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Steelers Training Camp: Will off-season conditioning work pay off?

All off-season long, we got glimpses via social media into seemingly endless workouts by many members of the Steelers' roster. Will it translate onto the field, or was all that iron being pumped for naught?

By Mike Frazer
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

If the 2015 Pittsburgh Steelers don't improve on their 11-5 AFC North Championship season in 2014, one thing is for sure. You can't blame conditioning.

In a sport where the uninformed public may see offensive and defensive linemen fighting in the trenches and assume, "the fatter, the better," these Steelers could enter several of their plyaers into the next Mr. Universe competition.

Eat your heart out, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It was a quiet off-season in Pittsburgh, despite the retirements of half of the starting secondary -- Troy Polamalu and Ike Taylor -- and Dick LeBeau and Brett Keisel not being brought back. There was change, but it remained as tame an off-season as we've seen in years.

That, of course, meant that James Harrison's workouts in Arizona with most of his positional cohorts were more than social-media fodder. They were gold for a fan base Jonesing for anything with black and gold or a Steelmark on it.

His group photos of himself, Jarvis Jones, Vince Williams, Sean Spence and Ryan Shazier looked like they were posing for an ad for Beefcake Planet, or something. Vince Williams looked like he had breast augmentation surgery, for crying out loud.

These guys are fit, and stacked like castle turrets. And speaking of turrets, the perimeter protection isn't taking a backseat to the linebackers in the fitness mobile.

There were those photos of four-fifths of the starting offensive linemen -- Kelvin Beachum, Ramon Foster, Maurkice Pouncey and Marcus Gilbert -- looking for all the world like they spent the spring stalking and wrestling lions and tigers and bears.

There was also safety Ross Ventrone in the photo, straining at chains holding his arms. Along with cornerback Antwon Blake, the two might be the most jacked defensive backs in the NFL, pound for pound.

Nose tackle Dan McCullers? Dropped 20 pounds. He's down to a lean 345 pounds.

Wide receiver Antonio Brown is one of the most physically fit players in the NFL. Michelangeo's David isn't half as chiseled -- and that work of art was, literally, carved with a chisel.

Backup running back Josh Harris was already ripped last year, but he appears to have kicked it up another notch or twelve, from "that dude is strong" to somewhere well north of "holy [censored]". I give you the above photo as exhibits A through Z.

And all we need to say about the starting runner, Le'Veon Bell, is a number: 2.9. As in, 2.9 percent body fat. There was more fat on last night's chuck roast than on that man's entire body.

Even quarterback Ben Roethlisberger -- never really a bastion of physical fitness -- looks leaner and stronger than ever.

Maybe it's an understanding that this game requires peak fitness. Maybe it's a maturation process. Or, just maybe, this is a very ticked off group of guys who don't want to bow out the same way they did in 2014.

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: these guys are taking their fitness seriously.

Let's just hope all this work helps their football game more than it seems to have helped their golf games.

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