The Pittsburgh Steelers wrapped up their first training camp practice of 2023 on Thursday at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. and after the session ended, head coach Mike Tomlin provided a health update of the team.
“Thankfully we didn’t have any health issues today,” Tomlin said. “I think Rodney Williams at tight end got a little bit fatigued via the heat. We’ll evaluate him and see if we can get him back out here tomorrow.”
Williams was a member of the Steelers’ practice squad for the entire 2022 season. He wasn’t, however, with the team at training camp last year. The Steelers don’t have many tight ends on their 90-man roster at the start of training camp so Williams probably needs to get back on the field as quickly as possible. Tomlin spoke about young players needing to be available on Thursday.
“Availability is a big component of this thing, particularly at the early stages,” Tomlin said. “That’s how you get better. You make yourself available, you snap the ball, you work, you repeat the process, and in the midst of that, you analyze and adjust and so forth. And so player availability is big.”
It sounds like Steelers safety Mikah Fitzpatrick didn’t participate much, if any, on Thursday and Tomlin was asked to give a reason for that during his media session.
“Nothing of any significance, man,” Tomlin said of Fitzpatrick. “Sometimes we know a lot about guys. We minimize them in an effort to get to see others. [You] probably didn’t see a lot of Diontae [Johnson]. You probably didn’t see a significant amount of Cam [Heyward]. I mean, there’s gonna be a lot of that in this process. We’ve got 90 guys out here that we’re working to get to know some of them that we really know like a Minkah, sometimes we minimize them in an effort to see others.”
The Steelers opened their 2023 training camp without any players needing to be placed on the team’s Active PUP or NFI lists. That was great news indeed.
The Steelers second training camp practice of 2023 will take place on Friday at Saint Vincent College.
