To prep for Ravens, Steelers take extremely rare step of full pads for Friday practice

Montravius Adams and James Daniels have combined to be part of five NFL organizations and play 11 pro seasons. They’ve played an aggregate 143 NFL regular-season or playoff games, meaning they have been part of at least that many “game weeks” of preparation and practice.

Neither can remember ever doing what they did Friday: going through a fully-padded practice on the final practice day before a game.

“I definitely would say that probably had to be the first,” said Adams, a Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle.

“It’s extremely rare,” Daniels, the Steelers’ starting right guard, said of the end-of-week padded practice. “But I completely understand it.”

There was a purpose to the decision by coach Mike Tomlin and his staff to conduct what Daniels said was the final padded practice of the season.

After all, it’s Ravens Week.

“Playing the run emphasis that we’re going to be going up against this week,” linebacker Robert Spillane said, “we thought it would be fitting to do so.”

Steelers-Ravens is known for its physical nature, and with Baltimore starting a backup at quarterback for the 8:20 p.m. Sunday game, the “between the trenches” play figures to be even more heightened.

“It’s just understanding today was a short-yardage and goal-line day, and at the end of the day it’s those third-and-1s and fourth-and-1s and third-and-2s, those are very important downs in a game,” Daniels said. “And when we are able to win those, we win those games.

“In a regular week, we do those plays, it (stinks), unpadded, and so it’s very hard to see fits and do things like that with no pads. So it was nice to wear the pads today just for that so we can see how we are playing, the defense could see how we’re playing, kind of sharpening the sword for who is coming up: the Ravens.”

The collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and its players association limits teams to 14 fully padded practices per season and no more than one per week. There is a maximum of three practices with pads over the final seven weeks of the season.

Of the three full practice days of a typical NFL work week, Fridays are almost always the lightest. Although teams conduct walkthroughs the day before a game, the practice two days prior usually is much less physical than the earlier practices in a week. When the pads do come on, it’s usually a Wednesday or Thursday of a week when there is a Sunday game.

And, in part because of the CBA and in part because coaches are aware and weary of causing fatigue on their beat-up players’ bodies, having a padded practice on a Friday this late in the season is almost unheard of in the modern NFL.

“It was in part just because of a mindset for playing the Ravens,” Adams said. “There’s also setting formations and (scouting) what they do. It’s really just play designing, certain formations, certain down and distances.

“Short-yardage plays, that’s the key to the game, so that’s why we were in pads today. Get them to third down and win that third-and-short.”

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