Steelers make it official, Teryl Austin is the next Defensive Coordinator

[hackjam]

I had been waiting for this to be official. Lots of talk over the weekend but wasn't official until today.

https://www.steelers.com/news/austin-named-defensive-coordinator

[hawaiiansteel]

Joe Starkey’s mailbag: Will Teryl Austin actually run the Steelers defense?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
FEB 8, 2022

Yinzer Larry David: Is the promotion of Teryl Austin a clue that maybe Tomlin is ready to hand playcalling duties over? Having already been on staff, he clearly has an inside track on how Mike Tomlin runs things, and he has two other DC stints where presumably he called his own plays.

Starkey: Until I hear that Teryl Austin will make the defensive calls, I’m going to assume it’s still Mike Tomlin’s defense, Larry David.

Art Rooney II did make an interesting comment to reporters last week when he said, “Coach Tomlin inserts himself where he needs to. He and coordinators have to work out the best way for plays to be called. … As we change defensive coordinators now, there may be some changes in how coach Tomlin handles that.”

If that can be translated as, “I’ll order him to give up play-calling,” great. It’s time. But I’m a little skeptical. I’m going to assume, until I hear otherwise, that Austin was indoctrinated over these past three years, did not have any guarantee of a similar job elsewhere and now will be a Keith Butler-like figurehead coordinator. He will help form the game plans, but Tomlin will call the plays — which is what every coordinator wants to do.

You work the other 348 days to get ready for game days. Nobody wants to be the backup on game days, and that includes coordinators. Hence, the in-house promotion instead of an outside hire (unless I hear otherwise).

Those in favor of Tomlin retaining those duties have an argument. He has put some very good defenses on the field. But it’s also true that the Steelers never came close to figuring out their run-defense issues this season, that they are the only team in NFL history to give up 40-plus points in three straight playoff games, and that Tomlin admitted out loud this season that he was outschemed by Dan Campbell, who had never run an offense until that day.

If one of your answers to all that is, “Hey, at least they made the playoffs before imploding on defense,” my answer would be: “They have actually missed the playoffs twice in the past four years, only made them this year because a third wild card was added and haven’t won a playoff game in five years. Oh, and the Cincinnati Bengals just won as many playoff games in three weeks as the Steelers have in the past 11 years.”

Sometimes, you need to scheme your way around talent deficiencies (and Tomlin is largely responsible for talent procurement, as well). Is the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense way more talented than the Steelers? I don’t think so. But the Bengals sure seemed to have some answers for Patrick Mahomes that the Steelers did not. The Chiefs could have scored 60 in each of their past two meetings against the Steelers if they so desired. It was that bad.

If you’re going to hire Teryl Austin, let him do the job. Let him actually implement the defense, not just assist in forming the plan.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/joe-starkey/2022/02/08/Steelers-Will-Teryl-Austin-run-the-defense-mike-tomlin-penguins-evgeni-malkin-joe-starkey-mailbag/stories/202202080020

[WindyCitySteel]

Joe Starkey’s mailbag: Will Teryl Austin actually run the Steelers defense?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
FEB 8, 2022

Yinzer Larry David: Is the promotion of Teryl Austin a clue that maybe Tomlin is ready to hand playcalling duties over? Having already been on staff, he clearly has an inside track on how Mike Tomlin runs things, and he has two other DC stints where presumably he called his own plays.

Starkey: Until I hear that Teryl Austin will make the defensive calls, I’m going to assume it’s still Mike Tomlin’s defense, Larry David.

Art Rooney II did make an interesting comment to reporters last week when he said, “Coach Tomlin inserts himself where he needs to. He and coordinators have to work out the best way for plays to be called. … As we change defensive coordinators now, there may be some changes in how coach Tomlin handles that.”

If that can be translated as, “I’ll order him to give up play-calling,” great. It’s time. But I’m a little skeptical. I’m going to assume, until I hear otherwise, that Austin was indoctrinated over these past three years, did not have any guarantee of a similar job elsewhere and now will be a Keith Butler-like figurehead coordinator. He will help form the game plans, but Tomlin will call the plays — which is what every coordinator wants to do.

You work the other 348 days to get ready for game days. Nobody wants to be the backup on game days, and that includes coordinators. Hence, the in-house promotion instead of an outside hire (unless I hear otherwise).

Those in favor of Tomlin retaining those duties have an argument. He has put some very good defenses on the field. But it’s also true that the Steelers never came close to figuring out their run-defense issues this season, that they are the only team in NFL history to give up 40-plus points in three straight playoff games, and that Tomlin admitted out loud this season that he was outschemed by Dan Campbell, who had never run an offense until that day.

If one of your answers to all that is, “Hey, at least they made the playoffs before imploding on defense,” my answer would be: “They have actually missed the playoffs twice in the past four years, only made them this year because a third wild card was added and haven’t won a playoff game in five years. Oh, and the Cincinnati Bengals just won as many playoff games in three weeks as the Steelers have in the past 11 years.”

Sometimes, you need to scheme your way around talent deficiencies (and Tomlin is largely responsible for talent procurement, as well). Is the Cincinnati Bengals’ defense way more talented than the Steelers? I don’t think so. But the Bengals sure seemed to have some answers for Patrick Mahomes that the Steelers did not. The Chiefs could have scored 60 in each of their past two meetings against the Steelers if they so desired. It was that bad.

