The Steelers want a physical camp. Mike McCarthy’s answer: Thud up, no tackling

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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