After 19 years of hard-hitting, tackling-to-the-ground training-camp practices under Mike Tomlin, the Steelers will put on pads for the first time in 20 years without Tomlin running the show.
It will be interesting, to say the least, to see how it looks and how it feels.
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New coach Mike McCarthy made a stir last week by saying the Steelers will not tackle to the ground. He has since clarified that camp will still be physical, and that he’s trying to ensure that the players will be healthy for the start of the season.
The issue sparked a full Associated Press article on the absence of tackling, and what it will mean to the players who have spent multiple years navigating the physicality of Camp Tomlin.
“Obviously, I love to tackle,” inside linebacker Payton Wilson said, per the AP. “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 focus in practice will shift from tackling to doing everything before the actual tackle.
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“The long stride, short stride, the specifics of how the fundamentals are being taught to the approach, the strike, the wrap, the finish,” McCarthy said. “So these are constants that are taught throughout our whole team.”
Linebacker Patrick Queen, who once revolted against the no-tackling edict in Baltimore, seems to be on board with the new approach in Pittsburgh.
“At the end of the day, you still got a chance to put yourself on somebody, put your hip on somebody,” Queen said. “Whatever you do pre-tackle, it’s the same as putting somebody on the ground.”
It will be an adjustment for the players who comply (or who initially don’t). It will be an adjustment for the media and fans who watch it. And it will be a tangible piece of evidence when it’s time to compare the team’s in-season performance from 2007 through 2025 under Tomlin — and 2026 under Mike McCarthy.
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