The Pittsburgh Steelers have now wrapped up their offseason practices and overall it appears as though head coach Mike Tomlin is happy with what was accomplished by the team over the course of the last four weeks.
“I thought that we had a productive minicamp and I also thought we had a productive offseason,” said Tomlin. “The first rule of getting better is showing up and I thought we had great attendance and participation.”
Despite the productivity that Tomlin observed, the head coach was quick to point out that the team is far from where he would like them to be.
“Obviously, we’re not a finished product, I don’t think that anyone is, or we feel comfortable in saying that they are this time of year,” said Tomlin. “We’ll continue to roll the ball out and get better.
“Obviously, the next significant step for us is Latrobe and the guys have some independent responsibilities in terms of their readiness between now and then I assume that they’re going to do what’s required, and I look forward to seeing them in Latrobe to continue on with our team development.”
Tomlin got more specific about the readiness that he is looking for when the players arrive for start of training camp.
“I expect everyone to come in highly conditioned and ready for work. If they do that, that will be a good position to begin in,” he said.
While rookie linebacker Ryan Shazier appears to have done a good job at picking things up quickly over the course of the last four weeks, Tomlin wasn’t ready to heap a ton of praise on him or second-year outside linebacker Jarvis Jones when asked about their offseason progress.
“They have done nice, but again you can convince yourself of anything this time of year,” said Tomlin. “I’m not interested in telling the story to myself. I just simply roll the ball out and provide opportunities for guys to improve.
“I’m not trying to measure it too much because it is what it is. This isn’t football. It’s football-like, and it’s a great opportunity to prove and learn and develop game cohesion and understanding. That’s what this is about as opposed to evaluating performance.”
