Tomlin on Steelers final OTA session

[SteelCrazy]

Opening Comment: We did good work today in less than ideal weather conditions. Oftentimes in the fall and winter when we are working in our stadium, it is in less than ideal weather conditions. It was a good simulation day for us. We did a little red-zone work. I liked the energy and enthusiasm with the group. But all in all, it was just a good work day. We will push forward into next week with our next opportunity to take the grass and get better.

Any update on Ben Roethlisberger?
No. I released a statement post-surgery yesterday. There’s nothing new to add. He’s resting comfortably at home. We will get him in the building next week and proceed.

Re: Chemistry of quarterbacks without Ben Roethlisberger:
It’s football in shorts. It’s June, so we won’t read too much into that. Those guys made good use of the extra snaps provided for them today. That’s what this is about. This is a teach camp. It’s an opportunity for those guys to get more reps, and they did a nice job taking advantage of it.

Do you feel there is a gap in the team with Ben being gone?
Again, it’s June. So we aren’t overly concerned with that to be honest with you. We are undefeated like everybody else in the NFL.

[url]http://www.steelers.com/news/article-1/Tomlin-on-Steelers-final-OTA-session/340e3fa0-82e5-4b38-8342-3e92cd069a46[/url]

[hawaiiansteel]

Robinson: Steelers coach Tomlin says it’s time to shape up

By Alan Robinson
Saturday, June 8,2013

Fit and finish.

It's a Motor City term for how well a car goes together — do the hood and fenders blend together seamlessly? Does the dashboard rattle and shake? Was the carpet installed without seams showing, or was it thrown down as an afterthought?

What's evident during the Steelers' offseason practices is that coach Mike Tomlin didn't like the fit and finish of his 2012 model team.

He didn't believe it was fit, and he certainly didn't like how it finished games.

The Steelers' five losses by three points all occurred as the result of their uneven fourth quarters. They meant the difference between a team that was 8-8 despite splitting a pair of three-point games with the Super Bowl champion Ravens and one that might have gone 12-4 for a third consecutive season.

Talk about the fine line Bill Cowher always discussed.

“Four games we should have won. Do that, and we're 12-4, but that's how the league goes,” linebacker Larry Foote said. “The year before, we made the playoffs and we could have lost four games. The bottom line is we lost some games that we should have won and we didn't.”

The four games he likely meant were the losses to the Raiders (34-31), Titans (26-23), Browns (20-14) and/or the Ravens home game (13-10) and the overtime Cowboys game (27-24). The Steelers led in the fourth quarter of the Raiders, Titans and Cowboys games, plus a season-opening loss to the Broncos.

Given how incessantly Tomlin has preached the importance of conditioning this spring — it has been a daily theme, according to his players — he apparently believes that a lack of conditioning contributed to those close losses last season, plus the numerous injuries.

During postseason interviews in January, team president Art Rooney II emphasized that the organization's conditioning regimen would be examined. Apparently, it was, given the Steelers' adjustments to their daily practice routine.

“Conditioning has gone up a notch,” Foote said. “Everybody has to do stress tests. We're trying to get after it.”

Specifically, running back Isaac Redman said, “Before practice, we do a little different routine, try to get our bodies warmed up and not try to run right into practice, to try to prevent those little hamstring injuries. I've never done that since we've been here. It's kind of a new thing. It's working out. We don't see too many hamstring (problems).”

Of course, it's very early. But it was late in the games last season when the Steelers struggled, and it somewhat perpetuated the thinking among some in the NFL that an aging team had peaked and is past its prime.

They outscored their opponents, 91-70, in the fourth quarter, but that's a misleading statistic. Of their 16 lost fumbles, six came in the fourth quarter, as did six of their 14 interceptions.

And there's this: Steelers opponents threw only one touchdown pass and had four interceptions in the first quarter but had five TD passes and two interceptions in the fourth.

And Steelers opponents threw 12 touchdown passes and only one interception and completed seven passes of 25 yards or more when losing. By comparison, the Steelers had 12 touchdown passes but 10 interceptions when behind.

Apparently as a result, players said Tomlin has emphasized the necessity of being a more disciplined team that controls the ball, the clock and the lead in the fourth quarter. That's where conditioning partly comes in because tired teams often are mistake-prone teams.

“The plan starting now is to have discipline in the fourth quarter of games,” safety Ryan Clark said.

