through it. And I think the biggest thing that I took away from it was, you know, how much communication still needs to be done with a quarterback with new pieces on the on offense and how it blends with the old group because, you know, you have half the guys that know it really well and the other half that don’t know anything about it and are going through it in the first um iteration. So, it’s tough. Um but I mean, at the end of the day, there’s no excuses as football, but it’s also a growing opportunity. offense got a chance, I’m sure, to watch their drill, make the corrections necessary um in in film, and then now you get to go and kind of go through it again and rep through the uh through all the protocols. But it’s a lot to take on, even just lining up and understanding what to do in certain situations. You know, there was that play to Scotty Miller down the sideline with 29 seconds left, one touchdown, I mean, sorry, one timeout left. Half the guys didn’t even know what the operation was at the quarterback position because you had two young guys learning, you know, in Thompson and and um and Will Howard and then Aaron’s like, “Yep, I clock it. Clock it. Clock it.” You know, which also and and then Mason saying spike it, spike it, spike it. The other guys like call the timeout. You know, there’s so many different things that go on with that, right? I mean, and so you want to make sure everybody’s on the same page. So, it’s new for everybody, but uh no excuses at the end of the day, but just, you know, chalk it up to learning. Uh Aaron Rogers didn’t complete a pass. I mentioned they didn’t get a first down. Uh he got one past the line of scrimmage to Pat Frymouth that uh they they didn’t finish the play and two of them batted at the line of scrimmage. And we have seen a lot of that, not necessarily exclusive to Rogers, but just throughout these practices, the uh Dline and those edge rushers, uh we’re calling it batting practice down on the sidelines because they’re they’re they’re consistently knocking the ball down. Again, great for the defense, but uh how does the offensive line prevent this from happening? And is it up to the offensive line to prevent this from happening, or is that a quarterback find a passing lane issue? Uh, I think I think it’s C. All of the above. I think it’s the easiest way to talk about it. Offensive line still trying to figure out how to time up guys jumping because normally in a game situation, you know, we always had the u mantra, so to speak, I think is the best way of putting it. Mantra is you jump, we dump. Well, you don’t want to dump your teammate in practice because that could lead to a plethora of different injuries, issues. Do you throw him into a guy? And at the end of the day, still Steelers on Steelers. So, there’s a little bit of gamesmanship that has to go on, but also, you know, you can’t retreat as a offensive line. You got to keep everything close to the line of scrimmage because once again, you’re responsible for the width and the depth that a quarterback can operate in. And so, you have to keep that integrity as you learn what a quarterback’s lane is, what the space he needs. Um, and then of course for the quarterback, it’s like, hey, guys in the face, I need to change the arm angle or I need to move around and manipulate the defense with my feet. And it’s just all getting in concert with knowing each other. Aaron’s still getting to know them. The line’s still getting to know Aaron. They’re getting used to his cadence and getting used to his tendencies, but it still is a maturation process. So, even in a live drill such as we saw last night where it is competitive that there’s the you jump, we dump that doesn’t apply. You can’t do that. Not just because that’s that leads to injury. Just like you can’t cut block. That’s interesting. You know, as a offensive line, like there will be times where it was very visible. Like if you go and you cut a guy, it’s going to be easy, but you’re not going to cut your teammate in practice, right? Because you need him to get to the game on on Saturday or Sunday, um depending on when the game’s played, but you know, they have a game exactly one week from today. Well, we’ll be down in Jacksonville. So, you don’t want to cut a guy a week before and possibly hurt his shin, his ankle, or a knee issue, and that we had enough of that already from the injury report that was released earlier today. So, don’t add to that list unnecessarily. was also interesting u that even though the first team offense didn’t get a first down uh fourth and 10 there were there were penalties on on both platoon so the offense initially backed up then got moved back up five yards but uh Aaron Rogers had DK Medaf down the sideline and uh the ball went off medaf’s hands and it wasn’t complete would have been a big play and I had a chance to talk to DK Medaf about that today he said it was close it was off my fingertips but if it hits your hands you have to catch catch it. Yeah. So, he put it on himself, which you would expect. But again, even in the uh you know, the the early stage of this two-minute development, Rogers was able to find his guy and he had single coverage. He beat Darius Slay that there wasn’t a safety coming over. That that would have been a first down and a a chunk play. No, easily. So close, right? Yeah. So close. And almost that works in football, right? And it was a beautifully thrown ball by Rogers, too. And DK, like I said, kind of slowed up a little bit in the coverage and then tried to speed up and it was literally just off his fingertips. So, you imagine in a game-like situation, you won’t get those, but you still like to have the positive rep to go off of as opposed to the should, could have, would um which I’m sure a lot of guys could talk about. Defense also lot of blitzing in practice yesterday. And that’s one of the things after going through all those live periods and then adding like the blitz packages in there always gets a