The Steelers are back into the swing of things which means hearing from Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin on Tuesday. While not always asked about specific players, this week had several questions about players and Tomlin taking liberties to bring up plaenty of others. Since Coach Tomlin gave us the material, we’ll take a look at the players mentioned in Tomlin’s press conference. Remember these players are ones brought up during the question and answer period.
Robert Spillane
Driving a lot of the questions was the Steelers situation at inside linebacker and Robert Spillane having to step into a big role this past Sunday. Coach Tomlin was asked what they first saw in Spillane when they picked him up in free agency.
“We like our MAC football. We’ve had our exposure to it, if you will, from a scouting standpoint. He was a quality player in college first. I think that’s what caught our attention. He was able to get some league experience down in Tennessee. We just had an opportunity to acquire him when he was available. We thought he was a guy that could play football, that could add depth and competition to our fold. He’s proven that over the course of his stay here. He’s continually gotten better and continually worked to carve out a role for himself. Now, he will get an opportunity to display that readiness and that work in a significant amount of play time opportunity.”
JuJu Smith-Schuster
As quarterback Ben Roethlisberger mentioned last week, the Steelers wide receivers are a very unselfish group when it comes to individual statistics, specifically JuJu Smith-Schuster. Coach Tomlin was asked about Smith-Schuster’s selfless attitude.
“I really just think its funny that it is noteworthy that we are excited because teammates are scoring and having success. I think that football is the ultimate team game, and JuJu is a quality example of that. We have a lot of guys that are quality examples of that. We shouldn’t let a few outliers globally in terms of guys that are not good team players or the reporting of such events capture the headlines. Largely, we have a lot of guys that are quality team players. They play and play to win. They play together, and when anybody does something well, everyone is pretty excited about it.”
Bud Dupree
This is a bit of a stretch because the question had nothing to do with Steelers’ linebacker Bud Dupree. Coach Tomlin was actually asked if players are intimidated by Derrick Henry, and his comparison was just too entertaining to leave out.
“There are people that are intimidated by him. There are tangible things to be intimidated by. This is like Bud Dupree running the football. This guy gets into your secondary. It’s like trying to tackle a guy like Bud, except he is faster, obviously, than Bud. You can see DBs having issues with that. Hopefully, we minimize the amount of time our guys are in those circumstances, and hopefully, when our guys are in those circumstances, they do what they have to do. They do what the job requires them to do.”
Devin Bush
While there was little negative coming from the Steelers 38-7 win over the Cleveland Browns, the loss of inside linebacker Devin Bush for the remainder of the 2020 season is a huge blow. Coach Tomlin was asked about making up for Bush’s absence for the rest of the season.
“Let’s be straight forward here. It’s not like Devin has been doing it forever. We just handed the keys to Devin here five games ago. He was not the green dot or the central communicator in 2019. We’re very thoughtful about that area. We were not in an area of comfort there. Devin was growing and growing every week. Are we going through a transition? Certainly. But its not like we had a grizzly veteran in that position who had been handling that job for a number of years. That is something that has been on our radar and something that we have been very conscious of in its development here in 2020. That is just going to continue.”
Tomlin was asked a follow up question about Bush’s prognosis.
“I won’t have any additional information until he gets to the other side of the surgery and then some.”
Marcus Allen & Ulysees Gilbert III
When it comes to filling the shoes of Devin Bush, the Steelers will likely use a variety of options. Coach Tomlin was asked if Marcus Allen and Ulysees Gilbert will be called on to fill the void, and he naturally brought up Robert Spillane again.
“We have a lot of confidence in all of these guys like I mentioned at the beginning. We still have some heavy game planning to do here, particularly defensively for the remainder of the day. We will hammer out some of those details like who is carrying the green dot; what is the division of labor. I doubt Robert Spillane will be playing all the defensive snaps, so it will probably require a combination of people in an effort to replace Devin Bush. That’s not unusual under the circumstances, but all that remains to be hashed out. Just rest assured that we are comfortable with the capabilities of all the men and there will be no excuses in terms of the performance of those that occupy the role.”
Dustin Colquitt
One of the bigger areas of concern for the 5-0 Steelers in 2020 comes in the form of their punting situation with veteran Dustin Colquitt. Coach Tomlin was asked about the Steelers’ net punting being last in the NFL.
“ I acknowledge that our punting is not up to snuff and that we have to get better in that area, and we are willing to do whatever is required in an effort to do so.”
Mike Hilton
One player coming off an injury from Sunday who the Steelers hope to have available Sunday is cornerback Mike Hilton. Coach Tomlin was asked about what Hilton brings to the Steelers’ defense.
“Mike Hilton’s role is often defined by the personality of the group that we play. To be quite honest with you, Tennessee is not in a lot of sub-package personnel grouping. I don’t know what Mike’s role might be in this environment this week. They play old-school style football and I don’t know how much subpackage ball we will be playing on non-possession downs. That remains to be seen. Mike is tough and a competitor, I’m sure he will be prepared regardless of what his role is.”
Chukwuma Okorafor
While yet another question was ultimately about Robert Spillane, it also involved Chuks Okorafor as they were teammates in college at Western Michigan. Coach Tomlin was asked about if Spillane was on the Steelers’ radar during the draft process or if they noticed him playing in Tennessee during the preseason. In his reply, Tomlin mentioned the Steelers looking at Okorafor in preparation for the draft.
“All of the above. Regionally speaking, we follow that league and the guys on our team reflect that. We had a college teammate of his that was highly regarded in Chuks that we drafted in round three, so we were very familiar with Robert, yes.”
Stefen Wisniewski
Another player coming back from injury for the Steelers is reserve interior offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski. Coach Tomlin was asked if Wisniewski will be available for this week’s game.
“I do not. I know he worked well today, and he is scheduled to work tomorrow. We are going to let the quality of work be our guide in terms of how we approach his status.”
Chris Boswell
One player having another strong season is Steelers’ placekicker Chris Boswell. Not only have field goals and extra points not been a problem minus one hiccup back in Week 1, kickoffs and kickoff coverage have been an asset in 2020. Coach Tomlin was asked the philosophy of kicking the ball into the end zone during kickoffs.
“I’m not going to get into the minutia of game planning, just rest assured that we are capable of kicking the ball through the endzone, or we are capable of putting the ball into play. Usually it is matchup related or us feeling good about our coverage or windage and things of that nature. There are some variables at play in terms of the decision making. We live by whatever decision we come to.”
For a full recap of Mike Tomlin’s press conference, check out our podcast recap below:
Mike Tomlin’s interview can be seen here:
#LIVE: Coach Tomlin addresses the media ahead of our game against the Titans. https://t.co/aaG1me8nSV
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) October 20, 2020