Mike Tomlin acknowledged that the Pittsburgh Steelers have cleaned out some of the team to improve the character on the squad.
Tomlin was interviewed by ESPN’s Trey Wingo during the network’s coverage of the NFL Draft on Saturday. He was asked about his comments from earlier in the offseason when he said the Steelers want volunteers, not hostages.
“There has been a cleansing, if you will. I meant what I said when I said it,” Tomlin said of his volunteers quote. “I didn’t say it to be a cliche.
“I think when you’re trying to compete at the level we’re trying to compete at and be world champs, that desire, that collective will, the things that you can’t measure, I think that guys that really have a strong desire to be a part of it, there’s a significant element of that.”
The Steelers went through more than their share of drama last season. Le’Veon Bell’s holdout was a season-long storyline. He was expected to report to the team at some point in the season but ended up sitting out the whole thing. Antonio Brown had some off-field issues throughout, which culminated in him being benched for the final game of the season. If you stretch back to issues even before that, Tomlin seemed to be ready to move on from Brown.
Pittsburgh has now brought in a whole slate of players via the draft whom they’re hoping will help get the team back to the playoffs.
