Steelers notes: Mike Tomlin on camp practice start time, joint practice with Bills, 'Hard Knocks'

Fans will learn they better not hit that snooze button to make it to Saint Vincent in time for most Pittsburgh Steelers training camp practices this year. On the eve of the first 10:30 a.m. practice — some four hours earlier than when it has been over the past five decades — coach Mike Tomlin provided an explanation for the decision.

“There’s just some challenges in the 11-hour workday in the setting like this,” Tomlin said, “and so we worked the practice back a little but in an effort to address that.”

The Steelers used to begin their camp practices at 2:55 p.m., lasting approximately two hours. In recent years, Tomlin had bumped start times back to 1:55 p.m.

He explained Wednesday that players often would rush dinner after practice before meeting with coaches, who would go over their workout and provide critique.

“We were just really pressed for time after practice in terms of our night meetings,” Tomlin said, “and oftentimes were making corrections and coaching points the following morning. So it’s just better for teaching and learning to get that immediate feedback and so we are just buying ourselves some time on the backside of our day.”

The Steelers are among a minority of teams that typically practices in the afternoon during the regular season. Most teams prefer morning practices. Saturday and Sunday practices over the next three weeks in Unity will remain with 1:55 p.m. starts.

Joint business

Tomlin cited the NFL’s new kickoff rules as the impetus for the joint practice the Steelers will conduct with the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium on Aug. 15, two days before the teams meet in a preseason game.

“Particularly with the new kickoff, I am just interested in getting in some work with some other people,” Tomlin said, referencing the XFL-style kickoff rule to be used on a trial basis in 2024. “Most of the time when you do joint practices, a lot of it is about special teams and young guys getting intense work, and that’s the spirit in which we are going into it.

“Obviously, we are going to get some offense versus defense and things of that nature, but if you really are talking about what stimulated our sincere interest in doing it this year, it’s just really great special teams work.”

The most recent time the Steelers held joint practices with another team was 2016 when the Detroit Lions came to Saint Vincent for a pair of workouts. The Steelers and Bills also had joint practices at Saint Vincent in 2014.

No ‘Knock’-ing it

Tomlin in the past did little to hide his lack of desire to take part of the intrusion that would be his team being featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”

But that was under its longtime format of cameras granted access to teams throughout a training camp. Now that the Steelers have been announced as part of a season of the show later this year, it is known that they will join division rivals Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati as protagonists for an in-season version the program.

Tomlin is much more welcoming for that.

“I am not overly concerned about (potential drawbacks of a show appearance), to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said. “The (teams) that we compete most intimately with are faced with the same issues, so from that standpoint it is fair.”

Tomlin said he hasn’t met with HBO or league personnel yet about any of the logistics associated with taping the show, which will drop episodes Tuesdays from Dec. 3 through the end of the season.

“We will get to it when we get to it,” Tomlin said. “There’s just too many challenges in front of us right now for me to be overly preoccupied with that.”