PITTSBURGH — Robert Woods paused as he searched for the right word to describe his fellow Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers.

“From top to bottom everybody is kind of grimy,” he said, his voice growing louder to emphasize the carefully selected adjective.

Grimy might not seem to be the most desirable descriptor, but the 12-year NFL veteran means it as a compliment. Seriously.

“You see guys who are wanting to fight for each other and play for each other and guys are finishing down the field blocking,” he said. “We’re going to be physical in our room. We’re going to be grimy. We’re going to be fighting to the end of the whistle. Playing with — and without — the football, I think, is the biggest thing in our room.”

Though the team acquired DK Metcalf in an uncharacteristic blockbuster deal prior to the start of free agency, the May trade of George Pickens to the Dallas Cowboys sends the Steelers into another season with a question mark behind the No. 1 wide receiver. Embracing a “grimy” mentality, though, is one way to elevate the ensemble position group.

“We have to be grimy,” fourth-year receiver Calvin Austin III said. “In this league everybody is so talented that your talent isn’t going to always win. You got to have that little edge about yourself. And so it’s not just about individuals, it’s our whole room, and our whole room is behind that and we’re going to show that on the field.”

Perhaps no one embodies being grimy more than Ben Skowronek, who was endearingly nicknamed “Dirtbag” by offensive coordinator Arthur Smith last season for the receiver’s willingness to do the dirty work.

“That’s kind of what I do out there,” Skowronek said. “And for the offense, whether it’s digging out support, whatever Art asked me to do, just try to do it to the best of my ability, and kind of set the tone for physicality and stuff like that. The offensive line is physical, running backs, tight ends. So why not be physical at receiver, too?”

Skowronek, who grew up watching Steelers teams featuring heavy hitters such as receiver Hines Ward and linebacker James Harrison, got an early opportunity to bring physicality to an offense when he played for the Los Angeles Rams as a rookie in 2021. He and Woods were teammates then, and when Woods tore his ACL midway through the season, Skowronek filled his role as a hard-hitting, do-everything receiver.

“I had to step in and do a lot of stuff in the run game, but it’s really, be physical, or they’re going to find someone else who can be physical,” Skowronek said. “I enjoy kind of being the enforcer out there for the receiver room.”

The enforcer inside the receiver room, though, is position coach Zach Azzanni. Recognizing that he wasn’t the most talented receiver at Central Michigan in the 1990s, Azzanni resolved to make up for his shortcomings by doing the dirty work. Once he began his coaching career, he made sure to instill that same mindset in his players.

“When you’re a less-than-talented player like myself, but you’re able to play, you find ways to make yourself relevant,” he said. “I always said if I ever had a bunch of really talented guys and we also played that way, the sky’s the limit. You got to get the right guys to buy into that. We have the right guys, too.

“We’re crucial in the run game. The run game sets up the pass game, so we want to be known as that. We play in the AFC North. We play for the Steelers, so we got to instill that back in this room and get that old school mentality back.”

To do that, Azzanni coaches his players on three letters: RDA — routes, discipline, attitude.

“It’s an attitude that you’re delivering every single day, where you come out here and you approach the game, approach every down, really,” Woods said. “It’s just your attitude and your drive and you want to. You see all our guys practice the RDA, and just put it on tape, whether it’s the finish route, discipline technique, everything’s critical.”

Those core tenets are especially important as the Steelers wide receivers adjust to quarterback Aaron Rodgers and his notorious demands of perfection from his pass catchers.

Azzanni, though, has something of an inside track when it comes to helping his wide receivers get on the same page with Rodgers. Azzanni spent the 2023 season with the New York Jets, and though Rodgers missed all but four snaps of the regular season, Azzanni learned what Rodgers liked through offseason and training camp practices.

“I love that challenge,” Azzanni said of having a demanding quarterback. “I like that. I’d rather have someone that’s dialed into the detail in the perimeter, and those guys ultimately have to be on the same page. I understand that he’s hard on receivers, and I like that because I’m hard on receivers.”

So in a wide receiver room full of self-proclaimed grimy guys, who’s the grimiest?

Depends on whom you ask.

“I would have to say me,” Woods said with a laugh. “Yeah, I get down in it, whether it’s a d-lineman, linebacker, safeties, corners, just playing physical with and without the football. If it’s third-and-6 and I’m 4 yards deep, we’re going to find a way to get those extra two. And even if it is without the football, blocking on the 1-yard line, we’re making sure our running back gets in the end zone. I think that’s the mentality of this whole team. Coach Tomlin said he invested a lot of money in the bigs, and we got to be physical.”

Skowronek, though, also wanted a claim to the title.

“I mean, I’d like to say myself,” he said. “But I feel like you have to have that mentality, so I don’t know. You can ask somebody else that question.”