The Pittsburgh Steelers have their first off day today after nearly a week straight of physically demanding practices. The team did have a non-padded practice on Sunday, but head coach Mike Tomlin did demand that the focus and level of urgency still be present yesterday as if the pads were still on.
Before Sunday, Pittsburgh suited up in full pads after taking part in Friday Night Lights practice at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. That physical nature of practice has been abandoned by several teams in the NFL, but when Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks talked about Pittsburgh’s training camp on the Move the Sticks podcast, Jeremiah mentioned that mentality is the reason why Tomlin has been as successful as he has been during his tenure as head coach of the Steelers.
“This guy’s never had a losing season,” Jeremiah said on Move the Sticks. “Like this is tried and true, old-school football that they’re incorporating up there in Pittsburgh.”
The standard is the standard in Pittsburgh, and standard is physical, tough football teams that can smash your face in. Whether it be the 2008 team that had the likes of OLB James Harrison and S Troy Polamalu or the 2023 roster that has OLB T.J. Watt and DL Cameron Heyward, the expectation in Pittsburgh is to be one tough son of a gun.
Bucky Brooks mentioned that this demeanor can’t be adopted, but rather must be developed over time through intentional competitive environments.
“When the Steelers show up, it’s gonna be a hard nose, it’s gonna be a physical game,” Brooks said. “And the only way to build that kind of team, even in this era where you don’t have as many padded practices because of the restrictions on how you can practice. The only way to build a team that can play on the edges. I mean, you got to be a physical team. You gotta practice in pads, you got to do all that other stuff because if not, when you get into the game action, you can’t just flip the switch and say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be the bullet.’ This is something that’s honed and refined and worked on away from the ring.”
The players have spoken to Tomlin’s consistency to keep his teams competitive in the past with Watt saying that the day-in, day-out actions of Tomlin and what he preaches to his players is what builds the environment and culture in the building. Tomlin desires to have a competitive atmosphere where players push each other to be their best, making each other earn a spot on the roster or a starting job. Pittsburgh has done just that this offseason, prioritizing added depth and competition to make a championship-caliber environment in 2023.
While many teams are embracing the new-age football dynamic of high-flying offenses, the Steelers intend to stay true to who they’ve always been: a blue-collar, hard-nosed football team. That’s how they’ve won six Lombardi Trophies. That’s how they battled back from a 2-6 start to a 9-8 record last season. While the offense can strive to be more balanced this season, maintaining that physicality is an advantage Pittsburgh can hold onto in the waning moments of close games.
