The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Will the padded practice actually show up in increased physicality Sunday?
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s anticlimactic revelation that the team would be practicing in pads this week left many slapping their foreheads, given the broader context of what is going on with the team lately.
That doesn’t make padded practices a bad idea in and of itself, of course. It is fair to question how much of an impact it can have to increase a team’s physicality, but perhaps we’ll be able to find out this weekend when the Steelers host the Baltimore Ravens.
As multiple players have confirmed, the team has not practiced in pads since the regular season began, so it’s been a while since they’ve done much hitting outside of games. And to be fair, we’ve long talked about how a decrease in allowable padded practices in the CBA has negative affected quality of play, going back to 2011.
The Steelers had better hope that they get all their physicality juices flowing in time for the Baltimore Ravens because they are consistently one of the most physical teams in the league in the trenches. Finesse is not often a word used to describe those groups.
It won’t help to be without Cameron Heyward along the defensive line. Nor should we expect the world out of Broderick Jones as he makes his first career start. But one way or another, Pittsburgh is going to need to find some guys who can move people. For much of the season, they’ve been on a treadmill.
