For Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin, you can’t box unless you spar. You also can’t communicate inside an NFL stadium on the field unless you’ve done it in live reps.
With so many new faces on the defensive side of the football, including key ones at inside linebacker in Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Kwon Alexander that will have major responsibilities from a communication standpoint, Tomlin made it an emphasis to give those guys in-stadium reps to prepare them for the regular season.
Communication has been a major emphasis throughout the offseason, training camp and into the preseason. With so many new, moving parts defensively, including a new signal caller with the green dot defensively in Holcomb, the importance of that communication skyrockets. That’s why Tomlin, who appeared on The Rich Eisen Show Monday, stated that he played his veterans so much in the preseason compared to other teams.
“It’s gonna be communication. We got quality players; we got experience. Some of our experience is new to us. Elandon Roberts, Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander, Pat Pete[rson] Keanu Neal all are veteran players. We’re all very familiar with those guys, and that’s why they’re here. But as a collective, we’re new,” Tomlin said to Eisen, according to video via the Roku Channel. “And so I really think our ability to communicate, particularly in our home stadium, the challenge from a defensive perspective of communicating in the home stadium — a home stadium is an awesome advantage when your defense communicates. And so, that’s where our stress has been.
“That’s why we’ve played some of these veteran players as much as we’ve played them throughout the preseason. It’s just no substitution for getting those guys in a game and letting them compete and communicate, because ultimately their ability to communicate and stay connected is gonna define our level of greatness.”
Throughout the offseason the talk about the Steelers defense with all of the new faces has been about the potential greatness the group has if everything comes together. At all three levels, the Steelers are in great shape from an experience and leadership standpoint. As Tomlin stated though, the potential greatness of the defense in 2023 comes down to something that should be so simple in theory but is rather difficult overall in team sports: communication.
In years past, communication hasn’t always been the strongest for the Steelers. Of course, some of the struggles with communication and the tendency to give up coverage busts in the mid 2010s had to do with the talent the Steelers had defensively. Now though, the Steelers are loaded defensively.
Ability isn’t an issue. It comes down to something simple, and that’s the communication. The Steelers emphasized it throughout training camp, and Tomlin created a great environment to test it in the preseason, too. So far, the Steelers have passed with flying colors. We’ll see if that continues in the regular season.
Right now though, communication is good, and that’s a great thing considering the amount of time and energy the Steelers have invested in communicating very well defensively.
