Notes from Steelers training camp: Day 2
August 1, 2009
Steelers Today will be blogging from Latrobe, PA for the next few weeks. We are here at Pittsburgh Steelers training camp to bring you all the Steelers news that’s fit to print.
Rather than write this in the form of an article, here are my actual notes from today’s open practice.
2:55 PM practice starts. Things are slow as the players break up into their respective units and walk through drills. The offense is on one practice field, and the defense is on another.
-Santonio Holmes‘ arms look noticeably bigger. He’s been pumping iron.
-Who is the short white guy wearing #19 standing with the wide receivers? He’s standing next to Mike Wallace who is listed as 6’0″, and Mike is at least 3 inches taller than him.
-#19 is Tyler Grisham, a rookie out of Clemson. He’s listed as 5’11″, but he can’t be much taller than 5’9″.
-Say what you want about Willie Colon, but his legs are massive. They’re far bigger than any of the other offensive linemen’s.
3:22 PM A horn blows, the fans cheer, and practice gets started in earnest.
-”Big Snack” is very efficient with his motion. Translation: he stands around when everyone else is running or stretching.
-Frank “The Tank” Summers isn’t as massive as I expected him to be. Rashard Mendenhall actually looks more powerful.
-Dennis Dixon throws a beautiful spiral, but he looks a bit frail. He needs to gain some weight.
-Shaun McDonald, Mewelde Moore, Joe Burnett, and Santonio Holmes take turns fielding kickoffs. Where is Mike Wallace?
-#18 ( rookie WR Steven Black out of Memphis) looks impressive. He’s big and has already made a few shoestring catches.
-Matt Spaeth looks too tall and lanky to ever be an effective blocker.
-Shaun McDonald is playing like he wants to impress the coaches. He ran all of his routes very fast, and he makes quick, precise cuts.
-Martin Nance has already dropped too many balls, and they’re not even playing against a defense yet.
-#84 (TE Dezmond Sherrod) is slow and plodding when he runs his routes.
-Santonio Holmes’ status is clearly elevated since his Super Bowl MVP. The crowd erupts each time he catches a ball.
-The Steelers were blessed with great weather for their first day of open practice.
4:03 PM – Another horn sounds and the defense comes over to join the offense.
-Big Ben’s first pass against the defense is a quick slant to Sean McHugh for a completion.
-Willie Parker broke a long run, and the crowd erupted.
-Jeff Reed is practicing kicking to Dan Sepulveda. Jeff is kicking across the field (53.3 yards) and Sepulveda is catching the ball. Reed’s kicks are so accurate that Sepulveda never had to move more than 4 steps to catch the ball.
-Andre Frazier intercepts a pass from Roethlisberger.
-Santonio Holmes looked very elusive dodging and weaving after a short pass from Big Ben.
-#85 (rookie TE David Johnson) looks very effective holding his blocks in drills.
4:28 – The crowd erupted when Hines Ward caught a quick slant pass in traffic.
-Mike Wallace made a pretty sliding catch along the sideline on a pass from Charlie Batch.
-Keyaron Fox intercepted a pass and was chased down by Hines Ward.
-Dennis Dixon threaded a pass to Steve Black that went right between two defenders for a completion.
-If this had been full contact, Donovan Woods would have destroyed Ben Roethlisberger as he came in unblocked on a blitz.
4:34 PM – Another horn blew, and the team split up again for drills.
-Jeff Reed is kicking field goals. Has he missed one yet?
-Jeff Reed hits 3 straight 47 yard field goals and the horn blows again.
4:42 PM – Keenan Lewis breaks up a long pass from Charlie Batch to Mike Wallace.
-Rookie Andrew Schantz gets in a shot on David Johnson that was probably harder than it should have been on the first day of practice. The team is not doing any hitting or tackling today.
-The crowd erupted when Dennis Dixon completed a 45 yard pass to #19, rookie WR Tyler Grisham.
-On the next play, Dixon connected with Grisham on a diving catch along the sideline. This kid has good hands.
-Dixon connects with Steve Black along the opposite sideline.
-Dixon hit David Johnson right in the hands over the middle of the field, but Johnson dropped the ball.
-Dennis Dixon hits Tyler Grisham for another diving catch in traffic. Who is this kid?
(Note: The Pittsburgh Tribune Review has picked up on my Tyler Grisham observations. Read about it here. Of course I wrote about him 2 days earlier than they did).
