Offseason workouts begin for Steelers
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A year ago, the Pittsburgh Steelers were scattered across the country, still celebrating the Super Bowl they had won only six weeks before. Bill Cowher was contemplating whether he should step away or retire from coaching.
This offseason, there’s no rest for a team coming off an 8-8 season that missed the playoffs and changed coaches for the first time since 1992.
The Steelers began voluntary workouts Monday under new coach Mike Tomlin, who was eager to get working with his new team quickly. Last year, the Steelers didn’t start those workouts until a few weeks later, and even then some players still hadn’t returned to town.
These Steelers don’t play a game that counts for another six months, but Tomlin said they need as much time together as they can get. Most of the team’s veteran players were on hand Monday.
“We’re going to get started about the business of putting together a great football team,” Tomlin said. “That’s just rolling your sleeves up and going to work on a day-to-day basis. That’s what they’re going to see from me. The things that they see from me on day one are the same things that they’re going to see from me next January when we’re in the thick of things.”
That’s why Tomlin told his players he wants them in Pittsburgh.
“He laid down the law,” wide receiver Cedrick Wilson said Monday. “Just basically saying, “Hey, you can go train in Orlando, and you can go train in Arizona, the nice climates or whatever, but you can’t get out of those places what you can get here – and that’s football.’ That’s what he’s preaching and that’s what he’s coaching.”
There was a new playbook, too, now that the Steelers have a new offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians. He was on Cowher’s staff last season under former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, but is incorporating some of his own ideas.
“It’s different terminology,” Wilson said. “He (Arians) is a passing-game type of guy, so as a receiver you’ve got to really learn a lot and that’s why this time here is so important for us right now.”
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was among those working out, though he did not do any throwing.
“I think the goal is for the receivers and the quarterback to work a ton,” Wilson said.
The Steelers have signed only one new starting player since the season ended, offensive lineman Sean Mahan, but they still need help at several other positions. They would like to add an outside linebacker, now that Joey Porter has signed with the Dolphins, and wide receiver, a position that gave them a minimum of production last season.
Most of that help must come in the April draft, now that the top-level free agents have signed elsewhere. The Steelers don’t have enough salary cap room to make major changes, and there aren’t the players available on the open market even if they wanted to.