The Pittsburgh Steelers’ new QB, Mitch Trubisky, hosted a handful of offensive position players to his Florida home. Here are 3 takeaways.
Mitch Trubisky appears to be buying into his new opportunity with the Pittsburgh Steelers. After making a good impact in his opening press conference, Trubisky decided to invite his new teammates to hang out with him in Florida.
According to a tweet from Aditi Kinkhabwala, Trubisky invited the “pass-catchers and other QBs,” for a meet and greet at his Florida estate. The Steelers were seen getting reps in at a football field in Boca Raton. According to reports, there were a couple of key Steelers players that were not seen at the gathering. Those two players were quarterback Mason Rudolph and wide receiver Diontae Johnson.
Steelers have some work to do with Diontae Johnson
Arguably the best receiver remaining on the Steelers, Diontae Johnson, opted out of the gathering with his teammates. The wide receiver is up for a contract extension and things look like they maybe hitting some rough patches. With the deals Devante Adams and Tyreek Hill both got, it is clear that the market for Diontae Johnson is only going up as time passes.
So this move by Johnson could be a way of holding out from working with the team until he gets paid. This is understandable, as TJ Watt did the same thing just a year ago. However, a tweet from Josh Rowntree might have alarmed some Steelers fans. Johnson, instead of practicing with his teammates, decided to practice with Mac Jones of the New England Patriots.
This could just be nothing, or it could be Johnson taking a stance. Johnson is looking for an extension and this could be the first sign of a hold-out. This was an opportunity to develop some chemistry with his new QB before the start of the season and he decided to get work in with another teams QB. It is still too early in the year to look too deeply into this but it is certainly a situation to keep an eye on as training camp approaches.