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Interesting point heard on the radio.....Do the Steelers.....

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Chicoman

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Listening to the Steelers Post Game and a caller who called in made an interesting point........

The guy said the Steelers as an organization spend the money on the players.....BUT.....also pointed out to the fact that the Steelers DON'T SPEND THE MONEY ON THE ASSISTANT COACHING STAFF anymore. The last time the Steelers did spend BIG MONEY on assistant coaches it was Dick LeBeau, Todd Haley and Mike Munchak. If my memory serves me correctly.....we had pretty good squads......THOUGHTS? Do the Steelers need to go after the High Profile assistant coaches who command bigger money contracts?

We often hear this team has NO IDENTITY! Is it the Asistant Coaches who help give this team an Identity?
 
Chicoman said:
Listening to the Steelers Post Game and a caller who called in made an interesting point........

The guy said the Steelers as an organization spend the money on the players.....BUT.....also pointed out to the fact that the Steelers DON'T SPEND THE MONEY ON THE ASSISTANT COACHING STAFF anymore. The last time the Steelers did spend BIG MONEY on assistant coaches it was Dick LeBeau, Todd Haley and Mike Munchak. If my memory serves me correctly.....we had pretty good squads......THOUGHTS? Do the Steelers need to go after the High Profile assistant coaches who command bigger money contracts?

We often hear this team has NO IDENTITY! Is it the Asistant Coaches who help give this team an Identity?
Click to expand...
When was the last time one of our assistants was hired away and climbed up the ladder on another team?
 
One of the guys on SNR said we have one of the lowest numbers of coordinators and assistants. ******* Belischmuck has like 37 ******** from Silicon Valley working for him.
 
It's a widely known fact that Tomlin's coaching tree is sadder than Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.

I've heard rumors that it's due to Tomlin being insecure with being challenged by another strong personality.

Not sure of the validity of the statement but it's what I heard.
 
It's 100% correct. But nothing new. It's been said here for years. Look it's a coaching staff not just a HC. And your best bang for the dollar is good positional and coordinators. But the problem is that Tomlin's coaching tree looks like an Elm in Saskatchewan in January. So no one wants to come be a part of it. I have a problem saying Haley was a good coach by the way.
 
I'm not even worried about pay, but the Steelers are cheap with how they handle their coaches now. They don't fire anyone, they only let their contracts run out. They don't make big hires from outside the organization, but only promote from within. As it was pointed out, it's the smallest staff in the league.

If Butler gets fired, I have little doubt Austin gets promoted. If Canada gets fired, they may have no other choice but to hire from outside. However, back to the original post, it was no surprise the Steelers were very good when Tomlin had three former head coaches on his staff. Right now, there would not be a single member of this staff in demand for a promotion around the league. They haven't had anyone innovative since LeBeau and rarely do you ever here about the Steelers outscheming their opponents based on something the coaches devised. It happens on occasion, but it's rare.
 
It has sucked since Munch left.
To be closer to his grandkids, lol.
 
JMM said:
When was the last time one of our assistants was hired away and climbed up the ladder on another team?
Click to expand...
Arians has done ok once he came out of retirement.
 
ZonaBurgh said:
True, but he was already on the staff for 3 years before Mike showed up.
Click to expand...
I didn't say he wasn't on our staff prior to Mikey showing up.
 
And yet Art gave Tomlin a three year extension thru 2024. Mindboggling! What is Artie seeing that we're missing here? I'm totally dumbfounded by this.
 
I suppose I'm a bit late on this, but just read the Friday Insider on DK from a couple of weeks ago and Lolley suggested there is some belief within the organization Butler will retire at the end of the year. I think Austin will move into his position if that does happen because that's how Tomlin operates. The question then becomes would they replace Butler with an OLB coach and replace Austin's position to expand the coaching staff? Again, big IF right now, but something to think about.
 
Ya... Butler will "retire".
Biggest ******* farce ever. He's nothing but a front for Tomlin and he'll STILL get thrown under the bus and blamed for this entire ****-show while Tomlin preaches about "accountability".
 
The assistant coach ***** has been around a long time... Think about the non coordinator assistants under cowher compared to tomlin... its drastic.