little tough, always gets a little hairy. And maybe if you know you had some more solid blocking um or you were a little more aggressive in a game-like situation, you probably would have taken a guy to the ground on a couple of those to clear the lane for the running. Like I said, you can’t cut, you can’t dump guys, you know, you you’re trying to stay upright as much as possible unless it’s actual live tackling drill, but that happens. So, you know, advantage defense when we don’t get to actually play to our full, I would say, capability and nastiness. You think they’re going to blitz more this year? They’ve been kind of trending away from it and uh it was not affecting the sack total until last year. The sack turnovers stayed consistent. They did, but the sacks went down. I think the way that they blitz will change this year. I don’t think necessarily the frequency. I think you still want some opportunities, but more straight up blitzing, a little more cross dog maybe into it. But I think a team is trying to play more man than the zone based on this personnel that they have right now in the secondary. Um, but you got some good pass rushers and you got some good DBs. So maybe you don’t need to maybe you don’t need to blitz as much, but it’s good to have the practice. I know Peyton Wilson and Patrick Queen have been practicing a lot of that. Cole Hulkcom as well. Malik Harrison who has the size to be an outside backer but playing on the inside. So, you have to imagine you can still use those tools to kind of affect teams and keep them off balance. I’ve seen Payton Wilson coming off the edge. Yeah. I don’t recall seeing that last year. No. No. And some of their concept stuff where they’re trying to get more of that edge pressure and trying to blist the the linebackers from the outside. We call it a saw dog. Um, you know, where you have Sam Will off the edge, which normally in a 34 is saw dog. A normal run. Yeah. Saw cat. Yeah. Saw a dog. Saw cat. But you’re trying to create it with a overload concept. So you’ll have that quote unquote front side backer that may flip positions and also come off the edge as well. So then you got two off the edge or what we call a overload type of uh type of blitzer dog. That uh task for the twominut uh drives last night it was 53 yards in a minute and 39 seconds or less. Yeah. Uh one timeout with which to work and the idea was to score a touchdown. Uh again first team did not get there. Uh the Metaf play was an almost uh and the first team defense by the way uh Joey Porter Jr. did not practice yesterday. Mike Tomlin called him dayto day. So we saw Jaylen Ramsay outside uh more extensively than we have uh throughout camp to this point. We know he can play safety, he can play slot, he can play outside corner. You know, when we when we first checked in here, Max, I was really hoping that I would see Jaylen Ramsay on one side and Joey Porter Jr. on the other and press man. Yeah. And just start there. But, uh, they also have Darius Slay to get into the mix. And the more I see Ramsay in the slot, the more I’m warming up to, hey, it it’s great to take away a guy on the outside, but if you’re in the middle of the field, you can do more damage than just take away one guy. Yeah. No. And I think the idea is get all three of those guys on the field at the same time at the end of the day, you know, and and he’s maybe more versatile than Slay. Yeah. Although Slay says he can do it all. Slay says he could do it all. I imagine match up week to week, we’ll get to see a little bit more of that versatility. But for right now at camp, Jaylen has the resume. He has the skill set. So give him the first crack at it. And we saw him some on the outside and he looked good as well playing off the outside. But that slot blitz capability that he has, it’s real. Uh it is a is a real it is a real game changer. It gave Troy Fatanu some issues the couple times he did it in camp so far. And uh I would say he hit home even though they were in you know shells not take down live period but if you get there if you get near close enough uh a lot in practice it translates to the game. He’s uh just blown me away in this camp. Ramsay. Yeah. Um I I remember uh Patrick Queen checking in last year after coming from Baltimore and saying he wanted to play the villain uh in that rivalry in particular and in general. But uh not only is is Ramsay an outstanding player, but he’s that guy. He’s that uh little loose cannon out there. He’s verbal. Uh he’s stirring the pot. he’s a little bit on edge like you don’t know what he’s going to do next which I think doesn’t hurt to have a guy like uh James Harrison or Greg Lloyd or Joey Porter some if you want to be a defense that intimidates you have to have an intimidator and that guy right there I Max I think he’s been the best player of training camp I I I think I think he’s been probably the most impactful so far in training camp without I don’t I haven’t broken down the line all Exactly. But no, but I I would say both of the Miami additions have been additions to this team. Uh cuz John Smith on the offensive side brings that same edge, brings that same intensity. I mean, we saw two days ago with him and Juan Thornnehill getting I know he had a good arm. Yeah, exactly. I’m just saying, you know, a right cross. It’s very tight. Well, throwing the ball, you know, he was throwing it at a teammate, not complete a pass. that throw. I was like, he he he’ll be great for the spike drill like in two minute quarterback has to tie a shoelace or something, he can get in there and throw the ball down really well and may or may not hit somebody. But though that that I would say, you know, Jaylen has been a huge impact to the defense. Jonnu has been a great addition to the offense. You know, when you don’t when you’re not throwing to DK, I mean, look for 81 to get wide open and make a play as well. And he’s done that. And he’s done that in the slot. He’s done that from a detached posh an attached position