Each grainy VHS tape in Mike McCarthy\u2019s collection is like a time capsule, documenting different moments in a career dedicated to coaching quarterbacks. One clip shows Joe Montana, clad in Kansas City red and gold gym shorts, hopping from side to side over a bag. On another from Green Bay, Brett Favre throws on the run into a multi-colored net. There\u2019s one of Rich Gannon jumping rope in a square and another of Jake Delhomme putting a ball around and between his legs in a figure-eight.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the Steelers drafted Drew Allar, McCarthy dug into his archive and sat the rookie down in front of a flickering screen. Allar watched a 23-year-old Packers QB hold the ball up near his ear while taking robotic-like dropbacks. This is what Aaron Rodgers looked like entering his second NFL season in 2006, when McCarthy arrived in Green Bay.<\/p>\n
McCarthy enrolled Rodgers in an intensive offseason program that the coach calls \u201cThe QB School.\u201d Beginning in late February or early March, the quarterbacks arrived at the facility at 7 a.m. for weight lifting, followed by meetings, on-field work and more meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a crazy workout back then,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cYou\u2019re doing stuff you don\u2019t normally do, like jump rope, which I think is a really important footwork thing. There\u2019s quick feet (drills). Then, the drill work, we\u2019re throwing on the run from different angles and different targets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodgers (who still holds all the timed records) was officially the last quarterback to complete the classic months-long, all-day version of McCarthy\u2019s QB school. When the 2011 collective bargaining agreement was ratified, it limited the amount of time coaches are permitted to work hands-on with players during the offseason. However, in Phase 1 of the offseason program, Steelers second-year QB Will Howard and veteran backup Mason Rudolph got a taste of the same timed drills: side-to-side jump ropes, step-ups and basketball-like ball handling. They affectionately nicknamed it the \u201cQB Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
How McCarthy brought Rodgers back to Pittsburgh \u2014 and vice versa<\/p>\n
Mike DeFabo<\/p>\n
\u201cThe QB school, whatever he\u2019s calling it now, is not what it was back then,\u201d Rodgers quipped. \u201cThey missed out on the real work back then when the rules were different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new rules have forced McCarthy to evolve his approach. Still, the same drills that former Pitt coach Paul Hackett taught when McCarthy was a graduate assistant from 1989-1992, the same fundamentals that helped unlock Rodgers\u2019 Hall of Fame upside, are on display on a practice field at Saint Vincent College. Allar and Howard are the two newest students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fundamentals over scheme, particularly early on in the development process,\u201d said Steelers QB coach Tom Arth, who went through the old QB School alongside Rodgers in the mid-2000s. \u201cJust pure fundamentals of playing the position. Which, at the end of the day, that\u2019s what allows you to be accurate and what allows you to throw with velocity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first steps of the developmental process were carefully documented and dissected on what McCarthy calls a profile tape. Just as McCarthy did with Rodgers, the coach filmed Allar, Howard and Rudolph from several different angles: One shot with the QB moving away from the camera, one going toward the camera and one from the side.<\/p>\n
Every part of QB play is analyzed. How they carry the ball. How the quarterback draws the ball back. The point of release. The follow-through. Head placement. Arm angle. Flick of wrist. The way the ball looks coming out.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that he teaches, everything that he coaches is so intricately detailed,\u201d Howard said. \u201cThings in my footwork or in my ball handling that I haven\u2019t even thought about, he brings up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Above all else, footwork is always the biggest point of emphasis. In an offense with West Coast roots, the steps of a quarterback\u2019s drop are married to the depths of the receivers\u2019 routes. McCarthy works to ensure quarterbacks are dropping straight back on the mid-line. He evaluates the depth of each step. The timing. The rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been around anyone who\u2019s been more meticulous,\u201d Rudolph said. \u201cI remember my first few years here. It was kind of like, \u2018Do whatever you want for your footwork. Don\u2019t look at Ben (Roethlisberger) because Ben does his own thing.\u2019 He\u2019s very fluid. Sometimes he won\u2019t do the same footwork twice with the same throw just because he\u2019s a different kind of player, kind of a backyard player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every step of the five-step drop has a specific name and purpose:<\/p>\n
