Haden playing at 100 percent
PITTSBURGH — The buzz around the Steelers’ practice facility Thursday involved Joe Haden’s downfield coverage of Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Never mind that Haden had been beaten deep the previous day by Martavis Bryant, because, well, Bryant is supposed to do that to everyone this season.
But DHB is just as fast, and the fact Haden stayed with him excited the talent evaluators who are hoping they got the Joe Haden who played in two Pro Bowls as a younger and, well, faster man.
Of course, Haden was slowed last year by a double sports hernia from which he said he has fully recovered.
“I feel good. I feel 100 percent,” said the Steelers’ new left cornerback. “I’ve been feeling like this since the beginning of training camp. I know I can get up and go now, so that’s not a thing I’m worried about. Being able to run with him shows everybody else that I’m able to run.”
Funny that seven years after running a reported 4.62 40 at the NFL Combine, Haden is still answering questions about his speed.
“Ever since the Combine, man,” he said with a shake of his head. “I ran 4.3s at my pro day, but it didn’t really matter. That Combine, that’s like the gospel. So it is what it is.”
His speed is something Haden thought would never be at issue.
“When I was younger I was always the fastest,” he said. “When I got to Florida, I was hanging out, running with Percy (Harvin) and Louis Murphy and all those guys. Speed was the last thing I ever thought would’ve been my knock.”
Haden was a state championship quarterback/safety out of Fort Washington, Maryland, and went to Florida as a cornerback. In 2007 he became the first true freshman to start at the position at Florida, and he didn’t come out of the lineup until his 88-yard interception return helped Florida win the 2009 national championship.
Haden skipped his senior season and the Steelers wondered if they would get the chance to draft Haden, because of that 40 time. But he was chosen seventh by the Browns, while the Steelers took Haden’s Florida teammate, Maurkice Pouncey, 18th. The Steelers took another Gator, Marcus Gilbert, the following year and now the three are together again.
“It’s amazing,” Haden said. “We won the championship at Florida and we’re trying to do the same thing here. They were really, really good dudes. Pouncey, Gilbert, they were the same way in Florida, just the way that they are, their personality, being the life of the locker room. It just brings people together. They do a really good job of controlling the team.”
Haden went to two Pro Bowls with the Browns, but missed most of the 2015 season with a concussion and then struggled through 2016 after offseason surgery on both groins. The Browns let him go Aug. 30 and he signed a few hours later with the Steelers.
Defensive coordinator Keith Butler was asked why someone that young, and with such an accomplished resume, would come available so late in the summer.
“What happens when you have an All-Pro player,” Butler said, “and you pay him like an All-Pro player, and he’s got soft-tissue issues and can’t be on the field to play, you can’t afford to keep him. I think that was the case with Joe. Joe was making some money over there.”
Is Haden in a better position to produce in Pittsburgh?
“I like what I’ve seen out there on the field,” Butler said. “He appears to be healthy to me. I talked to some friends of mine who I’ve coached with here, and who’ve coached him there, and they were still well-impressed with him. They told me that he’d been hurt last year and that was the problem. It was more health and money than it was anything else with him, I think.”
Butler said he can’t be certain until Sunday when the Steelers travel to Cleveland to play the Browns. While Haden knows the Browns can get deep with strong-armed rookie QB DeShone Kizer and receivers Corey Coleman, Kenny Britt and Sammie Coates, the emotion of the situation shouldn’t affect Haden.
“He’s more concerned about earning his new teammates’ respect,” Butler said. “If it was me, that’s the way I would feel about it. What meant more to me as a player — and I think it does to him, and a lot of guys in this league — is: Do I have the respect of my teammates?”
Haden clearly has the respect of Pouncey and Gilbert, who “were hitting me up (on the phone), telling me they wanted me here, trying to get me here.”
And so was Antonio Brown, who knows a thing or two about quality cornerback play.
“It felt good just to be wanted at a really good spot like this, a great team that’s getting ready for Super Bowl,” Haden said.
Does that make Sunday’s return to Cleveland a “blood game” for him?
“No, it’s love there in Cleveland, man. It really was,” he said. “This was so unexpected to the players in the locker room. We grew together as a group. I look at them like my brothers. I’ve known them for a while. Just building that thing there was special, so once I left they were a little sad about it. But at the end of the day, nah, they know it’s a business and we’re going to play against each other. There’s no trash talk. After the game we’ll be hugging it up with each other, but in between the lines we’ve got to get it done.”
NOTES: LOLB Bud Dupree said he missed practice with what he called a “tweak” of his ankle, although the Steelers listed him as limited with a shoulder injury. Dupree said he will play Sunday. … Reserve OT Jerald Hawkins (knee) was the only other player on the Steelers’ injury report. Hawkins said it’s merely a “nick” and rejected with a hearty laugh the notion that he might be placed on injured reserve. … Nickel back Mike Hilton is wearing No. 31.