The Steelers haven’t had a new coaching staff in decades, but the transition work hasn’t spared them their draft responsibilities. New HC Mike McCarthy has already said he is more involved in the draft process than ever before. And he was a head coach for 16 years, both in Dallas and Green Bay. GM Omar Khan also talked about the labor the new coaching staff has done, so he’s not making it up.
“I give a lot of credit to the coaches, too”, Khan said, discussing their role in the draft, via the Steelers’ website. “These guys have been dealing with moving, having to put a play book together, adjusting to different things. And at the same time, we’ve put a lot on their plate and asked them to evaluate a lot of football players”.
Pittsburgh has long enjoyed—or at least employed—a symbiotic relationship between coaching staff and front office when it comes to player evaluation, especially at the college level. Former Steelers HC Mike Tomlin loved the pre-draft process, with Mike Mcarthy missed out on some of that work. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been very involved in other ways.
“I think [Mike] McCarthy’s really embraced our process”, Khan said. “But the cool thing about it has been just the new ideas. Hearing how he’s done it at other places. He’s been at other winning organizations and successful organizations that have done it a certain way. We like how we do it, but there’s nothing wrong with hearing about how other people do it and just making taking some ideas and putting it in our system”.
Even with this being, by some estimates, one of the Steelers’ most important drafts in years, the coaching staff isn’t likely to find its most important piece for the future. That would be a franchise quarterback, but it seems the Steelers only think there’s one in this draft, at most. That doesn’t mean they can’t draft one in the later rounds and cross their fingers, somebody like Carson Beck.
Many expect the Steelers to wheel and deal with their 12 draft picks, but Mike McCarthy seems open to making 12 draft picks if they can manage it. After all, this is a new coaching staff. Even if they’re keeping a lot of things the same, they will have different priorities. Even if they liked what they already had to work with, there is room for improvement.
The task of McCarthy and his new Steelers coaching staff is manifold, of course, installing new schemes plus the draft. Phase 1 of the offseason program begins literally tomorrow. Although the first two weeks will only consist of classroom work between player and coach, it’s important work. The installation begins then, and they take the field in two weeks. Fitting in scouting profiles and things like that while building a new system is a heavy load. And the Steelers aren’t giving them any breaks along the way.
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