When you talk about NFL training camps, they’ve changed a lot throughout the years. Teams across the league would leave their facilities and go elsewhere for camps. Team bonding was a part of the process, but throughout the last decade more and more teams are opting to stay at their home facilities, especially when COVID-19 protocols forced them to stay.

Veterans are not the type of players who typically enjoy getting away. Most would prefer the comforts of their own home, but for one new member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Breiden Fehoko, he thought the trip to Latrobe, PA was memorable.

And that might have been putting it mildly.

“This was awesome,” Fehoko told the Steelers official website. “Going into my fourth year in the NFL, I never experienced this type of training camp setting. The fans here have been amazing. When I first got here, I checked into my dorm, I was a little iffy about it. It was brick walls all over and I was like, ‘Oh, boy, this is going to be a rough one.’ But man, after the first two days, you walk out here, you see the fans. At night, we have our rookie talent shows, we have the home run derby, and we have dinner together, we meet together.

“This is probably one of the best experiences of my life. Not only because we’re here as a team, but you get to do what you love to do on an everyday basis. To me, I don’t look at it as a job. I look at it as enjoying time with my brothers, my teammates. I’m kind of sad we have to wrap this up here in Latrobe but, man, it’s been such an awesome experience. Everybody here has been just so amazing.”

When you read quotes like this from players, you understand why Mike Tomlin has always put an emphasis on going to Saint Vincent College. The only time Tomlin teams didn’t travel for camp was when the NFL told them they couldn’t travel.

For Fehoko, it has also provided him the ability to focus solely on his job, and his role on the team’s defense is crystal clear. Bottle up the middle of the defense to stop the run. Fehoko has had an impressive training camp thus far, and is hoping he can turn that camp into a spot on the team’s 53-man roster.

He knows his job isn’t easy, or glamorous. It’s something which you measure with heart and desire.

“It’s one you can’t measure with talent,” Fehoko insisted. “You measure it with your heart. I take a lot of pride in putting my hand in the dirt in the A gaps and putting my hands on people. I take a lot of pride in the run game.

“Me and (inside linebackers) Elandon Roberts and Cole Holcomb and Kwon Alexander, I talk to those guys every night. And I literally tell them every night I go to sleep I think about how we can make the inside of that defense better. I think about making sure no running backs run between the A gaps, between the tackles.”

As stated earlier, Fehoko is a player the Steelers could absolutely utilize within their defense, but it is a battle with other nose tackles Montravius Adams and rookie Keeanu Benton. It is highly unlikely the team keeps all three, and there is no way the team parts ways with a 2nd Round pick. This narrows the battle down to Fehoko vs. Adams, and this is something to watch as the preseason rolls on.

Be sure to stay tuned to SCN for the latest news and notes surrounding the Steelers as they prepare for the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium.