From the start, Steelers’ minicamp was all about the Super Bowl
PITTSBURGH – It was only confusing when they talked about the roster. “Everybody here is here,” Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Bill Cowher said at the start of minicamp.
And at the end?
“I don’t think anything really is in the plans,” director of operations Kevin Colbert said only hours before meeting with free-agent quarterback Charlie Batch.
The comments were the first and last made by the Steelers at the recently concluded minicamp. In between, it was all Super Bowl talk and none of it was open to interpretation. From the first-day bull session with Lee Flowers through the visiting free agents through the rookie camp fodder trying to hang on, it was all Super Bowl all the time.
Even Hines Ward raised eyebrows. When asked about Herman Moore, Ward said, “He’s going to be a help, but at the same time we went to the Super Bowl without him.”
The new kicker got into the act, telling a metro reporter, “We’re going to the Super Bowl.”
Cowher didn’t back down from the talk. He revived his “we’ve always had high expectations” speech, and expanded it to include, well, the rest of the world.
“That is an expectation that exists everywhere,” he said.
Could anyone poison this feed trough for NFL bulletin boards? Not Aaron Smith. The down-to-earth defensive lineman in fact got a kick out of the talk.
“That’s fine,” Smith said. “That bulletin-board stuff goes out the door as soon as the game starts. I can tell you that for a fact. After the first couple plays you can throw that bulletin-board stuff out the door. It doesn’t work, but it does keep things interesting.”
Was there any perspective anywhere? After all, it’s only the middle of June.
Offensive line coach Russ Grimm, who owns three Super Bowl rings, came through in the clutch.
“You see it every year,” he said. “Teams that are favored all of the sudden come out and have an off year. Last year we were pretty much injury free. I’ve been places where we’ve gone through nine different starting lines in 16 weeks. We had some injuries last year, (Mark) Bruener and Jerome (Bettis). Those are things that happen. You’re going to hit adversity. I mean, it’s coming, and I hope we know it’s coming.”
THE NO. 1 PICK: Grimm warned that he won’t “get into a day-to-day thing” with reporters on first-round picker Kendall Simmons, but Grimm did say that his young right guard was doing well.
“Again, we’re throwing a lot at him,” Grimm said. “He’s got a ton of mental stuff going right now as far as assignments.”
Said Simmons: “I haven’t played guard in about three years and it’s different setting up wide than setting up short, and I’m still getting my feet crossed up a little bit because I’m thinking I’m left when I’m right. It’s learning the fundamentals of being a guard again. But I like it a little better because I’m not in space and I can be aggressive like I normally am.”
Cowher would like to see some of that aggressiveness, but he’ll have to wait until training camp.
“These minicamps for linemen are hard to assess,” Cowher said. “The only sweat they see is probably when they miss their mouths when they’re squirting water in there and it probably dribbled down or something. So it’s not real hard for the linemen. You know you have to wait to get the pads on for those guys, to be honest with you.”
NEW DIME: The team’s new deployment of Kendrell Bell at rush end and Joey Porter at middle linebacker in the dime defense has drawn rave reviews.
Bob Labriola, editor of Steelers Digest, wrote of Bell: “This guy comes off the ball like no one in a Steelers uniform since Greg Lloyd” after a practice in which Bell gave left tackle Wayne Gandy fits.
Said Gandy: “He came very hard and he was physical. He has great takeoff, great speed. He plays with the same tenacity that he does inside. He hasn’t gotten any moves down yet, but he makes up for moves with effort and speed. And sometimes, speed alone can close that corner and make the quarterback uncomfortable.
“He’ll grow into the position I believe. The only thing, he’s kind of short. He doesn’t have a lot of reach. Some of your good ones, they have that reach. Their body might not be there, but they can get the arm over. But he makes up for it with effort. He keeps coming. It’ll take a pistol to stop him. It’ll work out.”
Flowers predicted that the move alone will add five sacks to the team’s total this year.
“I think it’s going to make our blitzing package that much better,” he said. “We had 55 sacks last year. We’re looking to have 60 this year.”
TOUGH TURFS: Steelers rookies Antwaan Randle El, Larry Foote and Verron Haynes grew up in tough neighborhoods. Randle El played all sports all the time to escape Chicago’s South Side. Foote grew up in East Detroit, from where “there’s no guarantee you’re going to get out, even if you have talent,” said West Detroit’s Jerome Bettis. Haynes grew up in the Bronx, perhaps the toughest ‘hood in New York City, if not the world.
“When you’re growing up in the Bronx, you can easily get lost in the shuffle. I could easily have gone astray,” Haynes said. “I give credit to the Lord and my mom. My mom really kept me involved in activities and extracurricular activities such as sports. Plus, I’d get a whacking if I went astray.”
Haynes’ mother moved the family to Atlanta before he was out of high school. He spent a year at Western Kentucky before transferring to Georgia. At Western Kentucky, Haynes played behind “He Hate Me” of XFL fame.
“Yeah, I played with Rod Smart,” Haynes said. “He was a great guy, a really, really good guy off the field. He helped me a lot learning the system as a freshman. He was real fast and he was funny. In fact, he was hysterical.”
Haynes remembers watching Smart later in the XFL.
“I didn’t know who he was at first. Everybody was just talking about ‘He Hate Me, He Hate Me’ Then I looked at a close-up and said, ‘That’s Rod Smart. What a character.’ But he’s a good guy.”
QUOTABLE: Troy Edwards on whether he’s upset with the way he’s been treated: “I don’t care. I mean, God is my savior. As long as my kids and my family love me, I really don’t care. Some people might say I’m this and that but right now I really don’t care. I’m just working hard and the people who like me like me. People who don’t, thank you, too. That’s less people I have to talk to.”