Saturday’s Training Camp Buzz: On Roethlisberger, strong day for Brown, WR’s; Tuitt inside track to start?

SATURDAY’S STEELERS CAMP REPORT

The Pittsburgh Steelers went through their first workout today, while the real practices truly get going Monday when the hitting begins.

“Good start for us today. Good energy, enthusiasm,” head coach Mike Tomlin said afterwards.

The Steelers came out of Day 1 rather healthy except for offensive lineman David Snow suffering what is believed to be an ankle injury.

“I call him Jon Snow because I’m a Game of Thrones guy,” Tomlin said of Snow, referencing the highly popular HBO series. The extent of Snow’s injury is uknown.

“We got through pretty clean and I liked the effort,” Tomlin said.

— Ben Roethlisberger wore No. 99 to open practice in honor of Brett Keisel. “That’s my boy,” Roethlisberger said. “He’s been one of my closest friends…I miss him.”. Roethlisberger did the same thing in the Steelers 2011 training camp, wearing Max Starks jersey. Four games into the regular season, Starks was eventually resigned. Roethlisberger wearing Keisel’s number for a day could end up being good luck for Keisel eventually getting signed at somepoint.

— Speaking of Roethlisberger lot’s of talk today about how lively his arm looked. “He was throwing bullet,” an observer said. Roethlisberger has said his arm is the strongest it’s ever been in his career. DVE’s Mike Prisuta had Roethlisberger marked down as 6-for-6 in the first team drill.

— Lot’s of buzz that wide receiver Justin Brown picked up right where he left off. He made a great impression on the coaches during OTA’s with how he’s picked up the offense and his strong hands. He doesn’t drop many balls. “Best receiver out there today,” a Steelers source said via text.

Scott Brown of ESPN writes in his Camp Report that the wide receivers as a whole looked very good today. “The wide receivers looked really good as a group during the first practice….. Darrius Heyward-Bey made an over-the-shoulder grab of a Roethlisberger deep ball during a seven-on-seven drill. Justin Brown made a leaping catch of a pass that Roethlisberger delivered with some serious heat. Markus Wheaton made a handful of nice catches. Wheaton and Antonio Brown were the starters at wide receiver when the Steelers went 11-on-11 and Lance Moore was the No. 3 wide receiver.” — Scott Brown ESPN

STARTING LDE SPOT TUITT’S TO LOSE IN CAMP?

With the way he picked up the defense in spring drills, 2nd round pick Stephon Tuitt has put himself in position where many inside the Steelers organization feel the left defensive end spot is his to lose in camp. This is a player Steelers scouts feel had a first round pedigree and he’s mature for a young player. If Tuitt wins the starting job, Pittsburgh will be starting two rookies on the defense for the season opener and you have to go back a while for the last time that happened.

— Dri Archer will be given every opportunity to open the season as the No. 1 punt returner. He opened with the first team punt return group today.

— Maurkice Pouncey said today he had no involvement with the alleged incident and has no fear of there being any discipline. “No fear at all,” Pouncey said. “The only thing that sucks about is it that I tried to keep a clean nose throughout the process this year. Having to deal with this sucks, it truly does.”

Depth Chart Notes: Will Allen was the starter at free safety opposite Troy Polamalu as Mike Mitchell starts camp on the PUP list…..Cody Wallace ran first team left guard with Ramon Foster missing.

FIRST TEAM OFFENSE

QB Ben Roethlisberger

RB: Le’Veon Bell

FB: Will Johnson

WR: Antonio Brown – Markus Wheaton

TE: Heath Miller

OL: Kelvin Beachum – Cody Wallace – Maurkice Pouncey – David DeCastro – Marcus Gilbert

Notes: Lance Moore worked in as No. 3 receiver in the slot.

FIRST TEAM DEFENSE

DL: Cam Thomas – Steve McLendon – Cam Heyward

LB: Jason Worilds – Ryan Shazier – Lawerence Timmons – Jarvis Jones

CB: Cortez Allen – Ike Taylor

S: Troy Polamalu – Will Allen