to the line and he’s even been split out on the ISO on the backside and the guy is just a smooth route runner. So both Jaylen Ramsey and Jonno Smith I would easily put in that conversation. We were talking about camp superlatives. Yeah. He’s even lined up in the backfield a little bit of late. Yeah. Yeah. They did a couple things with him out of the back field which hey I’m not against it. Listen, try the more things you can show you can do the better better variety you’re going to have in in season. that first team defense in the two-minute drill last night. In addition to not having Joey Porter Jr., uh Cam Hayward was a spectator. Isaiah Lou Louderdermilk played up front with Derek Harmon, the number one pick. Uh Nick Herbig, uh and Alex Highmith were the outside linebackers. TJ Watt was watching. And with Ramsay outside, you had Beanie Bishop at the nickel. Beanie keeps showing up. You you can do the counting game all you want about who should be here and everything else, but I go I go back to Beanie Bishop led this team in interception. So, he’s no slouch. And every time he’s had an opportunity to have his number called, he’s answered that call. And I think for him, he’s just getting more and more confident with the competition and he shows out. He knows that when I get my shot, I got to make sure people remember me. I can say in camp I’ve seen Beanie show up on the film every single day and no exception to last night. He was he was a great guy. We know he’s a quality nickel and a guy that you would want to say, “Hey, if we have some issues, we need to bring somebody in.” We know that we could trust that Beanie Bishop’s going to do the job because he did it all last year. So clearly he’s a guy who’s whose role is subject to change. Yes. Because of the players that they brought in, the experience, the level of experience, and the caliber of player. But you’re suggesting or maybe uh maintaining that Beanie will be a better player this year. He’ll be he’ll take that secondyear jump even if he’s asked to do less. Yeah, I I I think he is. I mean, because he’s been poised to it throughout most of camp. You can see him right there, number 31 on on the right side of your screen. And he just he just knows how to do his job. He has confidence in himself. You know, you see a lot of guys that get nervous under the pressure and they might make some mistakes because they’re worried about who’s in front of them or who’s right next to them or behind them. But Beanie just comes out and plays his game. He doesn’t try and, you know, pretend that he could do something he can’t. He’ll never be as big as Jaylen Ramsey. He’ll never make up that experience, right? But Beanie knows what his game is. And he’s had some great coverages. He’s had some picks in the one-on-one situations with the wide receivers. and he just keeps getting better and keeps jumping off the tape every day. So, I don’t count him out at all. The second two-minute drive, Mason Rudolph leading the second team offense against the second team defense. That was a uh Mike Tomlin camp Steelers version of the two-minute drill because they faced at one point Max. Fourth and goal from the 11 and that became first and 10 from the 11. They just came over to the kid on the uh sideline with the down marker and said, “Change it from fourth down to first down.” And uh they still didn’t get it in. I thought Mason Rudolph played well in that in that series, but uh probably a throw he’d like to have back. He tried to fade to the corner of the end zone for Lance McCutchen and James Pierre was all over it and the throw was low rather than high and Pierre intercepted it and that was that. So even even when you get a free first down, didn’t get the job done. still came up a little bit short. And like you said, I mean, for all of these quarterbacks getting used to the new personnel, you know, yes, Mason’s thrown to Lance McCutchen in practice. There’s the first two-minute drill thrown to him. It wasn’t like he was thrown to Deonte or GP back when he was still on this squad, you know, just two years ago. And watching him kind of maneuver is still a learning process. Where can a guy go high point? What’s his catch radius going to be in those moments? Then also for the quarterback, it’s about his own personal touch. You know, they had the garbage can drill when they were had the quarterbacks throwing. Everybody started ooing and aing when it hit the can or when it went in the trash can drill. Yeah, exactly. But that was a moment I’m sure he wishes he would have reverted back to that and kind of gave him a little little rainbow teardrop in the in the back corner pylon versus kind of zipping it in there against pressure. You know, there’s a bench uh not too far from where our tent is set up here and it’s dedicated to Bill Nun. Yes. uh the greatest scout in the history of scouting among other things. And uh I remember talking to Bill one time about that drill that you referenced and he said, “You know what you get good at when you practice throwing a football into a garbage can?” I said, “No, Bill, what do you get good?” He said, “You get good at throwing a football into a garbage can.” Doesn’t come up much on Sundays. I mean, I get the concept. You know, you want to try arc the ball and everything else. It’s a good Maybe do it with muscle memory. Yeah. Of course, they were doing that during the special teams period. It was fun for the all the wide receivers were auditioning. You know, Pat is throwing and it’s not, you know, it wasn’t that serious, but uh yeah, I just I’d never forget that. And I I heard a lot of things from Bill Nun over the years and I try to remember every single one of them cuz he was he dropped nuggets and you know Bill Nun was one of those guys that was just so classic in his approach and when you look at just how he really redefined the scouting process for a lot of people. I think that’s what I take most uh you know from him. He went through situations where you had