Steelers make huge defensive splash, add Brian Flores to staff

The Pittsburgh Steelers already replaced Keith Butler with Teryl Austin being promoted to defensive coordinator but they’ve brought in more reinforcements.

Questions swirled in the immediate aftermath of longtime Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler announcing his retirement as to who would replace him in that role. The drama thereafter, though, was a bit anticlimactic as the franchise went with arguably the most obvious choice, promoting Teryl Austin.

Apparently, though, the Steelers had another splash to make in regards to their defensive coaching staff — they just needed the head coaching interviews and carousel to come to rest before they could make such a move.

On Saturday, they got it done as the team announced that they’d hired Brian Flores as a senior defensive assistant and the linebackers coach in Pittsburgh.

Steelers hire Brian Flores as a defensive coaching assistant

Flores, of course, was fired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins after the 2021 season, much to the surprise of many fans.

He then interviewed for a number of head coaching vacancies around the NFL but, alas, he was not hired for any of those roles. That’s something that the Steelers are certainly thankful for at this point.

What’s interesting, though, is that Flores is also in the midst of a lawsuit against the NFL for racial discrimination that, according to him, reveals damning practices from a number of teams throughout the league. Thus, it is a bit shocking that Pittsburgh would make this move while that’s going on.

That said, Flores has long been respected as a great defensive mind, which showed both when he was the defensive coordinator for the Patriots and head coach in Miami. Thus, adding him to Austin’s staff could be huge for Pittsburgh.

The talent for the Steelers on that side of the ball is obvious and having two veteran coaches like Austin and Flores working with that group could produce some impressive results that will help a team that could be entering somewhat of a transition with Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement not drop off too much.