Steelers Hire Brian Flores as the New Linebackers Coach/Senior Defensive Assistant

[43M]

Pretty decent hire.    Wouldve hired him over Austin as DC.

[Blitzburgh]

What great is if he does get a promotion elsewhere quickly, Steelers get comp picks.

[DudeWhat???]

Great hire...also..just putting this out there... deshaun wanted to play with Flores. 

[Blitzburgh]

 It that I would want to take on Deshauns salary, but what is the status of his legal problems?

[43M]

7 hours ago, Blitzburgh said:

 It that I would want to take on Deshauns salary, but what is the status of his legal problems?

Still in the air.   I doubt anything much comes from it from a legal standpoint.   If there were any really damning evidence, we would already know about it.   However, I seriously doubt anyone trades for him unless the Texans are willing to take substantially less than what they reportedly want....and I think they'd rather sit on him another year rather than get scraps.

I think there is an outside chance some team trades for him....but it wont be us.   If he goes anywhere else, my money would be on Washington.   Perhaps a straight up trade with Seattle if Wilson wants out bad enough.

[Dcash4]

While I really do like this hire, it continues a trend of something I found odd about Tomlins recent hiring. This will leave us 3 former/current DCs on the roster. A few years ago, we had 4: Tomlin, Butler, Austin, Bradley. 

Tomlin collects dudes who have designed and called plays at an NFL defense like they are Pokémon. But on the offensive side of the ball, he trusts guys who were never OCs or called plays at the Pro level and fills the staff with no other brain power. That’s just kinda backwards. When our offense was at its best: former HC and OC running the show with former HC as the line coach. 

Tomlin has a non-existent coaching tree and while this is a very solid move, it’s just off to me how little we invest in the offensive coaching staff when you consider our HC is defensive focused. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Dcash4

[armsteeld]

2 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

While I really do like this hire, it continues a trend of something I found odd about Tomlins recent hiring. This will leave us 3 former/current DCs on the roster. A few years ago, we had 4: Tomlin, Butler, Austin, Bradley. 

Tomlin collects dudes who have designed and called plays at an NFL defense like they are Pokémon. But on the offensive side of the ball, he trusts guys who were never OCs or called plays at the Pro level and fills the staff with no other brain power. That’s just kinda backwards. When our offense was at its best: former HC and OC running the show with former HC as the line coach. 

Tomlin has a non-existent coaching tree and while this is a very solid move, it’s just off to me how little we invest in the offensive coaching staff when you consider our HC is defensive focused. 

Bruce Arians and Todd Haley were both well known offensive coaches so I have to disagree.

[43M]

2 minutes ago, armsteeld said:

Bruce Arians and Todd Haley were both well known offensive coaches so I have to disagree.

I think he was speaking of Haley when he was talking about "our offense at its best".

Haley only ever looked decent as an OC when he had elite talent to work with though.   (Warner, Fitz Boldin, Ben, Bell, Brown, etc...)

[Dcash4]

24 minutes ago, armsteeld said:

Bruce Arians and Todd Haley were both well known offensive coaches so I have to disagree.

Bruce Arians was a holdover from Cowher that has his position elevated after the could have been HC of an OC left, so he doesn't count with that I’m talking about in terms of Tomlin hires. 

As 43 alluded to, I was talking about Haley too. But this is a little out of my point still. Tomlin has valued defensive minds and brining in playcallers/designers into the building even though it’s meant to be his strengths. But On the offensive side…a side that has struggled mightily for years…we get the college cast off, a guy who was out of football and then heading up Army’s recruiting, and a slew of mediocre OL coaches.  What doesn’t add up here? 

We can say Ben but….bens gone now. 

[warfelg]

I can’t and won’t criticize Tomlin on offensive choices because much of what was done there was all in the effort of keeping Ben happy. Hence why QB coaches kept getting promoted. 

[Dcash4]

26 minutes ago, warfelg said:

I can’t and won’t criticize Tomlin on offensive choices because much of what was done there was all in the effort of keeping Ben happy. Hence why QB coaches kept getting promoted. 

As I mentioned above…Ben is gone. I do think he could be doing a “sink or swim” type thing on the offensive side where if things don’t drastically takes steps in the right directions this year, we page 1 re-write that entire side of the ball. But I just wish he would bring the same energy to hiring offensive coaches that he does to defense. 

Its just strange to me he would rather add minds to his specialty rather than vice versa - like you see across the league. Tomlin makes hires, and mostly good hires, happen on defense. Got Dunbar back into the NFL from Alabama. Pulled Bradley into the pros for the first time from a DC college job. Austin is a well respected secondary coach. Flores is hugely respected will easily be a DC next season somewhere.
 

When willingly making offensive hires last year that 180 from Ben, we got the college cast off, Army’s recruiting head who was out of football for 2 years, our terrible offensive lines assistant, and now two Panthers cast offs. Those are not the same. I’m not sure how you can’t criticize the last two years worth of offensive hires. 

[warfelg]

15 minutes ago, Dcash4 said:

As I mentioned above…Ben is gone. I do think he could be doing a “sink or swim” type thing on the offensive side where if things don’t drastically takes steps in the right directions this year, we page 1 re-write that entire side of the ball. But I just wish he would bring the same energy to hiring offensive coaches that he does to defense. 

Its just strange to me he would rather add minds to his specialty rather than vice versa - like you see across the league. Tomlin makes hires, and mostly good hires, happen on defense. Got Dunbar back into the NFL from Alabama. Pulled Bradley into the pros for the first time from a DC college job. Austin is a well respected secondary coach. Flores is hugely respected will easily be a DC next season somewhere.
 

