Tuitt, Heyward seek season of good health

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt, bookend defensive ends, have not been able to play together at 100 percent since midtway through the 2016 season.

Tuitt, who enters his fifth season in the NFL, hopes that will change this season. Make no mistake; the Steelers, especially their run defense, could use it.

“The goal is to stay healthy and be on the field,” Tuitt said. “Both of us on the field, we can create chaos and damage.”

That has not always been the case for the past 1½ seasons. Heyward, an All-Pro defensive end, missed the final 12 games of 2016 after a pectoral muscle was torn in Week 7.

Tuitt partially tore his biceps tendon two plays into the 2017 season opener in Cleveland, right after he registered a quarterback pressure and a tackle for a loss. Even though his injury was not as severe as first feared and he didn’t need surgery, he said his left arm wasn’t 100 percent until resting after the season.

On top of that, Tuitt hyperextended his right elbow in practice the week before the playoff loss against Jacksonville, limiting his effectiveness even more in a 45-42 defeat that Heyward said was “humbling” to their defense.

“I think we had a decent year throughout the whole year, but we’re only looked at by our last game,” Heyward said Thursday before the first official practice at training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.

Indeed, after finishing the regular season ranked fifth in total defense, the Steelers allowed the most points in any of the NFL’s 11 postseason games. They also allowed the Jaguars, who had 231 yards rushing in their 309 win at Heinz Field in October, 164 yards rushing.

The coaches, even the players, acknowledge the Steelers got pushed around on both lines of scrimmage by the Jaguars.

“I want to put that behind us, but, at the end of the day, you got to make sure you come out ready to play week in and week out,” Tuitt said. “We have a good team. We have to go out there and prove it.”

Heyward and Tuitt likely will have to set the tone.

There is little reason to believe the Steelers have discovered a way to adequately replace Ryan Shazier at inside linebacker. They did not address the position in the draft, and the only player they signed in free agency was Jon Bostic, who is with his fifth team in six years.

What’s more, there is little depth at outside linebacker, where the Steelers are still waiting to see if Bud Dupree will perform at a level commensurate with his 2015 draft position (22nd overall).

For a team that has always built its 3-4 defense around the strength of its four linebackers, that position is the weakest on the defense and far from the caliber of units to which the Steelers have been historically accustomed.

“I want us to do what we always do,” Tuitt said. “I know we backed off by giving up a lot of rushing yards. Typically, we don’t do that. We want to get back to our old ways of doing that, by coming out and being the physical football team the Pittsburgh Steelers are known to be.”

Heyward said one of the ways to do that is to improve tackling, something he said will be more of a focus in training camp when the players can start wearing pads Saturday.

“I think we were last in the league when it came to missed tackles,” Heyward said. “You clean that stuff up, we were already a top-five defense,it puts us in a better category. You do that, stress it more, [but] by the end of the dayguys got to buy in.”

Tuitt was asked if he thinks the Steelers are still a 13-3 team that can contend for the Super Bowl.

“I feel like we have a really great team, but for us to be able to say that we have to prove it,” he said.

And to keep Heyward and Tuitt in peak form for most of the season.