The Pittsburgh Steelers head coach search begins now. For just the fourth time since 1969 and first time since 2007, the Steelers have to fill the position. With eight other open jobs, there’s plenty of competition and Pittsburgh is already a week behind the others. But given how marquee the job is, the team should be able to make a quality hire.
Who could it be? That’s the million dollar question we don’t know. Especially in a comparatively weaker 2026 cycle, the field is wide open. Fifty different names could be listed and it would still feel incomplete and this list won’t point out every conceivable option. Below is a list of names who make sense to at least be interviewed and considered. These aren’t necessarily my endorsements but a wide net of options who make sense to succeed Tomlin’s shoes.
I’ve broken the names up into “buckets” of coaches to make it easier to sort.
The Young DC
Pittsburgh has a track record of hiring young defensive coordinators. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin all shared that background. Pittsburgh’s defense disappointed in 2025 and must improve.
Chris Shula/Los Angeles Rams
An immediately popular name linked to the Steelers well before Mike Tomlin’s Tuesday announcement. Shula’s yet to turn 40, but worked his way up the ranks from college coach to coordinating the Rams the past two seasons. While the Rams haven’t had sterling defensive numbers, Shula’s led an aggressive unit able to create sacks and takeaways, 11th and 7th in those respective categories since 2024.
Our Ross McCorkle recently outlined Shula’s links to Pittsburgh. Shula’s grandfather once hired Chuck Noll while former general manager Kevin Colbert spent time with Don Shula in Miami. Chris Shula also spent a year under current Steelers QBs Coach Tom Arth at D-III powerhouse John Carroll.
Rooney may like the fact that Shula had to earn his stripes through the ranks, starting out as an assistant linebackers coach at Ball State, to earn his way into the NFL.
Jeff Hafley/Green Bay Packers
A popular name this cycle, Hafley checks all the boxes. Relatively young at 46 but experienced. He served as Boston College’s head coach from 2020-2023, leading the program to a winning 2023 season and its first bowl win since 2016. That gives him a clearer understanding of the college game than most other head coaches and how to connect with young players.
Making the jump to the NFL, Hafley’s defenses have been well-regarded. In 2024, the Packers finished sixth in scoring defense and ranked 11th in 2025 despite losing star EDGE Micah Parsons late in the season.
Hafley also has ties to the city. He coached at the University of Pittsburgh from 2006-2010 and coached in the AFC North from 2014-2015 while a member of the Cleveland Browns. In his best years, his units were aggressive and ball-hawking, a style that the Steelers will want to continue.
Jesse Minter/Los Angeles Chargers
Minter’s helped build stout defenses everywhere he’s gone. He found success as an assistant in Baltimore, Michigan, and now with the Chargers. Last year, Los Angeles had the NFL’s No. 1 defense. This year, the unit finished top ten. He’s only 42 and certainly aligns well with how Pittsburgh has hired his coaches, few of them there have been.
Fun fact. Minter’s father, Rick, served as the head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats from 1994-2003. During that time, he hired Mike Tomlin, and he and Jesse Minter have remained friends over the years. Tomlin has no influence on the next hire, but it’s an interesting note to tie Minter to Pittsburgh.
Kelvin Sheppard/Detroit Lions
The Lions’ defense took its lumps this year after being ravaged by injuries. It’s hard to blame Sheppard for the struggles, though it’s fair to note that Aaron Glenn dealt with similar ones a year ago and had more success.
Still, Sheppard feels like the latest future head coach to make his way through Detroit. He’s gotten to learn from Dan Campbell, and Sheppard’s passion and intensity could be a wake-up call in Pittsburgh. A linebackers coach before replacing Glenn as DC, he’s coached up the likes of Jack Campbell, Alex Anzalone, and Derrick Barnes.
The Offensive Mind
With an offense that’s struggled for years, the Steelers may shift gears and look toward a fresh face to jumpstart that side of the ball.
Klint Kubiak/Seattle Seahawks
The hotshot name of the cycle. Kubiak’s done an awesome job with Seattle’s offense. Quarterback Sam Darnold left Minnesota for Seattle specifically to reunite with Kubiak. His bet paid off. Darnold had another Pro Bowl year as Seattle posted the NFL’s No. 3 scoring offense with a healthy mix of run and pass. His playmakers were fed the football, something that’s been an issue under current OC Arthur Smith.
At just 38 years old, a Kubiak hire would develop whatever young rookie quarterback is drafted in the next year or two. Kubiak is the son of longtime NFL coach Gary Kubiak, giving him a lifelong football background.
Scottie Montgomery/Detroit Lions
A less-discussed name so far. If hired, Montgomery would be in his second act with Pittsburgh. He previously served as the Steelers’ receivers coach from 2010-2012, working with the “Young Money” crew of Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown, and Emmanuel Sanders.
