LATROBE, Pa. — After the first players' day off of training camp Sunday, Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy will ask his guys to walk the line Monday.
There are a couple lines there. For starters, it's the first practice in pads, which naturally brings an added edge for any team. McCarthy called himself "absolutely" a fan of the vaunted backs-on-backers drill that has been a staple of Steelers camp for a number of years.
But McCarthy will continue to stress staying upright in the name of safety. And he still wants to get a lot done, rather than just stop and smell the pads popping.
"Usually when the pads [come on, you] slow down — there's a little more conversation, and we can't have any of that," McCarthy said. "We've got to keep going. We want to stress that neurological clock, the nervous systems and so forth. But yeah, I'm the guy that makes sure everything needs to look a certain way, and when it doesn't look a certain way, they'll be aware of it."
The other Catch-22 for McCarthy and his team is the growing size of the crowd as camp rolls along. There's also the Pat McAfee Show on campus, broadcasting from the baseball field during practice, so plenty was going on to begin the week.
It's not exactly akin to the bright lights of "Sunday Night Football" or even a preseason game, but McCarthy was looking forward to his players feeling the anticipation.
"We're the Pittsburgh Steelers. We play in front of big crowds," McCarthy said with a smile. "We're used to that environment. I think this is real exciting for the young guys. I think the older guys enjoy it. I think any time you have energy around your workplace, it's definitely a positive thing."
As long as they keep the main thing the main thing, which is focusing on the work laid out for the day. McCarthy and staff are meticulous in putting together their practice plans, and Monday is no different just because there are some added bells and whistles.
"We want to go 100 mph, but at the end of the day, we want to hit the right targets," McCarthy said.
The Steelers are trying to do the same with Aaron Rodgers and DeShon Elliott. First, the veteran quarterback.
McCarthy acknowledged that it's early to discuss preseason participation, but was asked whether Rodgers will play. Rodgers didn't play in any of the three preseason games last year.
"Those decisions are really going to be made once we get up to it," McCarthy said. "Trust me, I have a lot of ideas. I've talked about this since the beginning here, we have plans, but being a healthy system, let's see what happens. A lot can happen between now and then, too. He'd like to play. I'd like to see him play. But we won't make a decision until we get up to it."
As for Elliott, he was lost to a season-ending injury in late October, so the Steelers have been judicious with his recovery. Elliott could be classified as someone whose reps are being managed, according to McCarthy, but he's far enough along that he didn't need to begin camp on the Active/Physically Unable to Perform List with Joey Porter Jr., Jalen Ramsey and Donte Kent.
"There's a protocol with these injuries. There's no reason to push a guy any faster with the trainers, and the player's part of the conversation," McCarthy said. "Return to play is very important, as far as the discipline of it, because the player usually wants to go, go, go, go, go. Doing this a long time, you want to protect them from themselves."
