One of the highlights of the Pittsburgh Steelers recently concluded OTA practices was the presence of former guard Alan Faneca, as he served as a coaching intern the last several weeks for the team. Last week, Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak talked to steelers.com about what it meant to him to have Faneca on the practice field helping him out.
“He’s a great person for me to talk to, another resource that did it for a long time and did it at a very high level,” said Munchak. “I think it’s great for the players to have someone to talk to, to get different points of view on how he saw the game. And that’s helpful to me as he’s looking into possibly coaching going forward. So it’s good for both of us and having him here now and kind of learning the system like a player, really, so he can help us as we get into training camp and get more active as a coach and see how he likes it. I’m sure he’ll do a great job and he’s got a good feel for the game and like I said, it’s been an asset for us.”
As you can tell by Munchak’s response, Faneca’s coaching internship will extend into this year’s training camp so make sure to be on the lookout for him if you intend on attending any of the team’s practices at Latrobe. Having another set of experienced eyes on hand will obviously help out Munchak and current offensive assistant Shaun Sarrett immensely over the course of the remainder of the offseason and you can bet that Faneca will have a few tricks of the trade to pass along to all of the team’s offensive linemen both young and old.
Faneca will also be learning from one of the best offensive line coaches in the league in Munchak and that will certainly look great on his resume moving forward should he indeed decide to further pursue a career in the NFL.
Faneca, who played 13 years in the NFL, resulting in six All-Pro seasons at guard, retired after the 2010 season. While the LSU product and former Steelers first-round draft pick failed to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame this past offseason in his first year of eligibility, it’s probably only a matter of time until he’s ultimately enshrined in Canton.