Montgomery’s had several stops since. That includes a three-year stint as East Carolina’s head coach from 2016-2018. He posted an ugly 9-28 record, but he has experience in the head chair. Since then, Montgomery has made his way back into the NFL and has spent the last three years with the Lions as an assistant head coach, working with both the running backs and wide receivers. Detroit has finished in the top five in scoring all three seasons Montgomery has been with the team. Obviously, Ben Johnson earns primary credit for that in 2023 and 2024, but Montgomery has an interesting and well-rounded resume and hasn’t even turned 50.
Nate Scheelhaase/Los Angeles Rams
A name that’s not-so-quietly gaining buzz from insiders like Ian Rapoport and Jeremy Fowler, who are specu-porting his name pretty hard. The Rams’ pipeline from offensive assistant to NFL head coach is extensive, and Scheelhaase may be the latest. He’s 35 years old, the same age Tomlin was when Pittsburgh tabbed him in 2007.
In a decade, Scheelhaase has worked his way up from Football Ops at Illinois to become the Rams’ passing game coordinator. In 2025, the Rams had the league’s top-scoring offense with major production from its receivers. It seems to only be a matter of time before he becomes a head coach somewhere. Maybe that somewhere will be Pittsburgh.
The Retreads
Pittsburgh could play it safer with a known coach, especially if the team intends to reload and not fully rebuild.
Mike McCarthy
McCarthy is an obvious name. Not just for his ties to the city, a Greenfield native who still has Yinzer in his DNA. Aaron Rodgers once joked about having difficulty understanding McCarthy’s play calls through his thick accent.
McCarthy also has connections to the Steelers’ front office: general manager Omar Khan and assistant Andy Weidl. The three spent 2000 together with the New Orleans Saints. McCarthy as the offensive coordinator, Khan in Football Ops and as a coaching assistant, and Weidl as a scout. Art Rooney II will make the hire, but he linked Khan and Weidl together in 2022 in part because of their history working together.
McCarthy coached at Pitt from 1989-1992. He’s a two-time head coach with a career record of 174-112-2 and a Super Bowl ring. His playoff record isn’t overly impressive at 11-11, and he’s just 1-3 in the postseason since 2017. Still, he’s been a consistent regular-season winner with .500 or better records in 13 of his 18 seasons. A resume that may sound too similar to Mike Tomlin’s, but Rooney didn’t fire Tomlin. This wasn’t a rejection of Tomlin’s performance. Maybe Rooney will want more of what he had even if McCarthy’s being 62 is a drawback.
One last note. McCarthy has ultra-close ties to Steelers ILBs Coach Scott McCurley. McCarthy hired McCurley for his first NFL job in Green Bay. McCurley followed McCarthy to Dallas. That doesn’t mean much for the odds of landing the job but it’s too obvious not to point out.
Doug Pederson
Surely the most unpopular name on this list, Pederson, hasn’t been mentioned much by others. For good reason. He has a career sub-.500 head coaching record (64-66), though he and the Philadelphia Eagles went on a remarkable run to win the 2017 Super Bowl.
If Rooney is looking for synergy with the front office, Pederson is connected to Weidl from their days together in Philadelphia. The two worked hand-in-hand during the NFL draft. Here are the two of them, along with Howie Roseman, recapping their 2020 haul.
While his tenure in Jacksonville fell flat to a 4-13 finish, he also went 9-8 in 2023 to win the division (and a playoff game) and followed that up with another 9-8 record in 2024. Pederson only made the postseason in half of his years as a head coach, four of eight, but also won a playoff game in three seasons. If Rooney goes retread, he’ll want someone with postseason success to get Pittsburgh over the hump.
Brian Flores
A name quickly connected to the Steelers. Flores had a controversial ending to his time in Miami. For Pittsburgh’s purposes, the fact his Dolphins team rallied from a 1-7 start to 9-8 finish during the 2021 season spoke to his command of the locker room. Flores spent the following year in Pittsburgh as a lifeline after being shunned by the rest of the NFL. He took the defensive coordinator job in Minnesota and has become one of the league’s most creative and aggressive coaches.
It’s a resume that suggests he should get a second chance. But Flores’ hire was entirely driven by Tomlin, and with him now out, Rooney might not feel as strongly.
Robert Saleh
Saleh can coach defenses. He’s done an unreal job with San Francisco this season. Despite a battery of injuries, the 49ers have ranked in the top half in scoring defense and held the Philadelphia Eagles to 19 points in Sunday’s Wild Card win.
His stint as the New York Jets head coach went poorly, and he was canned mid-way through the 2024 season. It’s impossible to ignore the Jets’ toxic environment that makes winning feel impossible. He’ll be in a far better situation in Pittsburgh. He commands respect and is still only 46 years old.
Saleh has already received plenty of head coach interest during this cycle. Pittsburgh might join the mix.
The College Coaches
Pittsburgh’s prestige as a top NFL franchise could draw in college football’s biggest names.
Marcus Freeman/Notre Dame
I won’t spend much time on either college name for the slim chances they’d actually make the jump. Freeman feels like an ideal candidate, cut from similar cloth to Tomlin, and he just turned 40. Reports remain firm he intends to stay with the Fighting Irish, a statement he’s previously declared, and he’s set to hold a press conference later Wednesday in which he could double down on that sentiment.
