Jul 20, 2019 5 min read

It’s been a quiet month for the Steelers. And that’s a good thing. In fact, for the Steelers, it’s been a very good thing.

No headlines about contracts or holdouts. No reports of an arrest. No furniture flying off South Florida balconies. No drama.

What the Steelers do have is a chip, and it’s planted directly on their collective shoulder.

The team will report to training camp Thursday at Saint Vincent College with little fanfare compared to previous seasons.

After all, the Ravens won the division last season and the Browns are the darlings of the NFL right now.

The Steelers?

They’re yesterday’s news – at least according to some NFL pundits.

Thing is, they still have the most talented quarterback in the division. They still have a bunch of Pro Bowl players – 11 in all. They still have a history of being the team to beat in the AFC North, even when they’re being overlooked. Actually, strike that, especially when they’re overlooked.

And this is a team that feels like it’s being overlooked.

“I’ve been here a long time and we’re still the Pittsburgh Steelers,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said during the team’s minicamp. “We’re still going to go out and try to win every football game. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to the big one. But, you know, like I said, if everyone puts forth the effort that we all think we can, and with the talent that we have in this room, we feel pretty confident we can be pretty good.”

The proof will be in the pudding. But chances are good that the things that helped derail this team a year ago – seven missed field goals by placekicker Chris Boswell and just 15 forced turnovers – will even out.

The defense, with the additions of cornerback Steven Nelson and inside linebackers Mark Barron and Devin Bush, should be better.

But let’s face it, despite the drama surrounding Antonio Brown last season, it’s going to be hard for the offense to be better than it was a year ago. Remember, the Steelers led the league in red zone scoring percentage at 73.47%, the best in the NFL in the past decade.

Brown was a big part of that. And while the Steelers can replace his 104 catches and 1,300 or so yards from a year ago, those 15 touchdowns have to come from somewhere else.

Figuring that out is going to be a big focus of this training camp.

n If the Pirates truly want to make a big move this season, trading away closer Felipe Vazquez is the surest way for the team to do so.

The team surged going into the All-Star break, but Friday night’s loss to the Phillies continued the team’s post-break slide and dropped them to 7½ games out of first place. Honestly, they might as well be 17½ games out.

And while it’s nice to have a shutdown closer, this is a team that has found closers in a variety of spots. It can probably do so again.

Of all the pieces the Pirates could trade away that might bring a nice return, Vazquez is the biggest.

Remember, the team got him in a deal for Mark Melancon. And Melancon was acquired in a trade that included Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan, the team’s closer before Melancon and Vazquez, also was acquired in a trade.

In other words, closers come and closers go.

Right now, Vazquez is one of the most dominant in the game and that’s nice to have. But if you’re only going to win 80 or so games, he’s worth more to the team as a high-end trade chip than he is saving 35 games.

n It’s going to be interesting watching how the Steelers’ rookie class incorporates itself into the team’s roster.

Bush should make an immediate impact. He’s that good. And the Steelers didn’t make the move up to the 10th pick in the draft to not play him.

As for the rest, it has the look of a good group. More importantly, it has the look of a group that, other than seventh-round offensive lineman Derwin Gray, has a pretty good chance of making this roster.

“We’re going to cut some guys this year that will wind up playing somewhere else this season,” special teams coordinator Danny Smith said.

It’s unlikely Smith was talking about the rookie draft class – at least many of them.

The Steelers are tight against the salary cap. The best way to fix that is to cut players making veteran contracts in favor of players on their rookie deals.

n This will be my 27th camp covering the Steelers. There hasn’t been a one I can recall in which the team has less pressure surrounding it than this one.

With most people picking the Browns to win the division and with Brown and Le’Veon Bell gone, the Steelers seem like an afterthought.

A team with a future Hall of Fame quarterback should never be an afterthought.