May 25, 2016 4 min read

We are now a couple of days into the Steelers OTAs and we’ve found out a few things. Here are some random ramblings from what’s happened.

I cringed when Le’Veon Bell was talking about how he didn’t think opposing players were out to hurt him before last season, then adding that Baltimore and Cleveland also have taken some cheap shots on him – as well as Cincinnati.

If Bell didn’t know that football teams take shots at the opponent’s best player in an attempt to knock them out of the game, I wonder how much of a historian of the game he is.

Opponents taking shots at stars has been around as long as football has been played.

Is it right? No.

Is it something that goes on? All the time.

Bell’s point was that the players are all professionals and nobody should be looking to end anyone else’s career, but that line can sometime be crossed on the football field.

I didn’t feel Vontaze Burfict’s tackle of Bell rose to the level of, for example, his cheap shot on Antonio Brown in the playoffs or his punkish shot on Baltimore’s Maxx Williams the week before. But it was distasteful that he celebrated knocking Bell out of the game.

• Bell wasn’t at the Steelers’ practice on Wednesday after going through a workout Tuesday. That’s pretty normal.

It’s likely that after testing his knee Tuesday, he took Wednesday off as a precaution.

• Bell said he expects to be ready for the start of the regular season and it sounds like he’ll be ready to go when training camp starts.

• Maurkice Pouncey was one of the first guys onto the field Tuesday and said he was “pissed” that he had to sit out all of 2015 with a broken leg that required a number of surgeries to fix.

A “pissed” Pouncey will be highly motivated to put last season behind him.

• The “injury prone” tag is being thrown around with Bell and Pouncey. But, as Bell noted, it’s not like he’s pulling hamstrings and such.

Torn ligaments and broken bones happen. Not much you can do about them.

You want to call LaMarr Woodley “injury prone,” I get that. He continually had hamstring and groin injuries.

But any human would have gotten injured from the things that have kept Pouncey and Bell out in recent seasons.

• Senquez Golson said he was a little rusty Tuesday but felt better on Wednesday after missing all of last season with a shoulder injury.

Golson said he had dealt with shoulder issues throughout college but now feels 100 percent.

Golson was asked if he and Artie Burns are the future foundation of the Steelers secondary.

He wouldn’t bite, even if it is true.

• I noticed today that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is no longer wearing any kind of sleeve on his knee for practice. That had been a constant the past few years, but Roethlisberger was running Wednesday with a bare leg.

He typically looks slimmer this time of year, but I think he looks faster now than he has the past few years.

Roethlisberger’s game is no longer about scrambling around, but he still does have that in his bag of tricks, even if he can’t do it to the level he did early in his career.

• New tight end Ladarius Green remains sidelined, presumably from the ankle surgery he had in the offseason. But he’ll be ready to hit the ground running by training camp at the latest.

• Cam Heyward said Wednesday the Steelers need Daniel McCullers to “play humungous” this season and be more consistent.

Heyward said McCullers has shown flashes of dominance but needs to learn to play that way every down to be a factor for the team at nose tackle.

• After having one of the league’s most brutal travel schedules last season, the Steelers have the easiest this year – holiday games aside.

Pittsburgh is scheduled to travel 5,138 miles this season. Seven other teams will log more than 20,000 miles, with the Rams and Raiders both set to top 30,000.