With the Steelers' 2024 postseason coming to another abrupt end, fans are busy banging on the table for change. Real change; not the change that Mike Tomlin insists we will see and never follow through with.
Nobody should be surprised to see Coach Tomlin under fire after continuing his eight-year drought without a playoff win, but there's another prominent Steelers coach fans would love to see replaced.
Teryl Austin has brought almost nothing to the table since being promoted as Pittsburgh's defensive coordinator in 2022. Despite inheriting a trio of perennial All-Pros and having the league's most expensive defense, the Steelers have only been a good unit... not great.
But once you realize how poorly of a game he called against the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card round, there will be no reasonable defense to keep him around for the 2025 season.
Recently, Matt Williamson of The Drive and DK Pittsburgh Sportsbroke down Austin's personnel decisions against the Ravens in the playoffs. Baltimore's offensive coordinator Todd Monken used 11-personnel (three wide receivers, one running back, and one tight end) just 11 percent of the time.
However, he used a sixth offensive lineman on 22.2 percent of offensive plays. This often was in addition to deploying 300-pound fullback Patrick Ricard—essentially giving the Ravens a seventh offensive lineman from the backfield.
The Ravens' plan was simple: with no Zay Flowers, they were going to run the ball down the throat of the defense. So how did Austin respond? By deploying some of the lightest boxes imaginable.
In this Wild Card game, the Steelers played nickel 45 percent of the time—meaning they deployed five defensive backs on the field. Pittsburgh was quite literally trying to stop a bunch of big guys and a 250-pound running back in Derrick Henry with a bunch of little guys. How did they think that was going to work?
In his breakdown, Williamson logged the Steelers' effectiveness when using each personnel grouping. With three defensive backs on the field, the Steelers allowed 3.8 yards per play. With four DBs on the field, they allowed 4.2 yards per play. And with five DBs on the field—which Pittsburgh had for nearly half of the game—the Steelers allowed a whopping 9.5 yards per play.
Steelers must fire Teryl Austin immediately
If you were wondering how the highest-paid defense in the NFL with three former First-Team All-Pro players (including the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year) and loads of draft investment continues to fall short, look no further than Teryl Austin.
On the Still Curtain podcast, I spent time talking about the fireable offenses of Austin because of his utter lack of creativity, including limited stunts and blitzes. After the debacle against the Ravens, we have all the proof we need to know that he's simply not a good defensive coordinator.
In his final two seasons as defensive coordinator before coming to Pittsburgh as an assistant coach, Austin's defenses ranked near the bottom of the league for the Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Teryl Austin's defensive ranks in his last 2 years as a DC before coming to Pittsburgh (and eventually getting promoted):
— Tommy Jaggi (@TommyJaggi) January 15, 2025
2017 (DET): 27th in yards allowed, 21st in points allowed
2018 (CIN): 32nd in yards allowed, 30th in points allowed
Austin inherited a talented #Steelers D.
Enough is enough. Austin's presence as defensive coordinator is wasting the last good years of T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward, while Minkah Fitzpatrick has been almost non-existent since Austin took over—earning just one interception since the 2022 season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers need to fire Teryl Austin as soon as possible and find a creative and aggressive defensive coordinator who actually knows how to counter an opposing offense.