The Giants interviewed Steelers senior defensive assistant/secondary coach Teryl Austin on Saturday for their defensive coordinator opening.
Apparently, that was all the coaxing the Steelers needed to make Austin's elevation to defensive coordinator on Mike Tomlin's staff. They are expected to name Austin the third defensive coordinator in Tomlin's 16 seasons with the team on Monday.
Austin, 56, is a native of Sharon, Pa., and played collegiately at Pitt. He has been with the Steelers since 2019.
The frontrunner all along, Austin has 18 years of NFL experience as both a secondary coach and defensive coordinator. He began his career in coaching as a graduate assistant in 1991 at Penn State, becoming defensive backs coach at Wake Forest in 1993. He then had stints at Syracuse and Michigan before making the jump to the NFL in 2003 with the Seahawks as defensive backs coach.
Austin joined the Cardinals in 2007 as part of Ken Whisenhunt's staff, helping Arizona to the Super Bowl in 2008, where they lost to the Steelers.
He jumped back to college in 2010, becoming defensive coordinator at Florida before heading back to the NFL in 2011 as secondary coach for the Ravens. Austin helped the Ravens win the Super Bowl in 2011.
In 2014, he was hired as defensive coordinator of the Lions. Detroit finished second in total defense and points allowed in his first season as coordinator, leading to an 11-5 record and a playoff berth.
He had head coaching interviews with the Falcons, Bills, Bears and 49ers after that season.
Detroit slipped to 18th in total defense the following two seasons, but Austin continued to be a hot name in head coaching searches. In total, he has taken part in nearly a dozen interviews for head coaching positions but has never gotten the job.
Last week, his agent, Pittsburgh-based Eric Metz, told ESPN in the wake of Brian Flores' lawsuit against the NFL over minority hiring practices that Austin felt a number of the interviews weren't done in good faith.
"I said the Lions interview was a ‘sham’ interview years ago,” Metz said. “I guess it’s being brought up again because of the Flores lawsuit. I’m not saying ‘racism’ as much as the Rooney Rule, though well-intentioned, is not working in its current form. Amendments need to be made. Perhaps giving a team hiring a minority HC an extra first round pick. Regardless, it’s time for change.”
The Rooney Rule, which mandates that teams interview minorities for head coaching, coordinator and GM positions, was named after late Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who championed the rule.
Austin left Detroit when Jim Caldwell was fired and joined the staff of Marvin Lewis with the Bengals as defensive coordinator. But he was relieved of his duties midway through that season and hired by the Steelers immediately after as senior defensive assistant, a new position on Tomlin's staff.
Austin replaces Keith Butler, who had been the Steelers' defensive coordinator since 2015 and had been with the team as linebackers coach since 2003. Butler retired at the end of the 2021 season.
With Austin's elevation, Tomlin will have at least four hirings to make on his staff, secondary coach and outside linebackers coach on the defensive side, and offensive line and assistant offensive line coach on the offensive side.
Offensive line coach Adrian Klemm left the team to take a job with Oregon late in the 2021 season and was replaced by assistant Chris Morgan for the team's final two regular season games and in the postseason.
Morgan was hired last week to become offensive line coach with the Bears.
Austin was one of four candidates interviewed for the job, joining former Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, Saints secondary coach Kris Richard and Cowboys secondary coach Joe Whitt.