Mike McCarthy said Thursday after the Steelers' fifth practice of OTAs that the team was on pace to get everything accomplished that he had in mind for this phase of the calendar, and he added that rookies had not hit the wall during that fifth OTA practice.
“This is usually where the rookies kind of hit the wall a little bit,” McCarthy said, and then: “I've been really impressed with the way they've come in and picked it up and tried to learn from the veteran players. It's going well.” The remark landed as the club reached the midway point of OTAs — the second week of practice-like organized team activities with 10 OTA days scheduled in total.
The numbers behind the claim are immediate and unavoidable: the Steelers were at practice five of 10, with scheduled workouts resuming Friday and remaining OTA dates on June 8, June 9, June 11 and June 12 before a mandatory minicamp on June 2-4. McCarthy said the current phase is a teaching phase focused on gathering video, installing offense, defense and special teams and doing situational football over the past two weeks.
McCarthy framed his early approach in measured terms. He said Thursday marked four months and one day since his hiring, that he had finished putting together a report on his first 100 days and that “There are things you can definitely learn in those first 100 days.” He added, “I've learned through experience it's more important for me to listen and observe right now than talk.”
Weight to McCarthy's remarks comes from how he connects teaching to tangible goals. He and staff have been upfront with veteran players about the team's direction, he said, and the staff has tried to preserve as much as possible of what had been done at a high level in Pittsburgh throughout scheme development. “Our guys are into it,” McCarthy said. “It gives us a chance to move the needle forward.”
That needle includes a specific offensive target. Roman Chinyoung summed up a theme from the staff: “Coach is a numbers guy.” Chinyoung added, “He’s dialed in. He’s in tune to statistics and numbers and making sure he’s spreading the ball around and getting all players engaged.” McCarthy said his offensive target is 55 combined completions and carries per game, noting, “It used to be 53.”
McCarthy tied that target to a broader formula: “I think there’s more to the 55. I’ve always believed in a complementary football formula. Great defense, obviously, getting those touches to your perimeter players, the big one is, obviously, winning the turnover ratio and time of possession.” He also stressed the long view: “I’ve always stayed in touch with the numbers. They call it analytics now. I think it’s important to use those guidelines to project goals,” and that he began working in game analysis in 1993.
The tension is clear when those goals meet last season's production. The Steelers averaged 45.4 touches per game last season — 21.5 completions and 23.9 carries — and reached 55 touches only four times. They had 32 touches against the Chargers and 28 against Buffalo. McCarthy acknowledged the complexity: “There are no absolutes,” he said, and later, “You could have 32 rushes and 25 completions but then turn the ball over. It’s part of that formula.”
McCarthy kept returning to process: gathering video, teaching fundamentals and preserving successful elements of the prior scheme while installing new ones. He called the current work a way to maintain progress and allow feedback: “You've got to keep progressing, but you still have to have the feedback,” and warned against daily fluctuation: “Who wants to work with someone who's different every day? And I think that starts at the top.”
At the center of Thursday's session was a coach balancing measurement and patience. He said he had finished his first-100-days report, described his early job as listening and observing and praised the veterans for showing up. The next concrete checkpoints — the remaining OTA dates and the June 2-4 mandatory minicamp — will show whether the teaching phase McCarthy described translates into the type of offensive workload he envisions. And while many will still search the name mike tomlin for wider context around the franchise, McCarthy's comments left no doubt about who is mapping the team's immediate path.
