Early Training Camp Rumblings + Steelers Hall of Honor Class of 2025
The Steelers’ players will have today off before returning to the practice field tomorrow at 1:55 eastern, the first padded practice of the season. With a small break in the action, I figured now would be a great time to pass out some flowers.
By all accounts, tight end J.J. Galbreath has been the biggest winner of camp thus far (in terms of those teetering on the edge of the 53-man roster). An UDFA from South Dakota, Galbreath has forced himself into the eyes and minds of Steelers fans and coaches in Latrobe further complicating the situation at tight end. Freiermuth, Washington, Heyward, Smith, and now Galbreath is crazy work. The Steelers brought four tight ends into week one with them last year. If I had to guess, one of these guys is probably going to be the odd man out and it’ll probably be Galbreath, but he’ll be an interesting guy to watch when the pads come out and throughout the preseason.
There has been so much talk about the defensive scheme over the last few weeks, and the Steelers haven’t been hiding their intentions to make changes from last year. So far in camp, they’ve been moving T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith around “matchup hunting”. According to Nick Farabaugh, they even had Highsmith lined up in the A and B gap at times in Friday’s practice. I’m all for the deal that we just gave T.J. Watt, but we can’t let him get taken out of games the way he was at the tail end of last year. It’s good to see the team embracing change in that way.
During the first week of practices, the Steelers brought in former Ravens safety Chuck Clark who has also joined the team at training camp. Clark has a rough injury history, but he has played a ton of FS, and with Juan Thornhill being the presumptive starter in that spot, I think any additional help there is necessary.
Jalen Ramsey has been all over the place so far in camp, which is kinda what I expected they would do with him. So far, he’s lined up as NB, FS, and CB, with the majority of his snaps coming at NB and FS. They also blitzed him from the nickel spot in Friday’s practice, which is something that has been sorely missing from our defense since the days of Mike Hilton. One example of him blitzing in practice may not seem like a big deal, but there’s tape out there of him being a menace in that role, so I’m loving that they’re openly doing it in open practices at training camp. They also blitzed him some more at Saturday’s practice, and he also got his first INT during team periods while lined up at CB. This defense is going to be LEGIT.
Aaron Rodgers has been hot and cold so far through camp as one would kinda expect as he acclimates to a new environment and new teammates. He kicked camp off with an INT to Patrick Queen which lit Steelers twitter on fire. Interestingly enough, this INT came on the same disguise I criticised the Steelers for using against the Chiefs on Christmas Day. Alas, it didn’t work on Patrick Mahomes in December, but it worked on Aaron Rodgers in July. He brushed the mistake off quickly, and has looked like a veteran star ever since. That’s not to say that he’s been torching the defense…I’m just referring to the way he has carried himself so far.
There were some legends at practice on Saturday when the Steelers announced their Hall of Honor Class of 2025. This year’s list is a small one, but includes a few Steelers that really mean a TON to me personally, and were truly heroes of mine growing up: Maurkice Pouncey, Joey Porter, and Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers will welcome those three legends into their Hall of Honor on December 14th when we take on the Miami Dolphins in Pittsburgh.
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