Better late than never.

[URL]http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/...#ixzz2Viy29Ks1[/URL]

[Mister Pittsburgh]

Has Tomlin ever said anything at all interesting? I have never heard someone say so much, with so little learned by what they are saying.

[Oviedo]

Has Tomlin ever said anything at all interesting? I have never heard someone say so much, with so little learned by what they are saying.

Which is exactly his intent. No different than Bellichek.

Tomlin recognizes that the media is a necessary evil. They add nothing to what he is trying to accomplish and he has zero obligation to provide them insights so message board warriors such as ourselves have something to talk about.

[thor75]

Robinson: Steelers coach Tomlin says it’s time to shape up
Specifically, running back Isaac Redman said, “Before practice, we do a little different routine, try to get our bodies warmed up and not try to run right into practice, to try to prevent those little hamstring injuries. I've never done that since we've been here. It's kind of a new thing. It's working out. We don't see too many hamstring (problems).”

[URL]http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/...#ixzz2Viy29Ks1[/URL]

I find this very surprising. Little to no warm-up? I would think this probably accounts for a lot of the muscle pulls and tendon injuries that has been plaguing them. Glad to see they are implementing some corrective actions.
Seems a lot of teams are planning for more up tempo games this offseason, the emphasis on conditioning could pay off.

[squidkid]

Has Tomlin ever said anything at all interesting? I have never heard someone say so much, with so little learned by what they are saying.

yet you have 'fans' on here gushing over his talk, interpreting it and using his dumb ass cliches. so obviously it fools some people

[Shawn]

I find this very surprising. Little to no warm-up? I would think this probably accounts for a lot of the muscle pulls and tendon injuries that has been plaguing them. Glad to see they are implementing some corrective actions.
Seems a lot of teams are planning for more up tempo games this offseason, the emphasis on conditioning could pay off.

I was thinking the same thing, practice with little to no warm up? Are these guys not professionals? Sounds insane to me.

[Shawn]

yet you have 'fans' on here gushing over his talk, interpreting it and using his dumb ass cliches. so obviously it fools some people

"We're living in the here and now."
"I'm a people watcher, I'm not used to people watching me."

[Slapstick]

yet you have 'fans' on here gushing over his talk, interpreting it and using his dumb ass cliches. so obviously it fools some people

Speakng of dumb ass cliches...

[hawaiiansteel]

Sly to the outside and other tidbits from Day 2 of Steelers minicamp

June 12th, 2013
Mark Kaboly | Tribune-Review



The second day of Steelers minicamp is in the books with only an abbreviated walk-through scheduled for Thursday (Hat Day). The Steelers will then have off six weeks until they report to St. Vincent College in Latrobe on July 26.

Before I get into football stuff, here are some tidbits for you that came out of Minicamp 2:

• Tackle Mike Adams was at the facility on Wednesday for the first time since being stabbed during an attempted carjacking on the South Side two weeks ago. Adams was not made available to the media, but appeared to be in good spirits and good shape. It’s very likely that he will be 100 percent for the start of training camp.

• Once again, former Steelers were on hand helping coaching in Rod Woodson, Jason Gildon, Rod Rutherford and Mike Tomczak. Also, former offensive lineman Oliver Ross was helping as well. Throw in BLESTO scout Chidi Iwuoma and scout Mark Breuner along with former Pro Bowl center Jeff Hartings and former linebacker out of North Braddock Bill Priatko making a visit, and the Steelers’ facility was crawling with past players.

* It sure was interesting seeing Clairton prep coach Tom Nola – owner of 63 consecutive wins, five straight WPIAL titles and four consecutive PIAA titles – talking to defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau during a break in practice.

“We have one less win in a row than you have interceptions,” Nola quipped. And if you know Nola, that was indeed a quip.

* The Steelers pushed up practice by approximately 30 minutes in order to beat the impending rain that was forecasted. However, it never did rain. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

OK, now here is what I got out from two half-hour sessions in the locker room:

• Linebacker coach Keith Butler said during the draft in April that this would be Stevenson Sylvester’s last chance to make an impression on the team.

That impression is going to have to come from the outside.

The fourth-year linebacker out of Utah, who has played exclusively inside linebacker, has been switched to outside linebacker.

Sylvester said he wasn’t told why the move. He said he didn’t ask as well.

