Steelers Now
For the first time since 2007, the Pittsburgh Steelers are searching for a new head coach, as Mike Tomlin submitted his resignation to president Art Rooney II on Tuesday.
So who will the Steelers target as Rooney begins his first search for a new coach as the team’s primary owner?
The Steelers haven’t hired a lot of coaches in recent memory, but the three they have hired have followed a similar pattern. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin all came to the Steelers as young coaches with defensive backgrounds.
It seems likely that Rooney will follow a similar mindset in searching for a replacement for Tomlin, though it should be noted that offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and offensive line coach Russ Grimm were both finalists last time around.
With that being said, here’s a lengthy and very preliminary list of potential Steelers head coaching targets:
Smith has head coaching experience, spending three years with the Atlanta Falcons, though it did not go all that well, finishing 7-10 in three straight seasons. He rebounded his resume by getting more than expected out of a below-average group of skill position players in Pittsburgh. Smith turned down the North Carolina job and was a finalist for the New York Jets head coaching job last season, and has an interview scheduled later this week with the Tennessee Titans.
Smith is still under contract with the Steelers, and at least one other team is considering him as an option, so the Steelers would be crazy to not at least interview him. That being said, this does not fit their typical pattern of head coaching hires.
Flores also has head coaching experience, spending three seasons at the helm of the Miami Dolphins. Things did not go well. Flores was fired, his quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, was openly critical of his coaching techniques. Then, Flores sued the Dolphins and the NFL, alleging among other things that Miami owner Stephen Ross pressured him to lose on purpose. It looked like Flores would never coach in the NFL again.
But Tomlin and the Steelers threw him a life preserver, hiring him as senior defesnive assistant in 2022. While Flores spent just one season in Pittsburgh, he was very well liked in the building, and likely would have stayed if not for getting an opportunity to be a defensive coordinator again in Minnesota.
The Broncos are the No. 1 seed in the AFC, mostly thanks to Joseph’s defense, and it could be time for Joseph to get another shot at a head coaching job. The 53-year-old went 11-21 as the head coach of the Broncos from 2017-18, but Denver thought enough of him to bring him back as defensive coordinator in 2023, following a three-year stint in the same role with the Miami Dolphins.
