08/02/26 10:10:00
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08/02 10:08 CDT The Steelers want a physical camp. Mike McCarthy's answer: Thud
up, no tackling
The Steelers want a physical camp. Mike McCarthy's answer: Thud up, no tackling
By WILL GRAVES
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) --- Earlier in his coaching career, Mike McCarthy leaned into
pushing the limits of his players during training camp.
Two-a-days in full pads for two weeks straight? Sure. Practices scheduled for
two hours that would sometimes bleed into three? You bet.
Not so much anymore.
"I'd go to jail today if I tried to do that," McCarthy joked.
Or at least, the NFL's version of it. The league has evolved over the last 30
years. The Collective Bargaining Agreement banned two-a-days long ago. There
are now specific time limits on practice, and they are policed down to the
minute.
So McCarthy has made it a point to get ahead of the curve. Just how far ahead?
Well, when the Pittsburgh Steelers walk onto Chuck Noll Field on Monday for
their first padded practice of the McCarthy Era, they'll do it with one
particular instruction in mind: no tackling. At all.
While most of the changes to camp at Saint Vincent College have been subtle as
the team transitions from Mike Tomlin to McCarthy --- the volume of the music
over the loudspeakers is softer, for example --- the decision to do everything
but take a teammate to the ground is not.
Tomlin's 19 years in Pittsburgh often began with an "iron sharpens iron"
approach during the club's annual stay at the small school tucked in the
western Pennsylvania hills. Don't get McCarthy wrong. He plans to run a
physical camp, but the "Tempered Steel" mantra the club has adopted --- one
printed on shirts worn by players and staff --- is real in more ways than one.
"It's a risk-assessment decision," McCarthy said.
Banning tackling during camp is hardly new. A significant chunk of NFL teams,
Pittsburgh's longtime rival the Baltimore Ravens included, have adopted the
policy in recent years.
Still, these are the Steelers, who have historically embraced --- by reputation
if not always in reality --- the idea of being a throwback of sorts. So yeah,
expect an adjustment period.
"Obviously, I love to tackle," inside linebacker Payton Wilson said. "It's been
great in the past to get that in before the first preseason game, but that's
what preseason games are for."
The Steelers instead will "thud up," meaning defenders will try to wrap up ball
carriers but not take them all the way to the ground. It's commonplace during
the regular season, but not always in early August.
McCarthy stressed there are tools the team can use to refine their tackling
technique without driving each other into the turf. From monitoring a player's
positioning using GPS to video analysis to other "sports science" resources to
coaching points that have been part of the game since its inception, McCarthy
is confident the Steelers will be ready when they need to be ready.
"The long stride, short stride, the specifics of how the fundamentals are being
taught to the approach, the strike, the wrap, the finish," he said. "So these
are constants that are taught throughout our whole team."
The shift will require as much of a mental adjustment as a physical adjustment.
Defensive tackle Cam Heyward's first 15 camps were defined in part by what
Tomlin likened to full-on sparring as opposed to shadowboxing. There were
certain days during camp --- Family Day and the team's Friday Night Lights
practice at nearby Greater Latrobe High School --- when Heyward knew the
intensity level would spike.
"It's an alpha sport," the longest-tenured Steeler said. "And (we'd) just ramp
it up."
McCarthy still wants to do just that, but in a way designed to get the
defending AFC North champions to Week 1 as healthy as possible.
His philosophical evolution has more to do with the way the NFL operates in
2026 than any concern about the age of the team he is taking over, though it
should be noted that several of Pittsburgh's highest-profile defenders ---
Heyward, outside linebacker T.J. Watt and defensive back Jalen Ramsey --- are
all in their 30s.
The way McCarthy figures it, getting defenders in the right position to drop an
opponent is the hardest part of the process. Once they get there, finishing the
play should be the easy part.
That doesn't mean the Steelers won't be searching for gray areas. Linebacker
Patrick Queen spent the first four seasons of his career in Baltimore, where
former head coach John Harbaugh placed a "no tackling" edict. That didn't stop
Queen and teammate Roquan Smith from "tackling everybody" one day just to prove
a point.
Queen doesn't expect to go quite that far over the next few weeks. Besides,
it's not like the Steelers are going to run around with flags on their hips
like they're preparing for the 2028 Olympics.
"At the end of the day, you still got a chance to put yourself on somebody, put
your hip on somebody," he said. "Whatever you do pre-tackle, it's the same as
putting somebody on the ground."
Besides, there will still likely be drills like "backs on backers," a perennial
camp highlight in which running backs work on pass protection by fending off
linebackers charging at them at full speed. It's a drill that helped running
back Jaylen Warren first capture the coaching staff's attention as an undrafted
rookie free agent in 2022, and one that in many ways lets football players be
football players in the most primal way possible.
"We got dogs on the team," Warren said. "The competition is what leads to that.
I don't mind that at all."
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