Following up on Michael Bean's post on players-only workouts among AFC North teams during the NFL lockout, it actually appears that the Steelers, and particularly the defenders, haven't been meeting much. James Farrior, William Gay and free agent Ike Taylor have been working out together in Orlando. But other than that, players have been working out on their own. Chris Hoke says that's just fine by him:
"I guarantee you this, our defense is not going to do anything. One day, when they lifted the lockout, our strength coach had everything out and ready to go at 7 a.m., and nobody showed up. How do you expect guys in Hawaii or here and there or down south to quickly get here to work out?
"I would say 90 percent of the veteran players are fine with this lockout right now. I want to be in training camp, but, if we're not going in now, when's the last time I could go work out 3-4 hours in the morning and have the afternoon with my wife? Never."
Ryan Clark notes that unless the whole defense practices as a unit, "there's definitely not much you can do there that you can't do on your own."
It's hard to blame them, obviously. If there's no guarantee that an NFL season will even take place, then they really should be where they want to be. Let's hope they're ready to play together when the lockout ends.