Training camp storylines
THINGS TO WATCH
Ray Fittipaldo’s five things to watch, plus the 90-man camp roster.
1. Ben Roethlisberger’s rebuilt right arm
Almost a full year after having season-ending elbow surgery, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is looking to pick up where he left off in 2018, when he led the NFL with 5,129 passing yards. Roethlisberger believes his elbow is strong, but no one, including him, can predict how it will hold up under the wear and tear of a season. There have been a couple of quarterbacks who have come back to play in the NFL after elbow surgery. Steelers fans remember Terry Bradshaw’s career was ended by an elbow injury in 1983, but that was well before Tommy John surgeries and other procedures on elbow ligaments became more prevalent. More recently, Joe Montana (1991) and Jake Delhomme (2007) successfully returned to play. It’s not a big sample size, but, in each case, they threw the ball as much or more post-surgery. In 1994, the final year of Montana’s Hall of Fame career, he attempted 493 passes, his fourth-most attempts in his 15-year NFL career. It remains to be seen if the Steelers wish to throw the ball as much with Roethlisberger, who turned 38 in March. The Steelers will manage his throwing regimen during training camp, but the real test will come in games when he has to thread the needle by zipping a ball between two defenders.
2. Changes on the offensive line
The Steelers return four of five starters on the line, but the coaches will be looking to shuffle some players at the beginning of camp. Matt Feiler, the starting right tackle the past two seasons, will move to left guard, and Chukwuma Okorafor and Zach Banner will wage a battle for the right-tackle job. The idea is to get the most experienced players in the Steelers system on the field. But someone has to step up and grab hold of the job at right tackle for this to work. Okorafor, a third-round pick in 2018, is the key piece to this puzzle. The Steelers loved his skill set when they drafted him out of Western Michigan, but they knew he was raw and would take some time to develop. The time is now for Okorafor to seize his opportunity after some early setbacks in his career. It didn’t help matters that in spring 2019, Okorafor had shoulder surgery that put him behind entering last season. If Okorafor proves he is ready for a starting role, the Steelers would keep Feiler at guard. But if Okorafor and Banner don’t pan out at tackle, Feiler would go back outside and Stefen Wisniewski, who was signed as a free agent in March, would step in at left guard. Rookie guard Kevin Dotson could be in the mix as well. It wasn’t all that long ago the Steelers had one of the best offensive lines in the league. But with three starters over 30 and some uncertainty in personnel, this unit will be closely watched in the ramp-up to the season.
3. New ideas on offense
Randy Fichtner returns for his third season as offensive coordinator, and he will be working with two new assistants that can help inject some new life into an offense that plummeted to the bottom of the league last season without Roethlisberger. The Steelers ranked 30th in total offense and 27th in scoring. Roethlisberger’s return will help, but anyone who watched this offense last season knows some new ideas could help this stagnant unit. Enter quarterbacks coach Matt Canada, whose primary job will be tutoring the young quarterbacks on the roster, but his experience as a college offensive coordinator should not be overlooked. NFL offenses continue to introduce college concepts into their schemes, and the Steelers could follow. Canada likes to keep defenders off balance by implementing shifts, pre-snap motion and play-action passes. Play-action passes have all but disappeared from the Steelers offense. They were last in the league in 2019 in play-action pass attempts. Canada can help the Steelers isolate mismatched defenders and get receivers open simply by moving defenders before the snap. This will be important because the Steelers no longer have a game-breaker such as Antonio Brown in their receiving corps. They are well-stocked with quality players at receiver, but every offense can use new concepts that give their playmakers an advantage. Canada isn’t the only new assistant. Ike Hilliard is the new receivers coach, replacing Ray Sherman, who served as an interim coach last season after the death of Darryl Drake. The NFL is a personnel-driven league, but a few new wrinkles could help the Steelers become an offense that once again strikes fear into opponents.
4. Who steps up at linebacker?
Mark Barron was released in a salary-cap move, creating a hole in the middle of the Steelers defense. The Steelers didn’t think enough of Barron to keep him around for another season, but he did play 766 snaps, second-most among the team’s inside linebackers in 2019 behind only Devin Bush. Surely, veteran Vince Williams will be part of the answer in the base defense, but the coaches likely don’t want to expose him as a cover linebacker in sub-packages. That’s where second-year linebacker Ulysees Gilbert, third-year safety Marcus Allen and rookie Antoine Brooks come into the mix. They are options, but none have played much at the NFL level. Gilbert played 150 snaps, all on special teams, before a back injury ended his rookie season. He is the fastest of the trio that will be competing for Barron’s old spot. Gilbert ran the 40-yard dash in 4.51 seconds at his pro day and showed signs of being good in coverage last preseason. Allen spent most of his second season on the practice squad. As a rookie, Allen played sparingly, but he did play 18 defensive snaps, most of them when he played dime linebacker for an injured Morgan Burnett in a game against the Chargers. The fact that the Steelers drafted Brooks, a player with a similar skill set, in April means the Steelers aren’t entirely convinced Allen can handle the role. Brooks is known as a bigger hitter, but he also produced turnovers for Maryland. The one other option for the Steelers is playing third-year safety Terrell Edmunds at dime linebacker, but that would require Brooks or someone else to play strong safety in subpackages. Another option could be moving veteran defensive backs Mike Hilton or Cameron Sutton to safety in sub-packages. The Steelers value experience in their system, especially in a year when the younger players missed so many snaps in the offseason.
5. Backups at key positions
The Steelers found out in 2019 how difficult it is to compete when injuries occur. Any team is going to have difficulty contending without their starting quarterback, but the Steelers dealt with injuries at other key positions, including running back and receiver. Starting running back James Conner missed six games, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, the top receiver, missed four. The Steelers simply didn’t have enough depth to overcome the rash of injuries on offense. They took steps to fortify the running back and receiver positions in the draft, but they’ll enter the 2020 season without quality depth at several key positions on defense. At safety, the top reserve is Jordan Dangerfield, who mainly has been a specialteams player since entering the league. Allen and Brooks are unproven, but they could be forced into action if there are injuries to Edmunds or Minkah Fitzpatrick. The same holds true at inside linebacker where the top reserves are Gilbert and Robert Spillane, neither of whom have much experience. Look for the Steelers to scour the waiver wire after final cut-downs in an attempt to improve their depth if they’re not happy with what they see in camp. The defense was spectacular last season, but other than the season-ending injury to Stephon Tuitt, they didn’t have any major injuries to starters. If they’re not as lucky this season, their depth will be tested.