Lazy hires.
It's been the buzz word of the offseason for the Steelers, despite the fact they haven't even made a hire this offseason.
But the assumption has been that in this twisted logic that if Mike Tomlin elevates someone from his staff to take a higher position, he hasn't done his homework.
Thing is, the homework was already done. For example, when you hire an offensive assistant, the idea is that perhaps he'll grow into being an offensive coordinator. The same thing goes for the defensive side of the ball.
That's especially true if they already have some experience coordinating, even if it's at the collegiate level. After all, every coordinator in the NFL once got his first job that way.
Doesn't mean the hires are always right. Sometimes the coach is just a wrong fit.
But it's also not being lazy. All hires are made with an eye to the future, especially when you have an aging coordinator or one who is on thin ice on the staff.
The idea is that the Steelers have a very distinct way of doing things. Every team has their own hierarchy and way of doing things. If you have a guy who has been on your staff and elevate him, he doesn't have to learn the player grading system, how you handle the draft, how things work with the staff, etc.
Doesn't mean he can't add his own twists or tweaks to how those things are done. When you rise to the level of being in charge of the staff on one side of the ball or other, you get an opportunity to decide how practices are run, how they are run, etc.
Of course, you're still answerable to the head coach. He signs off on all of those things. But you have control over those things to a degree.
And you learn those things by being on the staff.
Currently, the Steelers don't have an offensive assistant on their staff who has been with the team for longer than three seasons unless assistant wide receivers coach Blaine Stewart, a former coaching assistant is taken into account.
Defensively, with Keith Butler's retirement, only inside linebackers coach Jerry Olsavsky and defensive line coach Karl Dunbar have been with the team for longer than that period of time. Assistant head coach John Mitchell doesn't do a lot of the day-to-day coaching any longer and is in charge of staff and player development.
Yet there is a narrative that the Steelers never go outside the franchise to hire coaches.
Tomlin hasn't been lazy in his hires. You can disagree with who he's hired. But at some point or the other within the past three seasons, these guys have joined his staff.
They're not longtime Steelers assistants. They just didn't miraculously appear on the coaching staff. They've been vetted and researched.
It was largely the same for Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher. Cowher hired two coordinators from the outside. He brought in Ray Sherman as offensive coordinator in 1998. He lasted one season. Jim Haslett lasted three seasons as the team's defensive coordinator.
Teryl Austin was a good hiring three years ago when he was added as senior defensive assistant/secondary. And he still is.
• Much is being made over the revelation that Tomlin has been calling the defensive plays for the Steelers since at least 2014, taking over for Dick LeBeau at that time before then hiring Butler and doing the same.
But he's the head coach. As I reported earlier this week, 17 head coaches in the NFL are now the primary play callers on one side or the other for their respective teams.
This includes all four coaches who are in the conference championship games.
At one time, I didn't think it was a great idea. Head coaches have a lot on their respective plates.
The last five Super Bowls have featured at least one, and often two, head coaches who call their own plays offensively or defensively.
Nearly every head coach currently in the NFL was hired because he was a great coordinator for someone at one point in his career. Why should they simply take a step back from doing what got them to their position once they are named a head coach?
After all, the head coach is the one who has to take the heat for things when they go wrong.
Remember when, much to the chagrin of defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, Bill Cowher declared that he was, in fact, the Steelers defensive coordinator?
The head coach always has a say in what's run. That's particularly true when you're talking about his area of expertise.
• The real mystery is how the Steelers got Butler to fall on his sword so often and never admit he wasn't actually calling the plays.
Now, that said, he did call some of the plays.
But any time the Steelers have had a bad defensive game over the years, Butler took the blame. Then again, so did Tomlin.
I'm not quite sure why it was a secret. If people want to be upset about something, that might be a better place to start.
Why the secrecy?
• Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and Saints secondary coach Kris Richard are two assistants Tomlin wants to speak to regarding his defensive coordinator position.
Graham also is a candidate to be the new head coach for the Giants -- though he's not expected to get the position. Richard, meanwhile, just found out Tuesday that Sean Payton is stepping down as the Saints head coach.
Would those saying Tomlin has been lazy with his hires be angry if he elevates Austin to defensive coordinator and then hires Graham to coach his linebackers -- something Butler also handled -- and Richard to coach the secondary -- Austin's current position?
They would seem to be two pretty solid hires, just as Austin was when he was brought aboard as senior defensive assistant/secondary in 2019.
