The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 season ended in disaster, losing their final four regular-season games. They failed to win in the postseason as well, going one-and-done once again. It wasn’t just their offense that let them down, either. The Steelers’ defense collapsed to end the year, with miscommunication being a massive problem. This offseason, they brought in a new defensive backs coach in Gerald Alexander, and fixing those communication issues is one of his top priorities.
“I know that that is a huge focus on our process now,” Alexander said Tuesday via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Twitter. “Just to make sure the communication is streamlined. The givers and the receivers of the communication understand exactly what’s going on so we can make sure that we have a chance to have success on that front.”
Steelers defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander — back after 1 season away from the organization — sounds like he means business in ensuring the secondary is communicating properly pic.twitter.com/UR155bZyH9
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) June 10, 2025
Grady Brown had been the Steelers’ secondary coach from 2021 to 2024. During that time, he did a lot of good things, including having a huge impact on Pittsburgh’s turnover culture. However, this offseason, he left the Steelers for the New Orleans Saints. That opened up the position for Alexander, who was the Steelers’ assistant defensive backs coach in 2022 and 2023.
He should already have a good rapport with most of their key players in the secondary. That should help him address their communication issues from last year. For such a talented and experienced defense, there was no reason why the Steelers should’ve had that kind of problem pop up late in the year.
It’s not like players didn’t know what was plaguing them, either. After most of their losses late in the year, multiple players expressed their frustrations about missed tackles and miscommunication. The Steelers’ defense went from elite to awful almost overnight.
However, Alexander doesn’t seem keen on letting that happen again. This year, the Steelers’ goal is once again to win a championship, but they won’t even get close to a Super Bowl if their defense falls into disarray again. Players like Minkah Fitzpatrick, DeShon Elliott, and Darius Slay are veterans with a ton of experience. The Steelers’ secondary shouldn’t struggle with communication as much this year.
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