"Gang's all here!" Ike Taylor fairly shouted as the Steelers strode off their South Side fields Monday.
The picture was thousand-words perfect, too.
It was the first practice since saying bye-bye to the bye week.
The first step toward bracing for Drew Brees and the Saints next weekend.
The first chance to focus on the challenge of rising above in the airtight AFC North.
And above all, the first time in two months and two days that Troy Polamalu, Ryan Shazier, Jarvis Jones and Taylor partook in drills together.
A third of the starting defense.
"Imagine that," Jones would say afterward. "Crazy, huh?"
Yeah, it is, actually. And maybe it's been forgotten in all the week-to-week angst over what's ailed the defense that, well, it sure helps to have all the players you'd like to have. Or even most of them.
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