Training Camp

2019 Steelers Training Camp Diary: Day One

And. Here. We. Go. Figuratively and literally. Day One of the 2019 Pittsburgh Steelers training camp is in the books and as always, there’s much to go over. The first two days, before this team gets in pads and the real fun begins, is largely about figuring out where everyone is going to line up. So that’s what much of today is dedicated too.

New this year, as I mentioned last week, is us tracking an approximate amount of yards gained per play. To give you a better feel for what the play was. Short vs medium vs long pass/run. Helps offer additional context.

Proud again to have Touring Plans as a yearly sponsor of Steelers Depot’s training camp coverage. If you’re planning a trip to Disney, this is the team you want to work with. Hit them up on their website at the link here. 

We also have our training camp tip jar at the link here if you’d like to make a donation and support our coverage. It’s not required but always appreciated. Let’s talk about Day One.

– Quick injury overview as we’ll always lead these off with. Not much to note. Which is good. No TJ Watt (PUP – hamstring). Backup OLB JT Jones did seem to come up a little hobbled after the first special teams session with some sort of lower body injury. But he looked no worse for wear by the next drill and finished practice. Should he be unavailable tomorrow though, that’s probably why.

– Beautiful day on campus. Fan friendly environment as it always is. More concession items, a picnic area as you walk on, and places to take photos, win prizes, and be put in a raffle for tickets. Really cool stuff. As other teams are staying home and closing their doors to fans, the Steelers seem to be making themselves all the more accessible.

– First players on the field? You know we love to track that stuff. Four of them coming down at the same time at 2:31 PM before the 2:55 official start of practice. They were: quarterbacks Devlin Hodges and Josh Dobbs and tight ends Zach Gentry and Trevor Wood.

– Most of the roster came out nine minutes later at 2:40. Ben Roethlisberger walked down with the entire starting offensive line and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Perhaps a sign of solidarity and a message of “this is a team.”

– Disappointment of the day? There was no crossbar challenge between Roethlisberger and Maurkice Pouncey, a staple of the pre-practice warmups. Hope for better news tomorrow.

– Pretty busy amount of work before the first horn even sounded. Quarterbacks getting loose, Devlin Hodges threw to TE Kevin Rader while Dobbs tossed a few to rookie back Travon McMillan and Xavier Grimble hit the JUGS machine for a few minutes. Matthew Wright and Ian Berryman played some catch. Specialists who work together stay together.

– If you’re wondering, rookie OLB Sutton Smith, who played some fullback in the spring, is wearing a yellow defenders jersey. No surprise there and he of course could – and probably will – play fullback at some point in camp, but just a heads up. No fullback for him today.

– Safety Marcelis Branch was the early bird. On the far end of the field, he spent a few minutes catching on the JUGS machine too.  It was a precursor of what was to come. Early in practice, new defensive assistant Teryl Austin put all the defensive backs on the JUGS machine. It went like this.

Five receptions of planting and driving downhill. Half speed, nothing too crazy, but getting closer to the machine each time. Work on playing off coverage, finding the ball, and driving on it. They did nine more going side to side. Jog left, catch, jog right, catch. Back and forth, each player, until the line was complete. The defense jumped on the JUGS machine after practice too. Vince Williams was the first man on it and they rotated through.

This was a defense who dropped too many passes last year. And the coaches know it. Good sign.

Mike Tomlin, as he often does, out there wearing a long sleeve black shirt and black pants. Symbolic gesture for the players dealing with the heat and oh yeah, it was a hot one today.

James Daniel riding solo this year. When John Mitchell was the DL coach, those two would come down on the golf cart together. Last year, he and Karl Dunbar made the trek down. Today? Daniel by himself, minus the staff member driving the cart. But he still has that staple straw hat he likes to wear.

– Here is how the offensive lines looked, first through third team. This was consistent from warmups into team sessions.

First Team: Alejandro Villanueva-Ramon Foster-Maurkice Pouncey-David DeCastro-Matt Feiler
Second Team: Jerald Hawkins-Patrick Morris-BJ Finney-Fred Johnson-Chukwuma Okorafor
Third Team: Damian Prince-Garrett Brumfield-JC Hassenauer-Derwin Gray-Zach Banner

Nothing that’ll make your jaw hit the floor. Intent seems to be to give Finney more reps at center than in the past, though you can assume he’ll play some guard too. Gray is at right guard with Prince at left tackle. Relatively new positions for those two guys. Prince played RT at Maryland with Gray on the blindside for the Terps.

