Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin gleefully presided over backs on ‘backers yesterday, a highlight of every training camp. And as you might expect, he got his fair share of comments in along the way, as is his right. My favorite that I saw was a shot at outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin, a classic Tomlin reaction. Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote about it yesterday.
Anecdotally, the winner of Tuesday’s “Backs on backers” was Darnell Washington. The massive tight end was like an impenetrable wall to first-year outside linebacker David Perales during a rep early in the drill. The 6-foot-7, 264-pound Washington later on easily stood up skilled pass-rusher Nick Herbig. That compelled [Mike] Tomlin to call out outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin. “Come on, Denzel, coach your guys up! They should be beating tight ends!” During a Tomlin-requested rematch, Herbig acquitted himself much better.
The backs-on-‘backers drill consists of a running back or tight end in a one-on-one pass protection scenario with a linebacker. The linebacker has a running start to attack the back, a drill that heavily favors the defense. But as Tomlin observed, TE Darnell Washington more than held his own.
Once billing himself as the sixth lineman, Washington is entering his second season with the Steelers. He is still looking to carve out a bigger niche for himself, which he may find under Arthur Smith. One gets the sense that Tomlin also wants to see more contributions out of the tight end.
Prior to drafting Washington and Pat Freiermuth, the Steelers had not selected a tight end earlier than the fifth round under Mike Tomlin since his first season in Pittsburgh. In 2007, they drafted Matt Spaeth in the third round. They didn’t need to draft tight ends during that time, though, largely. They still had Spaeth and Heath Miller for a while, and later used free agency, most notably Vance McDonald. Well, the Steelers traded for McDonald, but you get the point.
While Washington, who went into yesterday’s practice hungry to “smash some people”, deserves praise for his quality work, one has to wonder about Denzel Martin’s group. Of course, it’s not just Martin, as inside linebackers under Aaron Curry also participate. But Tomlin called out Martin.
The big caveat here is who participated and who did not. T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith worked in the OL/DL drills, but the other edge rushers did ‘backers. Nick Herbig was their fastball guy, rounded out by the likes of Jeremiah Moon and Julius Welschof. Tomlin won’t let Martin use his first-string guys on Jaylen Warren and Aaron Shampklin.
But it’s still always fun to read about how Tomlin fuels the spirit of competition during training camp practices. He makes no bones about the fact that he manipulates practice to get the competition level he wants. If he wants to see the offense finish a two-minute drill, he’ll give the defense another play to defend. And if he wants a rematch in backs on ‘backers, he always, always gets it.
