Perhaps the one thing any type of instructor, whether a coach or otherwise, wants to see from his charges is the capacity to correct mistakes and not repeat them—or in other words, learning. Not making the same mistake twice generally bodes well for somebody’s future if T.J. Watt’s rookie season is anything to go by.
That’s what the Pittsburgh Steelers are focusing on, particularly the defense. OLB Alex Highsmith spoke to Missi Matthews for the team’s website about their expectations or the unit and how to achieve their goals through work in training camp.
“The coaches always say, ‘Find a different mistake to make’”, he said. “None of us are perfect. We’re gonna make mistakes. But if you keep making the same mistake over and over again, then that’s a problem, so if you make a mistake, address it and move onto something else. ‘Find new problems’, as Coach Tomlin says. Just continuing to get better and eliminating mistakes is gonna be huge”.
Obviously, you never want to make mistakes, but the worst mistake to make is the same one over and over. Highsmith is yet another player about whom it was said early on that he didn’t need to be told anything twice. In case it wasn’t clear how it’s been going since then he recently signed a $68 million contract extension.
At the same time, everybody learns in different ways and at different paces. Even if you generally don’t want to give the same instruction more than once, it may take multiple attempts for a player to actually carry out the instruction as properly understood.
Generally, it does seem as though the defense has largely gotten the better of things thus far in training camp, and that’s even without All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick actively participating on the field while excused for a personal matter.
One would be inclined to think that means something must be going right, and that’s not to be undervalued given the sheer number of new pieces in the mix, especially at the inside linebacker position, a key driver of the unit as a whole.
It would seem as though they’ve been finding new mistakes, then, instead of the same ones, which is always a good sign. That also speaks well of the coaching, including the team’s new inside linebacker coach, Aaron Curry, who was hired this offseason from Seattle for his first full-time position coach role in the NFL.
There’s still more than a month before the Steelers have to roll out for a game that matters. Plenty of mistakes will be made—and corrected—between now and then. As long as those mistakes slow down by the time the regular season begins, they should be on their way toward a successful season.