– Random fan to JuJu after catching a pass in warmups. “Antonio loves you!” The only mention of a certain #84 I heard all day. I can live with that.

– Another fixture of early camp practices. His Holiness, the Steelers Pope, was in attendance.

– Wide receivers mix and match more than any position group so their depth chart is a lot more fluid than any other position. But the 11 personnel grouping with the 1’s in warmups were Donte Moncrief as the X, James Washington as the Z, and JuJu in the slot. That’s probably the team’s goal for Week One. We’ll see if the players earn it.

– New offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett sported a black t-shirt and black shorts today. Very similar feel to how things were run under Mike Munchak. Lot of attention to working on stunt pickup, one of the biggest specific differences Munchak made early on in practice. Sarrett is much more vocal than Munchak was. You can hear and feel Sarrett’s presence much more. But it’s not the cliche coach yelling – “BLOCK SOMEBODY!” – as I’m sure a high school coach you had was prone to do. It’s all instructional, all constructive.

And like past years, and this is super critical, the linemen split into two groups. Sarrett worked with the interior linemen, guards and centers, while assistant Adrian Klemm worked with the tackles. Smaller group to work with, more specific drills to those positions, and you can maximize reps. Huge element of why this offensive line grew so much under Munchak. They maximized the reps they’re afforded by the CBA. Work smarter, not harder.

– The punt return line. In order: Eli Rogers, Ryan Switzer, Diontae Johnson, Diontae Spencer, Cam SuttonJoe Haden. Haden seemed to be halfway in the drill. Don’t think he got all the reps the other did. Returners worked on your normal, standing punt (finding the ball, getting under it, square, quick first step forward) but also worked on a turn element. Back turned to the ball, a call for it, the player would run to his spot, flip around, locate the ball, and field it.

Most players caught the ball cleanly without issue. Haden misjudged one, letting it come too low and bounce off his fingertips.

Ben Roethlisberger jokingly got in line for a return. Looked like he was going to field it and then watched it hit the ground without any effort of making the catch. Which I’m more than ok with. I don’t want #7 to try to field anything this summer.

– Something else new this year though it’s a minor thing. Perhaps a better way for players to get stretched out and avoid soft tissue injuries. Dozen of foam rollers were placed on the field for when the team got in the stretch line. Everyone participated minus TJ Watt, who donned his yellow #90 jersey as he stood on the sidelines, and Ben Roethlisberger, who goes through a game of toss with one of the strength & conditoning coaches. Focusing on warming up his arm.

– Changing of the guard. Conditioning assistant Marcel Pastoor would always personally stretch out AB before each practice. Now? He’s in charge of getting JuJu ready to go.

– The defensive backs, as they did last year, still go through their handshake line, a special greeting for each player. Nice element of team bonding to get through camp.

– Here are some of the drills second year WRs coach Darryl Drake put his guys through.

#1: Receiver lays flat on his stomach, ball in hand. Coach starts the drill and the player has to get up and secure the football as two assistants, including new intern William Gay, try to punch the ball out with the Rich Eisen favorite football on a stick.

#2: Player has to run under a chute for his release and then receive a pass. Focus on the release, staying low and exploding up. Don’t want to get too tall and let the DB into your chest.

#3: Rip release through one of the big dummies (they look like this, only completely red in color). Help to beat press coverage, focusing on your feet, jabbing one way, coming back the other, and exploding through.

– Tight end sled blocking. Personal favorite of mine and often, Coach Tomlin, though he spent that portion of practice today carefully watching the running backs catch the ball. Instead, it was just TE coaches James Daniel and area scout Mark Gorscak.

To his credit, though not perfect, Christian Scotland-Williamson looked better. Which is what you want and frankly, would expect. More power, better leg drive. The rookies, as they tend to do, had a bit of an issue. I’ve seen worse but Daniel made Zach Gentry and Trevor Wood go through the drill multiple times. Both players need to do a better job of keeping their head up and not getting flatback when they make contact.

– Another new drill. For the running backs carrying the ball. Weave through and over pads on the ground, run under a chute, and the coaches would skip a huge dummy at their feet, forcing them to read and quickly jump cut the other way. Lot of areas being worked there. Feet, flexibility, anticipation, ability to read and react.

