Joel, Captain Lemming, North Coast, Northern_Blitz, Oviedo, Whisper

[Joel Buchsbaum]

It was like that to an extent under Cowher but they definitely brought in outside help too. Erhardt, Sherman, Gilbride, Capers, and Haslett were external guys. Lebeau, Whiz, Mularkey, Lewis and Gailey were internal guys. It’s almost dogmatic now, whereas it seemed like there were at least legit searches during the Cowher era. Haley is the only external guy to get a coordinator job in the Tomlin era.

Also, it was a little different under Cowher since he was employing a lot of future HCs whereas Arians is the only one in the Tomlin era that has even sniffed a HC job.

I suppose Austin and Canada were kind of external hires but they seemed to be anointed when they walked into the building. I don’t remember how many guys they interviewed for the DC job but the OC ‘search’ was a farce.

In my opinion, they’re promoting from within in the name of stability instead of leaning on the stability provided by Tomlin, Rooney, and Colbert (until this year anyway) and hiring the best guys for the other jobs. Especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Btw I think Austin was a good hire. He’s the first DC in 30 years who didn’t go to the Capers/Lebeau school of the zone blitz. They’ve needed some fresh thinking on that side of the ball for some time.

Note, Airans was a Cowher hire initially. Otherwise a fine reply.

[WindyCitySteel]

It seems some fans have selective memories on Cowher and Tomlin offensive coordinators so I'm reposting;

How many Steeler OCs/DCs under Cowher had zero NFL experience before coming to Pittsburgh?

[BURGH86STEEL]

That's not true. Cowher brought in Ron Erhardt from the Giants, he wasn't in the Steelers org. Dom Capers came from New Orleans to be his DC. Lebeau was promoted from within from DB coach, but he had a long coaching career in the NFL prior. Haslett came straight from New Orleans. Sherman and Gilbride came from other orgs after long careers in the NFL.

Fitchner and Canada's first NFL jobs came in Pittsburgh. Their best qualifications were that they had worked with Tomlin before or recruited his son at Maryland. Both implemented Tomlin's horizontal, low-risk offense, Sullivan will, too, if promoted. This needs to stop.

It's been generally the Steelers way to promote from within. I suggest you look up Canada's and Fitchners coaching qualifications before trying to draw some weird conspiracy theory about Maryland.

The offense was Ben's offense. The offense wasn't "low risk" until Ben suffered the injury. The offense took shots down the field this season. Did taking shots down the field make an offense low risk? How do you define low risk?

This offense isn't good enough to over come mistakes like penalties and turnovers. They have a rookie QB with young WR's, TE, RB, and recently put together Oline. They are a young offense. I said before that we needed to be patient with the offense. We'll see.

[WindyCitySteel]

It's been generally the Steelers way to promote from within. I suggest you look up Canada's and Fitchners coaching qualifications before trying to draw some weird conspiracy theory about Maryland.

The offense was Ben's offense. The offense wasn't "low risk" until Ben suffered the injury. The offense took shots down the field this season. Did taking shots down the field make an offense low risk? How do you define low risk?

This offense isn't good enough to over come mistakes like penalties and turnovers. They have a rookie QB with young WR's, TE, RB, and recently put together Oline. They are a young offense. I said before that we needed to be patient with the offense. We'll see.

Randy and Matt's first NFL jobs were in Pittsburgh. That's a fact.

Low risk is complete avoidance of the moderate to deep middle of the field: runs, jet-sweeps, horizontal passes, and deep 50-50 balls down the sideline, but mostly on 3rd downs. It's when the coach says the chief goals are possessing the football and not turning it over. It's what we've seen for four years running now, since Ben led the NFL in INTs in 2018.

[BURGH86STEEL]

Randy and Matt's first NFL jobs were in Pittsburgh. That's a fact.

Low risk is complete avoidance of the moderate to deep middle of the field: runs, jet-sweeps, horizontal passes, and deep 50-50 balls down the sideline, but mostly on 3rd downs. It's when the coach says the chief goals are possessing the football and not turning it over. It's what we've seen for four years running now, since Ben led the NFL in INTs in 2018.

So what if the Steelers were their 1st NFL coaching jobs? Plenty of coaches came from the college ranks where the NFL was their 1st coaching jobs. What's your point? This is borderline stupidity now.

The coaches give the QB options. The QB decides to go with the ball based on the defense or where he decides to go with the ball. The coaches don't have a joy stick to control where the QB goes with the ball. Does this make sense to you?

Yeah the goal of an offense should be to posses the ball, limit mistakes, and especially limit turnovers. It's up to the players to go out and execute the plan.

[WindyCitySteel]

So what if the Steelers were their 1st NFL coaching jobs? Plenty of coaches came from the college ranks where the NFL was their 1st coaching jobs. What's your point? This is borderline stupidity now.

