Looks, I know this time of the offseason lends itself to overanalyzing. Speculation, predictions that’ll soon be forgotten, your typical summer time fodder. But I gotta say, listening to Terrell Edmunds this week, he sure sounds like he’s carrying himself differently. In a good way. More confident, more sure of himself, a guy who doesn’t have that deer-in-the-headlights feel.
But you tell me. Check out his Steelers.com interview posted yesterday. Not only did Edmunds sound more confident, his responses indicate a guy ready to take a big step forward in Year Two.
“Next five weeks, just stay in condition,” Edmunds said when asked he’ll spend his last break before camp. “Because Latrobe, everyone knows how Latrobe is. We going out there every day. It’s hot some days, it might be raining the whole time one day, but we still gotta go out there and compete. The pads are on, the pads are clicking. So we gotta go get it.”
Here’s the thing. Not everyone knows how Latrobe is. Edmunds probably didn’t last year. Not until he got there, experienced it, and became a better player because of it. And you feel that in his voice and the way he carried himself in that interview. That I got this mentality you can only get by dealing with the camp grind.
He also knows exactly what his role is going to be heading into 2019. This time last year, he was still expected to be a rotational piece. Used in dime packaged. But Morgan Burnett went down early in camp, struggled with injuries throughout the season, and forced Edmunds to step into the every-down role. He logged 1190 total snaps last season, the most by any Steeler, second most by any rookie (Colts’ guard Quenton Nelson had 1215), and the 11th most snaps by anyone in the league. That’s a rookie boot camp if there ever was one.
To his credit, Edmunds didn’t hit the dreaded rookie wall that most players do, especially underclassmen – he would’ve been a senior at VT last year – who played as much as he did. His play improved as the season went on, a testament to his conditioning and mental toughness. It’s reason to believe he’ll pick up where he left off, playing his best football, and take another step in 2019.
