Mike Tomlin has never been one to take practices and offseason workouts lightly. In fact, he's frequently professed his love for training camp and preseason games.
But rookie minicamp allows Tomlin a chance to stand back a bit and lay some basic groundwork for his young, inexperienced players, while reserving some of the minutia for later this summer.
Rookie camp concludes Monday, but on Saturday Tomlin provided an assessment of the camp and the group.
"We're having a real good weekend," he said. "We're getting to know the players and the players are getting to know us. 'Us' as individuals, 'us' in terms of some of the things we hold near and dear. Some cultural things. From the standpoint, we're really excited."
Numbers for this year's minicamp are lower than in previous seasons due to the influence of the pandemic, so Tomlin kept the work lighter than normal.
"All in all, it's been highly productive," he said. "Our goals are to get an assessment of conditioning and for them to get an opportunity to display their conditioning. And to do some teaching and learning."
The Steelers also desire to teach their young players about the challenges of play in the NFL. Bonding and chemistry growth are also high on Tomlin's priority list.
But as far as elements like gameplay and group enhancement — like bettering the NFL's worst rushing offense — that's not as important, yet.
"We're just beginning to work," Tomlin said. "We're just beginning the team development process. We're just beginning to have the opportunity to work with the men day-to-day relative to that aspect of play. We're far from a finished product."
Harris' conditioning not a concern
As he mentioned, Tomlin views rookie minicamp as a time to learn about the conditioning of his rookie players.
That, however, doesn't seem to be much of an issue with first-round pick Najee Harris, who also spoke to the media Saturday.
"I think he is as highly conditioned as anybody out there," Tomlin said. "That's a great place to begin. I think he's got a nice foundation from that perspective.
"He's a sharp guy, he's a football guy. You can tell he's passionate about football. He can articulate the game very well. So there's a lot to be excited about."
Harris is benefitting from some rare solo time for an NFL player in a team setting. He's the only running back on the rookie minicamp roster, and was able to work extensively with Pittsburgh running back coach Eddie Faulkner.
"He's getting an opportunity to work, one-on-one, with coach Faulkner at the running back position. It's provides plenty of opportunity for him to verbalize his knowledge and things of that nature. I think you teach a little bit differently when you don't have numbers."
