The Pittsburgh Steelers are now in Latrobe at Saint Vincent College, where they have held their training camp sessions since 1966. While the vast majority of the legwork of building the 90-man roster is done, there is always some fine tinkering to do. Now it’s time to figure out who is worthy of a roster spot, and what their role will be.
The team made some bold moves this offseason and in some areas of the roster look quite a bit different than they did a year ago. That would especially be the case at wide receiver and inside linebacker, where they’re bound to have new starters.
How will those position groups sort themselves out? How will the young players advance into their expected roles? Will the new coaches be up to the task? Who is looking good in practice? Who is sitting out due to injury?
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: Will either Sean Davis or Donte Moncrief miss practice time due to their finger injuries?
Two of the Steelers’ projected starters, wide receiver Donte Moncrief and free safety Sean Davis, suffered finger injuries during team drills in recent practice sessions. While neither of them appeared to be overly serious, at the close of practice it wasn’t clear whether said injuries would cause them to miss any practice time.
The good news on that front is that the team has an off day tomorrow, so that’s at least one day for them to heal. It might not be much, but it’s better than nothing. At least it could help to alleviate any swelling by allowing them to give it a rest for 24 hours.
With Davis sitting out practice, it was first-year college free agent Kameron Kelly as the beneficiary, logging the first-team reps at free safety alongside second-year Terell Edmunds. He has so far been positioning himself reasonably well to make a push toward the 53-man roster.
Diontae Johnson, the rookie, was among the primary beneficiaries of Moncrief’s absence yesterday for the final team session, working with the first-team offense opposite of JuJu Smith-Schuster. But of course everybody at the position will benefit to some degree by getting the chance to move up a peg.
As a veteran, despite the fact that he’s new, the Steelers might be cautious with Moncrief, who has had a good offseason getting himself acclimated to the offense, seeming to be on the ball, so there should be plenty of time for reps if he sits out a bit.
