Steelers training camp heats up as players take the field in pads for first time this year

LATROBE, Pa. — The Steelers put the pads on, and the intensity was turned up.

It was a hard-hitting practice here in Latrobe as both sides of the ball had a chance to show their physicality and talk their trash.

The chippiness was definitely noticeable during both individual and team drills. There were some clear winners on the day during the highlighted 7-shot and backs-on-backers drills. Joey Porter Jr. making multiple big plays for the defense, Payton Wilson impressing during back-on-backers.

Offensively, Kenneth Gainwell with some spin moves that produced woahs from the crowd. A lot of the guys we spoke with after practice told us how thrilled they were to be playing “real football.”

“I felt like the first day was good,” said Porter Jr. “You know, it was getting accumulated, running around, hitting people, so I had a great time today. I feel like everybody in the secondary did too. Everyone wanted to put pads on. Was kind of upset yesterday that we didn’t get the spin. So today, everybody was really anticipating it, and we showed it on the field.”

Only one training camp “skirmish” broke out in practice. During the team run period, Porter Jr. and Robert Woods got into it a little bit. Porter Jr. eventually taking Woods to the ground. The cornerback told us afterwards it was just “play fighting” and at the end of the day, they’re still teammates.

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