Steelers Now
Pittsburgh Steelers tight end JJ Galbreath peeled back the curtain on one major difference between Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy.
“Last year, coming in, I felt like there was a tension in the air being around ___,” Gallbreath said Wednesday on The Banner Show. “That also could just be because I’m an undrafted free agent rookie, so you’re trying to make every interaction positive…
“I would say it was a lot more tension-based, and very like, ‘This is our schedule, and this is exactly how it’s gonna be.’ So far this year, we’ve had a little bit [of] slack here and there. We had our voluntary veteran camp, and that was supposed to be three days. We got two more good days of work, and they were like, ‘We’re good. You guys can have the rest of the week off. We got good work in …’ It seems more easygoing.”
McCarthy has brought several new methods and philosophies to the organization. Only time will tell if the changes result in more success for the Steelers. The franchise is craving for its first playoff win since the 2016 season.
Former Steelers cornerback Joe Haden is also very impressed with what he’s seen from McCarthy so far.
“Every time I hear Mike McCarthy talk, he’s talking ball, he’s talking fundamentals, he’s talking facts, he’s talking real ball stuff. I love every time I hear him talk,” Haden said on the Deebo & Joe podcast in May.
On a recent episode of the Deebo & Joe podcast, Haden said accountability was a major problem for the Steelers under Tomlin. That is one aspect that could be corrected under McCarthy.
“When I got to Pittsburgh, it was years and years into Coach Tomlin being there, and the one thing I could where you needed a new voice [was] the accountability,” Haden said. “Everything needs to be tight. There was a looseness that was going around. That looseness is a reason where errors come in… If star players were doing certain things, you just gotta nip it in the bud.
“Things like meetings, late stuff… When the vet leeway is getting to a point where it turns almost blatant disrespect to where your team is seeing stud like, ‘We can’t be moving like this as a team, vet aside.’ When you get a new coach in there, he’s not rocking. You set a standard from the T.J. Watts to the Ben Roethlisbergers to anybody on the team where there’s no leeway for nobody.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Tight End Reveals Eye-Opening Difference Between Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy
