The Pittsburgh Steelers had barely processed Mike Tomlin’s 19-year tenure before news of his departure broke. Things move fast in the NFL, and Pittsburgh must get ahead of things if it wants its choice of options on the market. Tomlin is out the door, and according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, interview requests have already been placed by the Steelers.
According to Schefter, the Steelers have requested permission from the Los Angeles Rams to interview two of their coaches.
One is Chris Shula, an early favorite to land the top job in Pittsburgh. The other is someone flying under the radar, but has a shot at filling the vacancy, Nate Scheelhaase. Both are young coaches who fit the bill of past head coaches the organization has hired in the past.
At this rate, the franchise will have a new head coach sooner rather than later, but expect their search to continue to ramp up with several candidates to replace Tomlin. There are many appealing candidates, but the team seems poised to pick a younger, less experienced coach. They tend to favor someone already in a coordinator role. Something Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin shared.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to interview Chris Shula and Nate Scheelhaase to be their head coach
The Steelers have reportedly shown interest in Shula.
This interest has emerged in the lead-up to Week 18 of the regular season. Tomlin appeared ready to move on for a while, and Pittsburgh's top brass knew it. They scouted Shula and Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. Shula is the Rams' defensive coordinator and has done a terrific job rebuilding that group into a formidable pass rush.
He is a rising coach with deep NFL connections, as his father, uncle, and grandfather all worked in the league. If Art Rooney II is trying to land a young and upcoming coach with plenty of NFL wisdom, Shula would fit that bill. The Steelers could always shock the football world by going in a different direction. Perhaps one of the surprising candidates of this hiring cycle has been Scheelhaase.
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Most of the time, you have to pay your dues as a coordinator before you get looks as a head coach candidate, but Scheelhaase might break that trend. He is currently the passing game coordinator for the Rams, and his young mind is enticing.
Pittsburgh has been stuck in a defensive mindset for so long under Tomlin that it might be refreshing to turn towards the opposite side of the ball.
Scheelhaase has plenty of interviews to go beyond the Steelers. He is in high demand across the league and could be hired elsewhere if Pittsburgh isn’t careful. One interesting idea being floated is Shula getting hired as the head coach and bringing Scheelhaase as his offensive coordinator if he can't find a top job elsewhere.
That might be the best-case scenario for this situation.