The Steelers have a head coach vacancy for the first time in 19 years, and they have some big shoes to fill with Mike Tomlin resigning. Tomlin’s former boss, Tony Dungy, had some thoughts on who should succeed him. And apparently, he did a pretty good job, since the Steelers are on the books for his two picks.
“Dan Rooney, his formula, and you can look at those three coaches, [was] young defensive communicators”, Dungy told Jac Collinsworth on NFL on NBC earlier this week, referring to the former Steelers owner who oversaw the hirings of Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin.
“Jesse Minter fits that bill tremendously”, he said, referring to the current Chargers defensive coordinator. The Steelers will reportedly meet with him virtually tomorrow. “Now, Art Rooney [II], Dan’s son, is gonna be making the decision. I don’t know if he’ll stick with his dad’s formula, but if he does, Jesse Minter would be great”.
Minter, 42, has six years of NFL coaching experience, but his coaching career extends back to 2006. In 2017, he joined the Ravens’ staff for four seasons as a defensive assistant and later defensive backs coach. Minter accepted the defensive coordinator job at Michigan in 2021 under Jim Harbaugh, then followed him to the Chargers in 2024 under the same title.
“The other name I would throw out there would be Brian Flores”, Tony Dungy said, whom Mike Tomlin hired for one season on the Steelers’ coaching staff in 2022. “Same thing. He would bring that same M.O. and that same chemistry. If he is in that mode to at least explore it, I think the Steelers ought to give him a call”.
Flores, 44, is on the older side of the head coach candidates the Steelers have been connected with so far. He is also the only one who has prior NFL head coaching experience. He started in the Patriots’ scouting department, later serving as a special teams coach. Then offense, then defense. Nominally, he was a linebackers coach when the Dolphins hired him as their head coach in 2019.
After the Dolphins fired him, Tomlin hired him as a linebackers coach and senior defensive assistant, remaining on the Steelers’ staff for the 2022 season. He left a lasting impact while there, and the Vikings are fighting to retain him.
But if the Steelers want him to be their head coach, could he really say no? He has ambitions to be a head coach again, I’m sure—he did in the recent past. And the Steelers may be the ideal outlet for him for numerous reasons. They are a stable franchise with consistent owners who value stability. And they already know him and how he works and what he values, and vice versa.
Still, neither Jesse Minter nor Brian Flores are perfect fits for the Steelers’ theoretical head coach mold. Both are a little bit long in the tooth, comparatively, already in their 40s. Mike Tomlin had already won a Super Bowl well before he hit 40. Of course, he never won another one, and that’s what the Steelers want in their next head coach above all.