The steady Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t making big-time coaching changes. But just like the 53-man roster, the team’s staff isn’t expected to be the exact same next season either. Speaking to reporters Monday, team president Art Rooney II indicated the team is set to make some coaching changes though he cautioned they wouldn’t be “wholesale” ones.
Pittsburgh radio station 93.7 The Fan shared Rooney’s sentiments a short time ago.
“Art Rooney said he expects there to be changes on the coaching staff (wouldn’t be wholesale, but changes),” The Fan tweeted Monday afternoon.
Via The Fan, which shared the entire media scrum with Rooney, here is his full quote on the coaching staff’s future.
“I don’t expect wholesale changes, but yeah, I think there are probably gonna be a couple changes,” Rooney said.
We don’t yet have the exact quote from Rooney to fully capture what he said. Obviously, there will be no change in head coach Mike Tomlin and it’s likely OC Arthur Smith and DC Teryl Austin will each return for 2025. The changes that do come sound like positional coach switching though it’s unclear who the team could move on from. Pittsburgh typically allows contracts to expire rather than firing coaches, narrowing down the list of candidates. Even then, without direct knowledge of coaching contracts, it’s hard to definitively say which coaches have their deals expiring.
It’s hardly the message most fans want to hear but it’s hardly a surprise. Tomlin signed a three-year extension last summer worth $50 million, making firing him a non-starter. Rooney continues to publicly support Tomlin despite eight-straight seasons without a playoff victory much less a Super Bowl run. Smith is heading into his second year as the Steelers’ offensive coordinator after being passed over by the New York Jets and Chicago Bears for their head coaching vacancies. Austin has the strongest case of the three of being replaced but given Tomlin’s influence over the defense, swapping Austin for some mid-tier coordinator is unlikely to produce radical changes.
Of course, nor is the inevitable positional/assistant coach swap. Perhaps the best thing the team could do is expand a coaching staff that was the NFL’s smallest in 2024. Adding a passing game coordinator or defensive assistant as many teams have on staff could elevate the team and bring in new ideas and perspective for a team feeling pretty stale right now. But overall, the Steelers aren’t looking to make major coaching changes. As usual, it’s more tweaks around the edges.
