While the Steelers’ training camp might not be as physical under Mike McCarthy, one beat writer predicts it will be as intense. Especially if spring practices are anything to go on, the roster can expect little downtime once on the field. Under Mike Tomlin, there was hard hitting and popping of pads, but also, seemingly, more downtime.
“McCarthy definitely wants to establish his culture. If you go back to Mike Tomlin’s first season in 2007, they had a really physical training camp”, Ray Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan last week. “McCarthy is not known for physical training camp practices, but I do think what you will see is that attention to detail and the coaching hard and keeping his players on their toes, challenging the veterans. I think you’ll see a different type of pressure on them. You might not see the eye-popping hits, the shoulder pads colliding. But I do think in a different way, they will be intense practices”.
Following significant changes under the 2011 CBA, teams moved away from having live-tackling drills. Mike Tomlin brought them back and seemed to run the most physical training camp in the NFL, if national reporters who traveled to different camps are anything to go by. Mike McCarthy’s camps were never among the most physical, but hitting only takes you so far.
And it’s clear that that strategy hasn’t translated into the desired results. Especially on defense, they haven’t hit their marks, even in areas one would think are obvious. In many recent years, for example, they’ve had far too many missed tackles. That’s one of the things live tackling drills are supposed to help. McCarthy’s approach to training camp might yield better results, or so the Steelers hope.
“In a way, I think that’s what the Steelers need. They needed a change”, Fittipaldo said, noting that Mike McCarthy didn’t replace Mike Tomlin, the latter resigning. “The veterans have bought in. T.J. Watt was, I think, at almost every spring workout, same for Cam Heyward. The other vets were there. That’s pretty impressive”.
It does seem McCarthy has achieved widespread buy-in within this veteran-laden Steelers roster, which still includes many long-time Tomlin players. Not that you often hear anything to the contrary at this time of year—those tend to come up in postmortems. Even now, though, we’re only projecting how McCarthy will conduct the Steelers’ training camp. All we know so far is practices will be earlier and Friday Night Lights will be on Saturday.
Despite installing new systems, the fact that Mike McCarthy is primarily working with coaches he’s previously employed should help his first training camp with the Steelers run more smoothly. That’s the theory, anyway.
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