Still, if there was an NFL team that could pique Freeman’s interest, it’d be a franchise like the Steelers.
Curt Cignetti/Indiana
Cignetti just signed a mega-contract with the Hoosiers, and he’s quickly become an Indiana icon. He’s also 64 and “old” by NFL coaching standards, especially if Pittsburgh has the vision of hiring a coach for the next 15 years. Like Freeman, Cignetti is probably going to stay in school.
But the Western PA ties run deep for the Cignetti name. He’s a Pittsburgh native whose father spent nearly 20 years as the head coach at IUP, a D-II school about an hour north of the city. Curt himself left a prestigious job at Alabama to become IUP’s coach in 2011, taking a major pay cut in the process. When asked why he’d leave coaching alongside Nick Saban for a small school job, Cignetti was his typical blunt self.
“A lot of people would say, ‘Why would you leave Alabama and come to IUP when you have one of the best jobs in America?'” he told reporters in 2011. “I think that’s a very fair que stion. We had won the national championship. We had won 29 regular-season games in a row. We had accomplished a great deal. I was just ready for a different challenge.”
If Indiana defeats Miami (FL) for Monday night’s national title, Cignetti will have accomplished every goal he set out for himself. While he’s only been at Indiana for two seasons, he’s been a college head coach since 2011 and in the college game since the early 1980s. The NFL would be a new challenge and ultimate test for a guy like Cignetti, who doesn’t have a ton of years left to try and make that jump.
Cignetti also got his coaching start by spending two years as a Grad Assistant at Pitt from 1983-1984.
The Internals
At the least, Pittsburgh may consider internal options during the interview process.
Eddie Faulkner/Running Backs Coach
Faulkner is a sleeper name to know in the interview process. For a couple of reasons. One, he’s done a solid job in Pittsburgh. He coached Najee Harris to four-straight 1,000-yard seasons. He turned Jaylen Warren from UDFA into a starter. Kenneth Gainwell had a career year under him and will get paid for it within months. The man can coach the position, and Faulkner’s the longest-tenured offensive coach on staff.
Of course, being a head coach is more than just coaching up a position group. It’s important to note that Mike Tomlin promoted him to co-offensive coordinator after Matt Canada’s 2023 midseason firing. While Mike Sullivan took over as play caller, Tomlin praised Faulkner for his organizational skills.
Im excited about Eddie Faulkner coordinating our efforts, Tomlinsaid at the time.Organizing staff responsibility in meetings. Organizing game planning. Leading our unit as a collective in review of our tape in preparation of our upcoming opponents and things of that nature. Things that a coordinator does. He has full authority in that regard and my support.”
The role of a head coach isn’t just designing a brilliant offense or defense. It’s leading, organizing, and delegating. It sure seems like Faulkner has that in spades. He also has head coach experience. Granted, it’s thinnest amount, but he served as Ball State’s interim head coach for about a month in 2009 after Stan Parrish was fired until Pete Lembo was brought in. All of that speaks to a recognition of leadership traits.
Faulkner is a sensible candidate as an internal interview, even if the odds of him or any current Steelers’ coach being promoted feel slim.
Arthur Smith/Offensive Coordinator
An obvious name. Smith is a former head coach who has received multiple inquiries since joining Pittsburgh in 2024, including an interview with the Tennessee Titans later Wednesday. Smith is well-respected by coaches around the NFL, choosing a hard path despite being the son of the late billionaire and FedEx founder Fred Smith. His track record with quarterbacks is better than he’s given credit for, and he embodies the franchise’s old-school philosophy centered around a healthy running game.
Smith is a logical place for Rooney to start, though the odds are against him actually becoming the hire.
The last time Pittsburgh made a true head coach promotion? John Michelosen in 1948. I say “true” because Mike Nixon replaced Buddy Parker after he quit two weeks before the 1965 season while Walt Kiesling replaced Joe Bach, who resigned in August of 1954. Even Michelosen comes with an asterisk, replacing Jock Sutherland who died on a scouting trip in April 1948. But that was an offseason hire instead of occurring right before the regular season began.
The Others
I’ll finish by just rattling off a handful of names that don’t quite fit in any of the above buckets or are too unlikely to spend dedicated time on. Names who may be better off as potential coordinator hires as part of a new coaching staff.
– Aaron Kromer (Bills OL Coach)
– Chris Banjo (Jets STs Coach)
– Frank Ross (Texans STs Coach)
– Spencer Whipple (Jaguars QBs Coach)
– Dennard Wilson (Titans DC)
– Darren Rizzi (Saints STs Coach)
– Antwaan Randle El (Bears AHC/WRs)
– Mark Brunell (Lions QBs Coach)
– Adam Stenavich (Packers OC)
– Jeff Ulbrich (Falcons DC)
– Ejiro Evero (Panthers DC)
– Tom Arth (Steelers QBs Coach)