When willingly making offensive hires last year that 180 from Ben, we got the college cast off, Army’s recruiting head who was out of football for 2 years, our terrible offensive lines assistant, and now two Panthers cast offs. Those are not the same. I’m not sure how you can’t criticize the last two years worth of offensive hires. 

I get the concerns but I don’t think the offense is a sink or swim and a bunch of castoffs. 
 

As has been pointed out:

Carolinas WRs got open, developed, and put up decent stats. But are you really gonna say he’s not a good coach because the QBs were Darnold, Bridgewater, and Walker? 
 

Carolinas OL coach teaches a good philosophy. He’s had two of the most injured OL groups and most varied starting groups over the last 5 years. 
 

Army constantly has great athletic run blocking OLs because of the mandated weight limits. 
 

Canadas expertise is spread RPO concepts. These hires all paint a picture of that’s our offense.  Zone block option guys are brought in to coach the line. A coach who teaches option routes brought in for WRs. Heck Tomlin himself the last 3 years has talked about the stress those RPO concepts come from and mobile QBs being an extra guy to account for. 
 

Based on the story Tomlin has painted for an offense he wants I like these hires because they are true to that style. Same is true on the defensive side. The difference is on defense they guys hired are guys you know because they’ve been in the NFL. On offense these concepts are coming up from NCAA and teams with younger head coaches. So the names are lesser known. Doesn’t mean they aren’t bad. 
 

Now, none of this is to say your concerns are unfounded. They absolutely should be concerns. But at face value, the hires make sense with what Tomlin has desired. 

[Dcash4]

15 minutes ago, warfelg said:

But at face value, the hires make sense with what Tomlin has desired.

But the core of my concern is that these are the types of hires you general see ON the side of the ball of the head coach. Andy Reid or Sean McVay can piece together a coaching staff like we are doing on the offensive side and be fine because they are still ultimately the offensive head. Tomlin pieces together the opposite side of the ball from his expertise and is telling Matt Canada -- Matt Canada -- to go with god. 

I do not dislike the WR coach or the OL coach individually, but just looking at the lengths of which Tomlin will go through to hire on his side of the ball vs the offensive side I find odd. 

Dunbar was hired to coach the DL from John Mitchell, who is still on the roster because Tomlin changed his title. I understand his role is more in the community, but he is still a paid member of the Steelers coaching staff. 

He hired Bradley away from college and into the Pros for the first time to coach the secondary. The next year, Austin became available and he hired him to the "assistant to the regional manager" title and maintained Bradley as the CB coach. 

Now he hires Flores as another assistant to the role... and puts him at ILB, where we still have a coach. 

He just shows that he is willing to go out of his way and get creative to bring in good defensive people. He does not act the same on offense. He might be somewhere now and I missed it, but why not go hire Jim Caldwell as an "assistant HC" type of role and have him consult on the offense? Our offensive and its growth and ability to groom a QB will be massively important over the next few years. I wish our hiring matched that. Tom Moore is still an assistant in the NFL with the Bucs as a consultant. Why can't our offense, which has struggled mightily for years now and has no answers when things break down, go bring in more brain power?

My fear is we get halfway into the year and again go "oh, this side of the ball isn't very good again is it?" while 3 HC/HC candidates nod their heads in the defensive film room. We definitely don't need this many words on this -- but it's probably my number 1 issue for us in a league that has no cap on coaches or rules about how the staffs are structured. If things go sideways on offense again, our only answer is to maintain the course. 

[warfelg]

Honestly - other than Manchuck to design the run game while Haley ran the air game this does completely feel like Tomlin asked Canada what he needs for the offense to be successful. 
 

Tomlin hires good defensive coaches because that’s what he knows. Why hire offensive coaches that might be at odds with what his OC wants. 
 

I feel like you are being overly critical of something that on the surface makes sense and we have to see how it plays out before we bash it too much. 

[Dcash4]

9 minutes ago, warfelg said:

this does completely feel like Tomlin asked Canada what he needs for the offense to be successful. 

Andy Reid is an offensive coach, who hires Steve Spagnuola to run his defense. Sean McVay started with Wade, promoted Staley, and then went to Raheem Morris. Zimmer started with Gary Kubiak. Payton had Dennis Allen. Arians with Bowels. Kingsberry with Vance Joseph. Arthur Smith with Dean Pess. Nagy had Vic Fangio. Culley had Lovie Smith. All of those guys hired experienced, respected coaches (some of which with HC experience) to run their half of the deal.

These HC's with a specific side of the ball go out and hire adults to head up the other end. We hired Matt Canada, a cast off who couldn't keep a job, and instead of surrounding him with experienced and successful coaches -- like we do on defense -- we just "piece it together". Canada has a spotty background and had never been in the NFL calling plays until last year. The other play calling experience on the team is Mike Sullivan who was out of coaching...like canada...until we got him. 

45 minutes ago, warfelg said:

I feel like you are being overly critical of something that on the surface makes sense and we have to see how it plays out before we bash it too much. 

As I have said -- If Tomlin was an offensive mind, this all does make absolute sense. It's what you see elsewhere. Coaches build their expertise and find qualities they like in coaches and hire an adult to run the other side. We do the opposite and there is nothing, to me, that suggests that Matt Canada, Randy Fichtner, or Ben deserved that power. Yet, here we are again, running out to make up titles and duplicate position coaches to hire on defense and settling for what is left on offense. 

Again, love what Tomlin does on the defense side, but do you really think Fichtner or Canada deserved that level of autonomy? I do not.