{"id":929094,"date":"2026-06-26T06:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/929094\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:21:18","slug":"steelers-hire-new-special-teams-coach-with-mike-mccarthy-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/929094\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers hire new special teams coach with Mike McCarthy ties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">After the Steelers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.behindthesteelcurtain.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-news\/171271\/steelers-fire-senior-special-teams-coach-in-shock-move-derrius-swinton-danny-crossman-otas-mike-mccarthy-news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">abruptly fired<\/a> senior special teams coach Derius Swinton II in May due to workplace misconduct, Pittsburgh head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters in early June that the team was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.behindthesteelcurtain.com\/pittsburgh-steelers-news\/171396\/the-steelers-are-looking-to-add-a-replacement-coach-to-mike-mccarthys-staff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">looking to add a new assistant<\/a> in his place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">It appears the team has quietly made that hire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">First noticed by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Alex_Kozora\/status\/2070309986874339780\" rel=\"nofollow\">Alex Kozora<\/a> of Steelers Depot, the Steelers recently updated their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.steelers.com\/team\/front-office-roster\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">staff page<\/a> with a new name: Darian Thompson, listed as a special teams quality control coach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Thompson has both played and coached for McCarthy during his time in the NFL. Originally a 2016 third-round pick by the Arizona Cardinals at safety, Thompson spent the 2018-2021 seasons as a Dallas Cowboy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Thompson finished his NFL career with 173 total tackles. He was a core special teamer for Dallas, playing 652 snaps on that side of the ball during his stint with the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">After Thompson\u2019s playing days were over, he signed with the Cowboys as an assistant linebackers coach and quality control coach in 2023. In 2025, he changed to a secondary\/nickels coach, but wasn\u2019t brought back in the following offseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Now, Thompson becomes the second special teams coach on Pittsburgh\u2019s staff, alongside coordinator Danny Crossman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Steelers abruptly fired senior special teams coach Derius Swinton II in May due to workplace misconduct,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":929095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,79738,2374,2360,426],"class_list":["post-929094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-coaching-staff","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116814969797778048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929094","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=929094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/929095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}