After last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers knew they had to make changes at inside linebacker. Enter Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts. Both linebackers were signed this offseason as free agents and having never played together before it is paramount that they gain chemistry.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is well aware of this and made them roommates during training camp at Saint Vincent College.
“Me and E Roberts are super tight, good friends, [we’re] rooming together, so we’re getting real close,” Holcomb said in an interview which was posted to Steelers.com.
What makes Steelers training camp so special is that they travel to Saint Vincent for three weeks and live in the dorms there. Not many teams travel for camp anymore and if they do, they aren’t staying in a college dorm room. This makes training camp harder for Steelers players but also builds bonds in ways training camp at the team’s practice facility could not.
Ever since ILB Ryan Shazier went down with his career ending injury in 2017 the Steelers have been searching for answers at inside linebacker. Devin Bush, Myles Jack, Joe Schobert are all players who have been brought in to try and fix the unit but none have worked out. This year, general manager Omar Khan decided that instead of trying to spackle the wall by adding one new player, he would fully redo it, not re-signing Jack and Bush and adding Holcomb and Roberts.
Time will tell if this works, but if Holcomb and Roberts don’t create chemistry and learn how each other play the new-look Steelers inside linebacker room will not improve. Neither Holcomb nor Roberts possesess any elite traits, and there is a reason they were even allowed to hit free agency. However, that doesn’t mean they can’t be good in a new system.
By being together they can study the playbook before they go to bed and build much needed chemistry just by being around each other all the time. Tomlin knows how to build a team and push the right buttons. With a whole new linebacker room it is vital the starters learn each other’s tendencies and build chemistry. And there is no better way to build chemistry than by living with someone for three weeks.
