In the Mike Tomlin era as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, the franchise has had just four inside linebackers coaches.
Longtime defensive assistant and later defensive coordinator Keith Butler held down the linebackers role handling inside and outside linebackers from 2003-14 with Tomlin taking over in 2007 as head coach. After Butler, Joey Porter entered the fray as the linebackers coach in 2015 before fully shifting to outside linebackers coach with the Steelers bringing in former player Jerry Olsavsky as the inside linebackers coach.
Now, after eight seasons with Olsavsky holding down the inside linebackers room as the position coach — sort of sharing a role with Brian Flores last season — the Steelers have a new face in Aaron Curry.
Curry, the former No. 4 overall pick in 2009 out of Wake Forest, flamed out as a player in the NFL, but has made a name as a coach, joining the Steelers this offseason after four years in Seattle as a coach.
So far in his first training camp and first lap around the track wit the Steelers, so to speak, Curry has made Tomlin quite a happy coach overall thanks to his energy and attention to details, improving the much-maligned inside linebackers room rather quickly this summer at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
“Man, I like his energy. I like his attention to detail. I like his field presence,” Tomlin said to reporters Wednesday after practice, according to video via Steelers.com. “I like the development of the group and so we’re just gonna continually work, you know? We’ll get to know each other particularly when it gets real.”
So far, so good with the inside linebackers under Curry’s watch.
Veteran free agent signees Cole Holcomb and Elandon Roberts have come in and solidified the position, giving the Steelers a real identity at the position. That’s helped Curry establish the level of preparation and communication needed at the position that is the heart and soul of the Steelers’ 3-4 defense, historically.
Add in the late signing of Kwon Alexander four days into training camp, along with developing second-year pro Mark Robinson and veteran special teams pieces in Tanner Muse and Nick Kwiatkoski, Curry has quite the linebacker room on his hands.
Alexander set the tone right away in last Friday’s preseason game, providing that physical, downhill presence against the run, laying some major licks on Tampa Bay running backs in the open field, one of which drew a flag for unnecessary roughness. With Alexander and Roberts providing that physical presence, not to mention Robinson, the Steelers have a real identity in the linebacker room once again.
Now it’s up to Curry to get the most out of that identity in today’s NFL.
Being a former player is huge as he knows what it takes to be on the field and be a productive player at an NFL level each and every week. Though his body ultimately gave out on him leading to him burning out of the league, the mind remains a high-level one. That’s noticeable with the rest of the linebacker room so far. His energy, attention to detail and his field presence are all showing up as a coach, which was the same thing as a player.
Seems the Steelers — and Tomlin — landed a good one in the coaching cycle again on the defensive side of the football.
