The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor is heading into free agency, as is Trai Turner.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Will Brian Flores be in Pittsburgh for more than one season?
The Steelers announced…on a Saturday, at about 1:45 PM…that they have hired former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores to join their coaching staff, a major name brought in to serve under the capacity of Senior Defensive Assistant/Linebackers Coach.
Flores was a head coach for the past three seasons, and it’s not uncommon for former head coaches to accept an assistant position the year that they’re fired before moving on. It always becomes a question of how long they will last.
I think we can reasonably assume that Flores will be interviewing for vacant promotions a year from now, or at least that there’s a good chance that will happen. He’s still on the young side, set to turn 41 this week, so there’s no reason to think he won’t still be a name on the coaching circuit.
Unless his lawsuit well and truly torpedoes his standing with 31 other teams, one would imagine that he’s not going to be a Senior Defensive Assistant for a long period of time. He is obviously an individual who has ambitions to be a head coach, so he’s not going to just become content with a lesser role.
The fact that he interviewed for numerous head coaching opportunities just weeks after being fired from one tells you what you need to know about that. A ton of coaches take a year off after they get fired before transitioning into a new role. He was ready to get back in the saddle right away, and he so wanted to stay in coaching that he took an assistant job while continuing on with a lawsuit against the league. One thing should be obvious about Flores, and that is that he has ambitions of being a head coach again.
