Meanwhile, veteran teammates do their best to move on from turmoil

Steelers veteran Ramon Foster, the team’s longesttenured player not named Ben Roethlisberger, felt as if 2019 was the “longest, shortest offseason ever.”

It’s an oxymoron that might make perfect sense. When you miss the playoffs for the first time in five years, it is, literally, a longer offseason. But, when your franchise finds itself embroiled in a months-long standoff with Antonio Brown, and then spends seemingly every other week in the headlines as a result, it doesn’t feel like there was much of an offseason for the team that reconvened Tuesday morning on the South Side.

“Whew,” defensive tackle and captain Cam Heyward said with a smile when asked on Day 1 of OTAs how

much of the past few months was emotionally exhausting. “Yeah, plenty [of it]. But I’m glad I’ve got a great family at home that will snap me out of anything.”

It’s now time for the Steelers to snap out of their 2018 doldrums, both on and off the field. Brown and Le’Veon Bell — two primary engines of drama — are gone, but the stain of losing too many games won’t fade. In some ways, those two story lines are inextricable.

So, from now until the season begins — and even once it begins — a renovation of sorts will be in order. Coach Mike Tomlin called it “a cleansing” after the draft. Foster called it “the clean-up game,” though both he and Heyward mostly declined to wade into those waters.

“With what we’ve had to go through, I think it’s kind of numb now,” Foster said. “[Outsiders] are going to say what they’re going to say. When some of the stuff is said, you just kind of laugh at it. Because the guys that know, they genuinely know.”

That mostly was in reference to national media assailing Roethlisberger’s bona fides as a leader, but as two of the most veteran players in that same locker room, Foster and Heyward don’t take kindly to those criticisms, either.

Anytime Brown’s name was brought up to him Tuesday, Heyward almost immediately issued a reminder that he won’t discuss anyone who wasn’t at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex that morning. While Roethlisberger has spent the past couple days apologizing, Heyward was more about distancing — himself, his teammates and the organization at large.

“It’s not really on anybody, because that’s last year. We’ve moved on to where all we’ve got to do is focus on who’s here and who’s not,” Heyward said.

“I wish those guys [who left] nothing but luck, but the guys here are trying to get better. It’d be foolish for me to start worrying about guys who aren’t here.”

Those who are here include nine rookie draft picks, three big-ticket freeagent signings and a slew of rising stars who will be the next generation of players speaking — and acting — on behalf of the Steelers.

“Just keep your head down and stay grinding,” Heyward has told his younger teammates. “If you want to get recognized, get recognized for the right reasons.

“That just means performing on the field, being in the community; I think we have plenty of opportunities for guys to be successful, but, just draw attention on the field.”

Heyward balked at talk of Tomlin needing to “rein in” his team, drawing a line between “a few” and “the many.” It’s up to the many to move on, and for Foster’s part, the 11th-year offensive lineman admitted he has enjoyed more conversations with players from the defense than ever. He called the team “closer now than we ever have been” and added that guys genuinely care about each other.

That might not jibe with the perception outside of Pittsburgh, or perhaps even in this city, and Foster knows it.

“If you’re painted a certain way,” Foster said, decrying social media, “you never have a chance to have a rebuttal. Or, your rebuttal just doesn’t matter after the fact.”