A quiet offseason will precede a loud 2014 season for Steelers WR Markus Wheaton

Steelers wide receiver Markus Wheaton seems quiet.

His timeline on Twitter consists of retweets, supporting his Oregon State teammates as they prepared for the NFL Draft, a few comments on the NBA playoffs and an announcement he'll be headlining Jason Worilds' youth football camp June 23-26.

Not much more than that. Just 14 Tweets in May.

He was quiet on the field in 2013 as well. He played in just 161 snaps, having to experience the downside of the rookie learning curve for the position, not to mention broken fingers on separate plays caused him to miss four games. He played in eight snaps or less in nine of the 12 games for which he dressed.

Never was he more quiet than the time after the Steelers' rookie minicamp last year.

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A rule preventing players from joining their NFL teams until their college lets out for the summer cost Wheaton three Phase Three OTA sessions last year, 10 practices with his teammates in total. That's a lot of immersion time lost. A lot of missed opportunities to get tips from All Pro receiver Antonio Brown; a lot of chances to hear Ben Roethlisberger tell him where the pass will be coming.

Wheaton was behind the 8-ball before his career in Pittsburgh started. Minus the broken fingers, he didn't have much of a chance to get on the field right away, let alone to be sharp enough mentally to be expected to make much of an impact.

He was noted, however, to be among the hardest workers the team had in camp last season, and with zero chance of his role not expanding in 2014, things are looking up for the speedy Wheaton.

He will likely replace departed WR Emmanuel Sanders as the team's starting X receiver (split end), and despite conversations regarding numerical designations, the amount of targets he will receive game-to-game will depend more on match-ups and what Roethlisberger sees from the defense. It's fair to say, though, Wheaton will get his chance to make much more noise than he has through his first two offseasons as a professional.

Maybe that will inspire him to Tweet more than once every other day.