As the players, coaches, staff and everyone else associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers arrived in Latrobe today, there was definitely a feeling of change in the humid air. New players, new coaches and new ways of doing things. According to the most important new guy – Mike McCarthy – the team will not be doing live tackling during Training Camp. I’m going to guess that I’m not the only one who feels this is a poor choice.
The Why
The Steelers are not the first team to do this as a number of teams across the League have stopped tackling during their Camps over the years. There are a collection of coaches who believe that by the time you make it to the NFL, that you either know how to get a man to the ground or you don’t. There could always be tweaks and technique alterations, but the majority of players come to the NFL having played the game for over a decade.
The other issue is player health. Eliminating tackling reduces the chances that players will suffer injuries. That makes sense doesn’t it? Owners a paying these guys a lot of money to play and if they are banging around during Camp then those investments can end up down the drain quickly. So do I understand the “why” of this new paradigm? I do but I don’t like it.
This Team Needs to Get Better
Look no further than this list. These are the guys with the most missed tackles last year…
- Patrick Queen – 17.
- Payton Wilson – 10.
- Brandin Echols – 9.
- Jalen Ramsey – 8.
- Darius Slay – 7.
- JPJ, Malik Harrison, Cole Holcomb, Nick Herbig – 6.
- Benton, Watt, Pierre – 5.
…so of the 12 guys with the most missed tackles, 10 of them are back this year. But hey, no practice on tackling needed right? Per pro-football-reference.com, the Steelers as a team finished third in the entire NFL in missed tackles trailing only the Cincinnati Bengals and Washington Commanders. 126 missed tackles according to their research yet apparently the new regime in the Burgh isn’t going to practice this. It’s like a receiver who can’t run certain routes just deciding to no longer try running them.
What Is Likely to Happen
My assumption is that the Steelers under Patrick Graham won’t just completely stop tackling. I believe there will be a lot of work done in terms of pursuit angles, how to wrap up and when to go low or high. All of this can be done using dummies and big ‘donuts’ but I’m a firm believer in the real thing.
You get better by ‘doing.’ You can take a lot of steps to improve by doing the above but nothing beats the real thing. If this team were one of the better tackling teams in pro football I wouldn’t think too much about this. Unfortunately this isn’t a good tackling team and I fear that not working on it in Camp isn’t going to make things any better.
