Though this is the season of a flurry of coaching moves, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ group has yet to change. And Mike Tomlin hopes to keep it that way.
In today’s final press conference, Tomlin gave a simple “I do” to the question of if he would like to retain his coaching staff. While he admitted he has yet to look at it closely as part of the team’s offseason evaluation, he was pleased with their performances across the board.
He was also asked specifically about Keith Butler’s performance in his first season as the defensive coordinator.
“I was impressed with his work. I was impressed with the work of everyone, to be honest with you. I haven’t started the finute details of evaluating performances, just giving you knee jerk reaction when I say that. I thought he did an excellent job. I thought everyone did an excellent job.”
And for the record, no, finute is not a word. Chalk it up to another Tomlinism.
Though there was the occasional whisper of Todd Haley drawing interest in the head coaching jobs with the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, neither of those obviously amounted to much of anything. With every head coach spot filled and those teams assembling their coaching staffs, Tomlin went on the record to note that no teams have requested to talk to the Steelers’ coaches.
The only two I could see as even having a chance to leave, barring something unforeseen, are Carnell Lake and Shaun Sarrett. Some fans would like to see Lake go, upset by the performance of the Steelers’ secondary. I don’t have any great feelings on Lake, I’ll go into that another time, but my guess is that he stays. Sarrett could get looks at the college or NFL level as an offensive line coach, similar to the route Harold Goodwin took in Arizona. Goodwin now has a large part in piecing together the Cardinals’ offense. But there has been no known interest in him from other teams.
Ultimately, a coaching staff that can stay together and continue to learn is rare in 2016, and a benefit for any team that can accomplish that, like the Steelers hope to do.
