The NFL coaching carousel wheels are already beginning to spin. The Tennessee Titans fired head coach Brian Callahan earlier this season, while the New York Giants fired Brian Daboll last week. With two head coach openings and more expected, NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero put together a list of 24 young coaches who could be candidates for head jobs in the current cycle. Pelissero also put together a broader list of coaches to watch for future cycles, which included Pittsburgh Steelers defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander and linebackers coach Scott McCurley.
It’s not particularly surprising to see Alexander on the list. He had success in the collegiate ranks as a defensive backs coach before moving to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins in 2020. He joined the Steelers in 2022 and was with them for two seasons as an assistant defensive backs coach but left to join the Las Vegas Raiders last season. With Pittsburgh moving on from Grady Brown, Alexander is back in charge of a defensive back room that’s had to deal with a lot of adversity in the form of injuries this season.
He’s done a good job integrating pieces on the fly, notably Kyle Dugger. Meanwhile CB James Pierre is having a career season and Jalen Ramsey has excelled while playing full-time safety for the first time in his career.
McCurley is an interesting inclusion on the list. Prior to this year, he had only worked under Mike McCarthy in the NFL. With McCarthy and Dallas parting ways at the end of last season, McCurley came to Pittsburgh to replace the departed Aaron Curry as the team’s inside linebackers coach. There have been some ups and some downs with the inside linebacker play, as Payton Wilson has gotten better as the year went on, but Patrick Queen hasn’t found any consistency.
But complementary pieces like Cole Holcomb and Malik Harrison have played well when healthy, and like the 41-year-old Gerald Alexander, McCurley is still fairly young at 44 years old. If both can continue growing as coaches and their respective units continue to play well, be it in Pittsburgh or elsewhere, it’s at least feasible that the two could get looks for a bigger job.
Both McCurley and Alexander would likely need to show their chops actually running a defense before getting a head coach look. That would entail a promotion to defensive coordinator, which may not happen in Pittsburgh.
It’s also unsurprising to see the Steelers only have two coaches on such a broad list. Mike Tomlin’s lack of a coaching tree is no secret. While OC Arthur Smith will get head coach looks, he didn’t make this list due to his prior experience, and the Steelers simply don’t have a lot of coaches beyond him on their roster who jump out as potential head coach candidates.
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