Preseason QB Plan Revealed, Big Injury Updates | Steelers Practice Report

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Hey, folks, Sound Saunders, Brendan Howe here at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, back on the south side after a few weeks in Latrobe for the I don't know, is this the last practice of training camp?

Is it the first practice of the pre...?

I don't know.

We're in the between times.

We are-- It's not the regular season, it's not training camp, but we're here for practice, and, what was supposed to be sort of the grand finale of training camp with a big physical competitive practice, we can't tell you very much about because we didn't watch very much of it.

We did get on the field for a little bit today.

I also talked to Mike McCarthy and Andy Weidle on the position to some guys coming off the field.

So, let's start, Brendan, with what we saw on the field, which we can give a little bit of updates as far as some g- injured guys working their way back.

Didn't necessarily see a ton out there other than that.

Well, you mentioned the grand finale.

I think we got a better grand finale there on Sunday with the end of practice there than we would've- That was the grand finale That, that was the grand finale.

Today was a similar look in, in terms of the injured guys as it was, when we left there in Latrobe.

Kept an eye on those.

We saw Dylan Everett out though, which would seem to be a new one.

Yep which- Jennings Dunker, who had left that last practice early, weren't sure what was the deal there, still out today.

Would be pretty surprised if anybody that we didn't see practice today would play on Friday night.

So obviously, we already knew that Pittman and Metcalf weren't gonna play.

Max Ahona-Tour is not gonna play.

But guys, Brandon Smith, and Sebastian Joseph-Day, Jaquan Brisker, Brandon Echols, all those guys who have been out, nobody returning to practice today, add the two rookies.

Pretty banged up team going into week two of preseason, honestly.

You have a better memory than me.

You, you, like, I feel like there should be a roster in front of us, and we should just be talking, like, half the roster looks like it's out it seems right now.

But, good news on one front with a pretty big player in DK Metcalf, who I got to catch up with.

He didn't disclose what his injury is, but he did tell me that he feels 100% that if this was a regular season week or regular season setting, he'd be out there this week, so that's promising to hear.

Uh- Also talked to Mike McCarthy about, Jalen Ramsey and Joey Porter Jr.

Still on the PUP list, still not practicing.

But he said he's not concerned about where they are right now, just a couple weeks away from the start of the season and having not yet practiced.

Said he feels like they are making progress and that he's monitoring that progress.

They have a, a plan in place, so it doesn't sound like there's a lot of concern from the head coach about the team's top two cornerbacks who we've yet to see in uniform this year.

Also talked to Kaden Wegien about his ankle injury, said he's good to go this week.

He just missed one day of practice.

I guess that was Saturday.

Yeah.

Another defensive back, Brandon Echols, he was off to the side doing work.

He actually joked with us 'cause he was in our shot when we were shooting quarterbacks, and he was, like, ducking.

He's, like, saying-- He was afraid of the cameras, like, joking with us, and then one of the Steelers staff was like, "They have ADR they can work with."

Like, you, you just do you.

Obviously, they're of much more importance right now than we are taking videos.

Yeah.

So, that, that was funny there.

Spent a lot of time watching the running backs today.

Caleb Johnson's been a big topic of discussion with where he's ended up and how many snaps he got in the first preseason game.

And every time I look at him, like, I've talked about this before too on this channel here, like, he looks so athletic.

Just you, you look at him and he looks like an NFL running back, and then you put him i- within some of the others and some of them look more fluid.

Like, Eli Heydenreich, who's shorter, has more of a low center of gravity.

Like, I was watching them and I put this up on Sights and Sounds.

They were, like, running through this bag drill and some of the other running backs looked smoother.

It's just, you wonder if Caleb Johnson is gonna get that chance or if, like he told me in training camp, he thinks he's gonna be a very good back, if he's gonna have to kind of prove that elsewhere.

Yeah, I mean, talked to Mike McCarthy about that today as well, and he said, "Yeah, I'd like to see more of him."

I'm like, "Mike, you're the guy who determines how much of him we see.

If you wanna see more of him, the, and you weren't, that's a big problem somewhere.

I don't know, maybe that's the breaking news."

I don't know if he meant just he wants to see more of him this week, I suppose.

A- and maybe we will, but I mean, I definitely feel like something happened there, where I felt like at the beginning of camp, Caleb Johnson was the third guy in line pretty clearly.

Yeah.

And then we get to the first preseason game and he's sixth, and I didn't necessarily think-- Lou Nichols was very good all training camp.

Yes.

But I didn't necessarily think Caleb Johnson did anything that I saw on the field to warrant losing that status.

So not sure what's going on there.

I think he's a big player to watch for Friday night's preseason game.

Also talked to, Andy Weidle today before practice a little bit and talked about the safety position.

Mentioned Brisker not practicing.

There's been some reports out there that the Steelers looking at DBs.

They, they did bring in two safeties in the middle of training camp, Rahsaad Jenkins and Israel Mukuamu.

I don't think either of those guys has necessarily, you know, established themselves as a guy who's gonna make this roster.

Mukuamu's injured.

In fact, wasn't practicing again today.

And so I, you know, I think that's an area where if you're talking about cut down time, places the Steelers could still be looking for bodies, I think safety's definitely one of them.

And, and there's been some reports of them digging into some DBs, and I think that's probably the reason for that.

