Back on the field
LATROBE — Ben Roethlisberger choked up. Mike Tomlin found perspective. Chris Rainey marveled at the display of “cheating death.”
To Kirby Wilson, it was just a jog. To the rest of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it was, to use Tomlin’s word, “a blessing.”
Wilson, Pittsburgh’s running backs coach, was on the field barking at his players and even running with them from drill to drill on the first official practice day of Steelers training camp.
Less than seven months after sustaining life-threatening burns over almost half of his body in a house fire, Wilson is doing what he wants to do.
“It’s awesome,” Wilson said. “My favorite time of the year. The most rewarding camp I’ve had.”
Beloved by his players, Wilson’s services are arguably needed more than usual for Pittsburgh this season. With starter Rashard Mendenhall recovering from knee surgery, the Steelers have a young, deep and talented running back corps for Wilson to work with and sort through. When asked about the competition for roster spots and increased roles at running back, Wilson used a pun that might have been in poor taste only a few months ago.
“It’s heated,” Wilson said. “That’s the only way I can describe it.
“You have one guy on (the physically-unable-to-perform list) in Rashard (Mendenhall), and after that, (new starter) Isaac Redman and a bunch of young guys who really have a lot of ability but really haven’t done it over the long hurl and are trying to find their niche.”
Redman takes over as the featured back in the Todd Haley’s offense, but roles for Jonathan Dwyer, John Clay, Baron Batch and rookie Chris Rainey are still largely a mystery.
Dwyer, in his third year, and Clay, in his second, were high-profile college backs at big-time programs but went undrafted and have scant NFL experience. Batch was briefly the darling of last season’s camp as a rookie until he tore an ACL, and Rainey, the speedster of the bunch, was drafted in the fifth round out of Florida.
Tomlin talked about the task of sorting through the group and “working out a division of labor.” But instead of worrying about who the third-down or goal-line back will be, for example, Wilson has turned the backs’ attention elsewhere.
“I told those guys they’ve got to come on in special teams,” Wilson said. “They’ve got to be a standout stud, a top-five special teams player, and then the running back reps will come.”
