For many if not most rookies, the reality of the NFL hits them when they get about halfway into the regular season, when they realize that’s as much football as they’ve ever played before.
And Steelers outside linebacker Bud Dupree is free to admit — he hit the wall last season.
“I just was not being used to playing that many games,” Dupree said, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It took a toll on my body. Now I’m more prepared for that. I’ve been training longer, doing different things that I didn’t have the time to do coming from college. Just a lot of little minor things you need to do, just looking at guys like James Harrison, guys who really take care of their body, following their lead.”
Dupree, their first-round pick, had a promising 4.0 sacks in the first eight games. But he had none in the second half of the season or the playoffs, hence the adjustments to his training routine.
Harrison’s workouts are the reason he’s become one of the league’s “ageless” players. And Dupree acknowledging the wall’s existence and making changes to his program are at least a sign he could build on his first half.
And while the next six weeks represent the last break for players before the long grind of the season, the smart ones don’t take it completely off, knowing that wall is waiting.