to battle. you had to go through awkward situations to to get film and find film and of course, you know, withhold a little film from that team that has star that also likes to go to the same Oh, maybe rerun uh John Stalworth in the 40 when the uh surface isn’t soaking wet and the wind’s not blowing, that kind of thing. That type of thing. Yeah. And then of course pretend you have a cold and and stay back an extra day so the other scouts leave and then you get the uh Yeah. Yeah. And then you get that 16 mm film that you’re supposed to go share and send off once you’re done that magically never made it back to Dallas for some reason. Didn’t get there. Sorry. Maybe next year. You know, another story Bill Nun told me. I’ll get off go on a tangent a little bit here. uh he would go to these particularly the smaller schools that he would scout and he said he would he would go to the game and then he would walk around campus and see if there was a telephone poll or a message board announcing a dance on campus at night and then he would go to the dance I said Bill what are you doing going to a college dance and he’d say wanted to see if the big guys could move how fluid they were yeah listen and that was something that you know would always be a positive to see if if you’re going to be a All flowers. You’re laughing. You heard that story, too. Yeah, I’ve heard that story, too. And I was like, Bill, you wouldn’t have been disappointed if you came to a University of Florida school dance. We had those. Could you get it done? Oh, yeah. We got it done. And then the other dancing bear over there, my compadre, Trey Essex, is about 10 yards to our right right now. Trey was a notorious dancer. Um, in in our day, we we were known to cut a rug or two. I saw Trey yesterday on the field and he was caught up in the moment and I looked at him and he stopped immediately. I I think those skills have faded. No, I mean it’s not about fading skill set. It’s about the fact that he has it, but you don’t necessarily have to pull it out, you know, and Trey Essex is definitely our O line dancing champion uh from the year 2005. Maybe maybe 09. I think I think I would have overtaken him probably in our later years now. I think I’m not sure. I’m just saying now he has a bionic ankle. Shut it down last night when he saw me looking at him. Well, you know, once again, you don’t necessarily do it for a full crowd. you know, you you you feel the moment and you just let it happen, you know. Yeah. And and the beat came over him. Well, it was never my thing, so I can’t uh I can’t speak to that. But uh Mike Tomlin spoke to Friday Night Lights last night. You know, Mike is a big Friday Night Lights fan and uh he’s always uh energized by it and last night absolutely no exception, man. A really really inspiring atmosphere tonight, man. We just appreciate the relationship that we have not only with St. Vincent but with this community. Um had great energy, man. Great competition tonight. Um it’s just an honor to to to work and get better in front of him and entertain them. Uh we had some bumps and bruises associated with play. Um Calvin Anderson uh slipped there and so he’s going to be evaluated. Cory Trice uh maybe has a soft tissue injury, hamstring related. We’ll take a look at him. I have more information um for you guys on him a little bit later. And we got some more guys that are gradually working their way back to full participation, guys that we’ve been talking about in that regard. Uh Isaac and Brick for example. And so, um things are moving in the right direction in some instances and obviously bumps and bruises associated with the process and some others. Questions. Mike Kaylin looked like he was more confident in backs on backers. What did you see from him in the one-on-one periods? I think it’s reasonable to expect him to to display more comfort. um play harder and faster. Um it just comes with exposure. Uh he’s a talented young guy, but he’s a young guy and so all of these exposures are important to his development. Is reasonable to expect him to get better with each outing. Who else stood out to you in one-on- ones today? You know, I just like the general energy of of of all parties involved to be quite honest with you. Everybody’s at different stages of development and that’s why we’re very thoughtful about the matchups. Um we we want good fair fights, man. and it just appears we got that defense seems to be struggling. Mike, what’s your take on that? I just think it’s usual for this time of year. Um defenses usually develop a little faster than offenses. Um the get to know the cohesion that’s required to be good. Um it’s just a component of it and so no alarm bells there. Two more that the offensive line is doing so far at this point in camp. I like all the work that they’re getting. Um you know, we’ve had some bumps and bruises along the way. So some elevated reps of some young guys. There’s playing conditioning uh required to take advantage of those reps, but very much a work in progress like all areas. Joey, he was in sweats today. Is he dealing with something? Yes, it could be characterized as dayto day. He’ll be back out soon. