LATROBE, Pa. _ What we learned during Week One at Saint Vincent College:
THE OTHER SIDE OF MIKE: Mike McCarthy’s reputation as a “QB Guru” and as a coach for whom attention to detail means everything preceded him to training camp.
But since McCarthy’s arrival the players have seen another side of the Steelers’ first-year head coach, one that ventures beyond execution, X’s & O’s and practice protocols.
“Obviously, you see the details on the field, that’s kind of a given,” rookie running back Eli Heidenreich observed. “But he gets to know his players and he cares about the details about his players. I think that’s something that really resonates with us as a team.
“Something I really appreciate is how much he cares about us and gets to know us.”
That goes for veteran stalwarts such as defensive tackle Cam Heyward and seventh-round selections such as Heidenreich but it doesn’t stop there.
It includes everyone wearing a helmet.
McCarthy’s address to the team prior to the first on-field workout of camp on Wednesday was admittedly designed to “get the heart rate going” by comparing the identity of the Steelers with the city they represent, and by relating the steel industry to the game of football.
But it went further than that according to Heyward.
“The thing that resonated with me is he’s from Pittsburgh, he has a lot of respect for the tradition here but he’s trying to forge something new,” Heyward explained. “I think that can apply to everybody in our locker room.
“I love the one thing he said, it’s gonna take 68-plus guys to win a Super Bowl, and that’s including practice squad. That’s always respectful, that he respects everybody in that locker room. We gotta grow from that.”
McCarthy has more history with quarterback Aaron Rodgers than any of the Steelers.
That shows up on and off the field, and often in a manner that comes off as humorous at times to quarterback Mason Rudolph, particularly in the quarterback meetings Rudolph said McCarthy almost always attends.
“Him and Aaron are sometimes like an old married couple the way they go back and forth,” Rudolph reported. “They have old memories. They take shots at each other.
“It’s just been fun to listen to them banter.”
