{"id":744320,"date":"2026-02-11T07:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744320\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T07:36:24","slug":"jon-gruden-explains-one-way-mike-mccarthy-impressed-him-during-packers-tenure-did-a-hell-of-a-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/744320\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Gruden Explains One Way Mike McCarthy Impressed Him During Packers Tenure: ‘Did A Hell Of A Job’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers are going in a new direction with Mike McCarthy as head coach and the expansive staff he\u2019s been busy putting together<\/a>. While many fans who wanted a younger coach instead aren\u2019t won over by the decision, McCarthy is a coach with much experience.<\/p>\n

This includes smaller things, like running a practice. That\u2019s something that really impressed former NFL head coach Jon Gruden. He visited McCarthy\u2019s practices in Green Bay often during his time commentating for ESPN. Gruden was especially impressed with the way McCarthy handled things, notably dealing with practices in cold weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike McCarthy, when he was in Green Bay, he did a hell of a job, man. The way he utilized the indoor facility, instead of having, sitting down on a meeting, sometimes they\u2019d get up, take 10 minutes in the indoor facility to demonstrate a play or a concept. They took advantage of outdoor-indoor with the cold weather. They might go outside for 15 minutes, and work on anti-turnover circuit, and then come in where it\u2019s warmer, where they could concentrate. McCarthy did a great job,\u201d Gruden said Tuesday on the Games With Names podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Things like this aren\u2019t massive in the grand scheme of things. But it might be a little more notable for a city like Pittsburgh. The Steelers had the same head coach in place for nearly two decades. And the staff around Tomlin wasn\u2019t much of a revolving door. There are lots of veterans on this roster who have been in this building for years now. They certainly were very comfortable with how Tomlin ran practices.<\/p>\n

For those players, it will be a jolt this year. There\u2019s a lot that goes on that fans don\u2019t get to see, like daily routines and practices. So it is encouraging to hear how impressed Gruden was with Mike McCarthy\u2019s operation, which will be different from Tomlin\u2019s. It won\u2019t make a huge difference by itself. But perhaps little things like this could re-energize a locker room that has had the same routine for years.<\/p>\n

With Pittsburgh being a cold-weather city like Green Bay, he\u2019ll have to navigate that, too. And although it doesn\u2019t mean much, McCarthy certainly would have more experience in that regard, unlike someone like Nate Scheelhaase or Chris Shula coming from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the Steelers clearly desired a head coach with experience<\/a> when they landed on Mike McCarthy. Details like these aren\u2019t major and won\u2019t especially excite fans. But knowing how to run a practice and get the most out of your players goes a long way during a long NFL campaign. To Gruden, that\u2019s something McCarthy excels at.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers are going in a new direction with Mike McCarthy as head coach and the expansive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,46996,3925,7866,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-744320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-games-with-names","10":"tag-jon-gruden","11":"tag-mike-mccarthy","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116050852939888171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}