So far in this year’s edition of training camp for the Pittsburgh Steelers, things have been rather physical, drawing quite a bit of attention so far for how intense and violent practices have been.
No practice was more physical or intense than the Friday Night Lights practice at Latrobe Memorial Stadium. There was a spirited backs-on-backers drill that led to some words exchanged and teammates going at it, not to mention a tough 11-on-11 team session.
For Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin, who is entering his 18th season in charge of the Steelers, the physical training camp is something he feels he “owes” to the players, especially those down the roster fighting for jobs, to figure out what they can and can’t do, and to take the speculation out of that discussion with them.
Appearing on NFL Network’s Inside Training Camp Saturday with hosts Rhett Lewis and Marc Ross, Tomlin explained the decision behind the physical training camp.
“I just want them to believe that it’s tough to box without sparring, you know? I owe it to ’em. And another component of it, to be quite honest with you from my perspective, is we are here as 90 people, and we’re trying to decide the 53 that stay,” Tomlin said to Lewis and Ross, according to video via NFL.com. “I want to minimize the speculation. I wanna provide a fair platform for these guys to show what they’re capable of. And, so tackling is a component of that. Some guys are capable of breaking tackles, we need to know it. Some guys are capable of consistently making tackles, we need to know it.
“And so, make no mistake, we respect this process. We’re trying to keep these guys as safe as we possibly can, but we want to give everybody an opportunity to really show what their skill set is.”
That’s how it should be, really.
Training camp is supposed to be physical and intense and really build you up for the start of the season. Of course, the CBA rules put into place over the last decade or so have hindered coaching from that perspective a bit, based on the number of times they are allowed to be in pads in practice settings.
To Tomlin’s credit, he’s adapted to the rules within the CBA, doing so to still create a physical training camp, one this summer that is catching the attention of players new and old.
New Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen said that it’s crazy to tackle live in practices, but he’s thriving in the new environment after coming over from Baltimore as a free agent in the offseason. Guys like running back Jaylen Warren and rookie linebacker Payton Wilson are loving the physicality, which is building up the team and showing exactly what they are made of.
These intense, competitive practices are a good way for the coaching staff to get better looks at the fringe players. Often, preseason games can be really sloppy and not provide many opportunities for the players to show themselves.
So, in a sense, Tomlin does owe it to those guys down the roster fighting for a job to have physical practices and give them as many reps as possible.
It’s just not like his first training camp, though, thankfully.
