Hard to bet on Tucker as camp sleeper
PITTSBURGH — The mathematics would seem to favor Marcus Tucker becoming that Camp Sleeper everyone loves to bet on this time of year:
n Tucker has played on the Steelers’ practice squad the last two seasons, and he’s tough and fast and shows up every single day ready to work. At rookie mini-camp, the former two-time captain from Northern Michigan University led the rookies through drills and Mike Tomlin repeatedly brought him forward for teachable moments.
n The Steelers lost their third and fourth most productive wide receivers, Martavis Bryant and Eli Rogers, due to trade and injury, respectively. And last preseason, Tucker was the most productive wide receiver with eight catches for 97 yards.
n JuJu Smith-Schuster has missed the first three OTAs, or as Tucker described it, “… for a minute. That’s when I knew I was next guy up who knew what to do.”
Antonio Brown missed Thursday’s workout as well, so there was a real need for an experienced receiver to play alongside veteran Justin Hunter and second-round draft pick James Washington.
At 5-10, 190, Tucker even looks the part to take on the role formerly played by the 5-10, 187-pound Rogers.
Marcus, are you the next Eli Rogers?
“Uh, man,” he said as he searched for words. “I can’t say I’m the next Eli Rogers. I just want to be the best Tuck I can be.”
The players call him “Tuck,” and, no, you headline writers out there, he’s never heard of The Marshall Tucker Band. But can he play the slot?
“I’m fairly new,” Tucker said. “I usually play outside for the most part, for the most part X. Even in college I played on the backside, and then my senior year I dibbled and dabbled in the slot in college, but I’m three years out of college so that doesn’t even matter now.”
Don’t fool yourself. Dibbling and dabbling in college always matters. But he underscored the point former coordinator Todd Haley used to make about Rogers: He played the slot in college and it gave him an edge over all the transplanted X’s and Z’s who starred out wide in school but struggled with the move inside.
“I’ve been playing X here, but now I’m moving into kind of a new position,” Tucker said. “It’s a new feel for me, because in the slot it’s about timing, spacing, being in the right place at the right time. It’s not so much about beating your guy as it is on the outside, where you’re in one-on-one type situations. You still have to have a feel for the guys outside of you, the guys inside of you, be at your mark in the right space and at the right time, be where the quarterback needs you to be. So I’ve got to step it up in that aspect and come out here and get better and get a feel with those guys.”
It’s the logic that fails the numbers. Tucker’s inexperienced at a spot all of the numbers above seem to scream Camp Sleeper. But now it sounds as if he might be a sleeper to become Camp Sleeper.
“I’m OK with that,” he said with a chuckle. “I’ve been an underdog my whole life, man. I’m not supposed to be here right now, so that don’t mean nothing to me. I just come out and compete with the regulars and make plays and try to make it tough for them to get me out of here. That’s all I can do.”
Underdog his whole life?
Well, yeah. He was born in Flint, Michigan. That right there hurts the odds of even being alive at age 26.
Actually, Tucker won’t turn 26 until late June, after minicamp, during summer break. So on his birthday he’ll probably be back home in Flint. The water at his place is drinkable, but that won’t be the case across town.
“You take clean water for granted when you’re out here,” Tucker said as he looked out at the lush practice fields. “I go back and visit my aunt and I catch myself going to the sink — ‘Oh s*!#, got to find the bottle or boil it.'”
To summarize the catastrophe that’s ongoing in Tucker’s hometown, let’s turn to the most recent edition of The Detroit News:
“… the state-appointed fiscal manager in 2014 switched the city’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in a reckless attempt to save money. The water corroded the city’s aging pipes, causing them to leach lead into the system. The lead impacted the water in every home, business and school.”
“That’s a very touchy subject for myself,” Tucker said. “My mom, who now stays in Houston, Texas, she had a play that she did at The Whiting in Flint on May 12th, and she actually had a water drive to give out waters and she helped the community with that. I had my hand in that also. Just doing what we can to kind of support the community and just help out with some of those things.”
Tucker’s mother, Cynthia Tucker, is a playwright and a former policewoman who, through her play, hoped to create awareness for diabetes. Raising awareness for clean drinking water was on her son’s mind as he was being interviewed by Pittsburgh reporters.
“Flint is home. I love it. Back at the crib,” he said. “That’s a place where I fell in love with the game, just fell in love with the community. All my friends and family are back there. Special place for me. But that situation is tough. I’ve got friends and family that are still dealing with that right now. The water’s still unsafe, so if anybody out there can continue to help in that regard, I urge you guys to do what you can.”
The affected populace is forced to “use water bottles for everything. You can’t do anything out of the sink, out of the pipeline. It’s tough. You bathe with it. You eat with water bottles. You’ve got to boil water. You’ve got to take water bottles and pour it to boil water, to cook food, to bathe, to … everything.”
The numbers on the football field should take care of themselves, as Tucker, in his third year with the team, can visualize that opening for his first 53-man roster spot. He knows it’s there for the taking.
That, of course, would in turn help his visibility, and perhaps those in his seemingly forgotten hometown.
“There are people still fighting out there,” he said. “People still keeping the hope that one day things are going to get better. This has been going on for three or four years now, where they’ve been dealing with this and nothing has been done just yet. We’ve just got to stay prayerful and keep giving and do what we can. And keep the awareness up, so people know that situation is still out there.”