Communication: you either have it or you don’t in the NFL. It’s a hard thing to come by naturally. It must be worked on, cultivated and allowed to grow.
Fortunately for the Pittsburgh Steelers, they seem to have the communication aspect down early in the offseason, even with a bunch of new faces joining their ranks.
One of those new faces is veteran linebacker Patrick Queen. He’ll be wearing the green dot defensively this season, and coming out of Organized Team Activities, he’s feeling very good with where the communication is defensively for the Black and Gold.
“It’s real strong. Everybody is comfortable, everybody is getting it down. That is the biggest thing. That is why our defense is playing so fast right now because everybody is talking, everybody is communicating,” Queen told Steelers.com’s Teresa Varley. “Even when we don’t do the things right, we don’t have any egos. Everybody goes to the situation, and we try to learn from it.”
One can’t glean too much from OTAs, which are nothing more than football in shorts. Though no live contact is permitted, 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are allowed, which gives teams a feel for game-like reps in late May and early June.
The Steelers are taking advantage of that, helping get some new faces up to speed.
For Queen, he not only has to learn a new playbook with new terminology, he also has to learn how to communicate clearly with new teammates, figure out what each teammate needs and how to best reach them on the field. Though it’s not happening in a stadium — and that will be a different experience entirely — getting the reps in now, communicating clearly in a controlled environment and setting that foundation is key.
Of course, this isn’t Queen’s first rodeo as a key communicator defensively, so it’s not some huge task he’s undertaking.
However, it can be challenging in a new situation like Queen is in. In the end, football is football though.
“There is a lot of communication,” Queen added. “When you have the guys we have here, who communicate the way we do, fly to the ball, all the little details the coaches are giving us and put it on the field, you know you have a special group.”
The Steelers are hoping it can be a special group, as the defense is the strength of the team without a doubt. It will likely have to carry the team early in the season as the offense adjusts to a new scheme under coordinator Arthur Smith and new quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields.
Communication will be key, like always.
