The 2018 NFL Draft is now a little more than three weeks away and that means football in shorts season is right around the corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Monday, the Steelers announced the dates of their 2018 OTA practices.
Phase One of the Steelers annual OTA sessions will get under way in Pittsburgh on Monday, April 16 and that period will span for a length of two weeks. During that phase, the player’s activities will be limited to strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only.
Phase Two of the Steelers OTA sessions, which begins on Monday, April 30, will be a three-week period and during that time, on-field workouts are permitted that may include individual player instruction and drills. No live contact, or team offense vs. team defense drills are permitted during that span of three weeks. The Steelers annual rookie minicamp will also take place during that phase but the team has yet to announce those dates.
Phase Three of the Steelers OTA sessions begins on Tuesday May 22 this year. During that period of time the team will be allowed to conduct as many as 10 practices with the first one scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 23. Once again, no live contact is permitted during those OTA practices, however, 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are allowed to take place per the rules in the CBA.
According to the team’s schedule, the specific dates for the 10 OTA practices are May 22, May 23, May 24, May 29, May 30, May 31 June 4, June 5, June 6, and June 7. After those practices conclude, the team will wrap up their offseason program with a mandatory three-day minicamp and those dates are currently scheduled to be June 12, June 13 and June 14.
