As Behind The Steel Curtain previously reported, Steelers training camp will begin Thursday, July 28, at St. Vincent's College, as per usual.
This camp looks to start a bit differently this year than last year, when the team knew it would be without the services of QB Ben Roethlisberger for the first four games.
The emphasis was more on which of the three QBs on the roster would be starting, Byron Leftwich, Dennis Dixon or Charlie Batch?
Leftwich was injured early, and Dixon got the first nod. He went down, bringing Batch into the job in Week 3.
Without the same level of intrigue going into this training camp, and impending free agency likely to change the face of a few teams quite a bit, the Steelers look to be on the verge of a competitive, but not all together surprising, training camp.
There are positional questions that won't be answerable for a few days at least, pending the new CBA and free agency. Some of those surround Steelers role players, such as TE Matt Spaeth and OL Trai Essex. Other offensive line-based questions will be how the team will deal with RT Willie Colon (a preseason injury kept him out of all of 2010), and the status of veteran Flozell Adams.
For most BTSC readers, the status of RB Isaac Redman has reached somethin of a cult heroish level. Will the Steelers give him the first look at replacing Mewelde Moore?
Lots of questions are out there, and due to the lack of league activity over the past few months, logic would dictate the Steelers' brass had plenty of time to run millions of what-if scenarios.
We can only hope a less controversial training camp can produce the same end result that last year's team did.