The Pittsburgh Steelers have high hopes for 2025, and are trying to pull out all the stops to make the upcoming campaign a successful one.
Pittsburgh finally landed Aaron Rodgers after a 70-day gap between their initial meeting and the contract being signed. With a quarterback finally secured for the upcoming season, Steelers training camp is up and rolling at full strength.
Head coach Mike Tomlin went back to an old routine, as well. The Steelers moved their training practices to the morning last year, but this year, are going back to afternoon practices in the summer.
"It wasn't hot enough last year, to be quite honest with you," Tomlin said, via the team's facility. "Heat aids in the development of physical conditioning. It makes it a more stressful environment, and that's what we go to camp for. We go to camp to get better, and if it's a little bit more miserable later in the day, man, that's what we want."
Tomlin wants his team to be in the best condition they can be. The additional heat is going to make the squad sweat even more, increasing the intensity of practices. Tomlin is embracing a "miserable" environment in camp.
With morning practices during training camp, Pittsburgh got out to a 10-3 start before dropping their last four games of the season, ending 10-7. Pittsburgh's late season woes carried into the playoffs, where they lost to their AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens 14-28.
Perhaps a more intense and heated training camp can allow the Steelers to be well conditioned for the full season.