-Keenan Lewis intercepted a long pass from Big Ben to Hines Ward.
-Ben overthrows Dallas Baker on a long fade route.
4:56 PM – The #1 offense and #1 defense take the field.
-On the first play, Willie Parker burst through the line and avoided the linebackers on a play that he would have taken all the way for a touchdown in a real game.
-Carey Davis breaks a nice run that would have gained 15 yards.
-Charlie Batch hits Rashard Mendenhall on a short pass behind the line of scrimmage that looks like no gain, but Mendenhall reverses field and picked up 10 yards.
-Ryan Clark intercepts a 20 yard pass from Big Ben that hit Santonio Holmes in the hands and bounced off.
5:07 PM – The final horn blew, and coach Tomlin gathered the team to end practice.
-After huddling together, the team breaks up and practice is over.
-Coach Tomlin leaves the field and runs past fans without signing any autographs.
-Dan Sepulveda is very gracious with fans. He signs more autographs than any other Steelers player.
-Sepulveda assured me that he is 100% recovered. When a fans said “We missed you last year”, Supulveda replied “Not as much as I missed the team”.
-Ryan Clark is also very gracious with fans. Only Sepulveda signs more autographs.
-Ziggy Hood is very good with fans. He is friendly and humble. He signs lots of autographs. Fans are going to like this kid.
If you haven’t read our other Day 2 coverage, be sure to read the following articles:
Fans flock to Steelers training camp
Steelers training camp Day 2 photo gallery
To read our coverage of Day 3 of Steelers training camp please click the link below:
10 observations from Steelers training camp day 3
(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. Thanks.)
CB K. Lewis will eventually be the best cb on the team. Dont forget about Capezzi and Mundy anf is they let Essex or Stapleton start than I will lose faith. How many times the last 2 years did it take an injury to get a better player on the field???? Does Gay count as an example?
1This is awesome!
Thanks for taking the time to share this with those of us not close enough to attend.
2great read! this was exactly what i needed after such a long offseason full of nothing but speculation. real news is great to hear and i can’t wait till i get to go up to Latrobe this year and see the team. did it last year and it was amazing. keep up the good work guys!
3Sean,
Keenan Lewis has looked very good during the first two days of open practice. I really like his height. He is like another Ike Taylor.
I haven’t seen anything from Capizzi, Mundy, or Essex yet. But if they do anything noteworthy at practice, I’ll definitely write about it.
4Emac2,
5You’re very welcome. I hope fans like and appreciate the time that I put into this blog. Please stop by again.
Tweek1106,
Thanks. I am providing this kind of coverage because it is what I would be looking for if I weren’t able to attend training camp.
Stop by each day for more updates.
6love the practice reports…being from Texas, it is great to get these…almost feels like we are there. Keep up the good work. Thx for including Sp Teams reports
7Thanks Susan. Are you from Cowboys territory or Texans territory?
8Good job man,in moments like this I really believe that WE(steelers fans) are a familly :p good job for the posting cant wait to see the final roster
9Thanks Rick. That makes me feel good.
BTW, Steeler Nation IS family. I have lived all over the country, and I have gathered together with fellow Steelers fans everywhere that i have been. I have even had Steelers fans offer to let me stay at their home when I was in town rather than pay for a hotel. These were total strangers. The only thing we had in common was our love for the Steelers.
10right in the middle of Cowboy Country…Dallas! I have my Steeler Flag flying in our yard! Quit being a Cowboy fan when Jerry Jones fired Coach Landry!
11Thanks for this great site. Finally I can read about training camp. First time in years I’m not able to get to camp being transplanted toJersey and not having Sportsbeat anymore I’ve been Jonesing for info. This i’ll be my first stop everyday. Thanks again.
12Bob Kelley,
Well thank you for stopping by. I hope you will become a regular reader. Check out some of my older material to get a feel for what Steelers Today is all about. We’re not for everybody. I target my material for the more knowledgeable fan. If you want in-depth game analysis, detailed training camp reports, and the most thorough coverage of the Steelers’ draft found anywhere, then Steelers Today is the place to be.
But if you just want 2 paragraph recaps of the same stories that you find in the local newspaper, then go to one of the other Steelers blogs. I don’t write about that crap. That’s what newspapers are for. I try to provide insight that nobody else is giving.