Some other stuff from Andy, but I don't think-- Oh, man, I, I don't think there's a lot of it that, that really we need to get into today.

Some background stuff on some of the guys they've drafted and things like that.

He was asked about Joey Porter Jr.'s contract and sort of deferred to Omar, who, we just saw actually as we were walking out here to record.

He's, he-- Omar walks while he's talking on the phone, so he's always, like, walking around the So I said-- He said, "Am I in your way?"

I said, "No, but if you wanna come on," you know, I would- We almost had an exclusive.

Yeah, that would've been very good.

He, he, he declined though.

Yeah.

But so, you know, still, working through that process.

No real update on that.

Anything else from the guys you talked to, after practice?

To go back to the camp fight the other day- Oh it, it was funny enough that Robert Spears-Jennings and Max Hurliman were doing some extra work off to the side after practice.

I think they were two of the last guys out there.

Caught up with Robert.

I'd never got to talk to him before.

Saw that he had a nickname on Instagram, The Landlord, that he got back at Oklahoma for being a guy who forced takeaways a lot.

Also said that he writes three things down every day that he wants to accomplish, that he wants to work on, and he keeps those notebooks back to his time there at Oklahoma when he learned to do that, when he was told that that would help him.

So I thought that was pretty cool.

I'll definitely have a, a story, a feature up on that, tonight, tomorrow.

Just keep an eye out for that.

And yeah, he's another guy to kind of watch, who said that he felt that he had a good, performance against Green Bay.

Liked how he said, he said, "Fired his gun," quote.

There you go.

So we'll, we'll see what happens there.

A very Oklahoma reference.

Yeah.

I talked to Caden Wiegand, like I said, pretty briefly.

Talked to him about the receiving aspect of his job, and he said, yeah, it's been a real work in progress since the start of camp.

But did feel like he was sort of building to that moment last Thursday night where things at the beginning were rough, and they've been getting better and better.

Also feels like he's got a real connection with Drew Aller and really likes working with him.

And said as far as the kick returns, he didn't feel like he got a chance to show what he can do.

And that first one was really looking forward to getting back out there and maybe being able to hit a good return to really feel like he's comfortable with the NFL kickoff versus the college kickoff.

And, of course, he didn't really get a good opportunity at a punt return.

Also, Mike McCarthy announced this morning Drew Aller and Will Howard will be the two quarterbacks for this week's game.

Howard's going to start.

Aller's going to come in, I would assume, in the second half.

And I talked to Aller a little bit about what he liked and what he didn't like about his first performance.

Said there were some things about his play fakes that he feels like he needs to work on.

Not something, you know, a lot of RPO in college football, but not a lot of traditional under center turn and fake handoff.

So something that's understandable for a young quarterback to be working through.

Obviously, I think we've talked about his footwork a ton.

But, you know, I think you can really see the confidence in Drew Aller growing.

I mean, I remember talking to him at rookie camp about some of these things.

And some of the questions were very similar.

And just sort of like the poise and the confidence that he's developed over a few months in the NFL is really obvious to me.

And, look, I don't, there's a lot of variables at play here when it comes to his future.

And that is certainly only one of them.

But it's good to see because there's, like I said, you know, there's no real way to measure that.

You just kind of have to check in on it every so often.

And I was really struck in that interview with him today just how different it felt than the first one we did here.

Obviously, I've talked to Drew before.

But the first one we did here, he was this sort of stammering, nervous rookie.

And Mike McCarthy said, you know, he was very nervous the first time he met Aaron Rodgers.

You could see those nerves when he was out there.

And now he feels like a different guy, a little bit more confident, a little bit more comfortable in his skin.

And I don't know if that's going to matter at the end of the day, but I do think it's noteworthy.

Yeah.

I'm around the same age as Drew.

And I'll admit the first time I talked to Aaron Rodgers, I was a little nervous too.

I think that's changed.

I mean, I'm the same age as Aaron and I was a little nervous the first time I talked to Aaron Rodgers.

He's an intimidating guy.

Like, I mean, that's part of the business.

But, yeah, I think a good place to end it there with the quarterbacks obviously going to be.

And I loved, by the way, a story at SteelersNow.com that Chris Ward wrote where it said, Mike McCarthy has seen enough of Mason Rudolph.

And I love that headline because it's just take it however you want to take it.

Does it mean he doesn't ever want to see him again?

Or does it mean he's made the team and he needs to do literally nothing?

It could mean either.

I don't have any idea.

Like, I still don't know what's happening with this quarterback situation.

I don't think anyone does.

But I just love that.

Go to SteelersNow.com.

Check it out of everything we talked about.

My final winners and losers from training camp is up on the site now.

Tomorrow I'll have a 53-man roster projection.

We've got the injury central updated.

I'm going to have some notes from camp still to rush out there.

So all kinds of stuff going on there.

Make sure you check that out.

Me and Smitty on the afternoon drive today, 6 o'clock, YouTube audio platform, same drill.

And then we'll be back together on Friday night.

Yep.

Ackershire Stadium.

Yeah, one more thing is Jalen Warren's big play last year against Seattle.

Oh, yeah, you were.

I finally pulled out his exact feelings on that.

He was a little humble after that game.

Check out what he had to say, too.

I think that's cool.

Oh, yeah, that's good.

That's at the top of the site there as well.

So, okay, thanks for listening.

Thanks for watching.

And we will see you next time.

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