Mike Tomlin promised a “sweet bye week” to his team for a win in Ireland, and he delivered with Wednesday through Sunday fully off for the team. That isn’t typically how laid-back bye weeks are, but it seems to have achieved the desired effect in the locker room.
“When your whole division loses, it’s pretty good. When that happens and you come off a win on a bye week, the guys are excited to get back in the building,” Christian Kuntz said Thursday via his podcast. “I felt a little juice on Monday. It was a good feeling.”
Practice time is precious in today’s NFL, and some will no doubt question the decision to give the team extended time off after an uneven first month. But good leadership is about balance — knowing when to apply pressure and when to offer a reward to bring a group together. In this case, Tomlin’s timing looks spot on. The Steelers got rest, regained their energy, and even managed to “win” the bye week as the rest of the AFC North stumbled.
Players always get some time off during the bye, but usually it’s Thursday through Sunday. Tomlin gave them a bonus day on Wednesday.
“First time in my six years that he’s given a bye week like that,” Kuntz said. “We got back from Ireland, off Monday, come in Tuesday, gone. It was lovely.”
Former Steelers punter Josh Miller was with the team from 1996 to 2003. He said this break was a far cry from what he experienced in Pittsburgh where the bye week was “business as usual.”
But the Steelers’ season was one week shorter, and they weren’t doing any international travel like the current team just did. And they probably didn’t have as veteran a team. The Steelers have the oldest group of starters in the league.
We are about to see the difference between rest and strain with the Steelers against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. While the Steelers had extra rest during the bye week, the Browns played in London and have a road game in Pittsburgh just one week later.
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