13Susan,
14I understand how you feel, Susan. I hate the Cowboys, but even I didn’t like the way Jerry Jones treated Tom Landry.
“-Matt Spaeth looks too tall and lanky to ever be an effective blocker.”
Yup, the Super Bowl was the last straw for me with this liability. If Arians had not drafted him, he would be cut. He’s a good receiver and should play for a team that doesn’t ask the TE to block–ever. I bet he could have a good career with a team like the Eagles, but he’s wasting his time with us.
15Great job!!!!! Is there any inside information I should know, like best time to be there to stand in line? I’m taking my boys up there next weekend from Charleston, WV. Didn’t know what the best time to be there by, or really anything. Thanks!
16Shelli,
Practice starts each day at 2:55PM. However, the gates open at about 1:30. If you want to get seats in the bleachers, you probably need to get there around 1:30 and then hurry to stake your claim of good seats.
There is a grassy hill on each side of the bleachers. Frankly, I don’t mind sitting on the hill. If you are willing to sit on the hill, then you can get a good seat at any time. You can even arrive late and get a good seat on the hill.
If you are bringing your kids with you, I would suggest getting there early in order to take advantage of the activities that they have available for kids. You can do that first, and then go over to practice once the players come out onto the field. The activities are also available while practice is going on, but I assume that you want to be able to watch practice while it is going on.
17Thank you very much!!! We can’t wait to go!! It’s awesome they do this!! You do a great job with your updates! I really enjoy reading them!
18Thanks Shelli. Have a great time at training camp.
19This is clearly Ben’s team. He is the undisputed leader. Not to take away from Santonio, Hines, Harrison, or Polamalu, but it is Ben’s team and that is a little bit hard for a defensive guy like myself to accept and or admit.
To the fans it is Ben’s team too. He came out to a standing ovation high fived everyone on the offense like he had just scored a touchdown and was very loose the whole practice. He cartwheeled towards the line of scrimmage when simulating defensive confusion…something I had never seen on a football field before.
Some other entertaining moments at camp this year were the “Hoke Chant” before warm ups where Chris Hoke proceeded to pose, dance and high step while the whole team chanted his name. I never really enjoyed the ballet, but I enjoyed this number, and the work of number 76. Hoke is a clear veteran that keeps training camp bearable. Anyone who has been through any kind of football training camp can probably think on a few teammates that kept the mood light, and made making it through camp a little easier.
Tomlin of course had on his head to toe black sweats, black hat, with only little bit of gold to break it up. As opposed to the picture I saw of Mangini at Clowns Camp where he looked like he spend the last year at the buffet line fattening up, Tomlin looked like he could play and that he meant business. In the division if it came down to a true coaches fight only Marvin Lewis could contend and Tomlin is younger so that would probably give him an edge. As we all know winning the division is the key to success in the NFL, so I doubt the rest of the AFC or even the NFC would give him a a problem. Maybe if he matched up against Singletary things could get rough.
Santonio is smooth as silk. When other players catch the ball you hear some noise off their hands pads, etc, with Santonio there is no noise, no disruption, just the continuation of movements that look meant to be. Like Fedder with a racket, Lance on a bike or Tiger swinging a golf club Santonio makes something very challenging look all too easy. He should have his best year ever, and be our top receiver in all categories.
One of the rookie dbacks dropped an interception so he dropped down on the field and did a set of pushups. Limus continues to drop his fair share in addition to a few others fair share of footballs. I hope something clicks and kicks in this year because we could us him. Mendenhall and Parker both looked good. Our special teams is back in tact with Spolvida and Warren back with matching (literally) knee braces. Reed is still goofy (and accurate) as ever, even with his hair all cut off. The tires of the golf cart that takes the lineman back to their dorms must be reinforced along with the suspension…probably not meant to hold that load. Harrison is a beast, jacked as ever, and poised to repeat as Defensive MVP. Hines smilled, joked, forced the returned out of bounds on an interception even though he wasn’t playing, and continues to make the game fun for all…except those that he hits on game day.
I am excited as ever for the season. We appear to be in a great position to repeat, with a loose team that is almost all in tact from last year, and Steeler Nation behind them every step of the way. Camp in an experience every Steelers fan should attend. It doesn’t cost anything to go to. You will never get a chance to be this close to the players at any other time of the year. It is where this defense and the defense of all 6 of the Super Bowls begins…and twice they repeated….could this be the third time!
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