Kevin Gorman: When Maurkice Pouncey speaks, the Steelers are listening

If you were looking for leadership on the first day of training camp for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it showed up in a black SUV and parked in front of Rooney Hall at Saint Vincent College.

Maurkice Pouncey arrived early Thursday with little fanfare and few words. There wasn’t much to say, other than to congratulate Steelers coach Mike Tomlin on his contract extension.

But it’s no coincidence that Steelers players – save Eli Rogers, who must have missed the memo while riding a rig – didn’t make much of a show of their training-camp arrival this year after Antonio Brown’s helicopter highlights a year ago.

The 10th-year center, a seven-time Pro Bowl pick and two-time All-Pro, isn’t just one of the NFL’s best players at his position but also one of the best talkers on the team. He’s a go-to guy to talk about any issue, as most of his comments are positive.

Steelers veterans have told me that Pouncey is the most respected leader of this team, regardless of offense or defense.

“He knows it, for sure, and everyone else around him (does),” Steelers left guard Ramon Foster said. “When you do the things that he’s done and command that type of respect, people will listen, too. It’s good having him on our side.”

Pouncey and Foster join quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as the only Steelers veterans to play on a Super Bowl team. Where Roethlisberger has won two titles and Foster started in the Super Bowl XLV loss to Green Bay, it killed Pouncey not only that he missed that game but had to lie about his ankle injury.

Pouncey’s absence was noticeable in that game and felt in the two seasons he missed with injuries, in 2013 with a torn ACL and ’15 with a broken fibula compounded by an infection. When healthy, he’s been a Pro Bowl player every year.

Where he’s usually affable and smiling, the Steelers know that when Pouncey speaks up, it’s only when they need it most. That’s why he’s like those old E.F. Hutton commercials.

“Everybody listens,” offensive tackle Matt Feiler said, “because you know that if he’s saying something, something’s wrong. You better listen. I think it’s a great thing for him to do, to stand up and say what needs to be said. He’s one of the leaders, one of the guys everybody looks to, to voice his opinion. Whether it’s good or bad doesn’t matter. Whatever needs to be said is going to be said.”

The problem, if there is one, is that Pouncey doesn’t speak up often enough. He didn’t speak up when Le’Veon Bell missed his deadline to report last season or when Antonio Brown went AWOL in the final week of the season. That’s when the Steelers could have used a powerful voice in the locker room.

But Pouncey believes it’s not always necessary.

“No, because I think this team understands: We’re all grown men,” Pouncey said. “Sometimes, there’s lapses in the season where it gets hard and tough. I’ve been here long enough to know when a little speech is needed or a guy needs a little talking to. It’s not all the time. We’re not little kids. I think the guys approach this thing the right way but I get the other side and I get why other people think that and why people get criticism. We’re all learning and growing at the same time.”

Does Pouncey wish he would have spoken up more in the past?

“Maybe a little bit more,” Pouncey said, “but everything happens for a reason and it played out how it’s supposed to play out.”

Learning and growing seems to be a theme for these Steelers, even with their strong veteran presence. The Steelers lived through the distractions and disappointment of last season, when they missed the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Hopefully, they learned from it.

As Foster said, nobody cares about the cleanup. The Steelers took a lot of shots in the offseason, including some from friendly fire. Like Pouncey, they said little and smiled through it.

The Steelers should learn to follow Pouncey’s example, in terms of being a productive player who doesn’t cause problems. Instead, he prefers to be part of the solution.

“He’s an exceptional leader because of what he’s willing to do on a day-to-day basis, not necessarily (because of) what he says,” Tomlin said. “He’s not a guy that has a lot to say but he’s a guy that’s always present, always ready and always is doing what we need him to do – and I think that speaks volumes.”

Now is the time for the Steelers to listen to and follow their leader.