Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Plaxico Burress is back on the practices fields of Saint Vincent College for the first time since 2004 and you have to wonder if he\’s noticed any changes.
One thing that has changed is the fact that Burress is no longer considered a starter as he enters training camp as the fourth receiver on the depth chart behind Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders and Jerricho Cotchery. The 35 year-old receiver seems fine with that, however, and he praised his teammates on Friday when he talked to the media.
“I think we will be just fine,” said Burress about the receiver group. “I look at guys like Antonio Brown and how he stretches the football field and how he makes big plays down the field. For Emmanuel (Sanders), I think this is going to be his breakout season Jerricho Cotchery is the most consistent receiver that I have been around. He is tough over the middle.
“We are all out here just trying to get better in the passing game. We just want to try and execute.”
As soon as rookie Markus Wheaton catches up on what he missed during the offseason practices, he figures to pass Burress on the depth chart. Whether or not that happens by the start of the regular season will be fun to watch, but until another young receiver besides Wheaton is able to overtake Burress, he seems destined to be on the 53 man roster at the start of the season, even though he doesn\’t play on special teams.
Burress has said several times during the offseason that he is blessed to be back in Pittsburgh and that he\’s even more blessed to have an extended amount of time to get himself into football shape as well as learn the offense, which is a luxury he didn\’t have last season. Burress echoed those thoughts again on Friday.
“It’s always good to get ahead, get a good, clean start with everybody else,” said Burress. “It’s good to be able to get into football shape and rehearse the playbook over and over so when you hear the plays called you can go out and react instead of thinking when you get to the line of scrimmage.”
