Mike Tomlin preparing for unusual training camp environment for Steelers

In a normal football offseason, the Pittsburgh Steelers players would be in their second week of a summer break that would carry through to the start of training camp.

And coach Mike Tomlin would be counting down the seconds until he could convene his players at Saint Vincent College.

Tomlin likely is still watching the clock this year, although he is saddened he won’t get a chance to spend a few weeks in the foothills of Laurel Mountain preparing his players for the 2020 season.

Training camp will begin in about a month, and Tomlin is preparing for the unique challenge of conducting it at Heinz Field because of the coronavirus pandemic that has altered the landscape of all sports this year.

“I am a training camp lover,” Tomlin said last week in a video conference call with reporters. “I do think there is some intangible value in going away to camp. That is something that is outside of our control in 2020.”

Coach Mike Tomlin spoke via zoom on Tuesday morning and shared plenty of news, including who will get the snaps at LG and NG to start camp, players testing positive for COVID-19, and why he is optimistic the @nfl season will start on time.

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The Steelers were one of 10 NFL teams that still conducted a portion of the preseason and training camp at a remote facility. They had been trekking to Westmoreland County every summer since 1966. The last time training camp was held inside Pittsburgh city limits was from 1933-37 — the first five years in the franchise’s existence — at Moore Field in Brookline.

With the cancellation of the 2020 Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, involving the Steelers and Dallas Cowboys, Tomlin will have an extra week to make preparations for training camp at Heinz Field. July 28 has been a date mentioned frequently in discussions for teams to begin camp.

“I have a walkthrough or two in the near future over there just to check its overall readiness,” Tomlin said. “But (we) have been through the process some and have toured the facility and made some logistical plans and feel really good about Heinz Field being a good venue for us to execute our camp and preseason.”

Taking his players to Saint Vincent provided the kind of team bonding Tomlin views as a benefit of sequestering his players at an off-site location. Unless the Steelers put all of their players in a hotel as a precaution against covid-19, that won’t happen this year.

“We’re not going to spend a lot of time worrying about things that are outside of our control,” Tomlin said. “We are going to have a hardcore plan, but we are going to be light on our feet. We are going to make necessary adjustments to continue to develop our group, and we are excited about doing it at Heinz Field.”

Defensive captain Cameron Heyward assumed the role of Steelers player representative following Ramon Foster’s retirement, and he said he has been in contact with players almost daily to brief them on changes that may come to training camp — and the season beyond.

“It’s a slippery slope,” Heyward said. “I feel like so much of football is contact, especially in the trenches. Guys are going after each other on every single play. I would love for (coronavirus) to end, but there are a lot of moving parts.

“Football is going to have to change a lot. It’s not like covid needs to bend to football. Football is going to have to bend to covid.”

One step was announced in the first week of June when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell ordered all 32 teams to conduct training camp this year at on-site facilities in order to minimize coronavirus risks.

That decision gave the Steelers two options: Heinz Field and UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on the South Side, the site of team practices and workouts for the offseason and regular season.

The benefit to Heinz Field is the locker room space. While the Rooney complex has just one area for the Steelers to dress — another exists for co-tenant Pitt — Heinz Field has four locker rooms. The largest is the 6,000 square foot locker room for the Steelers, followed by Pitt’s 4,600 square foot area and two visiting locker rooms that each measure 2,600 square feet.

“It checks a lot of boxes,” Tomlin said. “The grass surface is great. There is ample space to apply the social distancing guidelines that are going to be prescribed to us by the NFL, the convenience of it and so forth.

“The space is awesome over there,” Tomlin added. “Dining facilities, locker room facilities from a spacing standpoint, there are elements of the stadium over there that I was unaware of because usually when I go to work, I have a one-track mind.”

The drawback, of course, is the lack of a second field on the North Shore. The Rooney complex has four grass practice fields and an indoor turf facility the Steelers use during inclement weather and when they prepare to play teams that use artificial surfaces.

And at Saint Vincent, while the Steelers took team reps on Chuck Noll Field, individual work would take place on one of several adjacent fields. Injured players also would use the side fields to build up their conditioning.

“We have additional space than 100 yards,” Tomlin said. “There is perimeter space that we also have to use. From time to time, we work on a one-field structured format, whether we are working at the indoor (facility) or working at Heinz Field.”

For the past few years, the Steelers have conducted a family fest night practice at Heinz Field during training camp. Tomlin also said that to reduce the workload on the same surface in which they are expected to play 10 games this season, some practices will be moved to the South Side, with players being bused between the two locations.

“My only concern about the utilization at Heinz Field is not space,” Tomlin said. “It is about the wear and tear of the field. Our intentions are right now … to utilize our grass fields here from time to time in an effort to help preserve those fields.”