3 Things from Steelers Training Camp

It’s the second day of pads in Latrobe and as i headed down the hill to the practice field from the dorms, a quick look at the Laurel mountains already spoke of a hot day coming up for the Steelers.

And as always my thoughts run to our oldest son serving in Afghanistan and the 100 degree heat he operates in daily. Suddenly it’s not so hot, and i’m not so tired.

3 things i thought about today;

1. If anyone thought Aaron Smith was going to take a polite bow and take a back seat in the DE derby, well, you got another thing coming. Twice Aaron made excellent plays working down the line from the backside to “tackle” the ballcarrier while showing terriffic arm lockout strength and power. Aaron may lack a few attributes of his youth, but his competitive heart, knowledge of the game, and and still considerable physical skill-set will (i know, i know…barring injury) keep him at a high level and in the starting line-up.

(This is not to say that you won’t see a lot of Ziggy Hood. I expect there to be a regular rotation of Smith, Hood and Keisel.)

2. Chris Scott looks more interesting daily. He’s smart, got good feet and from a distance, it’s hard to tell him and Willie Colon apart. Similar body types, and movement pattern skills. Look for Chris to possibly get some OG time when Willie Colon comes off of vacation.

3. Chris Hoke is still the funniest man in camp. Though he too is on “vacation,” that is he signed a new contract and may not practice until Thursday, the Steelers started warm-ups by calling for Hokie to do his Cossack dance and high kick though he was off by himself on another field doing his own thing. Hokie, of course, obliged.

4. Technically the blurb i put in parenthesis makes four things…FYI for the sake of “journalistic integrity.”