Samuel Jr., Freiermuth, Metcalf, Pierre Media Availability (Nov. 12) | Pittsburgh Steelers

Samuel Jr., Freiermuth, Metcalf, Pierre Media Availability (Nov. 12) | Pittsburgh Steelers

And Sante, what was it about this opportunity that appealed to you? It’s a great organization, great team, great guys, great um coaching. And um what’s not what’s not like about um Pittsburgh with with the scheme, the defense, having Ramsey, those also things that appeal to you? Yeah, definitely the players on this team. You know, it’s a lot of great players, a lot of talented players on this team and um I just want to be around talented guys, you know, and just raise the bar, you know. Do you feel like you’re ready to play now? Yes, sir. What do you mean? Have they given you any indication on uh how long they want to look at you before they put you in? Uh it’s just day by day. I’m trying to maximize every day and um do whatever the coach is telling me and you know, just get better every day. How do you stay in football shape or can you stay in football shape while you know obviously there was the recovery process, but the last couple months what have you kind of done to be ready for this opportunity? Uh just been running a little bit more on the track. I was on the track a lot, you know, just getting the win, making sure I’m doing long distance running and running up the hills and stuff like that. So, just making sure I’m in shape and um lifting a little bit heavier than I usually do. So, it’s things in that nature. Was it tough to stay patient over the last couple months trying to find the right place in the right opportunity? Of course, you know, but um you know, it’s God’s plan and uh everything happens for a reason. I’m glad I ended up here, you know. I’m glad everything worked out to be here, you know, and I’m blessed to be here with great coaches and great teammates. You haven’t played a game in over a year. What did it mean for you to be back on the practice field today? Oh, it meant the world to me, you know, just being out there putting on the helmet, putting on cleats, going out and competing with other guys, you know, that’s trying to accomplish the same goal as me and um just trying to win. At the end of the day, that’s all it’s about, winning. And um I know that’s all it’s about over here, winning, and uh it’s a winning culture and uh I wanted to be a part of that. It’s like ahead. How much did your condition hurt your tackle? Uh, my conditioning hurt my tackle. No, your your shoulder, your the the stingers. Uh, I was playing with it for my whole NFL career. So, um, it’s nothing new. I just had to get it fixed and um, you know, just just had to get it fixed. Did it affect your tackling though? Uh, I wouldn’t say that. You know, there’s no excuses when you’re on the field. A lot of people going through a lot of things, so I wouldn’t say that. Is there any chance you’re healthier now than you’ve ever been? Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. I feel great. Um I feel great. It’s the healthiest I ever been, you know, cuz I’ve been dealing with and I got it fixed. So now I feel good. Let’s do two more guys. Two more. Was the idea of having neck surgery like intimidating? Scary at all? Uh of course I never had surgery before. So that was my first surgery. And um you know once I made my mind I was going to do it. You know I’m not the first person to have this surgery. It’s a lot of people that came back and played with the surgery I have. And um that’s what gave me confidence. You know, if somebody else can do it, I could do it. You said you had been playing through that your whole career. What made April the right time to have that surgery and kind of just wanted to take my time and um weigh all the options and um just make sure I I take my time. I didn’t want to rush anything and um you know, just let my body heal its own and then get the surgery and let it heal again. So took precaution with that. All right. uh the the the the teammates, the team, the coaching staff, the organization, the culture. It’s a great culture here. But why why do you have so much success against this team? I don’t know. Um you know, maybe I just my dad’s from Cincinnati, so maybe maybe that’s the reason, but I don’t know. I guess just just AFC North opponent and uh you know, whatever they do schematically, maybe. Mike has used the phrase popcorn in the past, like something here, something there going wrong. Like, do you feel like that’s the case right now with this team as to why you’re five and four when maybe you feel like it could be a game or two better? Uh, I guess. I mean, obviously, I just think we need to um, you know, play better team football and, uh, we’ll be all right moving forward. I mean, we got the right guys in the locker room to, um, you know, get this thing going in the right direction. I mean, again, we’re still in the lead of the division and we know what this game means um, Sunday. It’s very important. So, uh, we’re working this week to to get it fixed and, uh, you know, no one’s looking in the past. Uh, we just got to continue to, um, look forward and and work. You guys got a diverse set of, you know, skilled guys just on offense, speedsters, big guys. Um, what do you guys have to do to unlock the balance so that you guys have struck at times this year to get things going on offense more consistent? Uh, I mean, I think what you just said, we just got to be consistent. Um, you know, we just got to understand, um, you know, what the defense is doing and just attacking it. And, you know, I got full confidence everyone that we’re going to be able to do it. And, uh, we’ve