Jim Colony's Steelers Training Camp Notes: July 29, 2015
LATROBE, PA. (93-7 The FAN) - Fan Morning Show co-host Jim Colony is reporting from Steelers Training Camp this week, and below are some of his sideline observations.
- Mike Tomlin typically moves around during warm-ups and position drills, offering instruction, encouragement and, occasionally, criticism. Today, he spent most of his time with defensive backs and was particularly animated.
- The first practice period was goal line/two-point conversion with the offense in the shotgun. The offense scored four out of seven times with Ben Roethlisberger going two for three and Tajh Boyd two for four. Roethlisberger hit an open Matt Spaeth on a fake run/fake quarterback draw, threw a nice fade to Martavis Bryant in the corner of the end zone but coverage by Antwan Blake forced Bryant out of bounds, then scrambled to give D'Angelo Williams time to beat Will Gay. Boyd's touchdowns were to Jesse James over the middle and to Darius Heyward-Bey on a fade.
- Boyd got most of the second team reps and had trouble with fumbled snaps, including on the goal line drill, but did throw some nice balls as he'll be given a chance to unseat third stringer Landry Jones.
- Roethlisberger was sharp for the most part – especially on deep balls - although he was off target as the afternoon wore on. Roethlisberger was on target to Antonio Brown, who was blanketed by Blake and later on threw a perfect pass to Marcus Wheaton, who fought off Cortez Allen but had the ball go right through his hands. Roethlisberger was also once again picked off by Cortez Allen, who jumped in front of Antonio Brown.
- Linebackers had the advantage in the popular backs-on-backers drill, as they're supposed to. Tight ends are also involved and Jesse James got a rude welcome when he was run over by Arthur Moats, but, on the do-over, James held his ground and stood Moats up. Moats had a good day in the 11-on-11 run period with live tackling and was a disruptive force on many of his reps.
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