The drop is initiated by a \u201cpunch\u201d with the left foot. Rudolph said he used to simply turn his foot and pivot. But McCarthy, who believes in an athletic and even stance, places an emphasis on doing work early in the drop to get away from the line of scrimmage with a strong punch.<\/p>\n
1) Reach: The true first step is the reach step, with the right foot. The QB opens his hips and creates separation from the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n
2) Crossover: The second step, with the left foot crossing over the right.<\/p>\n
3) Control step (or Heel-toe): Again, the QB opens up and heel strikes to create more separation from the line, something that was a major change in Rudolph\u2019s mechanics.<\/p>\n
4) Dig and 5) Plant: The final steps of the drop; McCarthy often tells his QBs \u201c4-5, 5-4\u201d on the final steps to get them back in position to make a throw.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe initial part of the drop is where we\u2019re trying to create separation from the line of scrimmage,\u201d Arth said. \u201cThen, at the top of the drop, now we\u2019re trying to get our feet back in position where we\u2019re in balance and we\u2019re capable of making a throw anywhere on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy refers to the drop back as a \u201cdance,\u201d in which the QB is moving with flow and rhythm. For both of the Steelers\u2019 young quarterbacks, refining their footwork will be critical. For Howard, who was dinged during the pre-draft process for his arm strength, generating more power from his lower body will help add some necessary zip. For Allar, the most common criticism was that he had inconsistent (and sometimes sloppy) footwork, along with limited experience playing under center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing with me was not being on my toes in my drop,\u201d Allar said. \u201cCoach McCarthy always says \u2018feet in the ground.\u2019 I felt like that helped me play with a wider base consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the practice field at Saint Vincent College, The QB School begins when the rest of the team is still stretching. It continues during special teams work and during individual periods.<\/p>\n
One common drill is the \u201cbuild-a-drop,\u201d in which they put together a five-step drop one step at a time. Punch. Then punch-reach. Then, punch-reach-crossover. Then, punch\u2013reach\u2013crossover\u2013heel-to-toe. Many times, they\u2019re just doing punch-reach over and over, in an exaggerated way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing that I love about QB school, is that you never really can get away from the first step of your drop,\u201d Howard said. \u201cWe\u2019re working it every single day. It seems simple. We\u2019re NFL players, but it\u2019s really important, and it really does add up in those little things.\u201d<\/p>\n
While quarterbacks work with private coaches in the offseason, many NFL coaching staffs assume the fundamentals are already built in at this level; the Steelers didn\u2019t even employ a quarterbacks coach during Rudolph\u2019s first two years in the league. That a head coach is drilling quarterbacking minutiae is what makes McCarthy\u2019s approach truly unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost guys don\u2019t get taught proper footwork and proper technique in college, and they certainly don\u2019t get taught in the NFL,\u201d said Ben DiNucci, who went through McCarthy\u2019s QB School in Dallas and now works as an analyst for CBS Sports. \u201cCoaches don\u2019t have enough time, there\u2019s so much other stuff that they\u2019ve got to worry about. I played six different (NFL) teams. Mike was the only one who really hammered that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCarthy makes a point of being the coach standing behind quarterbacks, giving them on-field instruction. He\u2019s in almost every meeting with them after practices. And when they watch the \u201cQB School\u201d segments on film, the head coach is focused on the smallest nuances.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people can preach they\u2019re about the quarterback and quarterback fundamentals, but if you never talk about it in the meetings, sometimes that doesn\u2019t really correlate,\u201d Allar said. \u201cWe definitely emphasize the very small details.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might not be the same QB school that Rodgers enrolled in back in 2006. But this attention to detailed fundamental work and the way McCarthy structures training camp days to give the staff time to focus on development are what separate it from others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is the time devoted to quarterback training,\u201d Arth said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of great coaches in the NFL, and everybody\u2019s coaching the quarterbacks at a high level in this league. But I don\u2019t think that everybody has the same amount of time to do that work. Coach (McCarthy) makes it a priority in our schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each grainy VHS tape in Mike McCarthy\u2019s collection is like a time capsule, documenting different moments in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-263179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}