The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 schedule features three new head coaches with whom Mike Tomlin will match wits throughout the season. The final vacancy was filled Thursday morning with the Washington Commanders tabbing Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to replace Ron Rivera.
With that, here are the three new head coaches the Steelers will face come the fall.
Jim Harbaugh – Los Angeles Charges
Dan Quinn – Washington Commanders
Raheem Morris – Atlanta Falcons
And there’s Antonio Pierce, shedding his interim head coach label with the Las Vegas Raiders and becoming the franchise’s guy going forward. Because he didn’t change teams, we won’t call him “new,” but it will be his first full season as the Raiders’ coach after doing well to keep the team afloat following the disaster Josh McDaniels proved to be. He is one of two coaches promoted and kept internally, joining New England’s Jerod Mayo.
Here’s the full list of the eight hires made this cycle.
There’s also the *chance* a fourth name will be added if Kansas City’s Andy Reid retires, which has been speculated, and who knows if a midseason firing could take place. Will Philadelphia’s Nick Sirianni still have a job by the time the Steelers come to town?
Of course, the other three names aren’t really “new” to their roles. All of them have served as head coaches in the league before: Harbaugh in San Francisco, Quinn in Atlanta, and Morris in Tampa Bay (and an interim in Atlanta, replacing the fired Quinn). This year’s coaching cycle was an unexpected one. The league leaned on second chances, giving those three names another shot, getting away from a more recent trend of up-and-comers and first-time hires.
Names that were expected to be hired somewhere didn’t materialize. Bill Belichick and Mike Vrabel will not be head coaches in 2024 and their jobs this year are unknown. Other hotshots, like Houston’s Bobby Slowik and Detroit’s Ben Johnson, will remain offensive coordinators with their current teams instead of landing jobs. And perhaps there were two surprising names not tabbed as likely 2024 head coaches when the offseason began in Tennessee’s Brian Callahan and Carolina’s Dave Canales.
For Tomlin and the Steelers, they’ll look to have far better success against new head coaches than they did in 2023. Pittsburgh went 0-3 against them this past season, losing to the Texans’ DeMeco Ryans, the Cardinals’ Jonathan Gannon, and the Colts’ Shane Steichen, defeats that occurred in largely uncompetitive fashion. All three of those were first-time head coaches with Ryans looking like a home run hire, Steichen a good fit, and Gannon arguably exceeding expectations.
Pittsburgh will face the Chargers at home while they’ll take on the Falcons and Commanders on the road. Exact dates will be known when the NFL releases its schedule this summer.
