Jim Colony's Wednesday Report From Steelers Camp
LATROBE, PA. (93-7 The FAN) - The Steelers officially placed kicker Shaun Suisham on season-ending IR today and waived injured running back Cameron Stingily, who also had knee surgery. New to the roster are veteran wide receiver David Nelson (who played for the Bills and Jets) and running back Braylon Heard, who played collegiately at Kentucky.
Tight end Matt Spaeth and wide receiver Markus Wheaton returned to full practice. Initially, it appeared linebacker Vince Williams had returned, but Ryan Shazier was wearing no. 98 as a tribute to Williams, who is bothered by a hamstring. Linebacker Lawrence Timmons was given a vets day off, and rookie tight end Jesse James was excused to attend a funeral.
Once again, the first string offense dominated the opening 2-point PAT, scoring on all four attempts – passes to Heath Miller, Antonio Brown and Josh Harris, then finally on a Harris run. The back-ups were 1 of 3 on a pass from Landry Jones to Tyler Murphy; Darius Hayward-Bey couldn't handle a bullet on what should have been two points.
Fans – and players and coaches – got their first look at kicker Garrett Hartley, who missed just one field goal inside of 50 yards. He missed two 57-yarders.
In the 11-on-11 passing period, Roethlisberger was 2 for 3 then gave way to Jones. A deep ball to Hayward-Bey was underthrown and picked off by cornerback Kevin Fogg, who has had a nice camp. Jones' next throw, though, dropped in perfectly to Shakim Phillips 15 yards down the left sideline drawing praise from Mike Tomlin. So, on the next play, Roethlisberger returned to throw a perfect ball to a streaking Wheaton up the right sideline for a touchdown, prompting Tomlin to comment "Seven's not going to let another guy get away with that throw, 'Get out of there, I've got this.'"
Overall, it was another impressive showing for Roethlisberger, who threw (maybe) one bad ball. In one sequence, he hit Brown deep left, then Wheaton, who laid out for a ball thrown away from the defender, and then Miller made a one-handed grab down the seam while covered.
Roethlisberger concluded the day in the 2-minute drill by using all but a few seconds of the allotted 1:33 with first downs to Miller, Brown, Brown, Brown and finally Brown for the touchdown. The only mix-up was when Roethlisberger called for a fake spike after a first down at the 3 and Brown didn't pick up whatever the signal was, which lead to a long discussion after they had hooked up for the TD.
The offense was a mess during the second-string portion of the 2-minute drill. James Harrison missed a ball that Jones threw right to him, Bud Dupree had a sack and Brandon Webb ended the day with an interception.
The Steelers will fly to Jacksonville Thursday afternoon for their second pre-season game Friday night, which will be shown on KDKA-TV.
