Pittsburgh Steelers fans have to keep a watchful eye on the NFL's ongoing coaching carousel. After all, both the Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns need new head coaches, and if one or both of them land the right man for their respective jobs, it’ll cause headaches for Yinzers for years to come.
Unfortunately, that feeling of a weak class of potential head coach candidates got a lot stronger on Thursday when the Miami Dolphins decided to fire Mike McDaniel. While McDaniel’s resume isn’t nearly as strong as John Harbaugh's, there’s a very real chance he lands on his feet with another head coaching job.
With two open vacancies in the AFC North and eyes for McDaniel as a potential offensive coordinator themselves, the Steelers are staring down a few nightmare scenarios relative to McDaniel’s NFL future.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans now have reason to dread the AFC North coaching carousel
Naturally, the Ravens are of far more concern to Steelers’ fans. Not only because they are the bigger rival, who Pittsburgh narrowly defeated to bring about Harbaugh’s firing, but because they already have an offense in place that McDaniel would no doubt thrive with.
What’s worse is that there are two scenarios where McDaniel could end up in Baltimore. The first seems more likely, as Tommy Jaggi pointed out, with McDaniel joining the Ravens staff as their offensive coordinator under a potential head coach hire, Brian Flores. Of course, if the Ravens don’t land Flores, they could simply hire McDaniel as the head coach and keep rolling.
McDaniel might not fit Baltimore with his personality, but his offensive system featuring Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, and Zay Flowers is a haunting thought for Steelers fans.
As for Cleveland, the Browns had it right early on with Kevin Stefanski, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they showed interest in McDaniel as their next bright, young, offensive-minded head coach. The personality fit is still off, even in Cleveland, but the Browns would be silly to turn away a coach who kept the similarly cursed Dolphins mostly competitive for the past four seasons.
Of course, the Browns lack proven offensive talent, but that’s where McDaniel’s scheme comes into play. McDaniel uses a lot of disguises and motions to get his playmakers in space, and asks his quarterbacks to make quick, accurate decisions. Considering Shedeur Sanders’ shortcomings as a young quarterback revolving around holding the ball too long, McDaniel would be a positive influence on his development.
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McDaniel will be an interesting coach to keep track of in the coming weeks, as he could land a coordinator or head coaching job in several spots around the league. While some Steelers fans will hold out hope that he is Arthur Smith’s replacement, assuming he leaves for a head coaching job himself, the bigger hope should be in McDaniel staying away from the AFC North if he isn’t coming to Pittsburgh.