“I am just doing whatever they tell me,” Sylvester said. “If they want me to go outside, I’ll go outside. If they want me to go inside, I’ll go inside.”

Sylvester played inside linebacker in college and rotated to the outside for sub-packages, but never really played the position that requires him to rush the passer.

“I am still learning,” Sylvester said. “I have a lot of friends that play outside linebacker – I train with Paul Kruger in Utah in offseason. I am learning a lot of different stuff from a lot of different people and just from watching film. LaMarr Woodley and even James Harrison from the past helped me and even Chris Carter and Jason Worilds – they have amazing first steps and I am trying to learn that.”

Sylvester said he has worked inside and outside since coming to the Steelers. While it is impossible for me to see every snap he took during the spring, I figured I’d ask him if he took any reps inside over the past month?

“No … well, um, not really,” he said.

• How many times do you hear how important it is for an offensive line to have chemistry? Too many, right?

Well, the Steelers offensive linemen are taking this chemistry thing to another level.

“We started to wear the same pair of shoes to look like each other,” guard Ramon Foster said. “They are regular linemen cleats. We are going to wear the same shoe as part of our unity. We have been criticized and scrutinized for years and it is time for us to be a dominant force.”

• Shamarko Thomas is learning a lot from both safeties Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu that’s inspired him. But nothing inspired the rookie out of Syracuse more than the day he got drafted. That’s when he got calls from both Clark and Polamalu.

“They left me voicemails welcoming me,” Thomas said. “After that, I was so pumped up I wanted to go and work out.”

• We all thought that when the Steelers signed William Gay in the offseason that he would naturally fit into the slot when the Steelers went to the nickel.

Well, that’s not the way secondary coach Carnell Lake views it.

Lake plans on the bigger and more physical Cortez Allen sliding over into the slot in the nickel and replace him at corner with Gay.

Why?

“For a tall defensive back, Cortez does a very good job in man-to-man and especially bump-and-run and he has quick enough feet to handle the slot receivers,” Lake said. “Some of the time we are getting two tight end sets where they use their athletic tight end in the slot and Cortez’s size matches up well with that. He has a lot of versatility and a lot of range and he can play outside, inside, press-man, off coverage and he is smart enough to handle them all and that’s why I like him.”

It’s not just Lake who continues to praise Allen.

I asked Polamalu, Clark, Ike Taylor and William Gay about him, and to a man, they gushed.

• Speaking of the secondary, in case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t much in the way of depth behind Polamalu and Clark.

In reality, the Steelers are paper thin at the safety position behind the two Pro Bowl safeties. They have DaMon Cromartie-Smith, Robert Golden, Ross Ventrone and Thomas – all four combined have zero career starts.

“I definitely felt a lot more comfortable last year because I knew that the guys knew what they were doing,” said Lake, who lost Ryan Mundy and Will Allen to free agency. “It was a matter of getting the younger guys caught up. That will be the excitement for me, sort of keeping me on my toes at training camp but also to see who is going to come out of this young group of safeties to shine.”

• We haven’t heard much about the new rule the NFL implemented that penalizes a running back for using the crown of his helmet while 3 yards outside the tackle box.

So, I did some snooping and asked some people on what they thought of the rule.

Kirby Wilson: “We are aware of it but we are not going to over-coach it, because it’s going to really be a minor deal in terms of how they play the game. They are going to run and still attack defenders, but it’s just that you are going to protect yourself when being tackled. It’s just that you can’t attack people with the crown of your head. We all understand that. It’s a safety issue that everyone is concerned about. We are not going to over-coach it. They understand what they can’t do with the crown. It won’t change on how they protect themselves and how they attack potential tacklers.”

Jonathan Dwyer: “I really don’t use mine but obviously they are looking out for the safety of the players. We don’t teach that here. We are taught to use your shoulder and if we do that, we will be fine.”

Isaac Redman: “Kirby hasn’t mentioned it at all. We have to wait and see until the NFL comes in and show exactly what they want us to do. Right now, I really don’t even understand it. Even so, I don’t think it is going to affect the way I run. I don’t put my head down.”

LaRod Stephens-Howling: “It is going to be something that is rough because when you get to the end of you run, it is kind of reactionary to get more yards. I guess it will be where they draw the line.”

And there you have it.

