The Pittsburgh Steelers have now wrapped up day two of their 2012 mini-camp and below is the daily aggregation of reports from the likes of Mark Kaboly, Scott Brown, Gerry Dulac, Mike Prisuta and Will Graves.
The morning started off with the Steelers officially announcing that they have signed long snapper Matt Katula and inside linebacker Brandon Johnson. To make room on the 90 man roster, tight end Wes Lyons was released and wide receiver Connor Dixon was placed on the Waived/Injured list with a leg injury of some sorts.
Emmanuel Sanders (knee) and James Harrison (knee) were among the notables not practicing in the morning session and it was also reported later in the day that Marcus Gilbert did not work in the morning session. Curtis Brown and Stevenson Sylvester were both still sidelined on Wednesday after both missed time on Tuesday. It is believed that Jason Worilds is still sidelined in addition as he recovers from off-season wrist surgery. Weslye Saunders also reportedly missed time on Wednesday in addition. John Clay reportedly sat out the afternoon practice with what may have been a hamstring strain.
Still rehabbing their knee injuries on the side are Rashard Mendenhall and Casey Hampton. Hampton told reporters that he has eyes on being ready by week one of the season and he is not upset at all that he will likely miss training camp practices. Hampton let be known that he still wants to play a few more years hopefully in Pittsburgh, but acknowledged that the Steelers have some up and coming youth now on the roster. During his talk with the media he praised both Steve McLendon and rookie Alameda Ta\’amu.
Ta\’amu said Wednesday that the team wants him at 340 by the time training camp starts. That means he needs to drop 10 pounds over the course of the next month.
Team president Art Rooney II was quoted during the middle of the day as saying in regard to restricted free agent wide receiver Mike Wallace, “He should be here.” Sanders and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, both stated that they miss Wallace and are hopeful that he gets his situation resolved by the start of training camp. Neither seem concerned that he will not be able to catch up quickly. As it is has long been speculated, the Steelers still reportedly have no intentions of lowering the tender offer to Wallace on Friday.
Brett Keisel reportedly worked against rookie Mike Adams repeatedly on Wednesday and teased that he beat him most of the time. Keisel added that Adams has potential though. He also added that the team wants both Adams and David DeCastro to come in and contribute right away and that so far he thinks that they like what they see in both of the rookies.
Roethlisberger is still withholding judgement on the rookies until they put the pads on. Both Adams and DeCastro continued to be rotated in with the first time for a second day in a row.
Roethlisberger said in his talk with media that he has no intentions of changing the way he plays this year. He also added that the biggest issue he had with the team bringing in a new offensive coordinator and a new offensive scheme after his eight years in the league was that it would force him to start the learning process over at the most inopportune time, which is him heading into the prime of his career. Quote wise the quarterback said, “That was it early on. I felt like I was really starting … I was hopefully going to be coming into the prime of my career and starting all over with an offense.”
During his talk with the media, Roethlisberger once again said they he will be able to use the running backs more out of the backfield than he has previously.
The Steelers will wrap up mini-camp on Thursday with a light practice according to reports. It will serve as the final off-season practice until the team reports to training camp in Latrobe late next month.
