Right at home at Heinz Field
Steelers enjoying the ‘suite’ life
Joe Haden swung open the door and let the world in on a little secret about Steelers training camp this year.
It’s pretty suite.
Haden, a veteran cornerback who has gone through two Steelers camps at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, was on Instagram showing off his own slice of Heinz Field earlier this week. It was a private box on the west side of the stadium, overlooking the grass where he and his teammates are spending the month of August, and it had his name on it — literally.
“I ain’t going to lie, I’ve got so much love for Latrobe,” Haden told his followers, “but training camp in the stadium is so much better. I’ve got my own suite to come post up in during the break!”
Usually, the Steelers “post up” in dorm rooms at Saint Vincent this time of year, but the COVID-19 pandemic has forced them to make themselves at home for the 2020 preseason. And it seems the home cooking has been good.
Haden isn’t the only Steelers player who has posted video of his own personal relaxation room on social media. The most grueling days of camp haven’t arrived just yet, as the team ramps up to fully padded practices and real football work, but Haden can’t be alone in his appreciation for the new setup. Not only can the players commute to and from work each day, but they have ample room to spread out across the four locker rooms at Heinz Field, a necessary but also easier way to get through this quarantine camp.
“It’s different, just being all these guidelines you have to follow and whatnot, social distancing and stuff in the locker room,” second-year receiver Diontae Johnson said Wednesday. “I’m still getting used to it. Everybody else is, too. You just have to adjust to it.”
Indeed, holding practices and meetings at Heinz Field in small groups to mitigate physical contact also has been a challenge at times. Coach Mike Tomlin explained Thursday that at the team meeting that morning, veteran players attended in-person while rookies and assistant coaches watched on their phones or iPads from various areas around the stadium. Heinz Field also has in-house TV monitors for players to watch — and participate in — team-wide activities.
“That’s just part of normal procedure for us for 2020,” Tomlin said. “We’re not going to run away from that. We’re going to try different things to become familiar with all the technology at our disposal in an effort to have the best teaching and learning environment.”
Whatever the Steelers are doing, it seems to be working. They’re one of just three NFL teams that did not have a player opt out of the season due to coronavirus concerns (the Falcons and Chargers are the others). The Steelers also have just two players currently on the reserve/COVID-19 list — running back Jaylen Samuels and cornerback Justin Layne — after activating receiver James Washington Friday.
“I know the Steelers have, personally, provided us with a safe environment . ... Everyone for the Steelers has been educated,” veteran linebacker Vince Williams said Wednesday.
It’s impossible to know when Samuels and Layne will return to action, because that’s based on whether they’re having symptoms and the results of tests they may not have taken yet. New receivers coach Ike Hilliard didn’t sound particularly concerned about the time Washington missed, but defensive coordinator Keith Butler said Layne missing the start of camp “makes it tough” for his development.
“It makes it tough for anybody in their second year,” Butler said last week. “Your first year, you’re trying to get a feel for things. You’re trying to contribute on special teams. You’re trying to make yourself noticeable where you can maybe get in on some of the sub-package nickel and dime and stuff like that. Of course, if you’re not here, it’s hard to make a case for yourself. That’s going to be hard for him. My thing is that I just hope he gets well, comes back and see how much he retained from last year and see where he’s going to fit on our defense.”
Despite the limited amount of football the Steelers have been able to work on so far in camp, Johnson noted that simply being around his older teammates has been helpful so far. But as one of those older teammates pointed out, it’s not as if the grizzled veterans have any experience dealing with these circumstances themselves.
“We are just going to lead by example,” Williams said. “We have never dealt with this before, either, so everybody is kind of in murky water.”