Steelers' Mike McCarthy Exposed Mike Tomlin Yet Again

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in very unfamiliar territory with their 2026 training camp. There was a certain way that former Head Coach Mike Tomlin wanted to run things for almost two decades. The response was usually positive, as it created a lot of competition with the idea of "iron sharpens iron." In his mind, the best way to get ready for the season was to simulate different in-game situations as much as possible, and that does make sense. Overall, his camps were some of the more exciting ones to follow all across the NFL and for good reason. 

However, there were still a lot of flaws in his system. Tomlin had the right idea, but the execution was not there in the slightest. Ever since Mike McCarthy was officially named as the new head coach, he has done nothing but uproot all of his predecessor's ideas and traditions in place of his own. So far, a lot of the praises for his new ideas come off as showing that the previous regime did not do things properly. 

McCarthy has constantly been praised for his detailed work with his team, and that continues to be the case. While making an appearance on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's YouTube channel, Gerry Dulac brought up another change to training camp that inadvertently puts Tomlin in a negative light.

"One of the reasons why [Mike McCarthy] is practicing early is because after practice, he wants to have time later in the day to go over the tape with everybody and then go back on the field for the walk-through around five or six o'clock to rehearse some of the mistakes that were made," Dulac said. "That's the way he operates. Last year, or all the other years, the coaches would go over the tape at night, and then they would go deal with it in the morning. [McCarthy] wants to deal with it right away."

With Tomlin's way of doing things, those mistakes made in training camp would linger more throughout the night. On top of that, the memory of the day before is not nearly as good after sleeping through the night, so the lesson may not set in as much as he would hope, which could lead to the same mistakes being made more often. That could snowball into something worse later on.

McCarthy, on the other hand, wants to get whatever mistake was made corrected as soon as possible. The Steelers finish the practice, review the tape, and make it back onto the practice field within five or six hours later to fix whatever issue popped up. The quicker everything gets addressed, the fresher it is in the players' minds, which means it's much easier to take the lessons from those errors and move forward accordingly. 

Hopefully, this leads to fewer mistakes when Week 1 rolls around. There's a lot of talk around the NFL about getting to "midseason form" as early as possible, as that is when teams usually peak. Getting these mistakes fixed quicker should lead to the Steelers reaching that midseason form sooner rather than later. With how tough the schedule gets after the bye week, there is little room for error immediately. 

Steelers' Biggest Issue May Be The First One To Be Solved

For years, the Steelers would focus of "splash plays:" sacks and takeaways on defense, and chunk plays on offense. They put a lot of emphasis on the kind of plays that ended up on highlight reels. The problem is that they struggled with the basics. The offense struggled to sustain drives while the defense couldn't get off the field on a regular basis.

That constant reliance on splash plays led to the Steelers having to rely on a lot of lucky breaks to win games. If they can master the basics, then they can spend more practice time on creating takeaways during the season. First things have to come first, and it starts with addressing and correcting mistakes made on the practice field as soon as possible.

What do you think about McCarthy trying to correct these errors quicker than Tomlin would? Let us know on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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