Day 1 Notes: Dixon defends agents comments

-Max Starks brought the whole offensive line into camp in a caravan of mini-coopers. The offensive tackle is part owner of P&W Auto on Baum Boulevard in Shadyside. Ben Roethlisberger played chauffer for Willie Colon since Colon still wont be able to drive for two weeks due to his Achilles tendon surgery.

-Roethlisberger spoke only briefly saying: “It’s good to be back. It’s all about football right now. It’s good to put things that happened to you in the off-season behind you.”

-In terms of Roethlisberger‘s role during camp, coach Mike Tomlin says that he wants Ben to have a “productive camp“, but he also said “our focus is who is going to be on who will be playing quarterback in the opener.”

And to that end, Tomlin once again stated that Dennis Dixon will be “following“ Byron Leftwich. And he said Leftwich will be getting a “significant amount of snaps.“

Tomlin stated that they didn‘t want to get “locked into” a rotation and that the team would continue to be “non-rhythmic” in terms of the snaps his quarterbacks got this month. In other words: Leftwich #1, Dixon #2...Ben will take enough snaps to stay sharp…Batch gets the leftovers.

-Byron Leftwich claimed to have not heard about the comments Jeff Sperbeck made. He’s the agent for Dennis Dixon. Sperbeck was quoted in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as saying that he hoped the Steelers would have given his client more snaps with the first team in mini-camp and the O.T.A’s. He also made it sound like the Steelers passed over Dixon for Leftwich.

But Leftwich blew off the comments when I asked him about the topic. “There’s no need for anybody to speak on that. Me and Dennis are good. I mean…stop that, stop that, stop that. We’ll both get opportunities to go out there and play. It’d be crazy for me to comment on anything Dennis’ agent says. We’re a family. And anything that happens outside of that family I don’t really care about.”

However, Dixon seemed to appreciate Sperbeck’s support.