If there has been one knock against Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin it is that he doesn’t have much of a coaching tree. Other than Bruce Arians, there have not been many coaches or coordinators who have done much outside of Pittsburgh.
That may change soon, however. Steelers outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin has turned some heads. Martin was recently listed as the 20th best under 40 coaching candidates by Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team.
“Denzel Martin is a highly respected coach within the Pittsburgh Steelers organization, having been with the team since 2016,” wrote Meirov. “This season marks his [second] as the Steelers’ outside linebackers coach, after previously serving three seasons as the assistant outside linebackers coach (2020-22), two seasons as a coaching assistant (2018-19), and two more as a scouting assistant (2016-17). A young coach who has risen through the ranks internally, Martin has played a key role in coaching standout players like T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. With his growing experience and leadership, he is seen as a potential future defensive coordinator.”
Martin has worked his way up with the Steelers and had little experience before joining the team in 2016. Martin was a linebacker at the University of Missouri and in 2015 was a recruiting graduate assistant for Mizzou. Now, Martin is the outside linebackers coach for the Steelers and he has one of the best units in the league at his disposal.
Just because Martin happens to have T.J. Watt in the room doesn’t make him a good coach. What makes him a good coach is the development of Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Nick Herbig. Martin began coaching up the outside linebackers in 2020 as an assistant under the duo of Keith Butler and Karl Dunbar with Martin specializing in the outside linebackers. Under Martin’s tutelage Highsmith saw his development from a guy in college who played with his hand in the dirt, to one of the better outside linebackers in the league.
In addition, Herbig looks like a future high quality player and he was drafted in Martin’s first year as the sole outside linebackers coach. While Martin wouldn’t have had the final say in drafting Herbig, he obviously liked Herbig enough to want to draft him. Under Martin, Herbig is looking like he’s ready to take a big year-two leap after an impressive preseason.
If Herbig develops into a star and Highsmith and Watt continue to produce, Martin is going to continue to rise up the young coaching ranks. As Meirov said, Martin is viewed as a future defensive coordinator, but the question is when will other teams begin to interview him for that role? The Steelers like current defensive coordinator Teryl Austin so it seems it would be hard for Martin to unseat Austin in Pittsburgh barring a retirement, head coaching gig, or a bad season or two which results in Pittsburgh not renewing his contract.
Pittsburgh finally has a young coach who is a rising star around the league. Hopefully they will be able to retain him for a while, but it is only a matter of time before other teams come calling to interview Martin to be their defensive coordinator.
