We’re just a few weeks away from the Pittsburgh Steelers reporting to training camp.
Training camp is the third piece of the offseason puzzle. With the conclusion of OTAs and min-camp comes training camp. Where you could say, the real football begins. Training camp isn’t “football in shorts,” as head coach Mike Tomlin would say.
The Steelers will report to camp on July 25. It will be held at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The team will also hold two joint practices with the Buffalo Bills on August 13 and 14 and their annual night practice will be onAugust first at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. The majority of practices are open to the public, for exact dates visit steelers.com. The team will break camp on August 16.
What to Watch for:
A first “real” step for the rookies:
As the Steelers enter training camp, the rookies will be put to their first real test. Many rookies including first-round selection Ryan Shazier and second-rounder Stephon Tuitt will be key components to the team. Other players like Dri Archer and Martavis Bryant could be major contributors this season. Training camp’s the big step before preseason games and all eyes are on the new rookies, especially this year.
New faces to watch as well:
They might not be rookie, but there are some new faces sporting a black and gold jersey this season.
LaGarette Blount and Mike Mitchell being the most notable. Mitchell will be added to a secondary that will be seeking major improvement while Blount will be asked to compliment Le’Veon Bell in what should be a solid backfield. Rookies or not, new Steelers are always fun to watch.
MORE STEELERS NEWS AND OPINONS
Maurkice Pouncey:
Center Pouncey is coming of an ACL tear that left him absent from the 2013 season. It’ll be interesting to see if the Pro Bowl center can rebound and come into this training camp at 100 percent. It’s unlikely, but maybe he’ll be back to top form quicker than we think.
Wide receiver battle:
There isn’t a whole lot of positions to be determined this year, but wide receiver is still an open race. Not for Antonio Brown, but for players like Markus Wheaton (projected to be the number two), Lance Moore (projected to be a slot kind of guy), Darrius Hayward-Bey, Justin Brown, Derek Moye and Martavis Bryant. Nothing is set in stone and training camp is the time in which these things really start to take form.
We’ll look at these topic and others further down the road but for now, these are just a few things to keep in mind as football is creeping up on us.
This article Pittsburgh Steelers: 2014 training camp preview appeared first on isportsweb by Ryan Petrovich
