If he were on any team other than the Steelers, DC Teryl Austin would be in the hot seat. Outside of Matt Canada, they simply don’t fire coaches. But relative to expectations, there isn’t a more disappointing, underperforming unit in the NFL this season. Fortunately for him, despite the outside cries for his job, he isn’t listening.
“I don’t hear that,” Austin said about the increasingly loud outside noise regarding the defense, via transcript provided by the Steelers’ media department. “My concern is with the guys in the building and how I can get our guys to play better, because I care about winning and how we win. I don’t care if it’s style points. I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if it’s 50-49 or it’s 3-2. My job is to coach our guys and hold them to less points than the opponent, and that’s really all I care about and all I’m concerned with is how our guys are doing, how are we performing, how can I help them get better.”
The Steelers hired Teryl Austin as a senior assistant on defense in 2019. After three years in that role, he earned a promotion to defensive coordinator in 2022. Now in his fourth season, he is trending in the wrong direction. They have the worst passing defense in the NFL in terms of yards allowed. In 2018, he lost his job as defensive coordinator in Cincinnati with the same ranking.
After signing Darius Slay, trading for Jalen Ramsey, and adding Derrick Harmon, the Steelers saw huge potential for themselves on defense this season. Unfortunately for them, it has never even come close to coming together, at least not for more than a stretch here and there. Arguably, they have had just one “complete” game, a Week 6 blowout of the Browns. But they have had their two worst games defensively of the season immediately after.
Now the Steelers have the Colts up next as the defense tries to respond to the doubters. The question is, how far down the barrel do they have to fall before Teryl Austin’s seat gets warm? After all, this is still a team with playoff, even Super Bowl aspirations. As long as they believe that, even if nobody else does, they will go all-in on this season.
After all, that’s why they brought in Aaron Rodgers, and they know this is a potential one-year arrangement. Based on the personnel, the Steelers still believe this is a talented, high-potential defense. They still have Cameron Heyward, T.J. Watt, and the rest of the group. Ramsey isn’t horrible, and Patrick Queen is capable of playing well. Harmon has flashed, and Nick Herbig needs to play more.
Earlier this week, Steelers reporters asked HC Mike Tomlin if he would cede control of the defense. In response, he said that wasn’t even on the table and offered a defense of Teryl Austin in that role. But I’m sure he said similar things before firing Canada, too.
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