A few things to start off the week. A quick housekeeping note, I suppose, might be in order. This will be my last week at my job. What's that mean? Time to clean up all those loose ends I left unattended while bringing you Steelers commentary :) So, keep the fan posts section rocking and we'll see what shakes out on my end as the week progresses.
* More impressive offseason preparation from James Farrior. James, Santonio Holmes, Ike Taylor, and Bryant McFadden are all utilizing their pre-camp time at the Tom Shaw Performance Enhancement Camp. Farrior, who is 33 years of age, understands what he needs to do to keep up with the younger players chomping at the bit to get their opportunity:
"It's the Fountain of Youth down here," said Farrior, at 33 the second oldest player on the Steelers. "This is probably the biggest key to my offseason and my training program, as far as me playing at a high level. A guy my age, it takes a little bit extra. You've got to do a little bit more, work a little bit longer, just to keep up with the younger guys."
I got to say, I sure like that four of our very best players are leading the way in terms of preparation.
Oh, here's one other worthwhile quote from that article from Holmes:
"It gives you a totally different mind-set because you know you're coming out here with about 15-20 other guys from different teams in the NFL that want to compete a lot harder than you.
"When you have teammates, throughout practice you're gonna get that urge to take a step back," said Holmes, who also led the Steelers in receiving yards and touchdowns in 2007. "You don't want to hurt your teammates. You don't want to go too hard. But down here, you're going to get guys working at 100 mph every time."
* Our first rookie to sign! Tony Hills, the 4th round OT selected out of the University of Texas, will receive a signing bonus of $304,500, and his three-year deal with pay him league minimum base salaries of $295,000, $385,000 and $470,000. Hopefully Mendenhall, Limas, Bruce Davis, Ryan Mundy, Mike Humpal, and Dennis Dixon will follow suit soon before camp opens on July 27th.
* Good, I'm not the only one who thinks Mewelde Moore will make a huge impact this year.