The Pittsburgh Steelers began mandatory minicamp today, and by all accounts the last team session in practice was pretty competitive. When asked about the spirited nature of practice, starting quarterback Kenny Pickett said that’s how practices have been throughout OTAs and now minicamp.
“It’s been pretty much the whole time, which is a good environment to work and compete against a really good defense. Our guys on offense are showing up and competing as well, so it’s kind of back and forth all day like you guys saw. So it’s been a high level of play,” Pickett said via the team’s official YouTube channel.
When competition is involved, no matter whether or not the other guys are on your team, things are going to be intense. That’s just the nature of sports, from pee-wee up to the pros. If the opportunity to win a rep or win some sort of game or anything that can be won, the stakes are upped and it’ll be competitive.
Competition makes a team better and gives players something to yearn for and play for. With a top-flite defense like Pittsburgh’s coupled with an emerging offense, the stakes are going to be higher. The defense doesn’t want to get beat by a young offense. The offense wants to prove it’s on the same level as the defense despite having guys who haven’t necessarily been in the league as long.
With Pittsburgh trying to play bully ball this year, the level of competition likely gets ramped up as well. While there’s no aggression in terms of being able to hit the quarterback and really bring guys down this early, as no one’s in full pads, bringing that mentality is going to help the Steelers on the field when they can strap it up and go up against a real opponent.
It’s good that things are competitive this early in the offseason. Hopefully that continues to be the case as the team progresses into training camp, preseason and eventually the regular season. Pittsburgh has a chance to be a really solid team this year, and guys going up and competing against one another only makes them better. Iron sharpens iron, and having Pickett go up against a secondary featuring Minkah Fitzpatrick, Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace is going to make him a better quarterback, while the defense will get better having to cover the likes of George Pickens, Diontae Johnson and Allen Robinson II.
The Pittsburgh staff is always good at encouraging competition and making things fun throughout the offseason when it can seem like a bit of a drag during the dog days of summer, and it’s good to see that’s remained so far this offseason. It’s going to make everybody better and just makes things more fun. It’s going to be good to see how the competition helps guys progress and helps the Steelers on the field come Week 1.
