The Pittsburgh Steelers and Kirby Wilson have now parted ways and according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the long-time running backs coach was not forced out.
As Dulac reports in a Monday blog post, Wilson, who is expected to be officially named the new running backs coach of the Minnesota Vikings later on this week, wants to be an offensive coordinator down the road and didn’t see that happening in Pittsburgh anytime soon. In addition to that, Dulac also reports that there may have been some sort of friction between Wilson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley.
Following it being reported that Wilson would not return next season, former Steelers backup quarterback Charlie Batch took to Twitter to chime in on the Steelers losing a few offensive coaches over the course of the last two years.
Congrats Kirby Wilson on your move to the #Vikings. 3 out of 5 #Steelers offensive assistant coaches gone in 2 years. HMMMM
— Charlie Batch (@CharlieBatch16) January 25, 2014
While Batch didn’t come right out and point any fingers, you have to wonder if he was alluding to Haley as being the reason why Wilson may have decided to move on.
According to a previous report by Ray Fittipaldo of the PPG, the Steelers had to settle for Jack Bicknell Jr. as their new offensive line coach last offseason because other candidates didn’t want the job. We can only speculate that perhaps they didn’t want to work under Haley. Do we know that for sure? No. Maybe Haley is even more bipolar than I am.
Bicknell was of course fired a few weeks ago after just one season in Pittsburgh and has since been replaced by former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Munchak. The Steelers will now look to hire Wilson’s replacement and here is a list of obvious candidates for the job.
