"Strangest Thing": Steelers' Mike McCarthy Drawing Criticism For Odd Practice Routine

Change is expected to be a good thing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. After 19 years of Mike Tomlin running the show, the legendary coach decided to step down in January. This led to a relatively simple search for the next leader of the team. At the end of the day, Steel City native Mike McCarthy got the nod and will be trying to get the franchise its first postseason victory since the 2016 campaign. It has to have been an adjustment period for all of the returning players and staff, but everyone should be on the same page now that plenty of offseason workouts have commenced.

Fans will get an up-close look at the roster once training camp begins at the end of July. While the preparation for meaningful football will still take place in Latrobe, not all of the drills and processes will look the same. With a completely new regime comes a fresh way of doing things and approaching the game. McCarthy is already turning heads for an odd practice demand.

While speaking on the Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show, Steelers insider Gerry Dulac went into detail about how none of the coaches are actually allowed on the field prior to practice beginning. The reporter, who has covered the franchise for decades, said that he has never seen anything quite like it.

"It's the strangest thing I've seen in years of practice in the NFL. It's very high school," Dulac said. "It cracks me up every time I hear it that the coaches aren't allowed [on the field], and the first day, the first couple days, they used a bullhorn [and would say], 'Coaches are now allowed to enter the field.' They're sitting right there on the side and, you know, it's very strange."

It's not necessarily a good thing for a professional football practice to be compared to one that occurs in high school. Dulac was almost chuckling as he went through the process that the Steelers are currently using.

The beat writer told the morning show a lot more about how McCarthy is operating with this specific approach. The players are on the field alone with no coaches getting in the way while stretching is going on. As Dulac noted prior, he has never seen something quite like this during his time covering professional football.

"I don't know the origin of it," Dulac stated. "I haven't asked McCarthy, but it just strikes me as funny every time I hear it that the coaches have to be told, 'You can't come on the field. You have to sit here and wait until [the players] are done stretching.' What if they want to go out there, walk around to stretch or something on the other field or whatever? But, I don't know what the reasoning is. Maybe they just don't want more bodies out there. He does have a pretty big staff. Like I said, it's kind of high school-ish."

Once again, a high school comparison came in. There's no way to know whether this tactic is good or bad, but it certainly is strange. It might make sense to keep unnecessary bodies out of the way of the actual players while they stretch; however, it's not a common approach to pre-practice routines. It's likely that it will carry over into training camp and the regular season.

Steelers Players Probably Don't Mind The Quirky Rule

Pittsburgh has plenty of veterans around that likely have a specific way of doing things. Stretching and getting loose is an important time for the entire roster. Not having distractions is a bonus in and of itself. The coaches end up on the field when they have to be, and that's why it sort of makes sense for McCarthy to hold them off to the side until they actually can be involved with some instruction. It's not like any of them are going to help the stretching portion of practices, anyway.

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