The Steelers have been practicing together for a long time at this point in the year, but they had an old friend join them for the first time on Monday.
Wide receiver Mike Wallace was a participant in practice for the first time this season, leaving him little chance to make up for lost time before the start of the regular season. The good news is that Wallace declared himself “surprised” with how well he already knew the offense despite offensive coordinator Todd Haley installing it while he was away from the team.
“I have been studying it. I have a good grasp of it. It’s just running the plays off of it. I am getting there. I like where I am at,” Wallace said, via the team’s website. “The main thing is the timing aspect of it, just getting back to knowing what Ben (Roethlisberger) likes, what I like. It’s not going to be hard because we have been together so long. It’s just a new offense. He just has to make sure I know what I am doing. I did pretty good today but it was only one day, we have a long way to go.”
Wallace said that he doesn’t know whether or not he’ll play on Sunday night, but there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that Wallace will be on the field against the Broncos. He’s in shape and his presence as a threat should be a boost to the Steelers offense even if he hasn’t digested the entire offense at this point.