The Pittsburgh Steelers return to the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex today for Phase One of voluntary offseason workouts. Phase one will take place over the next two weeks and includes meetings and workouts. Things pick up during Phase 3, which is when organized team activities begin. Pittsburgh’s first OTA session is just over a month away, from May 21-23.
While players have still been working out on their own and together, with Pat Freiermuth talking about his experience working out with Russell Wilson, today is the first day they can get in the facility and work out and hold meetings with the staff. Pittsburgh’s roster, and no NFL team’s roster, is fully fleshed out yet, with the NFL Draft still to come from April 25-27, but the Steelers will at least get a start on planning for next season and becoming more familiar with their personnel.
Pittsburgh is one of 25 teams who will begin their offseason program today, and it’s important to note everything is voluntary up until team minicamps, which for the Steelers takes place June 11-13. However, the Steelers don’t have any holdout candidates this season and it doesn’t seem likely anyone would opt not to show up for some work within the offseason program. Especially with the amount of roster turnover Pittsburgh has had from last year to this year, particularly at the quarterback position, building relationships and camaraderie ahead of the season is going to be extra important ahead of training camp, which will begin sometime in late July.
The better the Steelers get to know each other and get along with their teammates, old and new, the more success they should have on the football field. Wilson getting an early start by working out with Freiermuth is a positive sign, and Justin Fields also worked out with Minkah Fitzpatrick. Team chemistry is one of the hardest, yet most important, things to achieve with a roster as big as they are in the NFL, but getting an early start by building that brotherhood and getting ready and excited for the next season can only be seen as a positive for the Steelers.
We’ll see how the rest of the roster shapes out with the NFL Draft and likely some more free agency moves still to come, but with workouts beginning today, it feels like the NFL season is just getting closer and closer.