– The wideouts in the “first team” group, who all caught passes from Big Ben were: Eli Rogers, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington, Ryan Switzer, Donte Moncrief, Diontae Johnson, Vance McDonald, and Xavier Grimble. The rest worked with the three backup QBs.

– Roethlisberger and Smith-Schuster had a relatively long discussion after JuJu ran a five yard speed out (on air, no DBs involved). Wanted to work on one little detail of it. Not quite sure what it was. But they ran the same play a few moments later.

– Roethlisberger testing his younger, newer receivers. Went through the route tree. Fade route at the opponents 40. Progressed into the red zone with fade routes. Then 15 yard digs into the back of the end zone. For Washington and Switzer, Ben intentionally threw them very high, like Tacko Fall was covering them. Both guys skied for the ball and made the catch, Switzer leaping into the air and tumbling down while securing the ball. Thankfully, Roethlisberger threw a bit lower to McDonald, a little over his head, and he made the catch. #89 is not someone I want to witness leaping into the air this summer.

– During special teams sessions, Dobbs, Rudolph, and Hodges worked on the middle field getting in some extra throws. Working on their drops. Seven step drops with two hitches and then the ball came out.

– JuJu Smith-Schuster and Donte Moncrief chatted up Coach Drake for a good portion of one of the ST periods. James Conner would join them after a few minutes.

Danny Smith as loud as ever. Preached the importance of staying square.

– Not much specialist work today for the kickers and punters. Ian Berryman boomed a couple on the middle field at one point. But light work for them.

– Some brief 7v7 work from later on in practice. Two highlights to share with you all.

– JuJu made a diving catch deep down the left sideline, a good throw from Roethlisberger, working on Steven Nelson.

– Burns with a good day of work. Offered very tight coverage on Washington on a similar go ball down the right sideline. Incomplete, off Washington’s right hand.

– Wow, already 2000 words into this thing and we haven’t hit up any of the team sessions. So let’s do that.

First Team Session (7 shots)

1. How this team has begun each team session for years. Ball placed on the two yard line. Steelers open up with four wide receivers on the field. Get used to seeing that this year. Defense responded with their dime defense. Joe Haden at LCB, Steven Nelson RCB, Mike HIlton slot, and Cam Sutton in dime. Believe Vince Williams was the lone ILB on the field.

Anthony Chickillo replaced Watt as the first team LOLB opposite Bud Dupree. On the play, Roethlisberger fired a quick out route to Smith-Schuster for the score.

2. Another quick out to the left from Ben complete to James Conner. Touchdown. Defense in nickel, Mark Barron couldn’t close quite in time.

3. Empty set. Everything well defended by the defense, nothing available. Roethlisberger pumped, moved slightly to his right, before giving up and spiking the football at his feet. Win for the defense.

4. The first team d-line. It’s obvious, I know, but I like to be thorough. Stephon Tuitt-Javon Hargrave-Cam Heyward. Mark Barron next to Williams at ILB. I’m pretty sure this was a touchdown and oh boy, was it a nice one. Corner fade to McDonald who posted up Steven Nelson and make a sick one-handed grab with his right arm and pulled the ball in. Roethlisberger with the TD pass.

I take that back. I am ok with McDonald leaping in August. It’s that pretty.

5. Josh Dobbs checks in. This got ugly. Not a terribly thrown ball but a jump ball nonetheless in the left corner of the end zone for James Washington. Brian Allen jumped into the air, high pointed the ball, and recorded a pretty interception. Hard to ask for a better start than that for him.

6. Next play. Dobbs wants to hit Jaylen Samuels in the left flat at the goal line like Roethlisberger did to Dobbs but Cam Sutton isn’t having it. Jumped the route and picked the ball, waltzing into his line of defensive teammates standing behind the play. Back-to-back picks for the defense. They had 20 last year.

7. There was some pressure here, perhaps not the cleanest pocket and hey, maybe the receiver didn’t run the best route. But TE Christian Scotland-Williamson was WIDE open. I was closer to him than any defender. And Dobbs threw it five yards over his head as the ball sailed out of bounds.

Defense wins the day, 4-3. We’ll tally the daily and camp totals of these ones each day.

Seven Shot Wins

Defense: 4
Offense: 3

Second Team Session

1. Now Devin Bush jumps in with the first team next to Williams. Ball at the Steelers own 42. Screen to the right, Roethlisberger complete to Conner. Gain of eight.

