Frank Cignetti Jr., a second-generation coach who can trace his career back to the 80s, is finally with the Steelers. Part of fellow Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy’s inaugural coaching staff, he is back in the NFL as a senior offensive assistant. Having last coached—under McCarthy—at the professional level in 2018, he explained his coaching style.
“Coaching is teaching”, Cignetti told Teresa Varley for the Steelers’ website. “And I wake up every day and try to be positive, try to be energetic. I love teaching the game, whether it’s the fundamentals, the technique, the scheme. I love the relationships with the coaches and the players and everyone in the building. I’d say my style is to build positive relationships and try and help people”.
Cignetti is the son of longtime Pennsylvania coach Frank Cignetti Sr. Beginning at the high school level, Cignetti Sr. joined the Pittsburgh Panthers as an assistant in 1968. By 1986, he began employment as head coach for Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He remained at the Division II school before retiring in 2006, his son serving under him for nearly a decade in the 90s.
“I grew up as a coach’s son”, Cignetti said. “Growing up in Morgantown, West Virginia, my dad coached at West Virginia, and my brother Curt and I would go to a lot of the practices, went to the games and we just loved being around football. And then, as I saw the difference that my father was able to make in players’ lives, people’s lives. It was something that I was very interested in”.
Cignetti followed that example throughout his coaching career, citing his father as his biggest inspiration. At different times, he would be his father, his boss, or even his coach. He remains the lens through which he views his coaching philosophy, now with the Steelers.
After serving as a graduate assistant for one year at Pitt in 1989, Frank Cignetti Jr. followed his father to IUP in 1990. There, over a nine-year period, he served as wide receivers, defensive backs, and quarterbacks coach, and finally offensive coordinator. In 1999, he landed his first NFL opportunity as a Chiefs offensive assistant under Gunther Cunningham. The following two seasons, he was the Saints’ quarterbacks coach under Jim Haslett.
After that stint, Cignetti returned to the college level. He made numerous stops, with one detour as quarterbacks coach for the 49ers in 2007. With the Rams from 2012 through 2015 he served as quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator. In 2016-17, he worked with Eli Manning with the Giants, and finally in 2018, with Aaron Rodgers with the Packers under McCarthy.
Of course, the Packers fired McCarthy during that season, so he and Frank Cignetti didn’t even have a full season together. But Cignetti worked with Aaron Rodgers all that year, and Rodgers mentioned him upon his return. He is one of several familiar faces on this staff, bringing a cohesiveness that is hard to achieve in the first year of a new system.
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