• There seems to be a feeling the Steelers can't possibly compete over the next few seasons in the AFC given the talent at quarterback in the conference.
After all, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson all call the AFC their home.
But that ignores what the 49ers are doing this season.
They're a conference finalist in the NFC this weekend after beating the Cowboys and Dak Prescott and Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in back-to-back weeks on the road.
They do it by playing defense and running the ball. Jimmy Garoppolo wasn't the best quarterback in either of those games.
He hasn't even played great in these playoffs, throwing for 303 yards and no touchdowns with two interceptions in two games.
Running the ball effectively and playing defense still matters in the NFL. Oh, and it doesn't hurt to make some plays on special teams.
• Just because Matt Canada got words of encouragement from Tomlin last week doesn't mean his job is still safe. If Art Rooney II doesn't believe in Canada, Canada won't be the Steelers offensive coordinator any longer.
Rooney has final say over everything the Steelers do, just as his father did.
• Sorry, but I just don't see the Steelers going after Rodgers or Russell Wilson or any other veteran quarterback available in a trade this offseason.
But with the news that Payton is done in New Orleans, Jameis Winston would now definitely be on my radar.
It was assumed Winston would simply return to the Saints in free agency this offseason -- unless they traded for another quarterback.
With Payton now gone, Winston might look to move on, as well.
The Steelers signing Winston two years ago as a backup didn't make much sense. After all, they still had Roethlisberger.
But now? Sure.
He's only thrown three interceptions in seven starts the past two seasons. He seems to have learned to better value the football. And he can still do so while making all of the throws necessary to be a very good quarterback.
The Saints just didn't have great weapons this season.
• Tweaking the NFL's overtime rules is a hot topic after Sunday's Chiefs-Bills playoff game.
To fix the NFL's overtime issue, I would make the opening coin flip the only time the coin is flipped during a game. It's the most random of things in any sport.
I would then use alternating possessions, as they do in basketball. You win the toss and want the ball to open the game, that means you don't get it to open the second half, which many teams now choose to do.
But it also would mean you have choice to start overtime.
Here, however, is the twist. Both teams get one possession on which to score -- untimed by all but the play clock. But you also have to go for two and field goals are not allowed.
If the game is still tied, then the team that didn't have possession at the start of overtime gets the ball with, say, eight minutes on the clock. And the game is sudden death from there.
Obviously, in the playoffs, you keep playing until you get a winner.
Had this rule been in effect for the playoffs, it might have changed how both teams approached things late in the game knowing they were having issues stopping the other.
Coaches wouldn't play for overtime knowing that they can no longer stop the other team. They'd go for two more often and also perhaps attempt more fourth down tries later in games.
• The Chicago Bears hired Chiefs executive Ryan Boles as their new general manager, meaning Omar Khan won't be getting that job.
The Bears interviewed Khan for their vacant GM position, but settled on Boles as the man for the job meaning Khan will continue in his current role as Vice President of Football and Business Administration.
The Steelers would have gotten draft picks in return had the Bears hired Khan as part of the league's minority hiring practice rules, which would have been nice. Khan would have gotten the GM role he covets and the Steelers would have received two third-round draft picks as compensation.
I don't love the rule, but the league approved it last year for a good reason -- to get more minority representation in positions of power.
But look at what happened to David Culley as a reason why it's not necessarily a good rule.
Culley, a longtime NFL assistant coach with no head coaching experience, was surprisingly hired by the Texans to be their head coach, largely because others didn't want the job.
The 66-year-old was then given a gutted roster with which to work and went out and won four games, the same number as a year before.
And was fired after one season.
For this, the Ravens, from whom Culley was hired, receive two third-round draft picks.
Why?
Culley had been an assistant coach with the Ravens for two years. He had worked for five other franchises in his career before that. The Ravens didn't "develop" Culley as a coach.
Quite frankly, the Texans should be penalized for firing Culley after just one season. And the Ravens shouldn't benefit from Houston's failure as a franchise.
• Khan is excellent at his job as a salary capologist. But this marks multiple times he's been passed over for GM positions.
Being a true GM means you also make personnel decisions. And that's where he is likely lacking
It's also why he wouldn't necessarily be my first pick to be the next Steelers GM after Kevin Colbert retires.
The main job of the Steelers GM is to assess talent available. It's then up to Khan to figure out how to make that work in conjunction to the salary cap.
Again, he's very good at that. But assessing talent is probably not necessarily in his wheelhouse.
