While Pittsburgh Steelers punter Brad Wing hasn’t been very consistent so far during the preseason, head coach Mike Tomlin indicated Tuesday that the team is sticking with him for now and that they have no plans to add another punter this week to compete against him.
“I’m excited about what Brad is doing,” said Tomlin during his Tuesday press conference. “He probably took a little step back in performance last week, but we added a few other things to his menu that we hadn’t asked him to do. Lets see how he responds this week.
“I know one thing, I know that one of the things that’s impressed me about him is during the course of this thing, when he’s had negative days or negative drills, he always does a good job of responding to it. And that shows growth and that shows the mental makeup that I desire, that we desire. So we’ll continue to work with him.”
Wing has handled all of the punting chores thus far during training cap and the preseason as veteran Adam Podlesh was placed on the “did not report” list due to him needing to stay away due to complications from his wife’s pregnancy.
In the first three preseason games, Wing has punted 17 times for a 40.3 average and a 35.8 net average. He has a long of 54 yards and four of his punts have been inside the opponents’ 20 yard-line.
Wing really needs a good showing Thursday night against the Carolina Panthers as the Steelers punting situation has been a mess now for several seasons.
“He’s continually growing,” said Tomlin of Wing.
