LATROBE, Pa. – As the Steelers coach, Mike Tomlin has the prerogative to manipulate practice to create the desired competitive situations. But not even the longest tenured coach in the NFL has any control over the weather. And those two things came together during Friday’s practice at Saint Vincent College.
Following the stretching and individual period, the Steelers settled into this camp’s first installment of 7-Shots.
With Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, Zach Frazier’s shotgun snap came back hard and low and slipped through Rodgers’ hands. In some situations, such an outcome for a play in this drill would be scored a win for the defense. In any event, play continued.
The second snap had the same offensive and defensive groups on the field, and this time with an accurate snap Rodgers got the ball out quickly with a perfectly placed throw to DK Metcalf running a quick out for an easy touchdown. On the third snap, Rodgers’ attempt at a back-shoulder throw to Metcalf was incomplete.
Mason Rudolph then came in at quarterback, and his pass over the middle to WR Ke’Shawn Williams was incomplete with S Juan Thornhill in tight coverage. Rudolph stayed on the field and came back with a quick pass on a slant route by WR Scotty Miller for a touchdown.
Rookie Will Howard was the quarterback for the next two plays – the first of which was an incomplete pass to WR Brandon Johnson and the second was good for a touchdown to TE JJ Galbreath.
Total up those results, and it would appear to be a 4-3 win for the defense that had been clinched on the sixth play of the drill. But then it became clear Tomlin had decided on a do-over for that first-play errant snap to set up a decisive one-play, winner take all end to the drill.
Tomlin sent the No. 1 offense and the No. 1 defense back onto the field. This time the shotgun snap to Rodgers was perfect, and the football seemed to barely touch his hands before it was out, with the result being a perfectly placed pass to wide open TE Pat Freiermuth in the right flat for a touchdown and a 4-3 win for the offense.
Then later, with about 20 minutes remaining in the second acclimation day session, the players were sent to the locker room and the fans in attendance were told to vacate the area because lightning had been detected in the vicinity. After waiting for close to 30 minutes for the front to pass, an announcement came at 4:06 p.m. that practice was cancelled.
“Unfortunately, we got cut short today,” said Tomlin when he met the media. “Really wanted to work to get the group back out on the field if at all possible, and the reason is oftentimes in football we’re faced with adversity, sudden changes, particularly as it pertains to weather. We had a big delay last year when we played the Cowboys for example, and so we don’t run from days like today. We just work to try to deal with it to the best of our ability and get as much work done as we can while keeping the group safe. But we didn’t deem it safe enough based on the Doppler information to get back out today. I thought practice was off to a really good start, infusing some more components of competition.”
One day after so much had been made of Rodgers throwing an interception on the first pass attempt of the first 11-on-11 session of this camp, he showed why that was much ado about nothing. In back-to-back snaps during a first-down pass-under-pressure period, he varied his arm angle to complete a WR screen to Metcalf and then complete a conventional screen to RB Kaleb Johnson. Both throws had to be made under pressure and through traffic, and Rodgers made the necessary adjustments on each to get the ball cleanly into the hands of the intended receiver.
TOMLIN ON THE DAY’S ROSTER MOVE
Earlier on Friday, the Steelers added veteran safety Chuck Clark to the roster and waived DT Domenique Davis.
Clark, 30, entered the NFL as a No. 6 pick (186th overall) of the Baltimore Ravens. In 6 seasons with the Ravens, Clark played in 96 regular season games (63 starts) and had 5 interceptions, 32 passes defensed, 5 forced fumbles, 4 fumble recoveries, and 240 solo tackles that included 8 tackles-for-loss. After missing the 2023 season with a torn ACL, Clark signed with the Jets in 2024 and played in 12 regular season games (12 starts) and had 38 solo tackles including 1 tackle-for-loss, and 2 passes defensed.
Clark joins DeShon Elliott, Juan Thornhill, Miles Killebrew, and Sebastion Castor as players listed at safety on the training camp roster.
“I’m just highly familiar with his intangibles,” said Tomlin about the addition. “He’s got a really good relationship with the game. He’s a hard worker. He’s a really good communicator. His football character comes highly recommended.”
And the fact he played 6 seasons with the rival Ravens was not a factor.
“I’m familiar with him, and I think that’s probably the thing that captures my attention more than anything – the familiarity component and less so about who he played for previously,” said Tomlin. “It’s just so much of that (movement) in today’s game that I think it is less of a story or an issue. He’ll be given an opportunity to prove himself.”
TOMLIN’S INJURY UPDATE
“No new news on the injury front. The guys that I talked about yesterday, that I described as day to day appear to be very much in the same place. Maybe we’ll get a guy or two back tomorrow, hopeful there. And I don’t think we absorbed any more negativity on the short work that we did today.”
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