2. Pressure flushes Roethlisberger to his right. Donte Moncrief works hard to come back from the ball along the sideline but couldn’t finish the play and remain inbounds, the ball skimming through his hands and incomplete. Devin Bush was plastering the RB underneath and forced the more difficult throw.

3. Sean Davis and Terrell Edmunds, as expected, your 1st team safeties. McDonald split out wide left with JuJu in the slot to the right next to Moncrief. Hard count gets the defense to jump. Ben finds JuJu on a dig over the middle. Pickup of about 11.

4. More rotation at ILB (told you it was going to happen). Barron and Bush at ILB. Moncrief and JuJu the receivers with Roosevelt Nix sidecar next to Ben in the shotgun. Roethlisberger again wants Smith-Schuster on a dig but a more challenging throw. JuJu pokes out his right hand but the ball bounces off of it. Sean Davis was closing in quickly downhill. Incomplete.

5.  Second team OLBs are JT Jones at LOLB and Ola Adeniyi at ROLB. The d-line? Left to right. Lavon Hooks-Daniel McCullers-Tyson Alualu. Dobbs at QB. Flushed out. Tyler Matakevich takes a good angle and forces him out of bounds around the LOS. Tomlin praised Dirty Red’s hustle after the play. Again, good coverage forced the tuck-and-run.

6. Second team ILBs. Matakevich and Tegray Scales. Artie Burns at LCB, Brian Allen at RCB. Marcus Allen at FS, Kameron Kelly at FS. RPO. Dobbs complete to Washington. Burns with a bit of a shove sends the receiver stumbling into the ground. Gain of five.

7. Cam Sutton rotating in at RCB, spelling Allen, opposite Burns. Sutton got work in the slot and at RCB, which has been pretty standard since he entered the league. More sticky defensive coverage. Dobbs looks for Diontae Johnson along the right side but incomplete. Burns covering. Adeniyi beat Kevin Rader around the edge to apply some pressure.

8. Now Allen is back in at RCB. Dobbs short throw over the middle for Trey Griffey but the ball is through his hands, a clear drop.

9. JT Jones with a random first team rep and he even seemed surprised by it. Jumped in late. Vince and Barron at iLB. Roethlisberger wanted to hit McDonald on an out ‘n up but it was well defended. Settled for a tough throw underneath caught by JuJu despite Mike Hilton’s best efforts to punch the ball out. Gain of 3.

10. Playaction. Roethlisberger had an open Eli Rogers running a post deep downfield to split the two high safeties but it’s too hard out in front and incomplete.

11. Empty set. Quick throw by Roethlisberger complete to McDonald. Hilton quickly there to smack into him. Just a gain of two yards.

12. PJ Locke and Jordan Dangerfield running third team safety (is Danger in Danger?). Sutton Smith LOLB opposite Tuzar Skipper. Defense again jumped. Mason Rudolph fires a quick curl to Diontae Spencer for the completion. Gain of eight. Herb Waters at LCB had the coverage.

13. Third team ILB pairing of 6th round pick Ulysees Gilbert III and Robert Spillane. Greg Gilmore – hello, old friend – in at nose tackle. Rudolph again on a curl complete to WR Johnny Holton. Ten yard pickup.

14. Here’s your full third team d-line: Casey Sayles-Greg Gilmore-Isaiah Buggs. Sutton Smith comes in free off the left edge (offense’s right) and pressures Rudolph, forcing an overthrow on a crossing route intended for Spencer. Brian Allen nearly had his 2nd pick of the day.

15. Kameron Kelly now getting work in the slot. Waters at RCB. Short throw from Rudolph complete to Ryan Switzer before the receiver is bear-hugged by Gilbert III. Call it a gain of six.

Third Team Session

1. Ball on their own 39. Vince Williams coming in on an ILB blitz. Hurried throw from Ben to Conner in the left flat. Edmunds came in to touch him up. Just a gain of three.

2. Designed quick throw from Roethlisberger for Jaylen Samuels to the left flat. Similar outcome only this time, Joe Haden was first man there. I’ll be generous and call it a pickup of four yards.

3. Tuitt and Hargrave as the only two down linemen (Cam Heyward was watching closely on the side). Roethlisberger checkdown to Moncrief on a curl. Gain of six. Good pressure from Chickillo forced the ball out.

