The journey toward the 2017 season is now in full swing with the Pittsburgh Steelers having reported to Latrobe for their annual training camp at Saint Vincent College, where they have held their camps for over half a century now.
This is surely the time more than any other in which we find ourselves full of questions that we are looking to get answered, and this also tends to be the best time to get answers to those questions that have been building up over the course of time since the 2016 season ended.
You can rest assured that we have the questions, and we will be monitoring the developments in the training camp and the preseason as they develop, and beyond, looking for the answers as we look to evaluate the makeup of the Steelers as they try to navigate their way back to the Super Bowl, after reaching the AFC Championship game last season for the first time in more than half a decade.
Question: How will the starting secondary look against the Falcons with Artie Burns and Sean Davis back?
While the Steelers will not yet have all hands on deck in the secondary, with starting free safety Mike Mitchell having yet to return to practice, they should be getting two key players back for this afternoon’s game against the Falcons.
Last year’s top two draft picks, Artie Burns at cornerback and Sean Davis at safety, both missed the team’s preseason opener last Thursday against the Giants while dealing with minor injuries, but both returned to practice this past week and look to rejoin a secondary that held its own against New York’s B, C, and D teams.
Even if some of Atlanta’s star players will not be participating, however, the game should still at least serve the purpose of knocking off some rust, and, more valuable to us, beginning to provide a gauge as to what sort of growth and development they have underdone since the end of last season.
It goes without saying that the more telling game will come not today but on Saturday, during the Steelers’ third preseason game against the Colts, which Mitchell has previously said that he would hope to return by.
But this will be the first look we have gotten so far, and so it still has value, even if it might not be fully indicative of what to expect from them during the regular season. At a bare minimum, we can take a look at how their technique and recognition have evolved from their rookie season, during which they were thrust into important roles.
