Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin held his end-of-year press conference today, and one of the big things he addressed is Pittsburgh’s coaching staff. Tomlin said that changes will be coming to the staff for the 2024 season, and that the team will go outside the organization for its offensive coordinator hire.
“From a coaching perspective, obviously, things will never stay the same. I’m appreciative of this collective and what they’ve been able to do all the while understanding there will be changes. I think those of us who are in this business understand that. We’ll thoughtfully and intentionally go about that,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.Â
He added that he’s looking at outside candidates for the offensive coordinator job and that neither Mike Sullivan nor Eddie Faulkner are candidates “at this juncture.”
“I’m looking at outside candidates, lining up the pecking order there,” Tomlin said. “I am appreciative of their efforts in terms of what they did for us down the stretch. But I’m looking at outside candidates at this juncture.”
He also said he would be open to adding to the offensive staff and that he’s evaluating all components of staffing.
“Certainly,” Tomlin said when asked if he’d consider adding someone to the current offensive staff. “I’m looking at all components of staffing as part of the annual end-of-the-season, review, and additions in terms of expertise are certainly a component of that.”
He said he will make the offensive coordinator hire along with general manager Omar Khan and team owner Art Rooney II. It’s notable that Tomlin may look to add to the offensive staff as Pittsburgh has one of the smallest coaching staffs in the league.
Pittsburgh has stayed internal for its last two offensive coordinator hires, promoting Randy Fichtner to replace Todd Haley and Matt Canada to replace Fichtner. It’s a change in recent history for the Steelers, but it’s not unheard of under Tomlin as the team went outside the organization when it hired Haley in 2012.
Other potential staff changes could come, with the Steelers potentially looking to replace Pat Meyer as their offensive line coach or Frisman Jackson as their wide receivers coach. Faulkner, who was the team’s running backs coach before being promoted to the interim offensive coordinator job, could be offered his old job back. We don’t know for sure what changes are coming, but we now know for sure that changes are coming.
Tomlin was also asked if there were going to be changes to the defensive staff.
“I’m not gonna speculate about staffing at this juncture,” he said. “I just acknowledge that things change this time of year, it’s just a component of our business at this level and I’m sensitive and respective to it.”
After an up-and-down 10-7 season with inconsistent play and a Wild Card Round playoff loss, it’s little surprise the Steelers are looking to shake things up. There’s a lot of room for improvement with the level of talent on this roster, and Tomlin, Khan and Rooney are going to look to find areas to improve the coaching staff, wherever that may be.
With Pittsburgh looking for outside candidates at offensive coordinator, preferably someone with prior coordinator experience as Tomlin said, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there’s a little bit of a staff overhaul on offense. Pittsburgh went backward in points per game, averaging 17.9 points per game in 2023 after averaging 18.1 points per game in 2022. The offense struggled for much of the season but hit its stride a little bit toward the end of the season with Mason Rudolph under center for the final three games of the regular season.
Even so, the offense and the team as a whole were not good enough, and it’ll be interesting to see what route the Steelers go when it comes to making staff changes.
