ANDERSON, Ind. -- Last season, Chuck Pagano brought Ray Lewis in during the playoffs Scott Wilson Jersey , and when the ' run ended, Pagano invoked a memory of the legend.Truth is, Pagano wasn't exactly flush with options after from the eventual world-champion in the AFC title game. And so it made all the sense in the world to recount to his players given by his former linebacker three years earlier, in the very same Gillette Stadium visitors' locker room the were occupying."In 2011, if the win the AFC title game , I'm not having this conversation with you, because then I don't get to talk to this club; that's the byproduct," said Pagano, referencing Baltimore's defeat in New England in those playoffs, which freed him to leave his position as the ' defensive coordinator and land the top job in Indianapolis days later. "We sat in the same locker room there, and Ray said the same thing."It went, as Pagano remembers it, like this: As bad as we feel after this lo s, in two weeks, someone's gonna feel a hell of a lot worse than we do. Don't ever forget this feeling. Just go to work, and just don't forget we're gonna be back in this same position one year from now. And let's do everything we po sibly can to make sure that happens, and then we'll finish the job."The rest," Pagano said, "is history."The bounced back from by, indeed, the next January, this time vanquishing the on their way to victory . No one at training camp on this early August night would mind if that history had a way of repeating itself.And that's where we'll turn the page from 2014 to '15, with set to unfold over the next four days. Teams will cite parity and roster turnover in saying that last year will have no effect on this year.To a degree, that's true. But the past can be a great teacher, and Pagano most certainly wants his players to carry scars from that night in Foxborough with them, a night he remembers for "some bad ball early, and then getting steamrolled, and not being able to compete at the level and play the way we did in the two playoff games -- and and win that game."Pagano, of course, isn't going to completely abandon the live-for-today, one-play-at-a-time, one-day-at-a-time clichs that guide so many coaches.But he knows and remembers. He wants his players to, as well."I think you have to go through some turmoil and some pain and some confusion and some anxiety to grow," Pagano said. "That's part of training camp as well, but certainly that burn that's in your belly after something like that, that sticks with you. That should be the fuel and the motivation, because it's so hard to get there. And then to have happen what happened and try to get back is gonna be 10 times harder."So long as you learn the le sons from it, and you grow, and you're fortunate enough to make it back -- and again, that's a long ways from now -- you'll be better prepared, at least from a mental standpoint."The work ratchets up this week for the and the rest of the league. It's another step. And here's how some others will take that step heading into : moving along: The continue to see positives out of Winston. Because he has both an extensive background in a pro-style offense and a high football IQ, the Bucs have taken the tack of overloading Winston and letting him fight his way through it. And that's not just on the field, but off it as well. The No. 1 overall pick has a naturally playful nature with teammates, but there are certain spots where the Bucs have tried to teach him to be more busine s-like. And he's done a good job, to this point, of balancing out his demeanor, which is important for a franchise quarterback. growing, too: So many positive things have been said about the ' rookie quarterback, it'd almost be a struggle to add something. So I'll turn it over to someone in the building who justified all the bouquets that have landed at the 2014 Heisman Trophy winner's feet: "He's been outstanding so far -- learned fast, protects the ball, very accurate." The have their fingers cro sed that it will carry over to their first preseason matchup, . The main areas he's improved in are the basics: getting in and out of the huddle and working handoffs from under center. dealing with turnover on D: The foundation of the last great defense is gone entirely. And to supplement a powerful offense, Pittsburgh needs a bunch of young defensive players (starting with a linebacking crew boasting four former first-rounders) to step forward simultaneously. The hope is that they learned from the departed veterans. "They had some exposure to those guys, and not nece sarily for their best years," general manager Kevin Colbert told me. "Those guys never changed. Their skills may have declined -- they were still the same great teammates, great examples that hopefully enough of these younger players saw, and can take that example with them as they try to get their own succe ses."Franchise reboots: The , and all have new general managers, and my feeling is Ryan Pace, Scot McCloughan and Mike Maccagnan are being very honest with themselves about where their respective rosters are. For Pace, fixing the ' culture was a piece of the puzzle, so the team jettisoned receiver in a trade to the . Ditto for McCloughan, who very clearly tried to send a me sage to the ' locker room with his first draft pick (offensive lineman ) and big contract (a given to linebacker ). And then there's Maccagnan, whose splashy moves in free agency were made largely to stop-gap salary-cap space as the work to build through the draft. The real commonality here comes in each guy's knowledge that the roster he inherited needed major reworking, and the fact that they're all trying to build roster flexibility to do it.The ' flight plan: No NFL coach's thought proce s is more heavily analyzed than Chip Kelly's. But I actually believe this offseason's flurry of moves was pretty simply explained: The group former Philadelphia coach Andy Reid a sembled had, in Kelly's view, maxed out. And rather than banging his head against that barrier, he decided to shake up the roster. So maybe the floor's a little lower now. But the ceiling is higher. "We're not building it to the stay the same," Kelly told me. "We're building it to get better. And that's the direction we're going. Now, you gotta play it out. Can't make predictions, so we'll play it out on the field, but we feel that way today. You don't know what happens injury-wise and that stuff, but I feel better, depth-wise." living up to expectations: There's no way to tell at this point -- through five months of not playing real football yet -- whether Suh will be worth the the Miami bra s (with the enthusiastic endorsement of owner Stephen Ro s) handed the all-planet defensive tackle. But the early signs are good. And frightening. On the first play of Kevin Hayes Jersey the team's first live scrimmage, at Florida International University, Suh decked the guard and raced into the backfield, eventually dropping the back for a 12-yard lo s. It caught the attention of the whole staff -- and that's the kind of intensity Suh's been bringing to practice. Beyond just that, to this point, he's been a model teammate. Again, time will tell -- but so far, so good.Follow Albert Breer on Twitter .