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. You know, Max, uh the offense hasn’t lit it up out here, but I think it’s had its moments that we haven’t seen uh consistent cohesion. They haven’t kind of had that day yet. But you look at uh seven shots for example, uh the defense won four to three last night. It’s now 22 to 20 through camp. So there’s pretty good give and take there. Yeah, there is. Yeah. And I would agree. And last night, I got to tell you, there was a pass to Scotty Miller on the back line. It was inbounds. There are five NFL officials. They were there last night in their work practice. You thought it was in. I thought it was in. A bunch of guys in the media thought it was in. I think we might have had our first blown call of 2025. Yeah. Ex. in fact that it had to happen like literally within the first four plays of of practice. We’re like and if you flip that then shots is 21-21. Yeah, exactly. Then you have a even tie and that I and the ref I think kind of knew it after he made the call. He’s like that might have been in. That might have been in. So no surprise there. But thanks ref. Thanks ref. Way to take a touchdown off the board uh in a critical situation. But um no, but it’s been very give and take and I think that’s what you kind of look at when it gets to those competitive moments. you have a one opportunity snapshot to do things. The offense has kicked in and a lot of different guys have contributed to the success of that as well as defense. I mean, you’ve seen some some great interceptions, some great stops um in in practice so far, but it’s not as far away as people might think. I I I would concur and I I would also concur the defense should be ahead a little bit at this time of the year. Um looks like uh Aaron Rogers might be getting a day off today. We saw Mason Rudolph a little while ago uh lining up with the ones. Uh Aaron Rogers has uh has now one of those veteran days off yet. I was kind of curious how they were going to handle that. Well, I think also, you know, play to the player. I mean, at the end of the day, like how many reps is Aaron Roger going to take in the preseason? Not a lot. That’s another good question. You know, last year he took none. The year before I think he played two series. Yeah. And the year before that he played none. This last year in Green Bay. Yeah. So, I think he might get two series here, new team, new opportunity, still working on the cohesion, but I wouldn’t expect more than that. And I think you’ll get more from the joint practices against Tampa Bay uh two weeks from now versus in a game-like situation. But you still got to go through the operation of everything and kind of get to a feel what it is to start with top 15 menu and kind of go through some of those little nuance things with a new coordinator. But, I mean, well-deserved vet day for Aaron Rogers. I mean, he’s the oldest guy on the field and this is the first one he’s taken. And we think about some of the other veterans have already had multiple up to this point. So, I think I think it’s a good sign that he’s at a good place progression wise. And listen, you need the young guys to play. They’re going to play in the preseason. So, get them get them up to speed. You know, kind of uh backtracking through uh some of the stuff that we saw last night. uh team run uh sec second time they did that in pads and the first time I thought was uh approaching a disaster for the offense. It just got one tackle for a loss after another. Couldn’t get anything going. Last night I thought better. The the defense still won the drill, but I thought better for the offense. No, I I agree. I think the same thing. You’re starting to see progress. couple of holes that that opened up really Kenneth Gainwell had a really nice run off the left edge uh on on a run play on outside zone and then you saw some good stuff as well up in the middle. I thought u Caleb Johnson had a nice run. He ran his legs through the hole where things kind of get piled up and guys tend to slow down. He accelerated his feet through the hole. Had another big positive play. So I mean you saw the glimpses but still a little bit sloppy. still working on the communication for the offensive line about whether to to make some calls or not. Ryan McCollum was out last night. You know, a guy who leads that second team unit, has experience, has played for the Steelers, you know, and you know, you sit next to him and you see kind of some of the body language and stuff, you’re like, “Yeah, it probably would have been a different call.” When you got a rookie center that’s learned this offense, maybe he doesn’t know all of those shifts and adjustments and he’s just like, “Hey, this was the mic. We’re going to the mic. That’s the mic and that’s it.” even though there’s some structural differences where it could change things. So, it’s a learning process for the offensive line getting to know each other and getting to know what they can and can’t do. Yeah. Two uh tackles for a loss last night. I think it was five the first time they ran the drill. Yeah. And you know, a guy who’s been sticking out a lot in a very crowded pass rush room. Number 53, Echo Echo Leota, has had a very solid camp. And he had one of those TFLs. He had one of the TFLs. Exactly. Cole Hulcom. Yeah. He ran down a play from the backside on the open end and then he’s had some good pass rushes. He was one of the reasons why in that two-minute drill the offense didn’t have as much success. He’s and Jack Sawyer got a hand up on one of the on one of the tip passes against Aaron um off the edge. So, you’re starting to see these pass rushers start to really kind of rise to the occasion and make plays, but offensively you’re still seeing the growth because I mean, let’s face it, you know, if I’m worried about how many times they win against our top rated defense and they’re not having any issues, then I’m worried about my defense. So, the defense is doing well, but the offense you see is getting better. And it’s the younger of the two units when you look at offense versus defense. So, they should have be in concert. They have more returning starters than the other side. Yeah, the the offense has acknowledged it. Aaron Rogers has talked about it. DK Metaf has talked about it. I’m sure other guys have as well. It’s no joke out there. I mean, it’s Yeah, you’ve got you got Pro Bowler after Pro Bowler, all pro, you know, 10 plus years in the NFL, seven plus years in the NFL when you look across at that defense and they’re playing like it. So, so as Mike Tomlin would say, they’re playing how they expected them to play. And so that’s a good challenge for this team because you’re not going to see that on a week- toeek basis. And if the quote unquote addage, you know, quote unquote iron sharp as irons holds