The coaches give the QB options. The QB decides to go with the ball based on the defense or where he decides to go with the ball. The coaches don't have a joy stick to control where the QB goes with the ball. Does this make sense to you?

Yeah the goal of an offense should be to posses the ball, limit mistakes, and especially limit turnovers. It's up to the players to go out and execute the plan.

Fichtner is out of the league. After Canada's contract expires, he will be out of the league. The Pittsburgh Steelers are hiring Mike Tomlin's friends who NO OTHER TEAM IN THE LEAUGUE WOULD HIRE.

That's the point that you are missing because you are a 100% sycophantic Mike Tomlin apologist.

The #1 goal of the offense is to score points. They're the worst team in the league at doing it.

[hackjam]

It seems some fans have selective memories on Cowher and Tomlin offensive coordinators so I'm reposting;

Didn’t Sherman come into the OC job directly from Minnesota?

[feltdizz]

Not sure why there was a need to call out people by name. Especially when you insult half the people as “ball washers”

I have no idea who hires and fires the coordinators and I don’t think that information matters as much as some want to believe. Its Rooney’s team and we run things as a collective. Always have and always will unless the Rooneys sell the team.

Hopefully we give Kenny some input into what he likes to do as a QB instead of trying to force him into some lame cookie cutter scheme. I think this is why players like Allen, Hurts, etc are playing better football. Run plays that work to the QB’s strengths.

Hell, what is Whipple doing? Nevermind, he is at Nebraska making 850K a year. I believe Canada makes 700K.

Seriously, we need to go outside the org and pay some market rate wages if we want the offense to improve. I’m not mad at the defense overall. Buffalo game was a nightmare but overall they have done their job much better than the offense.

One other thing, we are young.. really
young on offense. People have to have more patience even though we watched this O underperform for the last few years. Gotta give a QB a full camp as the number 1 before truly evaluating an offense. If we have a high pick and our guy isn’t there, trade back and coloeft
kore picks.. upgrade the OL in the 1st rd, make an aggressive move in FA for a proven weapon on offense and we should be fine.

I wouldn’t be mad if we drafted Addison in the second at WR if he is still on the board. Do like Cincinnati and get Kenny a WR who knows his tendencies and how to react when Kenny breaks the pocket.

[NorthCoast]

Didn’t Sherman come into the OC job directly from Minnesota?

You are correct. He was the QB coach there. He lasted one season as OC in PIT and went back to MIN as OC (where he also lasted one season).

[Northern_Blitz]

I would suggest it is wise to hire from within if a coordinator was stolen to be promoted to be a head coach. His system must have been legit, so you want to keep continuity.

If a coordinator is "fired" you'd think an outsider would be preferable as you are looking for change. We are the second category but yet have hired within to replace firings.

This seems like a reasonable way to think about it.

[NorthCoast]

One other thought on Canada hiring. If it's true the Steelers make org decisions as a collective it is possible that Rooney ended up as a tie-breaker on Canada's hiring. Maybe Colbert gave a thumbs down (wanted outside guy?), Tomlin a thumbs up (wanted continuity?), or vice versa and Rooney made the call? Then any firing would have to come from Rooney wouldn't it?

[Steel Maniac]

Gentlemen’s Club?? I’m in.

Yes Chucktownsteeler, you are. Again, I didn't have enough space in the thread subject column for everyone. I appreciate you.

[WindyCitySteel]

One other thought on Canada hiring. If it's true the Steelers make org decisions as a collective it is possible that Rooney ended up as a tie-breaker on Canada's hiring. Maybe Colbert gave a thumbs down (wanted outside guy?), Tomlin a thumbs up (wanted continuity?), or vice versa and Rooney made the call? Then any firing would have to come from Rooney wouldn't it?

I think it was a foregone conclusion they were promoting from within -- the only other guys they talked to were Pep Hamilton and Hue Jackson.

[Steel Maniac]

Florio said the other day that he believes Canada was a Rooney hire, not a Tomlin hire. If true, would Tomlin publicly fight that decision? And would he have the power to fire him? I think not.

If Rooney did push Canada on Tomlin, then this is alarming news. Because Rooney is a lawyer; stay out of the day to day running of the team. You hire football people to make football decisions. Let them do their jobs.

[Northern_Blitz]

I think it was a foregone conclusion they were promoting from within -- the only other guys they talked to were Pep Hamilton and Hue Jackson.

I think the same thing about the GM hiring even though they talked to lots more people.

And now that hiring rules are different in the NFL, I expect them to interview a lot more people for OCs when we let Canada go (we have to be letting him go at the end of the year right?). But I also expect us to hire Sullivan based on the trend of us believing that we happen to have the best possible option in house already.