Camp has been open only a week, so if anyone at Saint Vincent is up to speed, or even up to half speed, it’s probably the fans.
Some chanted “Dee-fense! Dee-fense!” during drills Wednesday, so let me just check this one thing — yep, it was Aug. 3.
Pretty intense.
One citizen of Steelers Nation, noting that veteran corner William Gay was one-on-one near the boundary against Rolls Royce owner Antonio Brown, screamed, “Get back Will! Get back!”
Gay, acting as if he was startled, looked up at the guy and immediately gave Brown a 15-yard cushion, then waved the fan off and got back in position. Yeah, it was the kind of wave that says, “Oh SHUT up.”
Still, there is a certain discomfiture in Mike Tomlin’s 10th training camp around the Steelers defense, most of it affixed to a secondary that Wednesday added cornerback Kevin White to the roster. White was an undrafted free agent when he signed with the Atlanta Falcons in May 2015, and was an undrafted free agent when he was released by the Arizona Cardinals in May 2016. The best the club’s official release announcing his acquisition could offer was that White would wear No. 38, so yeah, he’s capable of wearing clothing, or as Tomlin might put it, “He’s clothing capable.”
But the potential trouble doesn’t end in a defensive backfield where rookies could start at both safety and corner, it extends to the extreme lack of pressure the current defense generates from its so-called edge rushers.
Of the Steelers’ healthy total of 48 sacks last season, fewer than a third (15) came from edge rushers and a third of those came from post-retirement linebacker James Harrison. Otherwise, departed defensive back Will Allen had as many sacks as any outside linebacker (four) and twice as many as Jarvis Jones. Rookie Bud Dupree had four sacks, but had none whatsoever in the final 10 games, including the playoffs.
Still, if you’re getting 48 sacks, good for third in the league, is this a problem?
“Any team wants to create pressure all across the front,” said second year outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo. “We want everybody to be able to rush, except when we drop one off in coverage, but the rush and the coverage work together.”
It says here that nothing would make things easier on a for-now dubious secondary than legitimate pressure off the edge, and Chickillo just happens to be one x-factor who could bolster that aspect of this team’s defensive posture.
A 4-3 defensive end and linebacker at Miami, all Chickillo’s had to do in the past 15 months is remake himself physically and mentally trying to earn an NFL job as a sixth-round draft pick.
“I feel a lot more comfortable now,” Chickillo said after a practice that saw him drop into coverage to bat passes away from tight ends David Johnson and Jesse James, then speed rush rookie tackle Jerald Hawkins and fly past him like he was standing still, which, um, he appeared to be. “Just more comfortable in the playbook; I know what we’re doin’, I know what each day consists of, so I’m just trying to come out here every day and get better. I was 285 my last year at [the University of] Miami, and right now, I’m a little bit under 250. Comin’ into camp last year I was probably 260.”
So at 6-3 and roughly 249, Anthony Louis Nicholas Chickillo is pretty much the same dimensionally as someone he has been talking to, one Kevin Greene (6-3, 247), former Steelers edge rusher and soon-to-be-Hall of Famer.
“Kevin Greene told me he probably had 80 [of his 160 career] sacks just speed-to-power, and that’s my main technique,” said Chickillo. “A guy like James Harrison, he’s got a patented hook move and he’s got a bull rush. Two moves. But he’s does ’em really well; no one can stop him. It’s not about how many moves you have, it’s about how many you can do really well and hit home with.”
On a team that depends mightily on winning the turnover battle — the Steelers were 11-1 last year when they were plus or even in the turnover factor, 0-6 when they were not — no one around here much cares who hits home from the edge as long as, once in a while at least, somebody does.
If Jones and/or Dupree don’t soon get their games together in that area, the opening for Chickillo will expand significantly.
“More than anything right now we’re looking for a guy who can take advantage of an opportunity, and shows the conditioning necessary to take advantage of the opportunity,” said Tomlin.
The head coach wasn’t talking about edge rushers specifically, but Chickillo could fill that template.
Sweat poured off every player Wednesday, as usual, but the backup backup outside linebacker barely felt the heat. He grew up in Tampa and played at Miami.
“It’s not hot at all,” he smiled.
True, but the competition at his position could get hot soon enough.
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.com and Twitter @genecollier.
First Published: August 4, 2016, 4:00 a.m.