Steelers News: For rookie Antoine Brooks, the focus is at safety, not linebacker

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2020 NFL Draft is officially over. After finishing last year 8-8, the Steelers, and their vast fan base, have another long offseason awaiting them. Just because the games are done doesn’t mean we stop providing you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over throughout the offseason!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take a look at how the Steelers are putting their 6th round safety/linebacker more at safety than linebacker to start his rookie year off right.

Let’s get to the news:

• The Pittsburgh Steelers have a hybrid safety/linebacker on their hands, but it looks like they have plans for Antoine Brooks at safety, not linebacker.

Coaches exposing him to ‘a lot,’ but Steelers rookie Antoine Brooks’ first focus is safety

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Antoine Brooks appealed to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the draft because of his versatility. Less than two weeks into his pro career, that remains true. But it’s his given position — safety — that is Brooks’ primary focus during this weekend’s virtual rookie minicamp.

“(Coaches) have let me know a lot of things,” Brooks said Saturday in a video call with media. “We’ve been talking about a lot of certain positions, but primarily safety.”

The 5-foot-11, 220-pound Brooks was a linebacker as a freshman at Maryland but was listed at defensive back the past three seasons. The Steelers were intrigued by his ability to fit into a hybrid role as a box safety or dime linebacker, and they are thin at inside linebacker.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• Mike Tomlin agrees with Roger Goodell. No facilities should open until they can all open.

Steelers’ Mike Tomlin: No team facilities should open until all NFL team facilities can open

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Even if Allegheny County’s “yellow light” turns green, that will have little to do with if the Pittsburgh Steelers can get back to the football field. At least, that’s Mike Tomlin’s opinion.

The Steelers coach said Saturday he believes no NFL teams should be permitted access to their facilities until all teams are. League policy currently has banned most personnel from all team’s official headquarters because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“I subscribe to the approach of a competitive fairness within our game, and that is everybody gets an opportunity,” Tomlin said during a conference call with media. “Our game is extremely competitive. It’s one of the things that makes football at this level so attractive to our fans. I am committed to preserving and protecting that, so all teams getting an opportunity to start on the same footing is a core element of that.”

One of the NFL’s longest-tenured coaches and a member of the powerful competition committee, Tomlin has some sway in how the league navigates the complex and delicate circumstances surrounding the stay-at-home orders in effect throughout much of the country as a safeguard against the spread of covid-19.

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

• It is business as usual for the Steelers’ staff, even though it might look different.

Tomlin doing the same thing, only differently

By: Bob Labriola, Steelers.com

The best way to understanding this weekend’s Steelers rookie minicamp is this: What they’re doing hasn’t changed, but how they’re doing it has.

Rookie minicamp is underway for the Steelers even though there is nothing happening at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. That’s because, like so much else happening around the world when it comes to the business of conducting business, it’s taking place remotely. The Steelers “welcomed” their draft picks and their undrafted rookies virtually, with the first part of the weekend happening on Friday in the form of a speech to the group by recently retired guard Ramon Foster.

“We were excited about that, and Ramon delivered in a big way,” said Coach Mike Tomlin. “I just thought he was a great guy to welcome those guys, a guy who understands the journey that many of them are attempting to walk, as a guy who was undrafted and went on to have a great career here that lasted over a decade as a really well-respected professional. Being recently retired, Ramon is very fresh to getting off the field, and the position he is in, the perspective he has, would be a good one (for them). I thought he did an awesome job.”

To read the full article, click HERE (Free)

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