My timeline has been flooded with comments about how the next Pittsburgh Steelers’ QB coach should be, provided they decide to fill the position with a full-time coach. Charlie Batch joined as a terrific guest on today’s Terrible Podcast and while he doesn’t believe the team has to hire one, if they want to, he’s not currently interested in the gig.
“Not at this moment,” Batch told the show. “You can never say never to those type of things, I’m still around the building, I’m still actively around. Because on the media side you have to show up and watch practice and I’m still involved in the media portions. These types of things I love to do, but I also love the flexibility of doing other things. Mainly my foundation. If you’re committing a lot of that time to the coaching space, guess what, there’s a lot of kids that I’m now taking my time away from that I know need my time.”
He has worked on the media side, serving as a color analyst for preseason games alongside Bob Pompeani. Batch created Best of the Batch Foundation to help serve the local community. He played eight years for the Steelers after being drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1998. In nine career starts, he went 6-3, including a three touchdown performance in the 2006 opener, a 28-17 win over the Miami Dolphins. You can check out those highlights here, which include Heath Miller’s longest reception of his career, an 87 yard TD to seal the game.
Batch and former Steelers’ QB Bruce Gradkowski have become two popular names in Steelers’ Nation over the past few weeks, ever since Mike Tomlin said he was open to the idea of having a dedicated QBs coach. Randy Fichtner has pulled double-duty as OC and serving in that role while assistant Matt Symmes has been referred to as the “de facto” coach, working with the backups and young guys to get them ready.
Gradkowski has expressed interest in getting into coaching and was in the running for the Los Angeles Rams’ position a year ago.
Of course, the team could look far outside their own building too. Yesterday, we compiled a list of eight names to consider which you can revisit here. Whoever they hire this offseason, if they hire anyone that is, it doesn’t look like it’ll be Batch.
