Steelers coach Mike McCarthy says the team’s fifth OTA practice has gone smoothly, with rookies and veterans picking up his new process as offseason work continues toward next week’s veteran minicamp.
The footballs were flying out of the machine during the Steelers’ fifth OTA practice. and Mike McCarthy watched it happen with the kind of focus that comes from believing the early days matter. “Our guys are into it. ” he said Thursday. pointing to the pace on the field as pass-catchers put in extra time.
McCarthy, now in his third new beginning with the Steelers, has a feel for how this part of the calendar usually goes. “This is usually where the rookies kind of hit the wall a little bit,” he said. “You didn’t see that today.”
What he saw instead was adjustment without hesitation. McCarthy said he’s been impressed that the rookies “come in and picked it up and tried to learn from the veteran players,” adding, “It’s going well.”
Even for older Steelers, the work isn’t automatic. McCarthy said the veterans are still learning his process and a new coaching staff. Thursday marked four months and one day since his hiring. Since then. he’s finished a report on his first 100 days with the Steelers. a report that was filtered through his assistants.
“There are things you can definitely learn in those first 100 days,” McCarthy said. “I’ve learned through experience it’s more important for me to listen and observe right now than talk.”
When he does talk, McCarthy framed it as laying groundwork—especially as the team tries to install its system across offense, defense, and special teams. For this phase, he called OTAs a “teaching phase,” with emphasis on gathering video to study and installing the basics.
McCarthy said the Steelers have done some work on situational football the past two weeks, but he expects the heavier lifting to come later conversations.
He also made it clear the routine is part of the message. McCarthy holds himself to a standard of consistency, and he hopes it spreads to his coaches, then to players, and eventually to the team they put on the field.
“That starts at the top,” McCarthy said. “Who wants to work with someone who’s different every day? And I think that starts at the top.”
According to McCarthy. the veterans have been brought in with directness about where the team is headed and how they’re being evaluated. He said the Steelers were upfront. frank. and direct with the veteran players about “how we see them and the direction that we’re going.” He also described an effort to identify what had been done at a high level in Pittsburgh and maintain as much of it as possible while the scheme developed.
That transition can be uneven. McCarthy acknowledged the process can look contradictory from the outside—“taking three steps forward and one step back”—especially across strength and conditioning, training regimens, and game management operations.
He calls it progression and regression, an ebb and flow he expects in these early stages. “Progression and regression,” he said. “You’ve got to keep progressing, but you still have to have the feedback.”
His point was practical: if the team has to regress, it’s not the end of progress. “Because if you have to regress, you take a step back, and then keep moving forward,” McCarthy said. He also pushed back on the idea that energy alone can replace work. saying. “The pom-poms flying around. yelling and screaming. that isn’t going to do [anything] right now.”.
The Steelers will be back on the field at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for their sixth practice of OTAs on Friday. That session is the final one prior to next week’s veteran minicamp.
While the next step is described as mandatory, McCarthy said he likes what’s been happening during the voluntary portion. “It’s been a very hectic, busy offseason, but it should be. It’s year one,” he said. “This is what year one looks like. At the end of the day, the players have responded. They’re doing the work.”.
Mike McCarthy Steelers OTAs UPMC Rooney Sports Complex veteran minicamp rookies coaching staff situational football