Steelers Training Camp Day 2: Flozell cut, Rookies are signed and Dan Rooney spotted
Day 2 brought more signings and cuts as the players took to the field for the first of position groupings and team drills. By the time the Steelers hit the field in the afternoon, they were without another offensive lineman. Flozell Adams was released by the team freeing up over $5 million in the process. This doesn’t mean that Adams is gone for good – I fully expect the team to offer him a lower paying contract. Will he take it is another matter.
The line looked pretty poor hitting the field today. Even though the Steelers signed Colon and Scott yesterday, they cannot start practice until Thursday because they were free agents. Pretty bad when Maurkice Pouncey is your only solid starter to be on the line on the first day of team drills.
According to Steelers Digest late this evening, the Steelers signed Curtis Brown – meaning that all the rookies have been signed to deals. Heyward was signed earlier in the day, and was seen on the sidelines near the end of camp today before the storms rolled in and ended practice early. Some other key players were missing from the drills, such as Hines Ward and Chris Kemoeatu – both are on the physically unable to perform list for now. Hines was present on the sideline coaching the young guys like Sweed and Brown. Tomlin was pleased with the first day of drills even though they were forced to end early. ‘We’re not allergic to rain but we are allergic to lightning, so we called it and we’ll try it again tomorrow.’
Dan Rooney was also spotted on the sidelines. Back from Ireland for a bit, Rooney watched players in their groups as well as some team drills. Can’t help but feel good when you see or hear that guy is hanging around the team still.
What to look for – Running back battle
Dom wrote a pretty interesting article about newly signed rookie John Clay from Wisconsin. Clay is the biggest back on the field. Living in the Milwaukee area this past Badger football season, the pundits and anchors talked about this buy a lot, and he had the stats to back it all up. Check out Dom’s article. It will be interesting to see how this running back group grows over the next few weeks and who will be sticking around. Each has their own unique capabilities. I think it will be tough for Tomlin to narrow it down when it comes time to make final cuts. My prediction is that Redman may be the odd man out. Mendy will still be the work horse. Batch is so small you can barely see the guy, which could be an advantage. And, I see Clay sticking around to indeed be the goal line back that we’ve missed so much since The Bus’ retirement.