Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is a very hard person to impress. He rarely shows emotions and keeps a permanent coach’s scrawl on his face to signify that he is always about business.
Yet, when he reflects on his time spent with Houston Texans rookie defensive end Will Anderson Jr. earlier this year at one of the annual pre-draft dinners he does with draft prospects, he can’t help but get somewhat excited about a young man he believes will have a great future in the NFL.
Buy Texans Tickets“Man, Love Will Anderson,” Tomlin said at his weekly press conference. “Really talented guy. So, I’m not surprised with what I’m seeing from him.”
Tomlin will have a chance to see Anderson up close and personal on Sunday when the Steelers visit the Texans. It will be his first time seeing the young man he believes has a great future ahead of him on the NFL level.
“His love and passion for the game and his thirst for knowledge,” Tomlin said about his first impression of Anderson. “I got an intimate understanding of that because I went to Tuscaloosa [Alabama] the night before the pro day, and I took a group of those guys out to dinner. I do it every year in an effort to get to know them as people, spending formal time with them and getting a chance to find out what makes them tick.
“Will called us and asked us to come to that dinner. I was not going to ask Will to come to that dinner because I knew his draft status, and I knew largely that it would be a waste of his time. But here is a guy that loves football and wanted to talk football and spend time with us. That guy sat to my left, and we talked football, and he asked great questions. We had an awesome conversation and his place in it and his desire. I left that dinner knowing that this guy has an opportunity to be special.”
The Texans believed in Anderson so much that they traded away future draft picks to the Arizona Cardinals for the right to draft him third overall in this year’s draft. So far, it has paid off with him being an intricate part of head coach Demeco Ryans and defensive coordinator Matt Burke’s scheme.
“Will called us and asked us to come to that dinner,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin about his first interaction with Texans rookie defensive end Will Anderson Jr. “I was not going to ask Will to come to that dinner because I knew his draft status.” #Texans #Sarge pic.twitter.com/spbjJ2OIRL
— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) September 30, 2023
Anderson made a spectacular special teams play in the Week 3 37-17 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. With his team leading 7-0, he blocked a 51-yard field goal attempt to get the Texans offense the ball back, and they would eventually score to increase their lead to 14-0 over the Jags.
“What Will [Anderson] does on the field is why we drafted him,” Ryans elaborated to the media during Monday’s press conference. “He’s a consistent player. He plays with an edge, a relentless mindset every single day, whether it’s practice whether it’s a game, and that’s why it’s important to add him to what we’re trying to build here and he represents everything that I believe in in how you play football.”
“He plays the game the right way. He plays it with an edge, with intensity, and it means a lot to him. That’s why he’s one of our leaders because he proves it just by how he works every single day. And for us to take the next step as an organization as a football team, I want 53 guys who play like Will Anderson.”