true, this is an opportunity for them to continually get better with that. They did backs on backers again last night uh as well, Max. And hate to jump to conclusions, but uh when we got to camp, I thought Jaylen Warren was the undisputed heavyweight champ for the offense. And I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I think it’s a guy named Darnell Washington. You know what? I’ll throw honorable mention to uh Connor Hayward. Connor Connor held his own too, but Darnell Washington, it’s almost like a cheat code having him on the line of scrimmage and you know and Denzel uh you know the linebackers coach goes that’s a great rep for a right tackle like when he had one of the drills cuz the footwork looked smooth enough it looked like a O line Dline oneonone pass rush and he just absolutely he stoned Alex Heismith a couple times. Got TJ again, got the Marvin Leel. Oh, he Yeah, him him and Liao had a good battle. He was also doing the uh the finger wag the mutumbbo. He he not in my house. So, let me ask you, the the coach was joking about tackle, right? Yeah. Was he? No. No, we’re we’re still in the joke phase. We’re not going to go there. No, we’re not going to go there yet. There’s There’s no alarm bells yet that need to be sounded. Let’s say we wanted to go there just for the sake of argument. Huh. What number is he going to be? That’s what kind would that be for a guy who’s put together the way he’s put together. I mean, ultimately, would you like about a month to work with him on that? Would you like an entire training camp? Yes. Thrown in the fire. If he started today, he could probably be respectable by by the time season comes. If he started today, if he started today, he’s probably not starting today. He’s not going to be starting today. But the guy the guy’s still a moving skyscraper and still runs he might not run a 46 but he can still run a 47 easily down the seam and that’s still that and I like that target better than a guy protecting the quarterback. We can find other ways to protect the quarterback. Well, one of those ways coincidentally is to uh just line him up next to the tackle. Yeah. And I saw that last night and did a nice job on Alex Heismith. You had you had no penetration from that side whenever he lines up in in in what we call in chain and attached to the line of scrimmage. You know, it it almost looks like an overload package, right? Like you put two tackles of one side. Yeah. Only it’s an eligible number. Yeah, it’s an eligible number and the guy can still has good hands. He’s not questionable like I was as a jumbo tight end in those situations. Uh he has just been phenomenal in that drill. uh Warren and uh his old uh college buddy from Oklahoma State, Devin Harper. They got matched up again. And uh you know, Devin Harper made uh Jaylen Warren look like a mortal man, not not Superman. And it’s also I think the other thing that makes this drill so tough. When are you ever going to see a linebacker lined up on the line of scrimmage and not get touched unabated straight to the running back? It doesn’t happen. And so could No, not not even because it No, we’re gonna get into this now. Now, here it is, kids. We’re going We’re going into football 101 descriptions by Max. So, the situation that we’re describing is what we would call defensive 4-2 double barrel, aka 42 wide with two walkup backers on either side of the center, right, in the opposing A gaps. When you have a pass situation, regardless if it’s gun or under center, you have what we call a gaps call, which gaps means we’re going to pick one of the backers and that’s the one that the center’s working to or the line is working towards. The other guy who’s still in that space threatening now creates what we call a gap scheme where you now bump down one gap. So that linebacker would get touched by the guard or the center. And even if both of them fire, they’re both going to have something pulled off by the time the running back comes up and to seal that gap. And under center, we’re taking him all day. He’s getting an offensive guard. He’s not getting Jaylen Warren. But in a in a in a sub situation or a shotgun situation, that lineman is going to put that cuz he’s protecting the pick motion. that could happen where the linebacker could pick the guard and the D lineman could loop on the inside. So either way, he’s getting touched. He’s not just going full speed and four yards and a back just sitting there and maybe gets a yard up, but a full head of steam doesn’t happen in real life. So I will defend that as being something that was changed on that. Thank you. Class is out. We’ll move on to the next subject later. Okay. Uh but staying on this subject, Cale Caleb Johnson really struggled the first time they did backs on backers. I thought he was better last night. I also think he’s got some improving to do still. Oh, he’s still got to drop his anchor a little bit, which means he needs to set down and absorb when guys are coming into him to bull rush him. still standing a little bit tall and thinking that he could throw his shoulder into the guy when you realize the legs are the shock absorbers of the force and you got to bend down and then move up into them to take something off of the guy and raise him up as opposed to meeting those opposing forces standing tall. Yeah. The guys that are really good at that are the ones that attack it a little bit, right? You don’t you don’t just wait for the guy to come to you and try to get in the way and hold up. You you hit him. You got to bring a little fight to the action. Yeah, you can’t just be a receiver the entire time. This is the wrong drill. That’s only when you’re running routes should you be a receiver as a running back. Uh this drill got to got to bring action. You got to hit a guy in the chin. Got to pop him in the mouth. And that’s what Jaylen Warren was so good at earlier on in his career. And then the guys got a little smart. It’s like I I don’t want to go through him. I’m going have to go around him. And that’s what they kind of utilize. They didn’t necessar they would fake like it and they’d swim him at the last second to to get away cuz they’re like, “No, no, no, no, no. You have you have blunted us enough and you’ve messed us up enough. We’re we’re going to make you we’re going to make you guess a little bit.” Yeah. Attacking’s great until they uh do a spin on you or the swim as you mentioned and then all of a sudden you’re grabbing an air. Exactly. That’s Mark Robinson got somebody that way last night. Oh, no. It it was him and Caleb Johnson got into it and he just he beat him so cleanly. He just looked back like, “Hey, you still there?” Like, “Yeah.” Like, “Hey, hey, where were you? Hey, the the job’s over here where I’m at. I win.” Yeah. And that led to a little scuffle, a little dust up there. Uh, and they went three times in a row. And Yep. Mike Tomlin came in there was like, “Hey, are you good? Are you good? All right, let’s get it. Let’s get it on again, you know, type of deal.” And they did. And what what I thought the best part of that drill was, Mike, was the end where they had to all go shake each other’s hands, pat each other on the back. Oh, it was all hugs and high fives. And that and that’s what I think. And it looked legit. I mean, yeah. And because that could easily devolve and that could easily have leaked over into another period where guys are remembering from that and like trying to get their get back, so to speak. But it’s like, no, at the end of the day, we’re still teammates. You still got to go back to the dorms together, right? You might be across the hall from each other or roommates even. So, it’s like it’s good to have the competition, but now we leave the competition here and now we move on to getting better as a unit. So, I thought that was a very class thing that the guys did. And like you said, it felt very genuine. And at the end of the day, you’re trying to get the other guy across from you better and get them ready to play as well as honing your own skills. Uh the offensive lineman and the defensive lineman did the same thing after their one-on- ones. Hugs and high fives and helmet taps and Yeah. I mean, in fact, guys, listen, we thought I heard a strain of kumbaya coming out of that. Uh no, but it was asking what are we eating for pizza tonight? You know, what’s on your pizza type of deal. Did you see any of the uh one-on- ons? I watched all of Did you see Alex Heismith going against Brick Jones? I did. What uh was your hot take watching those three reps? Um like I said, don’t know what mine was. Yeah, Brick was a little rusty um to out out the gates, but I thought his footwork was very clean. He was very quick. Okay. Um out the gates. Good hand strike. Highmith was quicker. Highmith was quicker on the edge. I think it was the counter move. Like that’s the biggest thing. like you get to the point and that’s one victory, but then the second victory is how do I adjust for his counter and that’s where Brick kind of was a little slow out the gates getting adjusted back into that. Obviously dealing with a lower leg injury, you wonder what the tightness and especially at that point that was the second to last period of practice. Yes. You’d already gone through a lot of other stuff and he had been sitting out on some of those periods. So you get almost all of them, right? Yeah. Well, he went with um I saw him first snap seven shots. He did seven shots first snap and then he did one of the the team the team uh pass it was a pass under pressure. Yes, he was in for that. Okay. Yeah. And that but that was about it. And then you go straight into pass rush, right? Highmith’s been in all practice lthered up. You know, he was ready for it. But I thought Brick for the first day out and actually participating in 101 pass rush. I thought it was good up to a point. Now the finish is what he’s going to have to work on in ensuing weeks. I think, you know, the obviously he’s switching positions and it’s a big deal who the left tackle is and how well the left tackle plays and uh I think a lot of people out there probably wanted to see him grab that position and announce that he has it covered by now and nobody’s touching that position, which is probably unrealistic, but it it hasn’t happened yet. Yeah. Hence the uh Washington to tackle speculation. Of course, they’re going to make that spec. But I mean, you also can we get the guy in like three consecutive practices before we start making those declarations? And once again, Project Jones understands what it is. He knows what to do. It’s just getting the opportunity to knock the rust off and actually run with it without kind of the kick gloves because once again, you’re trying to get him through 17 weeks and a couple of practices at the beginning of the year is not going to harm him if you know you’ve got to depend on this guy 17 straight games in the regular season when it counts. Yeah. Uh it’s interesting that back to the caliber of the defense thing. Uh one of the things Darnell Washington said after the first domination of backs on backers when he beat TJ Watt consecutive times, he said, “Hey, he’s getting me ready for Miles Garrett.” Yeah. And players of that ilk. And Washington also said, “I may have won the battle, but the war has barely begun.” Yes. Yes. And that’s the right way to look at it, right? Like these are meaningful reps, but at the end of the day, I’ve got bigger fish to fry. I’m not my teammate, me going against my teammates is not going to show up on Sundays, but the skill and the effort is going to give me recall to understand I’ve been in similar situations. That makes sense. It doesn’t count if TJ beats me, but it will count if Miles Garrett beats me and he will make you pay. So, my job is to, you know, take on the guy of that caliber, but also translate it to what future challenges are ahead, you know. Uh, back to, uh, Caleb Johnson for just a second. We mentioned he’s he’s starting to get