Pittsburgh Steelers defensive line coach John Mitchell addressed the media after Notre Dame DE Stephon Tuitt was drafted in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft. Here is what he had to say.
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“I had a chance to go to Atlanta and work him out and i was really impressed with him.”
“As a defensive line coach, we see defense a little different. We play from inside out rather than outside-in. There’s three things that when I evaluate a player I look for. One, can this player stay on his feet? Two, is he physical? Three, will he run to the ball?”
“The thing that I like about Stephon is he can stack, he can shed, he can get off and he can run to the ball.”
“If you look at his sophomore year, this guy was probably one of the best defensive linemen in college. He had 11 sacks. He played the run very well. He was a dominant player. Before the 2013 season, he had a hernia injury. He wasn’t able to train. He got heavy and if you look at him from the 2013 season and you compare him to the 2012 season, you’re going to see a different guy. He knows that he has to be in shape. He’s over that injury and we look for this guy to be here for a long time.”
“He’s a guy that can do a lot of things for us. He can push the pocket, he can play the run, he can get off blocks and he can get to the ball.”
“If this guy had probably been healthy coming out up to his junior year, he probably would have been in the top ten guys drafted. We feel like we got a steal in the second round at our pick.”
“In our scheme, most of the ends we have had here have been 310-315 pounds, so 310, that’ll be a good weight for him.”
“If you look at his stats for three years, you’re going to see a guy who had a lot of production. The guy had 20.5 sacks for three years. I think he had 124 total tackles. Tackles for loss, I think he had 15, maybe 20. So this guy is a productive guy, buy you know, that’s behind him.”
They (Notre Dame) played on both sides, but basically he played a lot more on the right side, but they moved him around.”
“When you look for a defensive linemen, I don’t care what scheme you play, you get a guy that is 6-5, 310-315 that can run and stay on his feet, physical, you got a pretty good football player.”
