Steelers Training Camp Takeaways: Slot Corner Standout, Justin Fields Finds Footing
Pittsburgh Steelers Training Camp Takeaways: The leaders for the slot cornerback job have emerged. Justin Fields finds his footing on Day 2.
UNITY TWP., Pa. — For the second straight day, the Pittsburgh Steelers were without starting quarterback Russell Wilson for training camp practice.
Wilson explained that he injured himself during the club’s run test on Wednesday while pushing a sled. He said that if it was up to him, he’d be practicing, and doesn’t expect to miss more time.
In the meantime, Justin Fields got an extended tryout as the team’s starting quarterback, and despite a reduced amount of social media hype over his performance, he progressed nicely from Day 1 to Day 2, making several big plays both with his legs, his arms and the combination of the two of them.
Fields made perhaps his best throw as a Steeler, dotting up Pat Freiermuth deep downfield on the far sideline. He also scrambled for a long bomb to George Pickens and dropped a corner route in the bucket for Van Jefferson. He looked more comfortable in the pocket, and eliminated almost all of the negativity that had come with his debut practice on Thursday.
Let’s get into it, starting with our first seven shots of 2024.
SEVEN SHOTS
1) Fields looked to his left for Pat Freiermuth along the goal line, but DeShon Elliott showed some nice closing speed and broke the pass up. He was probably right along the border of it being defensive pass interference, but there are no officials here yet, so score this one for the defense.
2) Fields went right back to Freiermuth on the same side of the field, this time just short of the goal line. Freiermuth was open, behind Donte Jackson, but Fields’ pass was high and went off his hands. It was probably one that Freiermuth wants back, but Fields had time to deliver a better ball, as well. Nate Herbig was in the center of the first post-whistle skirmish of training camp, surrounded by too many gold shirts to even begin to list, Minkah Fitzpatrick surprisingly among them.
3) Fields again looked left and found Van Jefferson, streaking past Joey Porter Jr. on a corner route and dropped it right into the bucket for a very pretty touchdown. As far as I can tell, that was the first pass Porter gave up in two days.
4) Fields tried to go back to the well with Jefferson on the same route, but this one floated out of the back of the end zone. Beanie Bishop had solid coverage.
5) Kyle Allen took over and threw a dart short and to the right to tight end MyCole Pruitt, who was in front of Mark Robinson right at the goal line.
6) Allen rolled on a bootleg to his right and found rookie wide receiver Roman Wilson for a quick touchdown. He was working to the sideline and got an edge over Grayland Arnold.
7) With the score tied at 3-3, Mike Tomlin sent the starters back out there. Fields looked to his right this time, but T.J. Watt got a piece of the pass at the line, and Jackson kept it away from Calvin Austin III to give the defense the win.
NOTES FROM TEAM PERIODS
? Watt blew up a bootleg on the first play of the second team period, and would have easily sacked Fields. That’s the second one of those that the Steelers defense has cleanly ready and picked apart quickly in as many day. Might be something the offense needs to work on.
? Allen hit Wilson over the middle on an in-breaker in front of Kalon Barnes for a decent-sized gain. That’s something that is seems like is a much bigger focus of this offense compared to a year ago. Wilson flashed much more today than he has since being drafted, which is a welcome positive sign for the rookie.
? Allen had a free play thanks to a defensive offsides, but Nick Herbig made sure he wasn’t able to take advantage by sacking the quarterback. He also had a tackle for loss yesterday. The young Herbig just always seem to make plays.
? DeMavin Leal got up to bat down a Fields pass. Leal said he should have intercepted it, a la Watt. The third-year Texas A&M product has had a very strong start to camp, and plenty of reps to go around with minimal workloads for Cam Hayward and Larry Ogunjobi.
? We got the first Fields read-option of camp, and it did not disappoint. He streaked through a huge hole and upfield. The defenders still aren’t allowed to tackle him downfield, so it’s hard to judge how far he’d have gone, but it’s safe to say at least 10 yards. Fields might tell you he’d have gone for 30 or more, and I’m not sure I’d be able to mount much of an argument.
? Zach Frazier had a false start today, as did James Daniels. The Steelers offensive line has a rule that if you false start, you get replaced for the rest of the period. Mason McCormick was the call-up to the first team when Daniels got dinged.
? Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren continue to both look really strong in limited team rush reps. Harris burst through a huge hole in the line for about a 10-15 yard gain, and it took Patrick Queen making a great play to run him down from behind to prevent an even bigger play.
? Aaron Shampklin continues to stand out as the best of the depth running backs, though La’Mical Perine and Daijun Edwards also had nice plays on Friday. Jonathan Ward and Allen put the ball on the ground during an exchange.
BIG PLAY OF THE DAY
The highlight of the day for the offense came from Fields, who navigated a noisy pocked that was being pushed back into his face, and found time to get off a “George Pickens is down there somewhere” kind of pass. Pickens was indeed down there somewhere, and even though the ball ended up being pretty severely underthrown, he worked back to it and made the catch in front of Jackson and Porter. Call it an easy 45 air yards, and Pickens may have scored, but it’s hard to say for sure, because the coaches in the middle of the back of the defense picked the defenders. Either way, the play clearly the highlight of camp so far for both Fields and Pickens and the first big strike against the Steelers defense.
SLOT CORNER STARTERS EMERGE
The Steelers continue to utilize their three-safety Heavy Nickel a good bit, with Elliott moving down in the box — where he’s developed a significant rivalry with Freiermuth. But when they’re going to a traditional Nickel package, the man getting nearly all the reps is undrafted rookie Beanie Bishop.
The West Virginia grad has been shadowing some of the team’s top receivers, and has been doing an incredible job of it so far. Here’s a list of the plays that I charted for Bishop as the primary defender on Friday:
Fields to Jefferson corner route, incomplete
Fields to Austin crossing route, incomplete
Fields left sideline to Austin, incomplete
Fields right sideline to Austin, complete for short gain
That’s a pretty darn solid day for a UDFA. Josiah Scott also got some work today. Cam Sutton has yet to appear in an 11-on-11 play, though he’s done some 7-on-7 work. It’s abundantly clear, even this early in training camp, that the slot cornerback job is Bishop’s to lose.
SWAT TEAM
Watt, Leal, Logan Lee and Alex Highsmith all batted down passes at the line on Friday. The defensive line had several the day before, as well. It’s been a consistent focus for that unit, all the way back to OTAs, and it’s definitely paying off. The quarterbacks are getting angry. It’s been fun to watch. Maybe when the pads go on, the offensive line will be able to do some things to try to curb it, but the Steelers defenders certainly seem like they’ve figured out an advantage there.
NEWCOMERS BRING THE ENERGY
Last year, I thought the Steelers really nailed it when they brought in vets like Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts, Patrick Peterson and Kwon Alexander in terms of matching and fitting the team’s energy on defense.
This year, they might have done even better.
Obviously, Queen is an All-Pro, but Elliott and Jackson have been such startlingly good fits to the defense on the back end, both in terms of their Xs and Os fit, they way they’ve comported themselves so far, and the boundless energy each seems to have for playing the game of defense.
KICKOFF CREW
With no Cordarrelle Patterson, the team’s kickoff return group in the early portions of practice consisted of Jaylen Warren, Roman Wilson and John Rhys Plumlee. I’d call Warren the favorite for that assignment if Patterson remains unavailable. The Steelers have yet to run a live special teams period.
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