If you’re going to hire Teryl Austin, let him do the job. Let him actually implement the defense, not just assist in forming the plan.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...s/202202080020

Pretty....pretty....pretty....pretty.........good.

[Oviedo]

I think this will work out well. Tomlin hired Austin, whereas he inherited Butler.

[papillon]

I just don't want to hear about MTs fingerprints all over the defense, let Austin run the defense and either be successful or not. If they hired me to be the DC and then Mike Tomlin told me what I had to run and called the plays on Sunday, I'd resign and look elsewhere for employment. That is the worst situation to be in as an employee and particularly bad if your boss has a job for life.

Pappy

[flippy]

If they hired me to be the DC and then Mike Tomlin told me what I had to run and called the plays on Sunday, I'd resign and look elsewhere for employment.

Id do what Mike wanted and collect the check as long as I could. But I have no idea how to call a D

Although we’ve all watched enough Mike T D’s to have a good idea what’s about to happen in most situations.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Id do what Mike wanted and collect the check as long as I could. But I have no idea how to call a D

Although we’ve all watched enough Mike T D’s to have a good idea what’s about to happen in most situations.

True, but even though we know Tomlin was calling the D, there is so much more we don't know:

Whose scheme was it?
Whose gameplan was it?
How often was he calling the defensive plays? Most plays or a couple of times a game?
Was he doing it because he thought Butler was incompetent or because he wanted control?
Was Butler his choice to be promoted to DC or was it forced upon him because the organization made him wait behind Lebeau and felt he was owed?

I am not saying I know the answers or trying to absolve anyone of blame, just a habit I've gotten into based on news reporting in general these days. More importantly, I'm interested because it will let us know the likelihood that he imposes himself on the new DC.

[feltdizz]

I just don't want to hear about MTs fingerprints all over the defense, let Austin run the defense and either be successful or not. If they hired me to be the DC and then Mike Tomlin told me what I had to run and called the plays on Sunday, I'd resign and look elsewhere for employment. That is the worst situation to be in as an employee and particularly bad if your boss has a job for life.

Pappy

Well, its real easy to say you would resign from a gig you don’t have.. lol.

I’m sure Austin knows what his role is as the DC this year.

[whatever]

Definitely a move to increase his bank account but not to improve his long term coaching opportunities.
Tough call if you have aspirations to be a real DC or HC.

[flippy]

True, but even though we know Tomlin was calling the D, there is so much more we don't know:

Whose scheme was it?
Whose gameplan was it?
How often was he calling the defensive plays? Most plays or a couple of times a game?
Was he doing it because he thought Butler was incompetent or because he wanted control?
Was Butler his choice to be promoted to DC or was it forced upon him because the organization made him wait behind Lebeau and felt he was owed?

I am not saying I know the answers or trying to absolve anyone of blame, just a habit I've gotten into based on news reporting in general these days. More importantly, I'm interested because it will let us know the likelihood that he imposes himself on the new DC.

I agree. All we can do is guess.

But that hasn’t stopped us before

Id guess Tomlin felt he had to run the D just based on listening to Butler speaking in public.

I know that’s beyond judgey on my part, but my gut always told me Butler wasn’t the smartest or most charismatic guy.

Maybe he was a brilliant introvert for all we know. But based on what we saw, odds were against it.

And I think that’s all we can do is make our best guess based on gut - just like Tomlin

[Northern_Blitz]

Now that we've "made it official", we can all hope that the next step is to "put a ring on it".

[feltdizz]

Definitely a move to increase his bank account but not to improve his long term coaching opportunities.
Tough call if you have aspirations to be a real DC or HC.

yeah, being the DC of a defense with the DPOY is a terrible way to improve your profile.

[feltdizz]

I agree. All we can do is guess.

But that hasn’t stopped us before

Id guess Tomlin felt he had to run the D just based on listening to Butler speaking in public.

I know that’s beyond judgey on my part, but my gut always told me Butler wasn’t the smartest or most charismatic guy.

Maybe he was a brilliant introvert for all we know. But based on what we saw, odds were against it.

And I think that’s all we can do is make our best guess based on gut - just like Tomlin

Damn.. that’s harsh. lol

[whatever]

yeah, being the DC of a defense with the DPOY is a terrible way to improve your profile.

I’ll spell it out for you.
Everyone knows that Tomlin is actually running the defense.
Austin will have a hard time getting another DC job because the owner/gm will know he was a figurehead DC and didn’t really call the plays or devise the scheme.
This also won’t help if he interviews for a HC job.
Of course, maybe that don’t matter with nfl hiring practices.

[feltdizz]

I’ll spell it out for you.
Everyone knows that Tomlin is actually running the defense.
Austin will have a hard time getting another DC job because the owner/gm will know he was a figurehead DC and didn’t really call the plays or devise the scheme.
This also won’t help if he interviews for a HC job.
Of course, maybe that don’t matter with nfl hiring practices.

Maybe.. it seems to hamper Bienemy’s
ability to get a HC gig.

But we have also seen a lot of OC’s hired recently who didn’t call plays on offense.