LATROBE, Pa. — I had something of a revelation on my annual summer training camp trip, which covered 17 camps and two games and 22 teams in 20 locales. It happened on the last stop, in the Laurel Highlands of west-central Pennsylvania. On a hot Thursday with no breeze, in the place where Joe Greene and Mike Webster and Jack Lambert and Mel Blount and Alan Faneca and Levon Kirkland and Hines Ward and Casey Hampton once jousted, the 2017 Steelers took shape under the very physical direction of coach Mike Tomlin.
The receivers and defensive backs, in full pads, did the Oklahoma drill—the ultra-physical one-on-one blocking drill in which the defensive player tries to fight off the offensive player and get to the ball-carrier, and the offensive player tries to block the defensive player to the ground. That’s exceedingly rare. One snap: 211-pound wideout Martavis Bryant fired across the line at 198-pound cornerback Artie Burns. Burns threw Bryant aside, then thudded the ball-carrier, Sammie Coates, to the earth.
“GOOD!!!!!” yelled Tomlin, standing right there.
The Steelers had two other live tackling periods during practice. That’s two more than I saw all summer. When I went to Minnesota and asked veteran defensive end Everson Griffen what it would be like to tackle former Vikings legend Adrian Peterson when the Vikes and Saints played on opening night, he said he relished being able to get the chance to find out because, in seven years of practice, he’d never tackled Peterson—not once. That’s the NFL these days. The most physical teams I saw, by far, in my 17 camps visited were Seattle and Pittsburgh. Pete Carroll told me it was important to go “right to the edge” of full-scale tackling and bruising hitting to get ready for the season. After practice, Tomlin stood by the side of the camp field and told me more why he practices like it was 1990.
The Steelers embrace a physical culture at camp, as shown here by cornerback Artie Burns (right) and wide receiver Sammie Coates.
The Steelers embrace a physical culture at camp, as shown here by cornerback Artie Burns (right) and wide receiver Sammie Coates.
KEITH SRAKOCIC/AP
“Preparing to play without the physical part,” the 11th-year coach said, “is like asking a boxer to go in and fight without sparring. There is a certain hardening that has to happen to your group individually and collectively, I believe, through this process. I believe live tackling not only aids in that, but is kind of central to that. That’s why we made the conscious effort to have at least 12 to 15 snaps a day of live football. It provides an opportunity, it sets the pace, it gives a certain urgency, in your group.”
Regarding the risk of injury in those snaps, Tomlin said: “I think there is probably a propensity for increased injury in the stadium if you haven’t done this. So from that perspective, I am willing to present an argument that one approach is not any more safe. The bottom line is, you better find ways to impose your will on your opponent. Sometimes that’s physical, but sometimes it’s conditioning, sometimes it’s mental.”
It’s so counter to the logic we’ve grown to accept in the modern NFL. The vast majority of drills, even in camp, involve some sort of exhortation from coaches like this: “Stay up! Stay up! Don’t take ’em to the ground!” And then there’s Pittsburgh, and overtly physical Seattle. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? It’s hard to criticize the two programs that appear to me to be the most physical in the preseason, those run by Tomlin and Carroll, when you see their NFL coaching records (including playoffs):
Coach Years W-L-T Avg. Wins/Year
Tomlin 10 111-63-0 11.1
Carroll 11 113-79-1 10.2
One more scene from Latrobe: It’s called Seven Shots.
Tomlin puts the ball at the two-yard line, the spot, not coincidentally, where the two-point conversion attempt is placed. Tomlin loves the two-point play; he’s attempted 20 of them in the past two years. And for the first four snaps, it’s ones against ones. First teams, full pads, full tackling.
Snap one. Ben Roethlisberger steps to the line.
“Blue 80! Blue80SET!” Snap. Handoff to top back (with Le’Veon Bell holding out) Fitzgerald Toussaint, who is buried by four defenders at the 3-yard line. “DEEEEEEEE-fense!” someone in the camp crowd yells from the bleachers at St. Vincent College.
Snap two. Roethlisberger: “Blue 80! SET ALERT! Blue80SET!” Audible. Quick handoff to rookie running back James Conner, who bursts through the left guard-tackle hole. Touchdown. “Le’Veon WHO!!!!!” a fan yells.
Snap three. Double reverse. Touchdown to Bryant. Huge cheers.
