Former Pittsburgh Steelers ILB coach Aaron Curry is now in the same role with the New York Jets, and we don’t know how or why. While his contract ran out, most probably assumed the Steelers liked him. Yet the Steelers did not sign him to a new contract—or perhaps he chose not to.
Either way, Curry’s departure marks to date the only move the Steelers have made this offseason after promising change. President Art Rooney II already indicated that the offensive coordinators are going to remain in place, as is Mike Tomlin. So what exactly is left for the Steelers if they are to make meaningful changes? Well, perhaps we won’t see any meaningful changes—just symbolic ones.
“I think you’ll see one or two more” moves on the Steelers’ coaching staff, Ray Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan. “I don’t think there’s gonna be any firings. But Mike [Tomlin]’s season-ending news conference, [he said] there’s gonna be changes. ‘How can we go about our business [doing the same thing and expecting different results?]’. That whole speech, it’s kind of meaningless now. He said it himself, and they’re not making any changes”.
Of course, if the Steelers don’t part with any coordinators or the head coach, there isn’t much of significance possible. One name we have seen come up a lot in requests for the chopping block is OL coach Pat Meyer. The belief is he is currently under contract, though, and Fittipaldo said he doesn’t anticipate any firings. They will occasionally fire a coach, like former OL coach Jack Bicknell Jr., but it is rather rare.
Teams don’t announce the details for coaching contracts, so a lot of this ends up as guesswork. Are the Steelers happy with RB coach Eddie Faulkner, and what is his contract status? How about TE coach Alfredo Roberts, or DL coach Karl Dunbar?
Regardless of what the Steelers do, it’s going to feel more like appeasement than a concerted effort toward improvement. Of course, for many fans, the only concerted effort to improve would be to fire Mike Tomlin. Tomlin isn’t going to fire himself, though, and he is in charge of the coaching staff.
The thing about all this talk is that it is predicated on the idea that the Steelers don’t make changes. They have turned over the coaching staff quite a bit, in reality. They just hired OC Arthur Smith, QB coach Tom Arth, and WR coach Zach Azzanni last year, for example. Mike Sullivan has been around, but he is in a senior assistant role now. The only coach with some real serious tenure is Dunbar, first hired in 2018.
In my opinion, Dunbar or Meyer would mark the most significant coaching moves the Steelers could make short of a coordinator. That is hardly surprising even speaking positionally, but the trenches are particularly important moving forward. Offensively, they have young talent that needs proper cultivation. Defensively, they must embark on the process of acquiring that young blood.
