The Pittsburgh Steelers first set of OTA practices got underway on Tuesday and it appears as though that there are only three players not in attendance.
In addition to rookie linebacker Jordan Zumwalt, who is unable to attend because of UCLA being on the quarter system, veterans Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor are reportedly also not present for the voluntary session.
No Troy Polamalu at Steelers OTA today. Ike Taylor also absent.
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) May 27, 2014
In the case of Polamalu, it’s not overly shocking that he’s apparently decided to stay back home in Southern California in order to work on his conditioning as he has done several times in the past.
With 100 days to go until the start of the 2014 NFL season, the veteran safety has plenty of time left to work with new safety Mike Mitchell, who was signed to replace Ryan Clark, who had roamed the Steelers secondary with Polamalu since 2006. The key thing for Polamalu is that he’s once again 100 percent healthy. Last season he played in all 16 regular-season games after being plagued by a calf injury in 2012.
As far as Taylor’s situation, if memory serves me, he arrived late last year, so that might be the case once again this year. We’ll see.
