There’s still a round of minicamp to go but ask Terrell Edmunds what he’s excited for, it’s his first trek to Latrobe. Speaking with reporters late last week, Edmunds says he can’t wait for training camp, a better time to showcase what he can offer the Steelers’ defense and, oh yeah, finally hit someone.
“I’m ready for that,” Edmunds said in a video on the team site when asked if he was ready for camp. “Haven’t had the pads on in awhile. So it’s time to go out and hit somebody.”
To sum up the difference between the two, spring workouts are for install and players to understand the mental aspect of the game. Training camp is when the physical counts, the ability to make plays and prove your worth to the roster (the mental game remains important, of course, I’m speaking broadly). Edmunds knows Latrobe will be the time to prove his 1st round value to coaches.
“You can really show. All those bobbled catches, you can knock them out with your shoulder pads. So you don’t really know [until camp] how well you can mess up the timing.”
The only thing that stands between him and camp is a three day mandatory minicamp that begins tomorrow and runs through Thursday. From there, the team will go its separate ways for about six weeks. A critical time for rookies, who need to stay in shape – Tomlin preaches conditioning above all else – and not get into bad habits that will cost them during the preseason grind.
Another element of camp is staying healthy. In that heat, with multiple practices in a row, it’s easy to pull a muscle that can sideline an entire preseason. Edmunds said he’s already taking the right steps to avoid it, one reporter noting he’s always one of the first guys on the field.
“Try to get out here, get my extra stretching it. I don’t want no soft tissue injuries or anything like that. Come out here, get stretching, getting warm.”
As Matthew Marczi recently wrote about, Edmunds has been running with the second-string. But he confirmed the Steelers haven’t even began to install their dime packages, a grouping he is likely to see time in, something that won’t happen until either tomorrow’s minicamp or training camp.
