When Hines Ward showed up at training camp to work with the team's wide receivers and then did so again at different times during the season, many thought he was trying to make himself the heir apparent to veteran receivers coach Richard Mann.
But after Mann retired as expected Wednesday, Mike Tomlin wasted little time in finding a replacement. And he didn't hire Ward, the Steelers' all-time leading receiver. Instead, he hired the guy who coached Ward at the University of Georgia.
Tomlin has offered the job to Arizona Cardinals receivers coach Darryl Drake, who was Ward's position coach at Georgia. Drake has served in the same position the past five years in Arizona under Bruce Arians. But with Arians' retirement at the end of the 2017 season, his assistant coaches have been left to look for other jobs.
This will be the third NFL stop for Drake, 61, who played collegiately at Western Kentucky before spending time professionally with the Washington Redskins, Ottawa Rough Riders and Cincinnati Bengals. Prior to accepting the position under Arians, he spent nine seasons as the receivers coach for the Chicago Bears.
Drake also coached at Western Kentucky before becoming receivers coach at Georgia from 1992-1996. He coached Ward for the Bulldogs in his final three seasons there before becoming wide receivers coach and then associate head coach at Texas.
Drake inherits a receivers group that includes Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Brown and Smith-Schuster had more receiving yards than any other NFL duo last season.
In other news, the Steelers signed three players to futures contracts Friday, safety Malik Golden, linebacker Darnell Leslie and punter Matt Wile.
Golden, a Penn State product, spent time in training camp with the Steelers last summer, while the undersized Leslie (6-1, 229) spent time with the Cowboys last season. Wile appeared in four games last season, three with Arizona and one with Atlanta, averaging 46.1 yards per punt on 12 attempts.