4. Bush and Barron at ILB. Roethlisberger wants to hit Conner on a checkdown working right to left but Bush – as you see in the header photo of this article – swats it away. Nice play by the rook, his first real impact play of the summer.

5. Jones and Adeniyi at OLB. Burns and Allen at CB. Checkdown from Rudolph to backup RB Ralph Webb. YAC makes it a gain of 12. Devin Bush ran full speed at him in the open field, grazing the back of Webb’s jersey before doing a forward flip on his way to the ground.

6. Matakevich and Scales again paired at ILB. Burns and Allen on the outside at corner, Sutton in the slot. Five yard out from Rudolph to Washington complete before Burns could close. Gain of four.

7. Nice blitz pickup by Webb on the rushing ILB. Adeniyi though got pressure and basically busted up the play. Wish Rudolph would’ve kept playing to the whistle. Sorta gave up then realized the coaches weren’t going to blow it dead and jogged his way over the line of scrimmage before the play was mercifully over.

8. Switzer, Johnson, Washington trips right. Rudolph had Johnson open on a short curl but like he had issue with in college, the rookie wideout took his eyes off the ball to try and get upfield. Dropped the ball. They all drop passes but I want to see more attention to detail from him.

9. Now it’s Rogers/JuJu/Moncrief trips right. High throw from Ben to Moncrief but he pulls it in. Gain of six.

10. Bush and Vince at ILB. Chickillo beat Feiler pretty bad inside and got pressure. Roethlisberger complete over the middle to JuJu to the opposing 45. Gain of 16.

11. Washington and Johnson on the outside (Johnson as the X) with Eli in the slot. First run of camp, inside zone to Benny Snell. Barron first one to grab a piece of the rookie’s jersey. Five yard rush.

12. Third team defense partially consisting of: Gilbert III and Spillane at ILB, Smith and Skipper at OLB, Dangerfield and Locke at S, and Waters and Justin Layne at CB. Devlin Hodges gets in on the action, his first pass. It’s a good one. He climbs the pocket and hits Spencer over the middle, similar as to JuJu’s catch on play #10, for a 21 yard completion. Hooray.

13. Empty set out of 12 personnel. Scotland-Williamson and Zach Gentry at TE along with Rosie Nix. Stick route to the right complete  from Hodges to Gentry.

14. Nothing open for Hodges. He takes off, he can scoot a little bit, and attempted to make a Roethlisberger-like play, pitching it to Benny Snell after he had run five yards downfield. Except he threw it forward. Illegally. Oops.

15. Hard count from the rookie Hodges gets the D to jump again. Five yard completion from Hodges to Washington on a curl. Waters had the coverage.

Fourth Team Session

1. Vince and Bush at ILB. Roethlisberger complete to JuJu on an out route to the left side. Gain of eight.

2. Moncrief/JuJu on the outside with Switzer aligned in the slot. Short toss run to Conner. Javon Hargrave shedded David DeCastro to make the stop. Little hard to see the gain but I have it down as a three yard dive.

3. Same wide receiver grouping. Long ball from Ben to JuJu. Smith-Schuster beat Haden down the right sideline. Big gainer. 43 yard pickup.

4. Samuel carry off the right side. Looked like Stephon Tuitt came flying in backside with a loud POP! enough to knock Vince Williams off his feet and sprawling onto the ground. Gain of one.

5. Kameron Kelly and Marcus Allen at safety. Snell a short carry for 3-4 yards. Daniel McCullers helped move the o-line back. Matakevich first one on the stop. Snell, a big ball of energy, sprints another 65 yards into the end zone to finish the run.

6. Screen left from Dobbs to Webb. Three yard gain. “Gotta rip that ball out” a coach/player yelled after the play.

7. Nice timing throw from Dobbs to Washington on a corner route near the right sideline. Shoved out by Marcus Allen. Gain of 20. OLB JT Jones got pushed wide upfield on the play.

8. Inside zone left side, Webb on the carry. Gilmore came across and tagged him from behind for a five yard pickup.

9. Vince and Barron at ILB. Hank route (five yard curl) from Ben to McDonald. Little YAC after before first touch and we’ll call it a pickup of 7.

10. Roethlisberger, after Bush broke up an earlier throw, puts the ball a little further away from Jaylen Samuels on the same route concept. Complete and Samuels shows some burst to run away and into the open field before whistled dead. Short throw but the YAC turns it into a 20 yard pickup. Nice.

