The Pittsburgh Steelers are still expected to make coaching changes, but the coordinators aren’t one of them. Owner Art Rooney II indicated that OC Arthur Smith and DC Teryl Austin are slated to return in 2025.
“Mike certainly knows that he’s evaluating his staff and will continue to do so,” Rooney told Steelers’ play-by-play announcer Rob King in a 1-on-1 interview for the team website. “But the coaching staff, I think most of it will stay in place. Our coordinators, I think, will stay in place.
“I look forward to having Arthur Smith for a second year and having him have more of an opportunity to kind of really put his system in place. So there’s work to be done. And for the most part, I think we have the right people and the right jobs to do it.”
Smith’s return comes as little surprise. Passed over for the head coaching gigs in New York and Chicago, the Steelers weren’t going to move on from him after just one season.
While Pittsburgh’s offense finished on a miserable note, they still ranked 16th in points per game. That’s the team’s best finish since 2020, and for a moment, the Steelers were a top-ten offense. Smith will look to make the running game more efficient and become a better situational football team in short-yardage and the red zone. If Pittsburgh can retain QB Justin Fields or Russell Wilson, the team will enter 2025 with continuity they didn’t have a season ago.
Austin had the higher chance of being replaced but is expected to return. Under contract for 2025, the Steelers generally don’t fire coaches and choose to replace them when their contracts expire. Hired in 2019, Austin has improved the team’s turnover culture, and no defense has had as many sacks or takeaways as Pittsburgh over that span. Still, the defense wilted down the stretch, struggling with communication and run defense.
Rooney’s comments indicate the biggest coaching changes that could occur will be the positional coaches, echoing what he said to the media earlier Monday. It’s hard to predict who those will be. They will be considered tweaks more than major shifts after the team made several coaching hires a season ago. The team brought in OC Arthur Smith, WRs Coach Zach Azzanni, QBs Coach Tom Arth, and several offensive and defensive assistants.
By comparison, this year’s changes will be much less noticeable. However, the Steelers’ results in 2025 need to be different.
