Familiarity breeds ton of success
Butler, Fichtner stick with Tomlin
Mike Tomlin goes back a long way with his top lieutenants, Keith Butler and Randy Fichtner.
The three coached together at Arkansas State in 1998, two years after Tomlin and Butler were on the same staff at the University of Memphis.
And the trio is about to begin its 14th season together with the Steelers, an arrangement that has lasted longer than many Hollywood marriages.
Butler, the Steelers defensive coordinator, is the team’s longest-tenured coach. He has been with the Steelers since 2003, when he was hired as Bill Cowher’s linebackers coach.
That’s the position Butler played for 10 seasons with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. He was the Seahawks all-time leading tackler when he retired after the 1987 season.
Fichtner, who enters his third season as offensive coordinator, is the only assistant remaining who was hired by Tomlin for the head coach’s original staff in 2007. He began as a wide receivers coach, then moved to quarterbacks coach in 2010. He remained in that role, too, even after he was appointed to run the entire offense in 2018.
Despite his long relationship with his two coordinators, Tomlin has not been afraid to have others, including himself, work with the two units to improve their performance.
Since Dick LeBeau was not rehired in 2015, Tomlin has taken a more active role in the defense, not just with gameplanning but also calling defensive signals on the field and running many of the sideline huddles.
Pittsburgh Steelers
By all accounts, Tomlin calls the first- and seconddown defenses and Butler handles third down. Much of it is done because of the comfort each has with the other. This year, some of that is happening with his offense. Tomlin hired former Pitt offensive coordinator Matt Canada as quarterbacks coach, not only alleviating Fichtner of that role but wanting Canada to bring some of the motion concepts he employed at Wisconsin and LSU, in addition to Pitt. Many of the players have already talked about the presnap shifts, misdirection and play-action concepts that are being added to the offense. Tomlin is not undermining the authority of his coordinators, although it might appear that way. Rather, he is doing what he can to help them — and, more important, the team — to succeed. And he has taken that approach because of the unselfish attitude of those two longtime aides. That may not always go over well with other coordinators around the league. But it seems to work with the Steelers “I don’t know whether or not it is common or uncommon. I know that it is appreciated here,” Tomlin said. “That’s one of the reasons why we’ve had such longstanding business and personal relationships, speaking on those two men. They don’t care who gets the credit. They simply want to win. “They display that unselfishness in everything they do and have, over the years, in a number of roles and a bunch of different locations. It’s important to me, and I think it’s a winning edge for us.”
What could have been ...
It is somewhat remarkable the Steelers led the NFL with 54 sacks and 38 takeaways in 2019, given the sorry state of their offense.
Typically, defenses with that many sacks and takeaways have the benefit of playing with a lead, allowing them to get after a quarterback and take chances in the secondary because the opponent is throwing to catch up.
But that was not the case with the Steelers, who rarely had the lead because of what guard David DeCastro referred to as a “pretty terrible” offense. They had a lead of seven or more points in only seven games and just 15 of 64 quarters last season, or just 23.4% of the time.
That their defense was that opportunistic was almost unfathomable. Imagine what might happen if they could play with a lead more often? Or with a lead of 10 or more points.
“When you are playing with a lead and you know that teams are one-dimensional, then your ability to get turnovers increases,” said senior defensive assistant/secondary coach Teryl Austin.
“If that happens, that will be great. If it doesn’t, then it is our job to get the ball back in these tight games. We are going to try to get after the ball no matter what.
“So, I think our guys are determined to make sure we play better than we did last year and get more turnovers and be more impactful on the games than we were last year.”