{"id":845756,"date":"2026-08-04T12:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/845756\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:42:23","slug":"tempered-inside-mike-mccarthys-new-vision-for-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/845756\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tempered’: Inside Mike McCarthy’s new vision for Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LATROBE, Pa. — After leaving their first team meeting of the 2026 training camp Wednesday morning, the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> found new shirts hanging in their lockers at St. Vincent College.<\/p>\n

\u201cTempered\u201d stretched across the black shirt in gold lettering, and the back expanded on the definition of the slogan: \u201cMore than talented. More than tough. Tempered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s about] the parallels between the city of Pittsburgh, the Steel Mill industry, the tempering process of how steel was built — and still is today — and the parallels between coming together as a football team,\u201d coach Mike McCarthy told ESPN.<\/p>\n

McCarthy said as much to his team in their first meeting, that they should be a reflection of the city\u2019s gritty heritage. It\u2019s why McCarthy chose \u201ctempered\u201d as the defining word of his first training camp as the Steelers\u2019 new head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be tough, hard, and this is a blue-collar town,\u201d Steelers guard Spencer Anderson<\/a> said, relaying what McCarthy told them. \u201cButton up, bring your lunch pail and let\u2019s go, because that\u2019s always where we\u2019ve been since 1933. … Can\u2019t fold under the heat. And when the heat comes, you got to make steel — or I guess do the right things, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

But tempered in McCarthy\u2019s use has dual meanings. Not only can it mean toughened and made resilient, but it can also mean being controlled. To McCarthy, tempered isn\u2019t just about raw strength. It\u2019s about being controlled in the approach to building that strength. And through a week of training camp, McCarthy\u2019s practices have been deliberately, even scientifically, tempered to train the mind as much as the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything\u2019s calculated,\u201d McCarthy said, adding that he relies on GPS data on devices worn by players to help construct his practice plan. \u201cEverything\u2019s regulated. There\u2019s obviously science behind it. We\u2019re in tune with the conditioning of our players. The commitment the players made in the spring was evident. … This is all by design. There\u2019s history behind it. … Everybody has a genetic background that you pay attention to. Some guys can rev higher than others. And so this is part of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through five practices, the differences between McCarthy\u2019s approach and former coach Mike Tomlin\u2019s are palpable. One isn\u2019t necessarily better than the other, players stressed, but the practices are different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to a hundred miles an hour, nonstop, and we\u2019re kind of dead tired by the end of practice,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cBut now we can kind of temper it down, and we still have maybe 10% left in the tank. But obviously don\u2019t tell [McCarthy] I said that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that, of course, is the team is still in its ramp-up period with shorter practices as mandated by the collective bargaining agreement. But McCarthy is also heavily reliant on sports science in formulating his practice plans. That\u2019s why Monday\u2019s practice, the Steelers\u2019 first in pads, was noticeably less physical than the first padded practices in the Tomlin era (2007 to 2025).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt did feel different when I\u2019m used to all that physical,\u201d Pittsburgh running back Jaylen Warren<\/a> said Monday. \u201cBut I understand why we don\u2019t do it, and the philosophy behind it. Just adapting to it. … At the end of the day, we\u2019re trying to keep guys up, keep them healthy. The season\u2019s the most important thing and winning is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warren told reporters Saturday he was certain that even with McCarthy\u2019s changes, the team would still go through the signature backs-on-backers drill. During Tomlin\u2019s tenure, it was a highlight of padded practices, often beginning with the first one, in which running backs and linebackers matched up in a one-on-one battle. Monday, though, the running backs and linebackers didn\u2019t square off. Instead, the offensive linemen and pass rushers went against one another while the skill position players worked in a 7-on-7 period.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as we have it, I\u2019m prepared,\u201d Warren said of backs-on-backers. \u201cI\u2019m trusting the process that they got us going through, so I ain\u2019t complaining about nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarthy, who said he is \u201cabsolutely\u201d a fan of backs-on-backers, might still have the drill in a future padded practice, but one thing he won\u2019t have is live tackling. While most of the league also spurns live tackling in camp, Tomlin embraced it in his ultra-physical late afternoon practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that\u2019s different is we don\u2019t want to go to the ground and risk injury, but I think everything else will look the same,\u201d McCarthy said, affirming that his practices would still be plenty physical.<\/p>\n

To coach tackling without actually doing it, McCarthy and his staff are breaking down the basic elements of the skill. In fact, the majority of McCarthy\u2019s early practices are all about the fundamentals — the \u201cSteelers Six\u201d — coached through meticulously scripted and executed individual periods. That\u2019s a departure from a Tomlin era that featured extensive team periods and always opened with \u201cSeven Shots,\u201d an intense goal line competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of Coach T\u2019s camps, it was a lot of team periods and mano-a-mano type of thing, but this is kind of more, get good work, working smart and hard,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cNot to say that we weren\u2019t working smart back then, but it\u2019s just Coach McCarthy explains to us that he\u2019s a big sports science guy, so he\u2019ll never run us into the ground or do things that\u2019ll make us feel like we\u2019re dead tired. I think it\u2019s a good balance of work and taking care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through five practices, McCarthy\u2019s training camp hasn\u2019t featured a single goal-line team period. Instead, in addition to the extensive individual periods, McCarthy has emphasized situational football — working first on two-minute offense and then beginning the second week of camp with third and fourth downs. By stressing those situations in his up-tempo practices, McCarthy is strengthening the team\u2019s nervous system and mental fortitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody talks about the physical and the mental stress of a physical camp,\u201d McCarthy said, explaining the cadence of his practices. \u201cWell, what the hell about the nervous system? Who\u2019s training that? How are you tapping that? How are you pushing that? Where are you getting that at? Where\u2019s the mental toughness? Where\u2019s the emotional toughness? How do you train that on a football field? This is all by design.\u201d<\/p>\n

And though McCarthy\u2019s approach is an adjustment for players who grew accustomed to Tomlin\u2019s camps, many are embracing change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to,\u201d said Cam Heyward, the longest-tenured Steeler. \u201cThe dinosaurs didn\u2019t, and look what happened to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LATROBE, Pa. — After leaving their first team meeting of the 2026 training camp Wednesday morning, the Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,104355,82],"class_list":["post-845756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-sports-football-team-team-statscom-356","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}