Change for the Steelers is Taking Longer Than Expected

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Am I missing something?

The Pittsburgh Steelers saw their season end over a week ago. The loss was the team’s fifth straight and revealed far more problems than most of us realized. I therefore find it incredibly strange and troubling that the organization has not made one, single move with its coaching staff.

For starters, how does offensive line coach Pat Meyer still have his job? All we’ve seen this past year is consistent regression. Look no further than your two offensive tackles both pulling towards each other in Baltimore. And this was in a postseason game! That kind of stuff happens early in the season, not in week 19.

The other issue I and many others have with Meyer is his decision to play guys out of position. To be fair to Meyer, I think much of this is on Mike Tomlin, but unfortunately that still comes back on Meyer.

Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin still has his job too and that’s likely because he’s still under contract. Steelers Team President Art Rooney II and his unwillingness to fire coaches because he doesn’t want to pay them is a real thing. Much like he finally did with Matt Canada however who he fired mid-season in 2023, he has the opportunity to let Austin go too… And should.

Does Tomlin have some culpability with Austin too? Of course he does. In fact, we could probably say he bears as much of the defense’s late-season ineptitude as does Austin. But if these “changes” we’ve heard Tomlin talk about are anything then it has to start with Austin.

Other assistants like D-Line Coach Karl Dunbar should all be on thin ice. I would go so far as to say that any coach not named Danny Smith should be nervous right now. But the longer we go with no moves the more I think we are bringing this band back and that’s depressing as Hell.

Keep in mind also that two things are also at play here. The longer the Steelers go without making moves the smaller the pool of candidates gets. Conversely, if they are going to cut some of these guys loose, they aren’t doing them any favors either as the jobs are already getting filled and they won’t have anywhere to go.

Obviously we are still waiting for Rooney to give his “state of the team” address that he does each season. I’m not going to get into what he may or may not say in this space but I certainly hope he’s talking about coaching changes when he does. If this entire staff is back then we will have truly entered the world of insanity if we haven’t already.

And that’s something I definitely haven’t missed.

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