Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers have cut loose their entire coaching staff from the 2025 team, following the resignation of head coach Mike Tomlin, allowing all of the team’s coaches to seek jobs elsewhere, with the staff being told they will only be retained if the new head coach seeks them out.
That’s a departure for the Steelers, who held over a half-dozen coaches from Bill Cowher’s staff to Mike Tomlin’s in 2007, and also kept one on the payroll from Chuck Noll’s final staff to Cowher’s first in 1992.
It also doesn’t sit will with at least one of the team’s current stars, as running back Jaylen Warren took a rare step to go to back for his position coach.
Warren, who hadn’t tweeted since 2022, replied to a tweet by Steelers writer Mark Kaboly on Thursday. Kaboly argued the Steelers should keep wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni and special teams coordinator Danny Smith.
After a four-year hiatus from the platform, Warren perked up and added running backs coach Eddie Faulkner’s name to that list.
And Eddie Faulkner
— Jaylen Warren (@Nunless2) January 15, 2026
Faulkner, 48, has been with the Steelers since 2019, serving as the team’s running backs coach throughout that time. He was also the team’s interim offensive coordinator after the firing of Matt Canada toward the end of the 2023 season.
Faulkner oversaw the development of Warren from an afterthought of an undrafted free agent into a nearly 1,000-yard performance, and also helped 2025 free agent acquisition Kenneth Gainwell become the team’s MVP this year.
It’s hard to argue that Faulkner is not deserving of keeping his job, but Steelers president Art Rooney II made it a point to note that the team’s new head coach would have full say over his staff.
“A big part of the search for a new head coach is really understanding their ideas about the staff and who they would want to hire,” Rooney said. “So yeah, that’s an important part of the discussion.”
The Steelers are not considering any internal candidates for the job, eliminating offensive coordinator Arthur Smith from contention. He is interviewing for two other head coaching positions.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Star Goes to Bat to Keep His Position Coach