Snap four. Antonio Brown with a double-motion-shift pre-snap, and Roethlisberger with a double-clutch, and then a laser to tight end Jesse James in the middle of the end zone. Looks like a clear TD … but as the 261-pound James comes down with the ball, missile-like cornerback Ross Cockrell blasts James with a shoulder to the sternum, and the ball flies out. Defense goes nuts. Crowd goes nuts. Tomlin smiles. The backups take the last three shots, and the defense wins each.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/08/21/p...-tomlin-physical-training-camp-nfl-peter-king
The receivers and defensive backs, in full pads, did the Oklahoma drill—the ultra-physical one-on-one blocking drill in which the defensive player tries to fight off the offensive player and get to the ball-carrier, and the offensive player tries to block the defensive player to the ground. That’s exceedingly rare. One snap: 211-pound wideout Martavis Bryant fired across the line at 198-pound cornerback Artie Burns. Burns threw Bryant aside, then thudded the ball-carrier, Sammie Coates, to the earth.
“GOOD!!!!!” yelled Tomlin, standing right there.
The Steelers had two other live tackling periods during practice. That’s two more than I saw all summer. When I went to Minnesota and asked veteran defensive end Everson Griffen what it would be like to tackle former Vikings legend Adrian Peterson when the Vikes and Saints played on opening night, he said he relished being able to get the chance to find out because, in seven years of practice, he’d never tackled Peterson—not once. That’s the NFL these days. The most physical teams I saw, by far, in my 17 camps visited were Seattle and Pittsburgh. Pete Carroll told me it was important to go “right to the edge” of full-scale tackling and bruising hitting to get ready for the season. After practice, Tomlin stood by the side of the camp field and told me more why he practices like it was 1990.
The Steelers embrace a physical culture at camp, as shown here by cornerback Artie Burns (right) and wide receiver Sammie Coates.
The Steelers embrace a physical culture at camp, as shown here by cornerback Artie Burns (right) and wide receiver Sammie Coates.
KEITH SRAKOCIC/AP
“Preparing to play without the physical part,” the 11th-year coach said, “is like asking a boxer to go in and fight without sparring. There is a certain hardening that has to happen to your group individually and collectively, I believe, through this process. I believe live tackling not only aids in that, but is kind of central to that. That’s why we made the conscious effort to have at least 12 to 15 snaps a day of live football. It provides an opportunity, it sets the pace, it gives a certain urgency, in your group.”
Regarding the risk of injury in those snaps, Tomlin said: “I think there is probably a propensity for increased injury in the stadium if you haven’t done this. So from that perspective, I am willing to present an argument that one approach is not any more safe. The bottom line is, you better find ways to impose your will on your opponent. Sometimes that’s physical, but sometimes it’s conditioning, sometimes it’s mental.”
It’s so counter to the logic we’ve grown to accept in the modern NFL. The vast majority of drills, even in camp, involve some sort of exhortation from coaches like this: “Stay up! Stay up! Don’t take ’em to the ground!” And then there’s Pittsburgh, and overtly physical Seattle. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? It’s hard to criticize the two programs that appear to me to be the most physical in the preseason, those run by Tomlin and Carroll, when you see their NFL coaching records (including playoffs):
Coach Years W-L-T Avg. Wins/Year
Tomlin 10 111-63-0 11.1
Carroll 11 113-79-1 10.2
One more scene from Latrobe: It’s called Seven Shots.
Tomlin puts the ball at the two-yard line, the spot, not coincidentally, where the two-point conversion attempt is placed. Tomlin loves the two-point play; he’s attempted 20 of them in the past two years. And for the first four snaps, it’s ones against ones. First teams, full pads, full tackling.
Snap one. Ben Roethlisberger steps to the line.
“Blue 80! Blue80SET!” Snap. Handoff to top back (with Le’Veon Bell holding out) Fitzgerald Toussaint, who is buried by four defenders at the 3-yard line. “DEEEEEEEE-fense!” someone in the camp crowd yells from the bleachers at St. Vincent College.
Snap two. Roethlisberger: “Blue 80! SET ALERT! Blue80SET!” Audible. Quick handoff to rookie running back James Conner, who bursts through the left guard-tackle hole. Touchdown. “Le’Veon WHO!!!!!” a fan yells.
Snap three. Double reverse. Touchdown to Bryant. Huge cheers.
Snap four. Antonio Brown with a double-motion-shift pre-snap, and Roethlisberger with a double-clutch, and then a laser to tight end Jesse James in the middle of the end zone. Looks like a clear TD … but as the 261-pound James comes down with the ball, missile-like cornerback Ross Cockrell blasts James with a shoulder to the sternum, and the ball flies out. Defense goes nuts. Crowd goes nuts. Tomlin smiles. The backups take the last three shots, and the defense wins each.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/08/21/p...-tomlin-physical-training-camp-nfl-peter-king