Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is a master manipulator. Everything that he does in a practice setting is an orchestration, an intentional act to get the most out of the environment. Whether it’s moving the line of scrimmage, changing the time left, adding a timeout, or any other number of variables, he will tinker with the circumstances in the spirit of competition.
Never afraid to pull rank, he changed it up during the Steelers’ seven shots drill, in which the offense and defense run a goal-to-go exercise over seven reps. After the defense got out to an early 3-1 lead, the offense rallied with the second-team offense, Mitch Trubisky finding TEs Connor Heyward and Rodney Williams for scores to tie it at seven.
And then suddenly QB Kenny Pickett and the rest of the first-team personnel on both sides of the ball were back out there for the rubber match to determine the winner. It is unclear if there were lobster dinners at stake, but Tomlin knew what he wanted to see and he called for it.
“It was 3-3. Just to stoke the competition”, Tomlin explained to reporters after practice when asked what went into his decision to reinsert the starters for the final rep of the drill. “Get those guys back out there and let them compete and be leaders for the other groups. You hate to have the drill riding on the pups, so we put the starters back out there”.
Pickett found WR Diontae Johnson for the score, by the way, thus winning it for the offense after initially going one-for-three on his first four reps. After RB Najee Harris scored on a carry, Pickett missed TE Pat Freiermuth, with CBs Levi Wallace and Joey Porter Jr. making plays on the ball on the third and fourth reps.
The starters generally don’t get to take the final reps in that drill, so they rarely determine the ultimate outcome. The offense and defense both had that weight on their shoulders in that moment. Make the stop, or get the score, and your side wins. No passing it off to the “young pups” to play out.
Of course, it can be argued how valuable this competitive environment is, but it’s all part of the broader process Tomlin creates, whether it’s deciding to overrule the on-hand officials in a non-tackling session in declaring TE Darnell Washington had scored a touchdown or, in another instance, negating an obvious touchdown in order to continue the drill for competitive purposes.
This is, after all, practice. It’s not a game, so you can manipulate the circumstances as it suits the situation. If anything, it adds an additional layer of adversity to strengthen the team’s toughness. Imagine being an offense getting into the end zone only to be told that you’ll be spotted with first-and-goal just because.
Those things happen in games, albeit not arbitrarily, so you might as well get used to them now. And you’d better take heart from competition, anyway, if you are to survive in the NFL, let alone thrive.
