Steelers OTA Takeaways

[pczach]

Steelers OTAs Takeaways: Calvin Austin Shows Out, Heyward Reps With TEs

Story by Nick Farabaugh


PITTSBURGH — The Steelers OTAs kicked off and into session on Tuesday for their first activity as an organized group in a practice setting. They are only laying the groundwork to build upon it in the coming weeks, but there are a few things that jumped out to me right away. Here are just a few of them:

Conner Heyward With the TEs

To start off Steelers OTAs, Connor Heyward did not go with Eddie Faulkner and the backs but rather stuck with Alfredo Roberts and the tight ends during individual drills. The tight ends did work on some fullback and ‘YAC’ oriented drills, including jump cuts and getting upfield after the catch. But what I took from the session I watched is that Heyward could be the fullback, but he will be a different type of fullback and a player that can be used all over the formation. That will be different from Derek Watt. Heyward is likely to stick it out with the tight ends most of the time.


Curry Emphasizes Block Shedding

The ILBs is probably the thinnest room on the roster with only five true players right now, but of the group that was there, Aaron Curry ended up going at them about as hard as I’ve seen a new coach walk into the building. It’s clear that Curry watched a tape from last year and is bent on making sure things do not go the same way. He saw the block-shedding issues at the second level and seems to be out to change that.
Curry could be heard exclaiming that he wanted ‘quick, violent hands’ but that he did not want the play to turn into a ‘wrestling match’. In other words, he did want a sparring match as one would have in a pass-rush scenario. He just wanted his linebackers to use quick hands and zoom past the climbing blocker by attacking their near shoulder and slipping right into the backfield.

See the rest here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl...6f5652f5&ei=86

[Psycho Ward 86]

"Pittsburgh seems to be working a lot of cover 3 oriented drills. Throughout rookie camp and now into the first day of Steelers OTAs, they repped bail technique with the back turned to the sideline for their sideline-based cornerbacks. On Tuesday, they began to work the ‘press bail’ popularized as ‘Seattle Cover 3’ during the Legion of Boom era in individual drills. To no one’s surprise, the press coverage technique was worked for all the outside cornerbacks, with Joey Porter Jr. getting particular focus."



Im here for it. We are getting bigger at cornerback than we have in quite some time.

I know most are high on Darnell as the steal of our draft but dont sleep on Trice either

[HollywoodSteel]

I’m just waiting to hear stories about the battle off the line between Pickens and Peezy Jr. with that physical style press coverage.

Looking forward to that iron sharpening iron.

[pczach]

"Pittsburgh seems to be working a lot of cover 3 oriented drills. Throughout rookie camp and now into the first day of Steelers OTAs, they repped bail technique with the back turned to the sideline for their sideline-based cornerbacks. On Tuesday, they began to work the ‘press bail’ popularized as ‘Seattle Cover 3’ during the Legion of Boom era in individual drills. To no one’s surprise, the press coverage technique was worked for all the outside cornerbacks, with Joey Porter Jr. getting particular focus."



Im here for it. We are getting bigger at cornerback than we have in quite some time.

I know most are high on Darnell as the steal of our draft but dont sleep on Trice either

I think it's great that they are working on schemes that maximize the impact of the talent on the roster. Taking advantage of the size of the CBs and playing a style and scheme that can take advantage of that makes a ton of sense. It will also give other teams more to prepare for, but there is a glaring hole right now. When the Seahawks were using that defensive scheme, they had Bobby Wagner and other athletic LBs reading everything and cleaning everything up underneath the coverage umbrella. The ILBs on this team are a complete question mark at this point. We will start hearing and seeing how that position is progressing when training camp starts. I still think Khan may make another move there before the first game.

I believe Trice was a steal where they got him. When he was still available in the draft thread, I thought he was the most talented player on the board by a mile and suggested that they might take him. He is a big, fast, talented cover man. He has a lot to learn and there are some injury concerns. I believe he has the physical traits to give him a chance to be a high-level player, and maybe even at multiple positions. He is also a very smart player. We all know that the NFL chews up and spits out many talented players....but I like Trice's abilities and I love that they were able to get him when they did.

[pczach]

I’m just waiting to hear stories about the battle off the line between Pickens and Peezy Jr. with that physical style press coverage.

Looking forward to that iron sharpening iron.

