Whether he wants to say it explicitly or not, Zach Azzanni knows why the Pittsburgh Steelers hired him. They needed somebody to institute a healthy dose of discipline and accountability in their wide receiver room. He has a reputation for being a disciplinarian, and his hiring came following a tumultuous year in the room.
“I don’t want to talk about the past”, Azzanni told Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Tuesday. “I just know the way I want it to look. For whatever reason — I just know the product has to be better, and I’m fighting for that every day”.
Both Diontae Johnson and George Pickens faced heavy criticism for their lack of maturity during various moments last year. Since then, the Steelers traded Johnson and did not renew wide receivers coach Frisman Jackson’s contract. They then hired Zach Azzanni, who previously worked with the Bears, Broncos, and Jets.
Azzanni was in Denver during the 2022 season while Russell Wilson was there, but the Steelers hired him before they signed Wilson as a street free agent. In other words, Wilson wasn’t the connection that brought him here—it was his interview.
According to Batko, Azzanni talked about working to establish a new culture in the room. “A hard edge, things that quite honestly have kind of fallen off a little maybe”, he added. Which is kind of talking about the past, but never mind that. Some things need saying.
“I know how I am, man. I’m going to be up their tail all the time, and sometimes that’s not fun. My kids will tell you the same thing”, Azzanni said. “My job is to coach, critique and correct. Sometimes, as players, that’s not always the fun thing”.
One of the early storylines of training camp was Azzanni’s interactions with Pickens, which occasionally got animated. Both Pickens and Azzanni have since publicly called responses to their interactions wildly overblown, in so many words.
Pickens pointed out that he has had a coach like him before, for example, during his college career. For Zach Azzanni, he recently praised Pickens and his willingness to take his coaching. That doesn’t mean Pickens will always present the most positive body language, but apparently he does listen.
One of the lowlights of the Steelers’ 2023 season was when Pickens failed to block for teammate Jaylen Warren near the goal line, resulting in the running back taking an unnecessary hard hit and failing to score. Pickens later spoke to the media, saying he was protecting himself and that reporters who never played the game couldn’t understand.
That is exactly the sort of behavior, on and off the field, Azzanni is surely referring to. After all, you can’t entirely escape the past while living in the present. If you are not learning from the past, then you are doomed to be haunted by it. And I think Pickens wants to prove this year that he’s not that guy.
