While he only played 12 snaps in the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-9 win Sunday of the Jacksonville Jaguars, rookie defensive end Stephon Tuitt managed to make an impact during a couple of them. According to several media reports, he’s followed that game up with a solid week of practice.
During his weekly talk with the media Thursday, Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau was asked to talk about what factors have led to Tuitt not playing more than 49 snaps through the first five games of the 2014 season.
“Well I think if you ask the same question (in) a couple weeks we’ll be answering it differently,” said LeBeau. “He’s coming along really good. We’re looking to get him in there and get some action.”
During Wednesdays practice, Tuitt intercepted backup quarterback Bruce Gradkowski and he was asked about that play Thursday.
“I was on the edge. I had contain,” Tuitt explained to Mike Prisuta of steelers.com. “All I did was try to move my way inside, and I was going to use my speed so they wouldn’t break contain. He ended up throwing the ball right to me because he was getting tremendous pressure from the other side.”
While Tuitt won’t be starting anytime soon, it sounds like he could start seeing his snap count slowly start to increase over the course of the next few weeks. For now, the Notre Dame product sounds comfortable with his role.
“I’m a rookie,” he said. “I still have to prove myself. I still have to gain the trust of the team.
“We have veteran players here so I have to wait my turn. As a football player, of course I’m eager to get in there, any player would be that way. Right now I’m just waiting my turn and doing the things I have to do to be prepared for that.”
In case you missed it, we featured Tuitt this week in one of our Steelers Film Room segments that you can view here.
