While the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t officially have a quarterbacks coach right now following the offseason promotion of Randy Fichtner to offensive coordinator, perhaps the person who will ultimately assume that position is now already on the staff.
This past offseason the Steelers hired Matt Symmes as a coaching assistant and to hear Fichtner talk at the conclusion of the team’s first mandatory minicamp practice of 2018 on Tuesday, the former South Carolina graduate assistant will be helping out with the quarterbacks some.
“Matt Symmes is working with us now, and he’s doing a lot of the quality-control type things,” Fichtner said on Tuesday, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “(But) he has a quarterback background, so you’ll see him at times in individual periods and at times when I potentially have to do other things, he’s talking, guys are working with him. So it’s a nice way to work out that relationship — and we are working those kinks out, too.”
Symmes is a Duke graduate who most recently served as a grad assistant at South Carolina the last two seasons and at Florida prior to that. Last year he earned praise for working with the quarterbacks from that school’s offensive coordinator, Kurt Roper, when he wasn’t available.
“Matt Symmes and I have worked together for a long time and Matt has been a huge help for me,” Roper said, via The Big Spur. “[Quarterback] Jake [Bentley] and Matt spend a lot of time together when I’m out recruiting and stuff like that. It has really helped Jake progress in how to study film and what he’s looking for, which is to get total command of our offense. He is really good at that.”
Because of his background, Symmes appears best-suited to be groomed to become the Steelers future quarterbacks coach. In the meantime, however, he sure has a few young quarterbacks to help Fichtner out with this season in Joshua Dobbs and Mason Rudolph.
