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Dallas Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells will interview for the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator job, per Adam Schefter of ESPN. Wells was in Dallas with Mike McCarthy and stayed there under Brian Schottenheimer. He has also coached offensive line, and is the head coach for the West team in the Shrine Bowl on Tuesday night. Wells also interviewed for the Washington Commanders OC job earlier this month.
Wells has never been an offensive coordinator before. Prior to joining the Cowboys in 2020, Wells held several positions with the New York Giants. He was the tight ends coach from 2018-2019, the assistant offensive line coach from 2013-2017 and an offensive quality control coach in 2012. Wells was the assistant special teams coach and assistant to the head coach at LSU from 2010-2011. Prior to that role, he was the offensive line assistant at LSU from 2008-2009.
Throughout his career as a head coach, McCarthy has typically served as the primary play-caller.
Steelers president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan will introduce McCarthy as the franchise’s head coach at a press conference at 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the PNC Champions Club at Acrisure Stadium, the team announced on Monday.
McCarthy, who’s 62, was born and raised in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. McCarthy will be the Steelers’ fourth head coach since 1969.
“He’s in the process right now of trying to hire a staff,” Rooney said, via an interview with Bob Labriola of Steelers.com. “It’s not an easy task, because some of the people he’d like to hire are under contract to other teams, and so we’ve got to get permission to talk to them. But just in general, the people he had targeted for key positions – offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, offensive line coach, and those kinds of things – we were very comfortable with the discussion around that.”
Mike McCarthy in 2021 with the Dallas Cowboys
An experienced coach has emerged as his possible defensive coordinator.
“Been hearing former Giants and Raider DC Patrick Graham’s name as a possible defensive coordinator for Mike McCarthy in Pittsburgh,” Giants reporter Art Stapleton wrote Monday morning on X. “Graham was with McCarthy in Green Bay.”
Graham, 47, spent the last four seasons as the Las Vegas Raiders’ defensive coordinator. He held the same role for the Giants from 2020-21 and the Miami Dolphins in 2019. He was the linebackers coach/defensive run game coordinator under McCarthy with the Packers in 2018 after working as a defensive line coach with the Giants from 2016-17.
Graham began his coaching career by learning from Bill Belichick from 2009-15, as a coaching assistant, defensive assistant, defensive line coach and linebackers coach.
Other coaches Graham has worked for are Pete Carroll, Brian Flores, Joe Judge, Ben McAdoo, Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce.
Mentioned In This Article: Dallas Cowboys Lunda Wells Mike McCarthy Pittsburgh Steelers Steelers Steelers News