Good Thursday to you Steelers’ Fans!
As is the case with Training Camp every year there are players who have great camps and players who don’t. With this year’s camp into it’s second week, one of the Steelers who is in the positive category is James Conner. Last year’s third round pick looks to be fully recovered from his knee injury. He’s shown some really good burst, better than expected shiftiness and is running hard on every touch. The one area however that looks like it has improved the most is blocking. It’s a simple equation for running backs in Pittsburgh, if you can’t block/pass protect you aren’t going to see the field much. For Conner, it appears to be something he’s dedicated himself to getting better at in the offseason. Make no mistake, I’m not suggesting he will replace Le’Veon Bell. What I am saying is that he makes it a lot easier when Bell isn’t in there.
Unfortunately there’s a flip side to guys who are doing well; some aren’t. The two guys selected in the fifth round of this last draft, Jaylen Samuels and Marcus Allen, are not thriving the way many expected. Sometimes what happens is that we focus so much on the rookies who are doing well that we automatically assume the other rookies aren’t. That’s a bit true here but in this case both rookies aren’t getting it done. Plenty of time to go however.
We recorded the latest episode of the Steel City Blitz Steelers Podcast Presented by 26shirts.com/Pittsburgh last night. We touched on Camp injuries, performances, the Hall of Honor and much more.
Tweet of the Day… JuJu being JuJu.
Camp in Full Swing, appreciate all the fans always coming out and supporting!! ??? pic.twitter.com/PR3GIkzqzK
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) August 2, 2018
I think the comments by Art Rooney II about night games have merit but I also think he can help the situation. As was discussed on the podcast, ARII can change the policy about personal seat license holders being responsible for those who buy their tickets. Many of these PSL holders would rather eat the tickets than let people they don’t know buy them, get drunk and disorderly and get booted.
Fans often think the NFL Draft is easier than teams make it out to be. The Colts for example are now completely void of players from their 2013 and 2014 drafts. Despite millions of dollars and thousands of man hours drafting players is far from a sure thing.
The following is from Peter King’s “Football Morning in America” and it is yet another example of why we here at SCB ay that you have to talk Pro Football Focus with a grain of salt… I got into a discussion with a veteran Ravens player at camp Thursday, just talking. He told me in passing how he advised the guys in his position group to avoid two things during the season: Twitter and Pro Football Focus. Not that he hated either one. But he said the only people who really know how you’re playing, and the only people who can help you get better, are the teammates and coaches in your building. He said he saw former Baltimore Torrey Smith driven nuts by social-media critics, and he couldn’t understand why, during the season, a player couldn’t just put that stuff away. Regarding PFF, he said he valued the grades and the opinions, but never took them as gospel. And the more a player obsessed about what some PFF grader thought of his play, the more he might not listen to his own coach as closely as he should.
It’s an excellent point by this player. We have long argued that PFF is fine in a way but to grade players when you don’t actually know what their assignment is is just reckless.
Have a great day Steeler Nation!
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