there. His teammates are kind of throwing some flowers at his effort and approach. You know, every time somebody Kenneth Gainwell talked about him today, he’s he’s handling himself the right way. He’s working hard. Jaylen Warren talked about that first back on backers. Didn’t go well, but Warren said he didn’t quit. He was competing. Yeah. You know, he is uh I think handling himself the way a rookie should and and he’s probably experiencing some things, Max, that a rookie ought to expect to experience. I.e. you don’t just walt out here and take over. Not playing uh Purdue anymore. No, no, there there’s no Purdue on the schedule. There’s no um Nebraska. I mean, even though Nebraska is a little bit better, but you know, those aren’t on the schedule anymore. The This is the Crim Dela Crim. You’re going against Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan week after week for a correlation for an Iowa guy. Uh yeah, that school in in the upper panhandle of the state. Is that where it is? No. Is it above the mitten or is it It’s in the middle of the the tip of the mitten. No, never mind. Uh you probably should have left it up. Uh I wanted to come We we just touched on this with the scraps the other day. Uh, and it was classic to me. Uh, Janu Smith and Juan Thornnehill. Yeah. And they’re doing one-on-one DB, uh, wide receiver/tight end pass route. To properly put this into context, the drill they did before was the beat press coverage or win with press coverage thing. And yeah, Jaylen Ramsay was at full throat during that. I was watching that. He Yeah, he he was stirring that pot. Oh, he was a catalyst. And then Smith goes against Thornhill, beats him, catches a pass, and for some reason turns around and fires a ball at him. And it wasn’t like, “Haha, I got it.” Just Yeah. You know, lob it back. He whipped it at him. And of course, Thornhill wasn’t having that. So they scrapped. Then it nobody was there to say, “You two go again.” So they just got back in their respective lines. And lo and behold, the matchup came up again and Ramsay jumps in and is announcing it and clapping his hands and pointing at one guy and pointing at the other guy. So this time it’s a crosser, not a sideline route. The ball is overthrown, incomplete. Thornhill runs it down, picks it up, runs up to Smith and shoves it in his gun. Oh, is this what you were looking for? And then Smith kept walking and apparently Thornhill wanted to go against so he pushed him in the back and then we had another uh yeah, another little scrap going on. But uh John Drew Smith was laughing about it afterward. He said, “Hey, sometimes you got to wake the stands up when it gets too quiet.” Well, and and for him, you know, add a little juice to the drill, right? I mean, you know, the drill’s going too well, everybody’s getting along great. You know, you know, giving the golf clap or celebratory handshake, you know, kind of like at a golf event. Sometime sometimes you need you need a little happy Gilmore, you know? You need you need a little little Bob Barker action. You know what I’m saying? You got to got to get the crowd involved with it. Yeah, I just I got a kick out of it because it was obvious. You could see it coming a mile away, particularly when they ran against each other the second time. You knew something was going to happen. Oh, it wasn’t going to end well. But you know what? But it ended after the drill, right? It didn’t carry over. Now, some other things spilled over. I mean, you know, Patrick Queen tried to run through the offensive line like Huddle and he got ceremoniously ousted out of there. Mr. McCormack had something to say about that. Yeah, he he got thrown out. So, you know, it’s those moments that you look at and you’re like, that’s a unit get growing together. You love you love to see it. You love to see it. You know, when you get somebody that gets the Fresh Prince of Bair action like Jazzy Jeff with Uncle Phil getting thrown out the front door, you need a little bit of that every once in a while just to just to stir the pot and make sure you know that you can’t push our group over. How much of that is a good thing and how much is too much? It’s never too much. Never. I mean, this is a violent game. You need aggression. So, if you can manufacture it in a controlled environment, that’s even better. And right there, Patrick Queen knows he can’t go through that lineup. In fact, TJ Watt tried to do that uh last night in drills where they were coming from the end zone and running through. He tried to run through the offensive line to test them as well. Guess what? Hands across America. No breaking that chain. Uh, last thing before we get out of here, Max, um, where are they in terms of still putting stuff in and still getting getting ready to go at it? And at what point do they start working on Jacksonville and maybe even the New York Football Jets? So, they won’t do any Jacksonville prep, but install tomorrow. We’re going to get goal line and short yardage. Okay, that still needs to be installed. Just like we got two minute last night, we’re we still have some of the short yardage and goal line package come. So, we haven’t seen any goal line. We’ve seen 13 personnel, but we haven’t seen the actual packages. And I think that’s actually going to help in seven shots because there’s a couple of times where they lined up and the defense was in a 6-2 defensive structure, which is a goal line structure, and they and they had regular base plays. Now, tomorrow, they will have the full arsenal. So, I expect a very competitive uh seven shots with goal line and short yardage being the emphasis tomorrow in practice. Should be fun. It’s been so far. That’s going to do it for us today. Uh thanks for finding us however and wherever you found us across the Steelers social media platforms for Max Starks. I’m Mike Pursuit and this has been Training Camp Live brought to you by FedEx. Good afternoon, everyone.

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