Less than 24 hours after the team’s latest embarrassing playoff exit, the Steelers find themselves at the dawn of a new era. After 19 years at the helm, Mike Tomlin announced Tuesday that he is stepping down as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. This puts the organization in rarely explored territory. Think about this context: The Beatles broke up in April of 1970; this will only be the third head coaching search the team has conducted since then.
While I won’t pretend to have any inside sources
on who Art Rooney II might be favoring for the job, we can certainly take a look at some of the names that have been floated in the coaching carousel and make some educated guesses.
Staying in house?
Listen, I don’t like this any more than you do, but I’m trying to be thorough with this list. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has an interview scheduled with the Tennessee Titans on Wednesday, so there is at least some interest in NFL circles in giving Smith a second crack at a head coaching gig.
If Rooney were to name Smith his next head coach, it would clearly be a play at maintaining some semblance of continuity. While that would be the exact opposite of my priorities if I were in charge of the team — I’m all for as much change as the team can muster — Art Rooney has been fairly reluctant to rock the boat as owner.
Smith’s isn’t exactly anything I’d be dying to retain, but the Steelers finished 15th in points per game and 16th in EPA per play this season. Considering the lack of receiving talent on the team, and Aaron Rodgers’ propensity to live in the short, quick game, one could make the argument that Smith did fairly well with an unusual roster construction and quarterback limitations.
I am not making that argument, however. Smith was an improvement from former playcaller Matt Canada, but after leading three NFL offenses, Smith appears to be a coordinator who raises an offense’s floor but still has a relatively limited ceiling. We can argue about whether Tomlin, Smith, or Rodgers deserves the most blame for Pittsburgh’s anemic passing attack, but that’s losing the forest for the trees. Smith has led three NFL offenses in his career, and frustrating personnel utilization and spotty passing attacks were present for all three of the Titans, Falcons, and Steelers. Smith’s 2020 Titans team managed to finish fourth in PPG and third in EPA/play, but he’s never come close to those heights again in his five other seasons as a playcaller.
I expect the Steelers to conduct their due diligence and give Smith an interview, but I would be extremely opposed to retaining him.
Any offensive gurus?
Somewhere, in an alternate reality, the Steelers faced the music a year sooner and accepted the Chicago Bears’ trade offer for Mike Tomlin in January 2025. In that dimension, perhaps they were able to convince offensive guru Ben Johnson to come to Pittsburgh. Alas, that’s not the world we’re living in.
This 2026 coaching carousel doesn’t quite have the same firepower for teams looking to employ an offensive wunderkind. Many of the best options are retreads who come with their own baggage, or up-and-coming coaches with short resumes.
Mike McDaniel is one intriguing option. McDaniel’s Dolphins in 2022 and 2023 were some of the most explosive and exciting in the league. A member of the ever-expanding Shanahan coaching tree, McDaniel’s offenses highlighted the speed of his skill position players while featuring a strong running game and a passing game that accented the strengths of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa while hiding some of his limitations. That was less effective over the past two seasons, but I still believe McDaniel to be one of the more brilliant offensive minds in the league.
Elsewhere, the Packers have yet to move on from Matt LaFleur, but with rumblings of discontent coming out of Green Bay, the Steelers should certainly monitor that situation. LaFleur is another branch of the Shanahan coaching tree, and in seven seasons as a head coach, he’s accumulated 76 wins and a .654 winning percentage. There’s concern about his record in the playoffs (3-6), but LaFleur is a young coach who I wouldn’t write off just yet.
Kevin Stefanski is another playcaller with a decent reputation who is suddenly looking for a job. It’s hard to fully judge him after Browns’ ownership saddled him with DeShaun Watson and his team-sinking contract, but NFL circles seem to still consider him a top hire this cycle. He’d come with built-in knowledge and experience against the Steelers’ AFC rivals, and his preferred running game designs would seemingly fit in well with the Steelers’ personnel. Still, it would feel weird to bring in a coach fired by the lowly Browns after winning just eight games the past two seasons. Plus, Stefanski’s work with rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders this season doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence in his ability to develop the types of quarterbacks the Steelers might be forced to deploy in the immediate future.
Other names include:
- Mike McCarthy — A Pittsburgh native with a Super Bowl ring and two prior head coaching gigs. I would be against this hire, as McCarthy has seemingly struggled to adapt to recent innovations in the league, but we’re trying to be thorough, remember?
- Kliff Kingsbury — a name I’d be much more sold on as an OC hire than a head coach. Kingsbury’s run game designs remain one of the best in the league. His time with Arizona has me questioning his ability as the top man, but his work with Washington’s offense rehabbed his reputation significantly.
- Joe Brady — Brady has worked well with an elite quarterback (Joe Burrow at LSU, Josh Allen in Buffalo), but would he have the same success in Pittsburgh, where there are no easy answers for who will be the quarterback in 2026? Brady was less successful during his time in Carolina, but as a disciple of Sean Payton, he might be able to get the best from a Steelers’ offense whose best players play running back and tight end.
- Klint Kubiak — If you hadn’t noticed, coaches with ties to the Shanahan offensive system are all the rage in the NFL, and Kubiak is the son of Gary Kubiak, the coach who designed this offensive system with Mike Shanahan back in the ’90s. Kubiak started hot in New Orleans in 2024 before roster limitations sank their season. This year, he was the playcaller for the NFC’s top-seeded Seattle Seahawks. Is he ready to be a head coach? Anyone’s guess, but his wide zone, play-action-heavy offense would be a fit with Pittsburgh’s offensive personnel.
