Coming off of another impressive preseason victory, this time over the Detroit Lions, the Pittsburgh Steelers are starting to look like they're beginning to gel in all three facets of the game (offense, defense and special teams) just in time for the 2021 NFL regular season. This has been nothing new however to the team's 11-year veteran cornerback, Joe Haden. As one of the more seasoned players with the franchise, Haden has seen limited action thus far in preseason, but he believes he's as good as he's ever felt. Haden took to the media this week as reported from Steelers.com, and shared more about where he thinks he's physically at coming into the new season.
"I feel like I got enough work in, this off-season's been great. I still feel healthy, good to go."
When asked about the rumors of Haden wanting a contract extension with Pittsburgh, Haden confirmed, but didn't seem like he wanted to elaborate.
"Y'all heard about it. I obviously want to stay here -- just the organization, the staff, Coach T [Mike Tomlin]. I don't have too much more on it. You know where I want to be."
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The meat and potatoes of the interview mainly focused on Haden's thoughts about new starting cornerback, Cam Sutton, how the younger players look up to Cam Heyward, and how Haden thinks this year's defense compares to last season's.
"It's comparable. Having [Alex] Highsmith with another year, bring Melvin [Ingram] here completely healthy -- he looks like Melvin of old, and then having D-Bush [Devin Bush] back, and you know, having Joe Schobert, I have another year, Minkah Fitzpatrick -- it's just a chance for a lot of guys to be able to expand their roles. Cam [Sutton] now being able to be a starter on the outside showing what he can do. I think we have if not the same, or a little better defense than we did last year. Everybody has just got to play their role, play their parts, do what we did last year and make plays. We should be fine."
Watch the full video here:
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