Don’t judge him too harshly, Steelers’ Nation. But Quincy Roche has a confession. He’s a Baltimore Ravens fan. Wait, let me reword that. He was a Baltimore Ravens fan. Drafted by the black and gold, Roche is quickly making the conversion to bleeding black and gold.
Growing up and still living in Maryland, Roche said his family was full of purple. But he’s defecting.
“I’m in a house full of Ravens’ fans,” Roche said in his Zoom call. “But I told them today, I don’t even want to see the color purple. I got somebody dropping off a Terrible Towel to me tonight. I don’t even want to see the color purple anymore.”
Roche’s mentor growing up was Ed Reed, the Ravens’ Hall of Fame safety. In this article for PressBox, Roche explained how that relationship began.
“I was like, ‘Man, you don’t even know. You’re the reason why I’m even playing football today — you and Ray Lewis, y’all the reason why I even picked up a football and wanted to [play].’”
Roche played football in Eastern PA with Temple before transferring to Miami (FL) for his graduate senior season. Despite average athleticism, he put up big numbers, including 13 sacks in 2019, his final season with the Owls. In his lone year with the Hurricanes, he picked up 4.5 sacks in a scheme that asked him to rush the passer a little less often.
Roche credited Reed for showing him how to carry himself as a professional.
“And that’s one of the things that he preaches — approaching every day like you’re a professional and demanding the best out of your team, because he’s big on leadership and how you affect other people,” he said via PressBox.
Roche was credited as being a leader at Temple and his lone year at Miami. Leadership and high character has been a common theme in Steelers’ draft classes, especially this one. That combination of production and professionalism could turn into a very good value pick for Pittsburgh.
