"Got A Little Chippy": Steelers’ No-Tackling Experiment Is Already Getting Wild In Latrobe

The Pittsburgh Steelers made a fairly simple rule for Mike McCarthy’s first training camp: practice hard, stay on your feet and save the full collisions for somebody wearing another uniform. Two weeks later, the line between “thud” and “tackle” is starting to look a little blurry. Pittsburgh’s practices are getting chippier, bodies are finding the grass, and McCarthy is now doing as much traffic control as tone-setting before Thursday’s preseason opener.

McCarthy entered camp determined to reduce unnecessary injury risk. He said before the first practice that Pittsburgh would not use live tackling during team periods, instead relying on tackling drills, controlled contact and preseason games to supply the full-speed finishing work.

It sounded tidy in July. Football rarely stays tidy once the pads start popping.

Charlie Batch has watched the intensity change from the sideline. The former Steelers quarterback said the controlled contact has gradually become something closer to the real thing, enough that McCarthy has already started pulling players back before somebody turns an August practice into an unwanted injury report.

During the latest episode of The Snap Count, Batch described how the temperature of practice has risen even with McCarthy’s no-tackling rule still technically in place.

“It got a little chippy up here. They were thudding. I know a lot of talk was no tackling, but you can see now they are going to the ground, essentially, in some of these drills… You can see Coach McCarthy now making sure, ‘Hey, let’s be smart about what we’re doing up here to make sure that nobody is injured.’ And right now, you can see McCarthy reeling his guys back in,” Batch said.

There is a pretty wide neighborhood between two-hand touch and trying to relocate a teammate’s shoulder pads. Pittsburgh appears to be living somewhere in the middle of it.

That is not necessarily bad news for McCarthy. The Steelers need enough physicality to learn whether their offensive line can move people, whether their defensive front can shed blocks and whether young defenders can arrive under control. A camp completely stripped of contact would leave the staff guessing about too many jobs before the games count.

The harder part is controlling competitive players once the intensity rises. A defender is supposed to strike, wrap and finish his technique without finishing his teammate. A running back is supposed to protect the football and run through contact without turning every carry into fourth-and-one against Baltimore. Those instructions sound much easier in a meeting room than they do after somebody gets shoved after the whistle.

McCarthy’s new practice routine has been one piece of a much broader change in Latrobe. Practices start earlier, the structure has shifted and live tackling was one of the clearest breaks from what players experienced under Mike Tomlin. The objective has been to create enough competition to build a physical team without wasting healthy bodies before September.

Now McCarthy is seeing the natural tension inside that plan.

The Steelers are two days away from hosting the Green Bay Packers in their preseason opener at Acrisure Stadium. That game gives the staff what practice cannot: opponents who can be tackled all the way to the ground without a coach worrying about losing one of his own starters in the process.

It also gives players on the roster bubble their first legitimate chance to prove they can finish. A safety can take the correct angle in practice and still leave a question about whether he completes the tackle. A linebacker can arrive in the hole, but Thursday will show whether the running back actually stops there.

Special teams will provide another useful test. Coverage players fighting for the final roster spots cannot earn jobs by being near the returner. They have to show they can break down in space and finish without surrendering another 10 yards. Controlled practice can teach the angle. A preseason game reveals whether the tackle survives contact.

McCarthy does not need to turn the final work before Green Bay into walkthroughs. He does need to prevent emotion from overruling the purpose of the practice. Nobody wins a roster spot because he flattened a teammate who was supposed to remain upright, especially if the collision sends somebody to the trainer’s table.

The balance gets trickier as camp drags along. Players are sore, position battles are tightening and patience is rarely at its strongest after nearly two weeks in Latrobe. One extra shove can invite another, and suddenly a “thud” period looks like it could use an officiating crew.

Steelers Need The Edge Without The Emergency Room

Pittsburgh should like that players are trying to make practice more physical. McCarthy has spent camp demanding competition, and a roster fighting through every rep is preferable to one sleepwalking toward the preseason. He simply cannot let that enthusiasm defeat the purpose of eliminating live tackling.

The Steelers have already dealt with camp injuries, including first-round tackle Max Iheanachor missing valuable work. Injuries are unavoidable over a full NFL season. McCarthy’s approach is designed to cut down on the preventable ones, particularly when teammates are supplying the contact.

Thursday should solve part of the problem. Green Bay will provide real tackling opportunities, and players fighting for jobs can finally finish every legal hit without hearing a coach yell for everyone to stay up. The preseason exists partly because controlled practices can only answer so much.

Batch’s observation also makes one thing clear: McCarthy’s policy has not made the Steelers soft. If anything, the coach is dealing with the opposite issue. His players keep trying to turn the volume up, and he now has to decide when enough is enough.

The next couple of days are about keeping that dial in the right place. Pittsburgh needs the thud. It needs the edge. It can probably tolerate a little "chippiness."

It just does not need Tuesday’s practice becoming Thursday’s injury report.

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