Jul 30, 2016 3 min read

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It was a good day for Steelers receiver Sammie Coates on the second day of training camp.

It was obvious that the Steelers wanted to test drive the speedy wideout on some deep patterns and he continually took off on go routes down both sidelines.

He and Bruce Gradkowski connected on one deep ball, as Coates beat Doran Grant – who was actually stride for stride with him down the sidelines before Coates gave him a subtle push and made a nice catch in the front corner of the end zone.

Montell Garner broke up an underthrown deep ball to Coates from Ben Roethlisberger, but Coates was easily behind him before having to slow down.

That twosome made up for that moments later, connecting on a long ball down the opposite sideline with Coates making a diving catch on the long ball.

The knock on Coates had been he wasn’t an accomplished route runner and he struggles at times with his hands. But he’s catching everything in sight in this camp thus far and he’s really improved his route running.

He’s paying attention to the details.

After Darrius Heyward-Bey turned a corner inside out, Coates exclaimed, “Great route,” high-fiving DHB when he got back to the offensive huddle.

The kid seems to get it.

• Le’Veon Bell practiced for the second consecutive day, a good sign for a guy coming back from a major knee issue.

That means he was no worse for the wear after practicing Friday.

• We had CBS NFL Insider Jason LaCanfora on with us on ESPN Radio today and he had an interesting comment regarding Bell’s possible suspension.

It has been assumed that Bell will be suspended for four games if he loses his appeal in two weeks with the NFL for violation of the drug policy for missing a test.

But LaCanfora said that while he expects at least a one-game suspension for Bell, he doesn’t necessarily see it being a four-game suspension.

The league does have some leeway on those things. So even if it does buy Bell’s excuse for missing the test but still feels it needs to send a message, it could do so without having him miss four games.

• Inside linebacker Jordan Zumwalt, who is back with the team after being cut at the end of camp last year, worked with the outside linebackers today.

• Artie Burns has some feistiness to him. He closed hard on a deep ball to Heyward-Bey and knocked the ball out of his hands.

Later, he chased a running back 50 yards downfield to strip the ball loose.

• Today was Ryan Harris’ turn to run with the first team at left tackle.

It appears the Steelers will rotate Harris with Alejandro Villanueva on a daily basis. We’ll see if that holds up once they start playing preseason games.

• Thus far, Senquez Golson has been the third corner when the Steelers go to a nickel package.

• Mike Tomlin gave Markus Wheaton some time off today, which allowed some of the younger receivers to get additional work. Eli Rodgers got plenty of looks in the slot.