The Pittsburgh Steelers chose not to renew the contract of running backs coach James Saxon last week and it didn’t take him long to find a new job.
According to Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network on Monday, Saxon has been hired by the Arizona Cardinals to be their new running backs coach. That job previously belonged to Stump Mitchell, who was added to the Cleveland Browns coaching staff a few days ago.
Saxon was hired by new Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury and he’ll now coach a running back group that’s bolstered by David Johnson and Chase Edmonds. This past season those two running backs combined to rush for 1148 yards and 9 touchdowns on 318 total carries. The two also combined to catch 70 passes for 549 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Saxon, who had been with the Steelers since 2014, has coached a lot of premier running backs during his time on NFL staffs and that list includes Adrian Peterson, Priest Holmes and Le’Veon Bell, just to name a few.
The Steelers surprisingly chose not to re-sign Saxon this past offseason after young running backs James Conner and Jaylen Samuels combined to rush for 1229 yards and 12 touchdowns on 271 total carries in addition to totaling 81 receptions for 696 yards and 4 touchdowns.
The Cardinals have also hired former Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler.
