Add Scotty Miller to the list of players who enjoy playing for Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. While he has only been here a short time, the veteran wide receiver sang Tomlin’s praises. And some of those praises—including those by omission—might be surprising.
Miller, for example, didn’t talk about Tomlin as the great motivator. He did mention his energy, but he valued other aspects of his coaching. And that’s only after going through spring practices, so he knows there is more to come.
“I’ve only been with him a couple months now so I haven’t gotten the full experience with the season and everything yet. But everything with Coach Mike has been great so far”, Scotty Miller said on the Green Light podcast.
“The kind of mentality that [Tomlin] brings every single day. He starts every day with a team meeting and lays out the groundwork of what the day’s gonna look like, what he expects out of us. Energy is always super high. Just a blessing to get to play for him. You’re gonna work hard, but that’s what you want as a player, and that’s why he’s had so much success”.
How often do we talk about Mike Tomlin as a “player’s coach” and bring up things like hard work? That’s unfortunately not the perception that follows him. Instead, many have this image of him as the dad who wants to be his son’s best friend. His detractors see him as being popular among players because of a lack of discipline, but not for Miller.
Most who follow the Steelers, should know better. The Steelers have some of the most intense and physical practices in the NFL. We hear that every single year whenever a national reporter heads to Latrobe for a day. What they see in Tomlin’s practices looks like a playoff game in comparison to most NFL training camps.
“I know camp’s a whole different animal. I know especially in Pittsburgh, we’re going up to Latrobe, we’re staying at the college dorms. It’s gonna be a grind, but that’s what you kind of look forward to”, Miller said in anticipation of his first training camp with the Steelers.
Scotty Miller only signed with the Steelers on May 10, well after the 2024 NFL Draft. That was nearly two months after the start of free agency, and a couple weeks before OTAs began. But he did get those weeks of practice in with Tomlin, even if he still has much to learn.
No doubt his teammates have filled him in, as he shared a locker room with a handful of them in Atlanta. No doubt Cordarrelle Patterson or Van Jefferson or MyCole Pruitt might have something to say about Tomlin, all of whom played with Miller in 2023.
But none of them have been in a Mike Tomlin training camp before, so Miller and the rest will learn together just how much hard work goes into that. Sure, he will give the veterans their days off, but if you’re practicing, be ready to go.
