Saturday, August 27, 2011
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Unlike most of the rookies, Heyward, the team's No. 1 draft choice, doesn't have to worry about impressing his coaches or teammates. He has done that almost from the time he arrived for training camp at Saint Vincent College, even though Heyward has been overly critical of his performance in the first two preseason games.
"He's going to be a good player, a really good player," said defensive end Brett Keisel, who plays ahead of Heyward on the right side of the three-man line. "The thing that impresses me the most is his work ethic. You always want to see guys with a first-round grade show why coaches and scouts gave him that grade.
"And he's certainly deserving of it."
Keisel said that is why Heyward (6 feet 5, 295) got into several scuffles at training camp with offensive linemen -- because veteran players want to test a rookie, especially the 31st overall pick in the draft. Heyward never backed down.
"I basically told him, don't let anyone do that to you," Keisel said.
"Stand up for yourself. You don't have to get in a big brawl, but make sure the play is clean and, if it's not clean, don't be cool about it. It's OK to get upset. You don't need it to be a big distraction, but hold your own ground."
Despite what he says, Heyward is better than anyone expected at this stage.Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11239/1170286-66-0.stm?cmpid=steelers.xml#ixzz1WCgYa1Nb
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Last year, I heard a lot of Steelers fans griping because we drafted Pouncey. I'm not going to pretend that I thought Pouncey was a great pick, because I didn't know much about him. But I trust the Steelers in the first round.
The consensus this year is that we had to draft a corner with our first pick. Instead, we took Heyward. That didn't sit well with a lot of Steelers fans. I have a feeling things will turn out just fine.
