A new era is underway in Pittsburgh. The Steelers reported to the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex Tuesday to begin Phase One of the offseason program, marking their first official team activity in the Mike McCarthy era. Pittsburgh is allowed this extra session earlier than most teams due to having a new head coach.

Not every 31-year-old future Hall of Famer making over $40 million per season shows up to these early voluntary activities, so it’s nice to see T.J. Watt in attendance.

These initial workouts in Phase One are limited to strength and conditioning activities. For many on the roster, this will be the first time meeting Mike McCarthy in person and feeling out the different approach after years of status quo under Mike Tomlin and his staff. According to some of the local beat writers, there is a distinct “new feel” in the building under the new coaching regime. Players are about to experience that new feel for the first time.

The strength and conditioning staff is mostly brand new in Pittsburgh, but Justus Galac was retained from Tomlin’s staff as an assistant S&C coach with 13 years of experience. The department is now led by Mark Lovat, who McCarthy worked with for years in Green Bay.

The first unpadded practices not limited to strength and conditioning activities are permitted at voluntary minicamp before the draft from April 20-22.

Several players likely never stopped working out at the south side practice facility, but they weren’t allowed to be organized with the coaching staff until now per the NFLPA’s CBA with the league.

With the draft just around the corner on April 23 in downtown Pittsburgh, the offseason dominoes will start falling fast. Rookie minicamp will be held in one of the two weekends following the draft, and then Phase Three OTAs will begin on May 18. The first mandatory activity will come on June 2-4 with minicamp nestled in between two weeks of voluntary OTAs.

That’s one of the biggest changes McCarthy and his staff made to the offseason schedule this year with Phase Three spanning five weeks instead of four. Last year, Tomlin didn’t even make use of all 10 voluntary OTA sessions allowed by the league.

It’s the start of a new era in Pittsburgh.