As soon as Mike Tomlin stepped down as head coach after 19 seasons, we all were quick to guess that the Pittsburgh Steelers would look for another HC who fits the mold of what has brought this team success over the years.
The sample is small, but the formula is simple: hire a young, defensive-minded head coach with no prior head coaching experience.
Sounds easy enough... and it's worked. The Steelers are three-for-three on striking gold with hirings thanks to this formula dating back 57 years. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin each brought a Super Bowl win to Pittsburgh while boasting excellent regular-season records. As a result, the Steelers lead the league in regular-season wins since the NFL merger in 1970.
While we expect nothing less than for team president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan to look for another young, defensive-minded head coach, it might be time to change their approach.
The Pittsburgh Steelers should strongly consider hiring an offensive-minded head coach to replace Mike Tomlin
The Pittsburgh Steelers are known for their historic defensive nicknames—'The Steel Curtain' and 'Blitzburgh'. There's no doubt that Rooney and Khan want to put a head coach in place who will want to build the next elite Steelers defense.
However, this approach might not be what's best for the Steelers.
Tomlin was a defensive-minded head coach, and despite spending more money and resources on defense than any team in the league, Pittsburgh's defense wasn't elite. Even if this unit reaches an elite status in the near future with a new HC leading the charge, this could come at the cost of having an upsectacular offense.
In the last seven years, 13 of the 14 head coaches to appear in the Super Bowl were offensive-minded. That's a trend that could change this year, but it's something worth noting.
But I'll take this argument one step further.
Of all the head coaches in the NFL, I can make a case that only three of the top twenty are defensive-minded—Mike Vrabel, Mike Macdonald, and DeMeco Ryans. Granted, these coaches each found playoff success this year, but they've all had a talented supporting cast to work with. Macdonald had Kilnt Kubiak running one of the league's most efficient offenses, and Vrabel had MVP candidate Drake Maye.
The vast majority of the best NFL head coaches in today's game are those who specialize in offense—the Sean McVay's and Kyle Shanahan's of the world. This could be due to the ever-evolving rules that continue to favor the offense.
This past season was a perfect example of how young, offensive coaches can make an immediate impact. Ben Johnson already looked like one of the best and most innovative head coaches in the NFL after just one season with the Chicago Bears, while Liam Cohen led a previously 4-13 Jacksonville Jaguars team to a 13-4 record and a home playoff game.
The irony in all of this is that the Steelers have struggled as badly offensively as any team in recent years. Since Ben Roethlisberger's final season in 2021, Pittsburgh has shuffled through quarterbacks and offensive coordinators in an effort to find success moving and scoring the football, but to no avail.
Even Big Ben himself recently spoke out on the latest episode of his Footbahlin Podcast—urging the Steelers to go with an offensive mind at head coach.
Could the defensive-minded Steelers' next head coach bring in a brilliant offensive coordinator to run the offense? Sure, that's possible.
But here's the dilemma: as soon as the Steelers' OC proves to be good, they will be up for a head coaching job. Heck, even Arthur Smith has been getting HC consideration over the past two years (and he already failed as a head coach in Atlanta).
The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Rooneys are creatures of habit—we can expect them to stick with what's worked in the past and what they've always known. But times change, and this team should seriously consider hiring an offensive mind as their next head coach.