Tomlin on slow starts, discipline for AB, Berry
Q. Are you a believer of scripting offensive plays to start a game?
A. I am.
Q. Earlier this week, you said you disciplined Antonio Brown for missing a team meeting on the Monday after the Kansas City game. You don’t announce that kind of punishment to the public, but when you do something like that do you tell the rest of the team?
A. Certainly. I call it housekeeping. It’s part of normal daily functions of our team. I think it’s important that they not only see clarity in terms of how situations are dealt with, but younger people in the room can learn. Smart professionals learn not only in terms of what happens to them, but they also learn from what happens around them. The same goes for discipline as it does for alignment, assignment, and execution. We ask our young people to learn from those around them – you learn your playbook by watching those around you execute, and so forth. It’s twofold why you address those things: you want the team to know that situations are being addressed and how they’re being addressed, but you also want to teach young people in the process.
Q. At your Tuesday news conference you were asked about punter Jordan Berry, and you said, “I’m not comfortable with the results I’ve seen thus far. It has got to be better.” What constitutes good punting in the NFL? What are you looking for from the punter?
A. Forty-yard net average, all things being considered, is the line. That’s not taking into account situational punting, red zone punting, and that’s something that Jordan really excels in. In the last couple of years he’s been one of the best in the league in red zone punting, as in the percentages between punts downed inside the 20-yard line vs. touchbacks. You understand how catastrophic touchbacks are to the field position element of the game, and so that’s not an element of the equation when I’m talking about a 40-yard net. But the thing with Jordan – and the point I’m trying to get across to Jordan and to everyone when we’re talking about everyone in the room getting an opportunity to learn – Jordan has punted very well and consistently at practice. He has to take that into the stadium. And that’s what we expect him to do, that’s what we expect all of our guys to do. We have a great deal of confidence in him because what we see day-to-day builds that confidence, but he’s got to maintain a certain level of consistency under certain circumstances inside stadiums that he hasn’t produced yet. Two games isn’t a large body of work, but I’m acknowledging what I’ve seen so far needs to improve.
https://www.steelers.com/news/tomlin-on ... r-ab-berry
