So far, all the promised “changes” Mike Tomlin made at his final press conference have amounted to bringing back a secondary coach on-staff in 2022 and 2023 and hiring a linebackers coach native to the area who played and coached at Pitt. Hardly needle-moving moves to change the course of the franchise. While the roster is expected to see heavier and more impactful turnover, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac believes the Steelers’ coaching staff might not be set in stone.
“There could still be one other minor change, but the staff shakeup that might have been expected after the Steelers lost their final five games and had another one-and-done appearance in the postseason never materialized,” Dulac wrote in a Monday column.
He doesn’t speculate on who or where that coach would be. But it doesn’t sound like it will come from any of the positional coaches, the rest expected to remain on-staff for 2025. The only two departures were ILBs Coach Aaron Curry and DBs Coach Grady Brown. Both men didn’t have their contracts renewed and weren’t technically fired. The Steelers replaced Curry with Scott McCurley, a Mike McCarthy loyalist who spent the past five years coaching linebackers in Dallas. Gerald Alexander replaced Brown, the 2024 Las Vegas Raiders’ safeties coach who spent 2022 and 2023 as a Steelers’ assistant, following Brian Flores to Pittsburgh after the two coached together in Miami.
Dulac’s main point is the lack of overhaul. In fairness, expecting a massive “staff shakeup” after the team hired seven new coaches ahead of the 2024 season, including sweeping changes on the offensive side of the ball. That included a new coordinator in Arthur Smith, a new QBs Coach in Tom Arth (previous QBs Coach Mike Sullivan was moved to a Senior/Assistant role), a new WRs Coach in Zach Azzanni, and a handful of offensive assistants largely hand-picked by Smith to follow him to Pittsburgh.
But there were cases to be made for the likes of OL Coach Pat Meyer to be let go ahead of a critical season for a young offensive line to develop. And at the least, chances for Pittsburgh to expand the coaching staff, an idea Art Rooney II dismissed during his media rounds.
Ultimately, the roster itself will have more weight on the team’s season. The talent they do – or don’t – add over the next three months will shape their 2025 outlook. Hopefully there’s more turnover than the Steelers’ coaching staff, a unit that will largely look the same when the team gets together in OTAs.
