When offseason practices begin in Pittsburgh under Mike McCarthy, coaches are conspicuously missing from the field. Once stretching and pre-practice routines are out of the way, an announcement rings out over the field and the coaches come running out together. Why? To maximize the Steelers’ allotted time as laid out by the NFLPA’s CBA with the league.
“The attention to detail is off the charts, and what you should be thrilled about is the game management aspect that he’s put forward right now,” Mark Kaboly said Thursday via his Kaboly + Mack podcast. “I’m talking about stuff as simple as during the middle of practice they blow the whistle and say ‘TV timeout, everybody back to the huddle’ just to get ’em in the mindset of, ‘We’re in June here, and we’re acting like it’s a regular game and we’re not just going through the motions.’
“They’re trying to use every single ounce of time to their advantage.”
The NFLPA CBA’s Article 21 Section 5(d) says that the allotted two-hour limit begins when coaches begin to coach players on the field. The stretch and warmup line doesn’t count, so long as the coaching staff isn’t on the field (excluding the strength and conditioning staff). In the past, Mike Tomlin would walk around and interact with his players throughout warmups. That counted toward the two-hour limit because coaches were on the field.
By waiting to release the coaches until after warmups, McCarthy is making sure they get their full two hours worth.
Ben Roethlisberger questioned whether players would get burned out by McCarthy’s practices by the end of the season, but context and perspective are required.
The NFLPA doesn’t allow anywhere near the rigors that used to take place in the league. Two-a-day practices are a thing of the past. McCarthy is simply maximizing the already significantly reduced practice time allowed in the modern league.
It’s the responsible thing to do for McCarthy, who is trying to install an entirely new system with a mostly new coaching staff in just a handful of months.
“It’s very, very structured the way they do things there,” Kaboly said. “Maybe it was to the point where Tomlin just assumed that I’ve been around 19 years and a lot of my core guys are still here. They know what they’re doing. I don’t need to do this right now. We’ll worry about this in August and September. Maybe that’s why they sometimes got off to slow starts in games and slow starts in seasons.”
The way that veteran players showed up and responded to the voluntary workouts and OTAs is a good indication that they are bought into the new system. T.J. Watt said “change is good,” and noted the much different environment under Mike McCarthy.
Not only do they maximize their practice time, but there’s a larger coaching staff than what Tomlin ever had. This allows for more individual attention to the 90 players currently on the roster.
When the rest of the league breaks following OTAs and minicamp, coaches and players alike hop on planes to go on vacation. McCarthy and his staff will stick around one extra week for a rookie school, including some assigned homework to work through until the Steelers convene for training camp.
Even Tomlin admitted his approach may have been growing stale. Time will tell if across-the-board change leads to more wins, but we know for sure Mike McCarthy is doing everything in his power to make it happen.