Ive said this before, under Cowher he found magnificent coaches, and turned over mediocre ones regularly

His very first staff, which was assembled with help from the rooneys looked like this

Offensive Coordinator – Ron Erhardt - He built the run game that Cowher would utilize his entire time here.
Offensive Backfield – Dick Hoak - This guy was the greatest RB coach in Steelers history, grew up in Jennette, went to penn state, played a couple years for the steelers, retired in 1970 and was the steelers RB coach from 72 until 06...
Wide Receivers – Bob Harrison- nondescript ex player coach
Tight Ends – Pat Hodgson - Journeyman WR and TE coach
Offensive Line – Kent Stephenson - Probably the best OL coach in steelers history. He adapted the erhardt blocking scheme to something Cowher used the entirety of his run here... he retired early after the 2000 season... he was mentioned by name as one of the best OL coaches in the book view from the Oline among other places...

Defensive Coordinator – Dom Capers - Great DC and future Head coach
Defensive Line – Steve Furness - an average coach
Linebackers – Marvin Lewis - a long time head coach and premium DC after he left the steelers
Defensive Backs – Dick LeBeau - the best DC in steelers history... perfected the zone blitz concept that was refined here with Cowher, Capers, Lewis and himself....


here was the thing, in two years years Furness would be replaced by the incomparable John Mitchell, now assistant head coach and one of the finest DL coaches in league history. Harrison would be swapped out for future OC and head coach Chan Gailey.

When Capers moved on to head coach of the Cowboys, Lebeau took over at DC and Tim Lewis was hired as DB coach. Lewis would go on to eventually be DC for us, the Giants and the Panthers. he also was high enough regarded that before cowher unceremoniously fired him, he was interviewing for HC positions.

When Gailey moved to OC, they hired David culley, who currently is the head coach in houston.

Pat hodgeson was replaced by future OC and head coach Mike Mularkey

sure as cowher moved into the bad phase of his record 98-00, the staff has some misses... Sherman was never going to turn kordel into a pocket passer and gilbrides high tech offense wasnt a good fit for him either....we's lose Lebeau to cinci for a spell... but he rebuilt...

even his last staff was really solid.

Offensive Coordinator – Ken Whisenhunt - future HC
Oline- Russ Grimm- very respected oline coach with a few demons that sank his career
Quarterbacks – Mark Whipple - instrumental in BR's early development
Running Backs – Dick Hoak - retired after this season
Wide Receivers – Bruce Arians -eventual sb winning head coach
Tight Ends – James Daniel- developed several good tes for the steelers before retiring las year
Offensive Assistant – Matt Raich

Defensive Coordinator – Dick LeBeau - is DLB
Defensive Line – John Mitchell - is JM
Linebackers – Keith Butler - current faux DC
Defensive Backs – Darren Perry - left here for a simular positon
Assistant Defensive Backs – Ray Horton eventually a dc for several teams
Defensive Assistant – Lou Spanos

the thing is few of Tomlins staffs even came close to approaching Cowhers... heck many of the long time coaches he relied on were cowher hires...
 
SteelerFan448 said:
I suppose I'm a bit late on this, but just read the Friday Insider on DK from a couple of weeks ago and Lolley suggested there is some belief within the organization Butler will retire at the end of the year. I think Austin will move into his position if that does happen because that's how Tomlin operates. The question then becomes would they replace Butler with an OLB coach and replace Austin's position to expand the coaching staff? Again, big IF right now, but something to think about.
Click to expand...
So more bad decisions on the horizon. Wonderful.
 
They have plenty of coaches, just not plenty of good ones... if they are going to add an assistant positions or two id suggest getting a stretegic coordinator for game situations and a player development coordinator....

if they are going to trash any coaches id line up two in particular, Hilliard and Bubbles... im sorry, when half of your roster is specifically retained for special teams play, you shouldnt be middle of the pack in most areas... no return feels like its going to go for big yardage and the coverages are meh... the problem where we get these punters in that look ok at first then are messes by the end has to be related to him... and the intentional short kicks on kickoffs is just stupid
 
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