I just think that we are going to see so many exciting things this year. Just watching all this newly acquired talent go up against each other and learning their roles all while running some new schemes is going to be awesome. There are going to be some bumps early on, but this has the makings of something very special. We are hopefully watching the beginning of a long run of excellence with a new approach and a shitload of new players being the next great generation of Steelers players.

[polamalubeast]

Steelers Work Play Action
During the routes portion of the session today, the team began to work some rhythm-based routes. That includes play action, and Miles Boykin confirmed that the team did run some of those rhythm-based ideas with an early emphasis on play action. Why? Boykin believes it’s all tied to Pickett.

“It can be huge (play action),” Boykin said. “Anytime you have a quarterback like Kenny that is mobile and can move and do different things, it gives the defense an aspect they have to think about. The more things you throw at a defense, the more liable they are to make some of those mistakes.”

Play action makes sense for the Steelers this season as a way to create chunk plays in the passing game. They failed to do a lot of that last year, but the team could begin really crack things open in that regard. Why? With a strong rushing attack, play action makes sense to work off that. In fact, it could work and vice versa, too. If Pittsburgh does not have the running game going, the play-action game could open that up. Pickett’s comfortability in year two has taken another leap, and play action could be part of the offense taking that leap with him

https://steelersnow.com/steelers-ota...y-sorting-out/

I hope it will be the case when the real game will start!

[86WARD]

Sounds like the Highsmith extension should be around 5 years, $90M…

[polamalubeast]

‘More Critical This Year:’ George Pickens Says Steelers Have Emphasized Winning On First Down In 2023

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/05/mo...medium=twitter

Better late that never...It was a major problem for the steelers in the last few years....Too often they were on 3rd down,so their margin of error was way too small...I hope they will have some improvement at this category since to be last in 2021 and 30th in 2022 on first down is just awful!

[pczach]

Steelers Work Play Action
During the routes portion of the session today, the team began to work some rhythm-based routes. That includes play action, and Miles Boykin confirmed that the team did run some of those rhythm-based ideas with an early emphasis on play action. Why? Boykin believes it’s all tied to Pickett.

“It can be huge (play action),” Boykin said. “Anytime you have a quarterback like Kenny that is mobile and can move and do different things, it gives the defense an aspect they have to think about. The more things you throw at a defense, the more liable they are to make some of those mistakes.”

Play action makes sense for the Steelers this season as a way to create chunk plays in the passing game. They failed to do a lot of that last year, but the team could begin really crack things open in that regard. Why? With a strong rushing attack, play action makes sense to work off that. In fact, it could work and vice versa, too. If Pittsburgh does not have the running game going, the play-action game could open that up. Pickett’s comfortability in year two has taken another leap, and play action could be part of the offense taking that leap with him

https://steelersnow.com/steelers-ota...y-sorting-out/

I hope it will be the case when the real game will start!

And with that rhythm play action passing let's hope that they are hitting receivers in stride, with defenders a couple steps behind that can lead to big plays. Hitting receivers while they are at full speed creates more opportunities for big plays than a 4-yard comeback route.

So far, the team seems to be working on things that many of us have believed they needed to add for a while now. We have been talking about adding some of this to the offense here for years.

[DuckHodges]

‘More Critical This Year:’ George Pickens Says Steelers Have Emphasized Winning On First Down In 2023

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/05/mo...medium=twitter

Better late that never...It was a major problem for the steelers in the last few years....Too often they were on 3rd down,so their margin of error was way too small...I hope they will have some improvement at this category since to be last in 2021 and 30th in 2022 on first down is just awful!

ah no more run, wr screen, 3rd and 10 then incomplete? music to my ears

[polamalubeast]

And with that rhythm play action passing let's hope that they are hitting receivers in stride, with defenders a couple steps behind that can lead to big plays. Hitting receivers while they are at full speed creates more opportunities for big plays than a 4-yard comeback route.

So far, the team seems to be working on things that many of us have believed they needed to add for a while now. We have been talking about adding some of this to the offense here for years.

Yeah,this is the other thing they need to do...Not just play action for only 2-3 yards!

[lipps83]

ah no more run, wr screen, 3rd and 10 then incomplete? music to my ears

Yeah, that is almost as bad as when they go wr screen, run, and then 3rd and 10 for an incompletion.

[polamalubeast]

Yeah, that is almost as bad as when they go wr screen, run, and then 3rd and 10 for an incompletion.

or a checkdown on 3rd down and you have to punt after that!

And not forget the jet sweep!