After missing three weeks of voluntary organized team activities due to the birth of his second child, Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro guard David DeCastro arrived for minicamp and noticed an immediate difference in the locker-room atmosphere.
“You can feel it,” DeCastro said.
Gone was the drama that permeated over the franchise during the offseason with wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell, who have moved on to new destinations.
“Things have changed pretty well around here,” DeCastro said before the Steelers took the field for the first of three minicamp practices. “Just coming back and seeing it, talking to people. I’m excited. I really am – just to play football.”
DeCastro said the focus is “more team-oriented,” which wasn’t always the case last season and in the winter when Brown’s future dominated many of the headlines.
“It was a weird offseason with a lot of things,” DeCastro said. “Hopefully, we can worry about football now.”
DeCastro didn’t agree with the criticism of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, most of which came from Brown, who said the quarterback had an “owner mentality.”
“Some people get bitter and can’t move on,” DeCastro said. “It’s always easy to take shots when you’re gone.”
DeCastro smiled when he was asked whether the Steelers can continue their drama-free ways into the rest of the summer and fall.
“We’ll see,” he said. “I hope so. That’s the plan, at least. I think everyone is on the same page. If we can spend all of that energy focusing on football, that would be nice.”
