O'Brien is the 'juice guy' for Pitt's defense

PJ O’Brien is a ‘juice guy’, which are his words, but there are several interpretations of what that might actually mean.

“I’m a juice guy, so I wake up in the morning and grab some orange juice, eat some breakfast, and it’s time to go,” O’Brien told reporters after Pitt’s practice on Tuesday afternoon.

In a literal sense, O’Brien might just like having orange juice with his breakfast, but a bit more metaphorically, he is a player who brings the juice to this Pitt football team from all angles.

O’Brien brings an infectious energy with how he talks, as there is usually a smile on his face, and also with how he plays the game. The Florida native likes to move 100 miles per hour at all times and that type of mindset has led him to being a special teams weapon in his first two seasons.

Heading into his third year, O’Brien is expected to take on a starting job at safety. Throughout the first two weeks of fall training camp, he has taken the necessary steps to prove he is ready for that added responsibility.

His play in Pitt’s scrimmage at Acrisure Stadium last weekend certainly caught the eye of head coach Pat Narduzzi, who gave O’Brien a shoutout to the media on Tuesday morning.

“I look at it, we talked about Javon (McIntyre) and how good he’s been, but really, the guy that played really well in the scrimmage was P.J. O’Brien, so he stepped up and had a nice day back there,” Narduzzi said of the third-year player out of Florida.

Playing safety in Pitt’s defense is no easy task, but those who can hold their own have been rewarded. Three of Pitt’s last four starting safeties went on to be drafted with Damar Hamlin being selected back in 2021 and more recently Brandon Hill and Erick Hallett from last year’s team, two players O’Brien learned from during his first two years.

“I definitely have some big shoes to fill, but just watching Erick Hallett and Brandon Hill just each and every day and how they did things made my job a little easier,” O’Brien explained.

The other starting safety is expected to be Javon McIntyre, who like O’Brien, is walking into a tough job replacing two recent NFL draft picks. The two players are working on their chemistry, which is an integral part being the last line of defense for this team.

“Communication is like a big key,” O’Brien explained, “without us talking that will make the job way harder out there. Just us talking pre-snap reads and knowing what’s coming at us, a lot of that stuff just makes the game easier.”

Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates spoke to the media earlier this week and relayed the amount of pressure and responsibility these guys have.

"Well, the big thing at safety is, they’re the quarterbacks of our defense in the secondary," said the Pitt assistant coach. "They set all the coverages, they get everybody lined up and they make a lot of the adjustments. So when you play the game, they have to be able to, on a quick dime, think about how we want to change, what we want to change, and then in the middle of drives, we change coverages based on things that we’re getting.”

The other key, and something safeties coach Cory Sanders preaches often is knowing how to focus your eyes on what to watch for from opposing offenses. O’Brien said that has been a key during camp.

“Having bad eyes, man, you’ll have a long day,” he explained. “Like we train ourselves and the No. 1 thing is never no lows and No. 2 is bad eyes will never get the job done, so just those two things: no loafing and great eyes, you’ll be a great ballplayer.”

O’Brien has appeared in 25 out of a possible 27 games over the past two seasons and used special teams as a way to make himself valuable to the team. O’Brien has recorded 29 career tackles and even blocked a punt in last year’s game with Tennessee. Even with the expected bigger role on defense, O’Brien can’t give up the juice on playing special teams.

“I’m on all special teams, like mandatory,” he said. “Special teams wins ball games too, so we have to start on special teams.”

O’Brien received more playing time in Pitt’s Sun Bowl victory over UCLA when Brandon Hill opted out of the game and recorded a career-high four tackles. He appreciates the opportunity in front of him and knows there are a lot of players out there wishing they could play Division-1 football, something he never takes for granted.

“I always had to be ready because you never know what’s next,” he said. “Like the bowl game, we didn’t know Brandon Hill was going to opt but we had to come play like we had to be next man up. Let’s do this.”

Erergy…or juice, has never been a weakness for O’Brien and it look like he’ll finally get to squeeze out some more playing time in 2023.