On Tuesday morning, Pitt put on full pads for the first time in training camp 2023, and that means one thing:
Full contact.
Of course, the coaches didn’t spend all two-plus hours of practice with nonstop hitting. They played it smarter than that and limited the full contact to just three periods. But there’s still something refreshing about seeing the team in full pads and actually playing some real football.
- To that end, we got to watch some real football Tuesday morning. The media viewing window doesn’t typically include much in the way of real football, but Pitt ran a quick six-play live period while we were still on the field, which was fun to watch.
On the very first play, we got to see something that had everyone talking.
With the first-team offense and defense on the field, Phil Jurkovec dropped back and threw down the left sideline to Bub Means, who was covered tightly by M.J. Devonshire. Despite the good coverage from a corner who I think is one of the best in the conference and a pro prospect, Means fought through contact and made a really good catch on the sideline.
That one got our attention and the attention of Pitt’s players, who were all impressed by the play. I think it was the kind of catch that encourages the whole offensive side of the ball, because they know - as you and I do - that if Means can make plays like that with any amount of consistency, it’s going to bode well for the passing game.
- The offense’s success didn’t end there. On the next play, Jurkovec handed off to Rodney Hammond, who found a hole through the left side of the offensive line for a nice gain that turned into a really nice gain when he dragged safety Javon McIntyre for at least five more yards.
Those back-to-back good gains from the offense were encouraging, for sure. And while it was just two plays, I think there was some real positivity from it. As the first-team offensive players walked off the field, they seemed to be carrying some confidence about how they performed.
It’s anyone’s guess if the success continued through the rest of practice, but that was a good start for the first team.
- The other four plays were split among the second and third-team units, and while neither of those offenses had quite the success of the first team, it’s worth noting that both Christian Veilleux and Nate Yarnell tried the same sideline pass that Jurkovec threw to connect with Means. If nothing else, they were trying to push the ball down the field (at least on the sidelines).
- Watching the various units take the field, it was pretty clear that there are quite a few scenarios that could play out on the offensive line, largely due to the versatility of what could potentially be the two best players in that unit.
While we’ve talked about Matt Goncalves as the No. 1 right tackle and Ryan Baer in a three-man competition for the two spots on the left side, I saw Goncalves working at left tackle and Baer at right tackle during that live period today.
I don’t think that means those moves are final, but they do illustrate that having players like Goncalves and Baer who can work at different spots opens up a lot of flexibility for Dave Borbely.
- On Monday, Jim reported that three defensive players had “TAKEAWAY” stickers on their helmets, indicating that they recorded turnovers in a previous practice. Those three were Ryland Gandy, Buddy Mack and Stephon Hall (who had two).
On Tuesday, a whole bunch of defenders added stickers as well. In addition to Gandy, Mack and Hall, I saw “TAKEAWAY” stickers on the helmets of defensive tackle Isaiah Neal, safeties Donovan McMillon and Matthew Amofa and linebackers Shayne Simon, Aydin Henningham, Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Dylan Bennett.
So it seems like Monday’s practice was a good one for the linebackers if they ended up forcing five turnovers.
- While I generally think Pitt’s linebackers played well last season, forcing turnovers is one area where they could have been a little better. SirVocea Dennis did have an interception and two forced fumbles, Tylar Wiltz had a pick and one forced fumble, Bangally Kamara had an interception and Simon forced a fumble; that’s seven, which seems like a decent number. The 2021 linebackers forced the same number in one more game than the 2022 group did. So maybe the numbers don’t back up my general impression. Or maybe neither linebacker corps - 2021 or 2022 - had great production in turnovers.
Either way, I do think this group has the potential to be a collection of playmakers. Everybody knows what I think of Kamara, and I think Solomon DeShields can make a real impact, too. There’s also a group of young athletic linebackers coming up who seem like they have that potential as well.
“Jordan Bass is still learning but you can watch him burst and run and you’re like, holy cow, he’s going to be really good,” Pat Narduzzi said before practice. “Rasheem Biles, he got in some scraps yesterday. He’s a little scrappy. So I’m sure there’s going to be some talk out there when that number three group gets out there and gets rolling.”
I wonder if Biles was chirping a bit extra on Monday after getting a turnover.
- Before practice, I asked Narduzzi for a comparison on Kamara. What former player of Narduzzi’s does Kamara, with his build and size and speed and athleticism, remind him of?
The first name Narduzzi came up with was Terna Nande, who was a linebacker at Miami (Oh.) when Narduzzi was there.
“He was one of the first freaks out there,” Narduzzi said of Nande, and while I can’t say the name rang much of a bell for me, a little Googling revealed that, in the 2006 NFL Combine, Nande became the first non-lineman to ever top 40 reps on the 225-pound bench press test. He did 41, and to this day, no other non-lineman has topped 40. Nande also reportedly ran a 4.55 40 and had a 39” vertical leap, a 10’4” broad jump and a 6.97 second three-cone drill. All of those would have been top-10 numbers among linebackers at this year’s Combine.
Nande was a fifth-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft and bounced around the league for a few years. I think Kamara will surpass Nande’s career, but in terms of physical attributes, that’s one heck of a comparison (and Kamara is bigger than Nande).
- There’s no media viewing window on Wednesday but we’ll be at both practices to end the week on Thursday and Friday. Narduzzi said that the team will scrimmage on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium in a rare night scrimmage that will start at 7:30 pm.