- Klayton Adams — Adams was a first-year OC in Dallas this year, and previously was an offensive line coach for Arizona and Indianapolis. That NFL journey has given him influences like Frank Reich and Schottenheimer. Adams was a co-offensive coordinator with the Colts and was in charge of designing the Cardinals’ running game in 2023-24. Dallas’ run game was reinvigorated this season with him in-house, and Arizona’s fell apart.
- Grant Udinski — It’s hard to parse out how much credit to give an offensive coordinator hired by an offensive-minded head coach, but Udinski was the offensive coordinator this season for the Jaguars and head coach Liam Coen. This Jaguars staff helped Trevor Lawrence produce what was easily his best season as a pro. Coen comes from the Sean McVay coaching tree, which is just another prominent branch of the Shanahan tree. At just 29 years old, Udinski probably isn’t ready for the top job just yet, but the Steelers gambled on a green coach with only one season as an NFL coordinator with their last head coaching hire.
Defensive coaches
While I get the appeal to hire a coach with an offensive background, the truth is that many of those coaches I listed in the previous section are considered to be a year or two away from being ready. Many of the names listed as the top available coaches in this hiring cycle come from a defensive background. The Steelers need new ideas on both sides of the ball, so they should limit their search to just offensive schemers. The best hire will be able to maximize their own expertise and find quality coaches to assist in the areas where they are lacking.
Jesse Minter is one of the top names I’d be monitoring for the Steelers. Minter is young, but he comes from the Harbaugh coaching ecosystem and helped generate top defenses at Michigan, as well as assisting in a culture shift with the Chargers. Time with the Ravens also had him rubbing elbows with Mike Macdonald, one of the most brilliant defensive minds in the NFL presently. The Chargers just fell out of the playoffs, but their defense had potential league MVP Drake Maye looking lost for most of the game. Minter has seen what a professional operation looks like, and I’d be intrigued to see what ideas he could bring to Pittsburgh. Plus, it would be nice to keep him off the Baltimore sidelines.
Another name being linked to the Steelers is Rams’ DC Chris Shula. The grandson of legendary coach Don Shula, Shula has 11 years of NFL experience, including the past two seasons as defensive coordinator for the Rams. Shula got the most out of a Rams defense that was expected to heavily regress after the departures of Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey. The Rams have not invested heavily in cornerbacks since letting Ramsey walk; instead, they’ve made the most of young players without pristine NFL pedigrees, which could pair well with a Steelers organization that hasn’t drafted a first-round corner since taking Artie Burns in 2016. Another potential perk of hiring Shula? He’s plugged into the McVay coaching tree, meaning he’d likely have the connections to bring in an offensive coordinator with experience in that system.
Brian Flores didn’t have a successful tenure in Miami — and is still in a legal battle regarding his firing there — but after rehabbing his image for a year in Pittsburgh, he’s gone on to become one of the most respected defensive schemers in the NFL. Time will tell if Flores has matured enough to handle the pressures of the top job better than he allegedly did in Miami, but a return to Pittsburgh would make a ton of sense for an organization that is already familiar with him.
Other names could include:
- Aden Durde — Durde worked as a defensive line coach in Dallas before becoming Mike MacDonald’s DC in Seattle. Seattle’s defense has been one of the three best units in the league this year, and Durde would likely have some scheme influence from his time with MacDonald.
- Lou Anarumo — A former division rival, Anarumo has a reputation for being a mad scientist on defense. A huge part of the Bengals’ Super Bowl run a few years back, the main appeal of Anarumo is his willingness to create unique defensive game plans on a week-to-week basis to best match up with that week’s opponent.
- Matt Burke — a disciple of Jim Schwartz and DeMeco Ryans — Burke’s Texans defense just finished demolishing the Steelers in the playoffs. Burke doesn’t have a ton of experience — he took over play-calling duties in Week 4 of this season — but he’s sure to have left quite the impression in Pittsburgh this past weekend.
- Vance Joseph — He struggled as the top man in Denver, but Joseph has headed strong defenses at every stop he’s made in the NFL. That includes a unique return to a Denver team that fired him just five years prior to his return as DC. Has working under Sean Payton better prepared him to handle the duties of a head coach this time around?
- Robert Saleh — Saleh was never able to get a decent offense together during his time with the Jets, but New York’s defense fell off once he was ousted. Meanwhile, the Niners have played admirably this year, despite being decimated by injuries on all three levels of the defense, including stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner. If he could attract a quality offensive coordinator, could he get the Steelers’ defense playing hard-nosed, swarming defense again?
What about the college ranks?
I won’t spend too much time discussing college coaches, simply because there is only one whose name I’ve seen with any momentum in the media: Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman.
Freeman seems to fit the temperament and mold that Pittsburgh covets, and he’s led Notre Dame to a 43-12 record since taking over at Notre Dame amid a tumultuous exit of the previous head coach. Still, reports seem to indicate that Freeman isn’t going anywhere. Adam Schefter is reporting Freeman is staying put, but speculation still persists after Notre Dame suddenly scheduled a press conference for him on Wednesday.
I will also note that Notre Dame’s decision to withdraw from a bowl game after being left out of the College Football Playoff gave me “the ick,” but it’s unclear if that decision was more influenced by Freeman or his athletic director.
What do you think about these candidates? Is there anyone I left out that you’d consider? Let us know who you’d hire in the comments!