See you in Latrobe

[URL]http://blog.triblive.com/steel-mill/2013/06/12/sly-to-the-outside-and-other-tid-bits-from-day-2-of-steelers-minicamp/[/URL]

[bostonsteeler]

I find this very surprising. Little to no warm-up? I would think this probably accounts for a lot of the muscle pulls and tendon injuries that has been plaguing them. Glad to see they are implementing some corrective actions.
Seems a lot of teams are planning for more up tempo games this offseason, the emphasis on conditioning could pay off.

Well, the evidence that warm up prior to exercise reduces injury is inconclusive.
[URL]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16679062[/URL]

So while it made sense to warm up, it isnt clear that that was what was responsible for the injuries.

[steelz09]

Well, the evidence that warm up prior to exercise reduces injury is inconclusive.
[URL]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16679062[/URL]

So while it made sense to warm up, it isnt clear that that was what was responsible for the injuries.

No offense but why does there need to be "studies" or "stats" to back everything up? What happened to a little bit of common freakin' sense in this world. Warming up helps avoid injuries. Period.

Anyone that has played a sport or even went to a gym could tell you that and they don't need to have some "study" to prove it. What's next?

[hawaiiansteel]

Injuries scarce as minicamp comes to early conclusion

By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Coach Mike Tomlin canceled the final day of minicamp, perhaps not wanting to test his spring's near-perfect record -- just two lost starters to surgeries.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had knee surgery last week but declared himself nearly ready for action and certainly ready when the Steelers open training camp. Offensive tackle Mike Adams returned to the team to watch practice Wednesday after he was stabbed in the stomach June 1 on Carson Street. He, too, supposedly will be ready to go when training camp opens July 26.

The Steelers lost 78 starts to injuries in 2012, and those might have helped drag down their record to 8-8. Steelers president Art Rooney II declared afterward that they needed to investigate why they had so many injuries and what they can do to prevent them.

"I think we do have to look at everything we are doing," Rooney said in January. "And we will look at everything we are doing from a training and conditioning side of things and a practice side of things and see if there are things we can do to get better."

They employed some different tactics this spring. Players now are required to warm up more intently and for a longer period before practice, and the team has given each player a stress test.

Safety Ryan Clark, who rarely misses games because of injuries, believes more can be done and not necessarily by the team.

"I think the team can't put the blame on themselves for that," said Clark, 33, the Steelers' starting free safety since 2006. "They want to because this is an organization that accepts responsibility, an organization that is accountable.

"But it's on each individual guy. Although we are a team, we're independent contractors, and, if we don't go out and train ourselves and get ourselves in the best condition to play football, you're going to have injuries. I don't think the team can change that."

Clark has missed just two games to injuries in the past five seasons. He missed those in 2008 because of a shoulder injury. He also has been held out of two games in Denver after his violent sickle-cell reaction while playing in the thin atmosphere in 2007.

Other than those games in Denver, he has not missed another over the past four seasons. He has trained in Arizona the past seven years and convinced outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley to join him this past offseason. Woodley has fought leg and ankle injuries that reduced his playing time and his effectiveness in 2011 and 2012.

Clark played some of his best football the past several seasons and made his first Pro Bowl after the 2011 season. He might have played even better last season while his partner at safety, Troy Polamalu, missed nine games with a calf injury that Polamalu has acknowledged might have been prevented with better care by him.

"He's coming off one of his better years," defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said of Clark. "He's been playing really good football for some time."

Clark, who turns 34 in October, credits that to experience and to staying in shape.

"Sometimes, when you have injuries in the offseason, surgeries and different things like that, you're not allowed to train the way you have to in order to keep up with these young guys.

"But being healthy in the offseason has allowed me to train extremely hard and kind of bridge that gap physically in which you think you may have with a young guy but also having the experience and knowledge of a veteran."

[URL]http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...#ixzz2WBBOPKHk[/URL]

[steelz09]

Warming up? Who would'v thunk it?

I'll tell ya... that Mike Tomlin is a genius.

[NorthCoast]

Clark certainly has it right. It's on the player to properly condition themselves for the season. I posted previously about Herm Edwards talking about starting the season conditioned, otherwise a player is in constant 'catch-up' mode. If an injury happens, then it's a recovery mode, not a peak performance.

Anyone else find it surprising they are looking at Tez in the slot? Most I think had him penciled in opposite Taylor.