There are not many coaches in the game today who command more respect than Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, at least outside of Pittsburgh. Those within the walls of Steelers Nation are much more likely to evaluate on a results-based business model, and, well, I’ve had pets who lived and died in the time between their last playoff win and their next.
That being said, it’s much easier to be impressed when you actually watch the process unfold. It doesn’t always translate the way it’s intended once they get onto the field, but to watch Tomlin work a practice really must be something to experience—which NFL analyst Brian Baldinger got the chance to do.
“Just taking every moment possible to teach, to learn a situation here that might come up in a game. As a fan, as an analyst, as a guy that loves the game, I couldn’t get enough. I simply couldn’t get enough watching it”.
That’s what he said on his In the Huddle podcast recently, recounting his observations from his time spent watching the Steelers during OTAs. He also noted an intensity level that he didn’t see anywhere else during his excursions. “You might as well put the pads on”, he said. And yet much of that is just an extension of the control the head coach wields over every detail.
“Tomlin is everywhere. They’re running a two-minute drill and he’s like, ‘Alright, there’s 38 seconds left, here’s the situation’, bam”, Baldinger said. “Teaching situational football, making sure everybody understands the situation, where we’re at. ‘We’re down at the four-yard line, we got one play left. What are you doing defensively?’ Like, huddling the defense up. Like, ‘You can’t give up six, you can’t do the penalty thing’. Just taking every moment possible to teach”.
Extensively working situational football has been a cornerstone of Steelers practices under Tomlin for many years, with a particular emphasis on goal-line work in the ‘Seven Shots’ drill, in which the offense and defense square off seven times in a row. Once training camp rolls around, it becomes full contact in pads.
Tomlin’s comments at the end of minicamp are telling and speak to just how much he values the work that takes place at this time of year. “Really sad to see it come to an end”, he told reporters. “We just can’t get enough of work like we’ve gotten over the past several weeks here”.
The Steelers won’t take the field again for another month and then some, and when they do, it won’t even be in Pittsburgh. But it’ll be somewhere even better. For as much inconvenience as it offers, Tomlin takes the team to Latrobe with intentionality for the value it brings to the team-building and instructional process. He’s master of his domain up at Saint Vincent. No contest.
