‘Picking Up The Physicality’: Rico Dowdle Says Mike McCarthy Delivered Message Before Tuesday’s Practice

This may be Rico Dowdle’s first training camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but it’s not his first training camp under Mike McCarthy. Dowdle played for McCarthy in 2024 in Dallas and broke onto the scene with 1,000 rushing yards. He has attended plenty of McCarthy’s practices and camps in his career, and he sees similarities between the coach’s Dallas and Pittsburgh tenures.

“Oh yeah, I’m for sure used to it. It’s been the exact same as how it was in Dallas… I think he does a good job scheduling, and getting the work out of us that we need. He’s been doing it for a long time. I think his main thing is health, and just making sure guys are healthy going into the season,” Dowdle said Tuesday via Steelers.com.

The Steelers have some older players who could benefit from the lack of live tackling before a long season. For what it’s worth, players aren’t frowning upon this change. Patrick Queen and Cam Heyward have spoken about the little difference a lack of live tackling makes, and it also allows players to focus more on the fundamentals.

However, that doesn’t mean McCarthy’s practices lack intensity. Players are constantly moving throughout practice, which McCarthy has down to a science. The Steelers will still be doing their backs-on-backers drill, an iconic, high-energy drill. Make no mistake that training camp is still intense; Tuesday’s practice even got a little feisty.

But on Monday, the first day of padded practice, some beat writers reported the physicality was lacking. As a result, Dowdle says McCarthy delivered a message to his team before Tuesday’s practice.

“That’s something that he talked about before practice today, in the meeting room. Just picking up the urgency, picking up the physicality. So he talked about that before practice, and I think it came out and showed today,” Dowdle said.

Given how sloppy Monday’s practice was, it’s not too surprising McCarthy would have wanted to up the urgency. But it’s not abnormal for the first padded practice to be difficult. The nerves are always strong; players are fighting for roster spots and positions on the depth chart, so adding pads brings higher intensity.

We’re still in the early stages of McCarthy’s first camp in Pittsburgh, and there may still be an adjustment period for players going through camp under a new coach for the first time. Pittsburgh still has a couple of weeks of camp to go and three preseason games to prepare for the season.