Rainy day afternoon

After getting beat up in their morning practice, the Pittsburgh Steelers caught a break from Mother Nature Tuesday as an afternoon rainstorm moved their second session to Saint Vincent College’s gymnasium.

The indoor practice meant no pads and no hitting as Mike Tomlin led the team through a glorified walkthrough.

The only news of the session was that running back Verron Haynes, who’s on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list while recovering from knee surgery, took part in it.

Or did he?

“I was just getting out there and doing a little something,” said Haynes. “I got in there a little just playing around. I didn’t really practice.”

In fact, according to Tomlin, Haynes didn’t do anything at all, despite running some patterns out of the backfield and catching some passes.

“He’s on the PUP list,” said Tomlin. “He didn’t do anything today.”

After a couple of fumbled snaps in the morning session, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger spent some extra time working with centers Chukky Okobi and Sean Mahan on the side while the rest of the team practice a fake field goal play.

Roethlisberger also worked extra with running back Willie Parker on pass catching, throwing Parker about 30 passes at different heights and angles.

First-round pick Lawrence Timmons, meanwhile, lined up with the second team base defense at right outside linebacker, moving ahead of Arnold Harrison at that spot behind James Harrison.