Former Pittsburgh Steelers TE Jerame Tuman is doing a training camp scouting internship with the team, following in the likes of former players Mark Bruener and Chidi Iwuoma, who joined Pittsburgh in the scouting department after their playing days are over.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Tuman told Steelers.com in Saturday’s Training Camp Blog. “It’s been more than what I anticipated. There have been feelings I didn’t anticipate I would have. On the drive up I started getting nervous, thinking about the conditioning test, the performance aspect, having to make a team. Then I was like, wait a minute, I am here for a scouting internship,” he said.
Tuman seems to be enjoying the scouting experience so far.
“And to do the scouting portion of it, to see what it’s like on the other side of the lines, experiencing all of that has been an unbelievable experience,” he said. “It’s been remarkable.”
He also broke down the differences between playing/coaching and scouting.
“From the scouting side, it’s not just did he get the job done, but what physical attributes and traits did he use to get the job done,” Tuman said. “They look at it from a different lens, a different perspective. But it’s football, it’s competition, and it’s what I enjoy.”
Tuman was a fifth-round pick by Pittsburgh in the 1999 NFL Draft who served primarily as a blocker, catching just 43 balls for 500 yards and seven touchdowns during nine years in Pittsburgh. He finished his career with the Arizona Cardinals in 2008, where he caught three balls for 41 yards in three games played. He was inactive for the team’s Super Bowl loss against Pittsburgh.
After his career, he coached at North Allegheny High School, and that coaching experience can certainly help him as he looks to transition into his next phase of life as a potential scout. Training camp is a great experience to learn on the fly, and there’s always the chance that Tuman could work in a part-time scouting capacity for Pittsburgh like former Steelers Ike Taylor and Merril Hoge are currently doing.
It’s always nice to see team alumni back around the organization and helping out in any sort of capacity. For Tuman, it’s a new experience where he gets to learn and offer some insight to the Steelers’ coaching and scouting staff.
It’s a good time in life for him to take it up, with his youngest daughter, Mia, just having graduated high school and embarking on a volleyball career at Ohio State. As Tuman learns the scouting side, don’t be surprised if he winds up back with Pittsburgh in a scouting capacity, even if in just a part-time role. Omar Khan has been aggressive about adding to the scouting department, and someone like Tuman who knows the organization and is from the area could definitely be a guy the team looks to add.