11. Roethlisberger complete to Switzer for eight. Feiler praised for sealing Chickillo upfield.

12. Playaction from Hodges, checking down underneath to Trey Edmunds with no one fooled over the top. Skipper couldn’t punch the ball out. Three yard pickup.

13. Sayles/Gilmore/Buggs along the defensive line. Edmunds toes the rock left side. Spillane flying into the gap to bounce the run and Buggs wraps him up. No gain.

14. Toss right to Malik Williams. Backup linemen Winston Craig and Henry Mondeaux around the ball. Give him a pickup of a yard.

15. Spencer and Holton at WR. Out route from Hodges complete to TE Kevin Rader. Sutton Smith covering. Gain of nine to their own 41. Last day of practice.

– Last couple post-practice thoughts. Lot of work being down after the final whistle. Drake, like last year, made the receivers do push-ups, presumably for drops in practice. Had to do almost 50 last year. Much easier end this time. Maybe 10.

– Hard to pinpoint the specific names because it feels like everyone is doing something after practice. Matakevich working on his releases on the punt coverage unit. JuJu and Dobbs playing catch (JuJu would later be mobbed for autographs along the fence line near the bleachers). The defense on the JUGS machine like I mentioned earlier. Work doesn’t stop.

Final Thoughts

– Like to use this as a bit of the TL;DR version.

– Limited look but I like Snell’s hands as a receiver. Catches the ball cleanly in drills. Hard to get a feel for the backs as runners with them still being in pads and only a handful of run calls today.

– Another big year for McDonald in store. Isolating him, spreading the field out, winning horizontally and vertically. And expect 4/5 receivers on the field at points this year. The fact the first play of the practice had 4 WRs is a very clear message.

– Not a great day for Josh Dobbs. Two picks, one terrible overthrow in 7 shots, and nothing special happening the rest of the day? Gotta be better. Gotta be quicker and more accurate.

– Maybe because he’s just surrounded by a bunch of short slot receivers but I like Johnny Holton’s makeup. Big, long strider, looks like a vertical threat. We’ll see if he can work in some reps.

– With all the WRs on the roster and guys who need to soak up reps, not many chances for Tevin Jones and Trey Griffey. One target for them (Griffey’s drop) today in team drills and I barely remember even seeing them on the field in those situations. Tough climb.

– Ho-hum, Chickillo put in good work today. As he always does this time of year.

– As anticipated, heavy rotation at ILB with Vince Williams, Mark Barron, and Devin Bush. Expect that to continue as they flesh out that group. Don’t overreact to any one day. Give it at least a week for a little bit of clarity.

– Another Steeler who performed well? Artie Burns. Give it up for him. But not a shock either. His camps are generally positive. Good coverage today.

– Brian Allen recording that pick in 7 shots was an awesome moment. Hope it just isn’t the only moment of his camp.

– Quiet day for the safeties but they didn’t have a lot of chances to make plays. Kameron Kelly’s safety/slot versatility is interesting and certainly won’t hurt him.

– After tomorrow’s practice, I’ll write up a rough depth chart to give you a better and clearer view of how things look right now.


St. Vincent Snapshot

Team showed off the history of their jerseys as you walked into the campus. Two on the left are from 1933 and 1934. The #81 is more from the 50s, the #75 obviously from the 70s, and the #91 present day.

Twitter Camp Question

Taking one question from my Twitter timeline each day to answer on here. Of course, feel free to ask your questions below. Will do my best to answer them all.

Probably not a great day getting postered by McDonald and the other long completion he gave up but it’s just one Day. I’m not worried about him. Not going to try to evaluate anyone after just one practice, ya know?

Steelers Highlight (You Probably Don’t Remember)

I’ve dug up 15 random Steelers’ highlights. And I mean random. From all eras, sides of the ball, and outcomes. Just a trip down Nostalgia Road.

2003. Week One, the high point of an otherwise terrible 6-10 season. Ed Reed is a Hall of Famer but on this snap, he guessed TE Jay Riemersma was the bigger threat than Hines Ward. Ed Reed was very, very wrong. 28 yard touchdown for Ward to put the Steelers up 27-0. They’d go on to win 34-15.

Bob Belcher Quote Of The Day

“All right, listen. You’re my children and I love you. But you’re all terrible at what you do here, and I feel like I should tell you, I’d fire all of you if I could.”

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