Mike McCarthy ran a taxing spring practice schedule, but will that be predictive of what to expect during training camp? It’s hard to tell for many reasons, the most important being the absence of pads. There’s also the fact that this coaching staff has an added task, installing new systems, which demand a certain intensity. Given what we know so far, though, veteran beat reporter Mark Kaboly shared his thoughts on the subject.
“I think he’s putting everything into this process this time of the year so when he gets to Saint Vincent, when they put on the pads three or four days in, that you’re not warming up to it”, Kaboly said on the Kaboly + Mack podcast, discussing how McCarthy might run the Steelers’ training camp this year.
As one would expect, he contrasted McCarthy’s first Steelers training camp with Mike Tomlin’s. Tomlin was at the very beginning of his head coaching career, taking over for a hard-nosed Super Bowl-winning coach. “He needed to prove something” he said of Tomlin’s tough first camp. “McCarthy’s not out to prove anything. He’s gonna give these guys time off. What he needs to do is get these guys ready to go Week 1”.
Mike McCarthy already had decades of coaching experience in the NFL, including two long stints as a head coach in Green Bay and Dallas. In fact, most of his coaching staff consists of individuals who’ve previously worked under him. They know how McCarthy likes to run things, including training camp, and that should be similar with the Steelers. But this year, his first, through all the install, has different priorities.
“That’s a very short time to get everything in place to be able to hit the field running, for lack of a better term, in Saint Vincent College”, Kaboly said, noting that the Steelers hired McCarthy in January and training camp is coming up in a little over a month.” We’re not gonna see him beating the hell out of these guys. Or at least the ones that matter”.
That might sound somewhat surprising, going by all the talk of how he’s run spring practices. There are no benches, no breaks, all of that fun stuff. There is always a drill going on somewhere, and even the veteran players have talked about the changes. It’s all about business, especially when it comes to the quarterbacks for him.
Now, the Steelers had the most physical training camp in the NFL under Mike Tomlin, and that was not Mike McCarthy’s reputation in Dallas. But he said from the very beginning he will be adaptable to what they’ve done in the past. Does that mean a similar level of hitting, of live tackling, of backs-on-backers drills?
We’ll find out when we get to Latrobe, but one thing that’s definitely true is that he has nothing to prove. That’s one of the reasons they hired him. The trust that Mike McCarthy will know how to run the Steelers’ training camp. He even went away to camp while with the Packers, so he knows what that’s like, too.
Recommended for you