Full contact.
Of course, the coaches didn’t spend all two-plus hours of practice with nonstop hitting. They played it smarter than that and limited the full contact to just three periods. But there’s still something refreshing about seeing the team in full pads and actually playing some real football.
- To that end, we got to watch some real football Tuesday morning. The media viewing window doesn’t typically include much in the way of real football, but Pitt ran a quick six-play live period while we were still on the field, which was fun to watch.
On the very first play, we got to see something that had everyone talking.
With the first-team offense and defense on the field, Phil Jurkovec dropped back and threw down the left sideline to Bub Means, who was covered tightly by M.J. Devonshire. Despite the good coverage from a corner who I think is one of the best in the conference and a pro prospect, Means fought through contact and made a really good catch on the sideline.
That one got our attention and the attention of Pitt’s players, who were all impressed by the play. I think it was the kind of catch that encourages the whole offensive side of the ball, because they know - as you and I do - that if Means can make plays like that with any amount of consistency, it’s going to bode well for the passing game.
- The offense’s success didn’t end there. On the next play, Jurkovec handed off to Rodney Hammond, who found a hole through the left side of the offensive line for a nice gain that turned into a really nice gain when he dragged safety Javon McIntyre for at least five more yards.
Those back-to-back good gains from the offense were encouraging, for sure. And while it was just two plays, I think there was some real positivity from it. As the first-team offensive players walked off the field, they seemed to be carrying some confidence about how they performed.
It’s anyone’s guess if the success continued through the rest of practice, but that was a good start for the first team.
- The other four plays were split among the second and third-team units, and while neither of those offenses had quite the success of the first team, it’s worth noting that both Christian Veilleux and Nate Yarnell tried the same sideline pass that Jurkovec threw to connect with Means. If nothing else, they were trying to push the ball down the field (at least on the sidelines).
- Watching the various units take the field, it was pretty clear that there are quite a few scenarios that could play out on the offensive line, largely due to the versatility of what could potentially be the two best players in that unit.
While we’ve talked about Matt Goncalves as the No. 1 right tackle and Ryan Baer in a three-man competition for the two spots on the left side, I saw Goncalves working at left tackle and Baer at right tackle during that live period today.
I don’t think that means those moves are final, but they do illustrate that having players like Goncalves and Baer who can work at different spots opens up a lot of flexibility for Dave Borbely.
- On Monday, Jim reported that three defensive players had “TAKEAWAY” stickers on their helmets, indicating that they recorded turnovers in a previous practice. Those three were Ryland Gandy, Buddy Mack and Stephon Hall (who had two).
On Tuesday, a whole bunch of defenders added stickers as well. In addition to Gandy, Mack and Hall, I saw “TAKEAWAY” stickers on the helmets of defensive tackle Isaiah Neal, safeties Donovan McMillon and Matthew Amofa and linebackers Shayne Simon, Aydin Henningham, Kyle Louis, Rasheem Biles and Dylan Bennett.
So it seems like Monday’s practice was a good one for the linebackers if they ended up forcing five turnovers.
- While I generally think Pitt’s linebackers played well last season, forcing turnovers is one area where they could have been a little better. SirVocea Dennis did have an interception and two forced fumbles, Tylar Wiltz had a pick and one forced fumble, Bangally Kamara had an interception and Simon forced a fumble; that’s seven, which seems like a decent number. The 2021 linebackers forced the same number in one more game than the 2022 group did. So maybe the numbers don’t back up my general impression. Or maybe neither linebacker corps - 2021 or 2022 - had great production in turnovers.
Either way, I do think this group has the potential to be a collection of playmakers. Everybody knows what I think of Kamara, and I think Solomon DeShields can make a real impact, too. There’s also a group of young athletic linebackers coming up who seem like they have that potential as well.
“Jordan Bass is still learning but you can watch him burst and run and you’re like, holy cow, he’s going to be really good,” Pat Narduzzi said before practice. “Rasheem Biles, he got in some scraps yesterday. He’s a little scrappy. So I’m sure there’s going to be some talk out there when that number three group gets out there and gets rolling.”
I wonder if Biles was chirping a bit extra on Monday after getting a turnover.
- Before practice, I asked Narduzzi for a comparison on Kamara. What former player of Narduzzi’s does Kamara, with his build and size and speed and athleticism, remind him of?
The first name Narduzzi came up with was Terna Nande, who was a linebacker at Miami (Oh.) when Narduzzi was there.
“He was one of the first freaks out there,” Narduzzi said of Nande, and while I can’t say the name rang much of a bell for me, a little Googling revealed that, in the 2006 NFL Combine, Nande became the first non-lineman to ever top 40 reps on the 225-pound bench press test. He did 41, and to this day, no other non-lineman has topped 40. Nande also reportedly ran a 4.55 40 and had a 39” vertical leap, a 10’4” broad jump and a 6.97 second three-cone drill. All of those would have been top-10 numbers among linebackers at this year’s Combine.
Nande was a fifth-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft and bounced around the league for a few years. I think Kamara will surpass Nande’s career, but in terms of physical attributes, that’s one heck of a comparison (and Kamara is bigger than Nande).
- There’s no media viewing window on Wednesday but we’ll be at both practices to end the week on Thursday and Friday. Narduzzi said that the team will scrimmage on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium in a rare night scrimmage that will start at 7:30 pm.
