{"id":700226,"date":"2026-01-24T00:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/700226\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T00:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:54:18","slug":"commanders-interview-steelers-defensive-coordinator-for-their-dc-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/700226\/","title":{"rendered":"Commanders interview Steelers defensive coordinator for their DC job"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can add another name to the Washington Commanders<\/a>‘ ever-expanding search for a new defensive coordinator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic reported Friday that longtime NFL assistant Teryl Austin had recently interviewed with the Commanders<\/a>. Austin, 60, has spent the past four seasons as Mike Tomlin’s defensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers. With Tomlin recently stepping down, Austin is free to speak with other teams.<\/p>\n

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Austin played cornerback at the University of Pittsburgh and actually entered the NFL as a member of the Washington Redskins. However, he didn’t make the team and then pursued a career in the Canadian Football League before turning his attention to coaching in 1991. After 12 seasons as a college assistant at Penn State, Wake Forest, Syracuse and Michigan, Austin began his NFL coaching career in 2003 with the Seattle Seahawks<\/a>. He is a three-time NFL defensive coordinator and has interviewed for multiple head coaching positions over the years.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at each of Austin’s NFL stops:<\/p>\n

Seattle Seahawks (2003-06): Defensive backs coach<\/p>\n

2010: Left the NFL for one season to serve as the University of Florida’s defensive coordinator<\/p>\n

Cincinnati Bengals (2018): Defensive coordinator<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Steelers (2019-21): Senior defensive assistant & secondary coach<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Steelers (2022-25): Defensive coordinator<\/p>\n

Austin is a respected coach, having spent a total of nine seasons as an NFL defensive coordinator. However, his defenses haven’t been among the NFL’s best in recent years.<\/p>\n

Washington has interviewed at least eight candidates for the position, with Brian Flores returning to Minnesota unless he lands a head coaching job. The Commanders’ rumored top candidate, Jeff Ulbrich, was retained by the Atlanta Falcons.<\/p>\n

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This week, Washington also interviewed Bears’ pass game coordinator\/defensive backs coach<\/a> Al Harris. The Commanders fired defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. on January 6, two days after the 2025 season ended.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Washington Commanders: Interviewed Steelers DC Teryl Austin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can add another name to the Washington Commanders‘ ever-expanding search for a new defensive coordinator. Nicki Jhabvala…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2069],"tags":[390,254,117,6982,256,427,15564,2792,113,7,1255,233,6,32353,57,261,30261,26853,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-700226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-baltimore-ravens","11":"tag-canadian-football-league","12":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","13":"tag-commanders","14":"tag-defensive-backs-coach","15":"tag-defensive-coordinator","16":"tag-detroit-lions","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-mike-tomlin","19":"tag-minnesota","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-nicki-jhabvala","22":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","23":"tag-seattle-seahawks","24":"tag-teryl-austin","25":"tag-university-of-pittsburgh","26":"tag-washington","27":"tag-washington-commanders","28":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115947350600677432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}