Steelers enter "new territory" as training camp opens

CBS News

4 days ago

Omar Khan grabbed both sides of the dais and paused. The Pittsburgh Steelers general manager, fresh off hailing the arrival of Aaron Rodgers, needed a minute.
"Let's see, what else have we done?" Khan asked Wednesday as the team reported for training camp at Saint Vincent College fresh off perhaps the busiest offseason in its 90-plus-year history.
The man who promised to shake things up after another first-round playoff exit in January has spent the past six months proving they weren't just empty words. And the team that arrived for its annual three-week stay at the small Catholic school in the western Pennsylvania hills looks far different than the one that was run over by Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry on that miserable night in Baltimore.
Out are quarterbacks Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. Temperamental wide receiver George Pickens, four-time 1,000-yard rusher Najee Harris, veteran defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi and — most stunningly of all — Pro Bowl safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, too.
In are Rodgers, wide receiver DK Metcalf, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith, among others, as the Steelers try to end an eight-year postseason victory drought.
"We knew changes had to be made," Khan said. "And here we are."
Where that is — Khan, coach Mike Tomlin and everyone else hopes — is out of the purgatory of "frequently good but never great" that the Steelers have been stuck in for nearly a decade. "Our goal is to win the Super Bowl, so we're building this team to win the Super Bowl this year," Khan said.
The tack that Khan and assistant general manager Andy Weidel have taken this time around is a marked departure from what has been "business as usual" at one of the most stable franchises in professional sports, one that hasn't endured a losing season for more than 20 years.
T.J. Watt, who called the size of the record-setting extension he agreed to last week "hard to fathom," used the word "new" 10 times while talking about 2025.
"We can sit here and talk and talk and talk about not winning a playoff game and how much I want to do it," said Watt, who enters the ninth year of his career still searching for his first postseason victory. "But at the end of the day, it's just lip service. It's all about what we do."
Watt skipped the team's mandatory minicamp in June, saying he wanted to stick to his routine at home in Wisconsin, fearful that if he "held in" — as he did while negotiating a new deal in 2021 — he'd become a distraction.
While the business side of things worked out for Watt, who acknowledged he'll be picking up the check for the foreseeable future whenever he takes his teammates out for wings, it also means he'll spend the next few days putting faces to names at a rate that he hasn't had to since his rookie season in 2017.
"There's going to be a lot of people to get to know and talk to," Watt said, later adding, "It's just fun. It's a fun time of year."
Far more fun, at least, than what has happened to the Steelers repeatedly in recent Januarys.
Pittsburgh's run of playoff failures began in early 2018, when Ramsey and the Jacksonville Jaguars pulled off a stunner in the divisional round. Now, Ramsey finds himself as the team's latest attempt at finding a solution to its postseason troubles.
Asked if his arrival is a "full circle" moment of sorts, Ramsey shook his head.
"I can't talk about the past," he said. "I mean, this is different. Everything is different."
Not just for Ramsey, but the Steelers too.
When Pittsburgh arrives in New Jersey for a Week 1 visit to the Jets, it likely will have new starters at quarterback, wide receiver, running back and at various levels of the defense.
It's a nearly unprecedented level of change for a team that has had three head coaches in 66 years. Yet it could also be a sign of things to come. Khan, who agreed to an extension this month that will keep him with the club through at least 2028, pointed out that a youth movement is inevitable.
The Steelers could have up to a dozen picks when the NFL draft descends on Pittsburgh next April. They almost certainly will be in the market for a quarterback in what could be a QB-heavy draft.
And while the rash of additions of players in their 30s — or in Rodgers' case, their 40s — gives the impression that it seems like the Steelers are "all in" on 2025, the reality is that Khan didn't trade away draft picks in search of a quick fix.
A true youth movement is coming. But not before what could be one of the more fascinating seasons in recent memory, as a franchise that has long prided itself on its pragmatism enters, as Tomlin put it, "new territory."
Even if some things, however, remain constant. Like the adrenaline jolt Tomlin feels whenever this time of year rolls around.
Yes, his 19th training camp with the Steelers will be unlike the 18 that came before it. The thrill of the process of building a team that wants to be good enough to play into late January and beyond is unchanged.
"It's July 23rd, man," the longest-tenured coach in major North American professional sports said. "It's juice time."