Coronavirus concerns create a most unusual rookie minicamp for newest Steelers
A typical NFL rookie minicamp often can include some face time and zoom. As in, a team’s newest players getting some valuable face time in front of their new coaches, and the faster ones showing off by zooming around practice fields.
The unique circumstances surrounding 2020, of course, have made this Pittsburgh Steelers rookie minicamp unlike any prior, with plenty of (iPhone) FaceTime and Zoom (video conferencing).
“It’s definitely different,” said receiver Chase Claypool, the Steelers’ highest pick last month. “We have to troubleshoot every day because there’s always an audio issue or something. It’s definitely a unique experience.”
In recent years the second weekend in May has been the domain of a few dozen young players (recent draftees, undrafted free agents, first-year players, tryouts) taking part in meetings and drills at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
Not this year, though. Concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic have closed team facilities and effectively grounded rookies to their homes. That left this weekend’s Steelers rookie camp termed “virtual.”
So Claypool was in western Canada, and 15 other rookies drafted or signed two weeks ago (in addition to about a score of first-year players) were at various outposts across the United States. All were locked onto phone, iPad or laptop screens instead of in meeting rooms or on practice fields on the South Side.
“There’s a little uncertainty there just because this is a different draft class,” seventh-round pick Carlos Davis said on a Zoom call with media shortly after Claypool spoke with reporters the same way. “We’re not able to be there, so it does raise a little concern. But I’m really just focused on learning the playbook right now, and when we do get to be there, just going to work.”
Friday’s session began with an 11 a.m. virtual meeting run by coach Mike Tomlin, said Davis, a defensive tackle from Nebraska. Unit- and position-specific meetings followed in what was about a five-hour “formal” work day.
In the two weeks between the draft and the camp, rookies were sent iPads with basic tenets of the Steelers playbook. They also were provided access to secure websites and given guidance on types of exercises and drills to take part in.
“It’s kind of an honor system,” Davis said. “(Coaches) told us to be working out and being in our best shape, but they just leave it up to us to do that.”
For Davis, methods for maintaining his 320-pound frame for the rigors of the NFL have been limited to using resistance bands in his home.
Chase Claypool’s four years at Notre Dame included just about everything on the football field short of playing with marching band at halftime. https://t.co/M79dXm0Ymj
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) April 29, 2020
Claypool has been luckier: He has been working with strength and speed coaches in his native British Columbia since before his career at Notre Dame began four years ago. Claypool said his personal trainer, Eddie Ferg, has a weight room in his garage that he has access to five days a week.
Claypool even has had a chance to rehearse some of the route concepts he has been exposed to in the Steelers’ offense.
“We have gone on the field and just walked through those things,” he said, “so I get an idea of how to do it on the field.”
It is a challenge for young players to — in Tomlin parlance — “get on the moving train” under such circumstances. But it is not as if these rookies have any other choice, nor will they be given much leeway or sympathy relative to their more experienced teammates.
“Coach Tomlin just kept preaching that we’re not going to hold your hand through this,” Claypool said. “And that they expect us to be on top of things.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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