I was listening to Jeff Hathorne the other morning with Crowley and Dickerson and I liked what I heard. A complete contrast from HCMT. The small things. Organized warm ups vs nonchalant social times of the last regime. When the whistle blew for them to be off the field, they sprinted off, not made there way off in a casual stroll. It sounds like McCarthy is emphasizing the details as a team. The way the are structuring their OTAs sounds better too.
This tells me that McCarthy is more structured as a coach than Tomlin. I am looking forward to mini camp and training camp.
It's been interesting to hear about the structure for OTAs (though I think there was hustle between drills at training camp).
A few things I'll be looking for:
-Physical nature of training camp - we knew it was tough under Tomlin, will it be the same? How will the team look playing hot September football? Practices will be earlier in the day under McCarthy.
-Specific drills - Bill Cowher had the goal line drill, it set the tone for being a physical football team. Tomlin did 7 shots, which was basically all passing. The writers LOVE the backs-on-backers drill and kept score...I thought it was a bit overrated. What will McCarthy's "famous" drills look like?
-Tomlin kept a watch on drills, but didn't get involved in too much coaching. That's fine, it's why you have position coaches. Is McCarthy going to be hands on?
-Soft tissue injuries. There was a training staff change recently and I don't think it went well under Tomlin. Will the Steelers have a better training staff this season?
-The competitive nature - A lot of years, it seemed like good competition between the offense and defense. It made sense, defensive players have that chip on their shoulder. What kind of edge will the defense have with an offensive-minded coach? Actually, will they regain the edge where they play to their talent level?