shown that we can. So, that’s the that’s the good part of it. And we we’ll get it right. I have one question. Yeah. first place. You have to you’re not playing well, you have to sort of remind yourself of that that as bad as it might feel in the moment based on the last month or so that in on balance like you guys are still sort of everything’s still sort of in front of you. Yeah, I mean obviously we’re not looking in the past. I mean we had a hell of a game against the Colts and you know we just went out in Sunday Night Football and you know just didn’t play well and so we played well in previous games and uh no one’s panicking. We just got to continue to work and uh be able to put together a good game this Sunday. What’s different for you this time around? you had a few opportunities early and just experience or what? Um, just knowing just knowing what to do, just watching football so long, just being on special teams, knowing watching the defense make plays, not make plays, you know, just seeing what to do. You think there’s something also different just with the the people around you like you got you got, you know, more veteran guys like Jaylen and Dar Darius around and just the the support that you guys have to be more focused at times. Yes, most definitely. You and Joey are kind of similar build guys. Like do do you think that’s an advantage to defense having two guys that can be big and physical out there at the same time? Yes, most definitely. You know, how does that play out? Just like having long corners that can run tackle, just go after the ball, just be covering guys, run around with like fast guys. That’s a big advantage. What does that do in your head when like teams try to they think, “Oh, we’re gonna pick on this guy, but you’re not allowing anything like that.” Is that what kind of confidence does that give you that you’re like you can look back at the offense and say please come in my way? Just football, you know, just being humble. Just stay humble and just keep the same energy just throughout the game. Just just have that mentality. Just like it’s coming your way. Is that a strength of yours? Just humility in general that you don’t let your highs get too high or lows too low? Yeah. Just stay humble. You know, long as you humble, you going you going to do what you got to do. When did when did you figure out that special teams was going to be your ticket to staying in the league this long? Um, you know, I didn’t know what cuz nothing’s guaranteed. You know, I seen guys play good at special teams. You know, nothing’s guaranteed. So, I just came in every day, worked hard, kept my head down, just chop wood. James, I’m sorry if I’m jumping in late here, but what’s this opportunity mean for you against these guys on Sunday? You know, just week to week, you know, it’s just we got to get get right, you know, another another week for us to get right. You Jamar Chase and T Higgins. Oh, yeah, for sure. Them guys are excellent. Excellent receivers. You know, them guys can take the top off, run after catch. Them guys are excellent. Did that last game put a chip on your guys shoulder? Oh, every game should put a chip on your shoulder. Even when even when you doing good, you something’s you you messed up in something. So you should be want to get get ready. You want to do excellent, but as humans, we’re not excellent. So you want to do excellent. So get back to the drawing board and just get ready to work. James Kyle came in and in like 72 hours went out and performed uh incredibly in that debut. What is realistic expectation can be put on by fans onto Asante just being here for a couple days? You know, being from South Florida, I’m familiar with Sante. So his dad, everybody, you know, just come in cover with just get jump on a moving train like coach T say. Just jump on moving train, stick your hand in the pile. We know what he can do. You know, just help us out. You know how you know how it be? James, I think Coach Tomlin referred to you as a co undrafted guy yesterday. How difficult was that not getting to meet him until August? I guess it was kind of it was major major difficult because we didn’t have preseason. We didn’t have nothing. We didn’t have fans that year. So, just come in just I know I had to go be ready to do something, help out the team because they had to get ready for games. So, I had to see where I can fit in that and see what how can I help the team win games? The teams are trying to double you. I mean, they’re not just bringing the safety over top. They’re bringing safeties from the other side of the formation to come ac come against you when you’re doing your crossing routes. How do you guys counter that better? Um, I think we just got to execute as a whole better. Um, nobody’s stopping us on offense but ourselves within like I’ve been saying every week is one block here or there or you know somebody’s uh not getting a full play call. So, uh, just got to do a better job of uh, being in tune with the play call and uh, everybody being on the same page. Did you see the Chargers doing more of that double covering you than before or is that about the same amount you’ve seen all year? I really don’t pay attention to double coverage. I run my route and I may look up and see one person or two people there. It doesn’t, you know, affect how I how I, you know, view the game. I just, you know, run my route and uh, you know, block my assign, got every play. Is there a common thread to the things that are going wrong on third down? Is it more of that execution and some of those details just not lining up? Yes, ma’am. Cuz every time we watch the come in here and watch the film, it’s always, you know, one guy here or there. Um, so it’s just all of us got to be on the same page, whether that’s communicating throughout the week or, you know, answering any questions that you feel like you have before we step out there on the field and, you know, start playing freely. What what did you take away from the first game against the Bengals? And I mean that from either your individual uh point of view or from the receivers room collectively. Yes, sir. Just continue to um you know stay on the field uh can continue to convert third downs and continue to put points on the board. Uh that’s all we can control and that’s all we can uh you know do while we’re out there. Can you kind of go through that deep ball in the first quarter what you saw how how that play unfolded? Yes sir. uh saw Aaron uh well I had a corner post um and I saw Aaron um roll out to the left so um kind of broke my route a little flatter than I should have been uh so I should have kept uh kept the route high you have to sometimes remember I mean it hasn’t been great the last month but you have to you guys have to remind yourself here you’re in first place or is it sort of look we on the whole we’ve still had a pretty good season everything’s in front of us we you don’t have to get remind yourself here you know I think with the standard that we set for ourselves that you know it it feels a lot worse when we lose lose um you know than than expected. So, um, just stay standing in here, uh, not listen to any outside noise. Uh, continue to have each each other’s back and like I said, man, when we go out there and execute, nobody can stop us. Uh, you know, offense, defense, special teams. So, uh, just keep hammering at home that, you know, this all we got, this all we need, and just execute the plays that’s called. Aaron’s talked a lot about not riding the roller coaster after these losses. How do you feel like you guys as a locker room are managing that? I think uh, a lot of the vets have that mentality. Uh I think a lot of young guys think like it’s the end of the world after you lose, which is very uh very acceptable cuz you want those type of competitors in your locker room, but also it’s a long season. Um we got 17 games now, but I think we’re we just hit the halfway point. So just continuing to get on the right track uh from this point forward. Um just take it one game at a time. Is that something you had to learn as you became more veteran in the league? You learn, you know, to not take every game as hard. No, I’m still taking losses bad. So, uh, no, I don’t talk to people much after the game, but, uh, I think that’s just the way I cope with things, but, um, we got a lot of competitors like that in the locker room. So, uh, the more we hang around each other and the more, um, you know, we we have each other’s back out there on the field, uh, I think, you know, the losses, the wins, and, you know, the ties are always going to be special cuz we can always learn from them. Have you been like that since like playing pee-wee football? Yeah, I hate losing period. I hate losing. How do you pick up a teammate when you as a leader when you see someone just feeling it because because like man like we’re down we’re down right now and you try to say hey let’s get back in it. Uh I think one of the biggest things is not pressing too too hard cuz you know once you start losing you try to you know start doing stuff that’s out of the norm or out of your out of your control and you know that’s when you know stuff start to spiral. So uh you know just staying in the framework of you know who you are as a person, who you are as a player. Um just continuing to do your job cuz you know the the hard work is going to pay off. uh the teams that that you know do everything the right way and execute every play and you know live every play with a life of its own. You know those are the teams that get rewarded in the end. DJ, I know this is a little bit premature, but you guys have the Bears next week. Your dad played for the Bears for so many years. There have been some family conversations about that match up. Any little trash talk going on? N we got the Bengals this week. You can ask me that next week though. GK their corner Turner. Uh what do you expect uh from him? what you I mean you played against him a little bit last time out. What did you kind of take away from your match up with him? Yes sir. He’s a good player. Uh looking forward to our matchup on Sunday and uh I know he’s been in the lab working uh since last time uh we played each other. Um and so have I. So looking forward to, you know, lining up against him. Hopefully, you know, he can follow me the whole game like he did last game and looking forward to that match up. Aaron talked about the importance of of guys consistently getting open across the board. How do you help as just like as like as a leader for the receiver and trying to help everyone be better in that respect? Well, first off, I got to continue to get open and I can’t say anything if I’m not, you know, doing my job uh first. Uh but then, you know, I I really don’t say much to anybody in the receiver room unless, you know, they come to me uh with a question cuz people uh get to the NFL, you know, and they got here, you know, on their own. There may be, you know, coach here and there or, you know, a mentor here and there, but, you know, these players got here on their own, so they all have a special ability. I think just, you know, leaning on that and trusting their ability, um, you know, will take them a long way. Honey.

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