Steelers Now
Pittsburgh Steelers Art Rooney II was rather blunt when asked on Monday about the Steelers having one of the smallest coaching staffs in the NFL. He thinks the size of the staff is the least of the team’s problems.
“I don’t see that holding us back,” Rooney said on Monday during his season recap press conference. “I don’t think that’s a problem.”
Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger thinks the Steelers should look into expanding the staff, however, but he understands that there’s a cost with doing so. And the Rooneys might not want to give up that kind of money.
“Absolutely. There’s a lot of room for that,” Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast when asked by co-host Spencer Te’o if the Steelers should expand the coaching staff. “Expand the strength and conditioning staff. Expand the training staff. Expand equipment staff, all that stuff. But that’s money. And we all know that the Rooneys aren’t putting a lot of extra into that stuff. That’s just, they’ve just never done it that way. So we don’t expect that to change.”
Rooney said the Steelers have 27 coaches on their staff, but the on-field number of coaches listed in the team’s media guide is only 19. Rooney may be counting unlisted coaches like former Steelers linebackers Vince Williams and Ryan Shazier, who worked with the team’s defensive line and running backs this season, as well as the strength and conditioning staff.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders both have 23 coaches on their respective staffs, while the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs each have 22. The Eagles and Chiefs will play in Super Bowl LXI, while the Commanders and Bills made it to the conference championship game. So there is a correlation of success for teams with larger staffs.
“I remember sitting in a quarterback meeting room at the Pro Bowl. And you had the quarterback coach and there were two or three other coaches in there. And I’m like, they’re coaches. This is unbelievable,” Roethlisberger said. “And so I think there’s definitely room for that, but the team has to decide they want to do that.”
Rooney will look into expanding the staff, but it doesn’t appear to be a hot-button issue for him.
“I wouldn’t dismiss anything other than maybe a bigger coaching staff. I’m not sure that’s the answer. Our coaching staff has grown and that’s a similar size for staff around the League,” Rooney said. “I don’t think we’re outliers in that regard. On the analytic side, we have invested on that side and got more people in that department than we have ever had, but we look at opportunities and technology changes. We’ll have the opportunity to give ourselves better resources on that front, and we’ll certainly look at it.”
RELATED: Art Rooney II Rejects Notion That Steelers Coaching Staff Isn’t Big Enough
Rooney said that conversations about the structure and makeup of the coaching staff are ongoing, but with most of the team’s coaching staff...
