When the Pittsburgh Steelers hired Karl Dunbar as their defensive line coach in 2018, it was a reunion of sorts between Dunbar and Mike Tomlin and Dunbar and Pittsburgh. Dunbar and Tomlin had coached together when Tomlin was the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings in 2006, and he hired Dunbar to be his defensive line coach. Dunbar ended up staying through the 2011 season, while Tomlin was off to Pittsburgh in 2007 to take over as the Steelers head coach.
It was also a return to Pittsburgh for Dunbar, as the Steelers made him an eighth-round pick in the 1990 NFL Draft, where he learned under defensive line coach Joe Greene. While he never played for the Steelers, they were the team that drafted him and kicked off his professional football career, which also included stints in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and Arizona Cardinals.
While Dunbar was working as the defensive line coach at the University of Alabama, he was hired by the Steelers to run their defensive line.
“Mike gave me a call when I was at Alabama, wanted to know if I would want to come and coach in Pittsburgh. And I told him, it took you ten years to do it,” Dunbar said via video posted to the Steelers YouTube channel.
While Dunbar and Tomlin had a long-standing relationship and Dunbar was an experienced defensive line coach, the Steelers had one of the best in the world in John Mitchell. Mitchell was Pittsburgh’s defensive line coach from 1994-2018, and after Dunbar was hired Mitchell moved to an assistant head coaching role. But Mitchell was a coach who was pretty much irreplaceable in Pittsburgh, so it’s understandable why it took Tomlin some time to give Dunbar the call.
But since taking over, Dunbar has been crucial in the development of a number of Steelers, including Cameron Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Now, Dunbar is going to look to help rookie DL Keeanu Benton turn into the next great Steelers defensive lineman, and Dunbar’s track record with Pittsburgh and around the league speaks for itself. He also had success in Minnesota, helping develop Kevin Williams and Pat Williams into two of the best defensive linemen in the league while helping Jared Allen remain an All-Pro pass rusher.
It’s cool that Dunbar is now coaching for the team that drafted him and the team that he said he grew up rooting for, and he’ll continue to have a huge impact in building up Pittsburgh’s defense.
