The Steelers wide receiver coach, Scottie Montgomery, has left the team to become the offensive coordinator for Duke. Montgomery became the Steelers wide receiver coach in 2010 and was considered to be one of Mike Tomlin’s “guys.” As was Amos Jones the Steelers formed special teams coordinator who left for the same job in Arizona.
The question is whether Tomlin is cleaning house with his coaches or if the Steelers front office told him to get rid of these guys. Either way the Steelers coaching staff has a decent amount of turnover in comparison to recent years. Offensive line coach Sean Kugler, Jones, and Montgomery are all gone and the Steelers been replacing these coaches with outside people.
If the Steelers had been promoting from within the team it wouldn’t be as suspicious, but they are finding people who have no connection with the organization. There is also the fact that only Kugler left for a better job. Montgomery is leaving the NFL to be the offensive coordinator at Duke, his alma mater. Now returning to his college team’s coaching staff may have been a goal for Montgomery, but leaving the NFL to be an offensive coordinator for a low level football program doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Jone also left the Steelers without getting a promotion. He left for the same job in Arizona where he will pair back up with former Steelers offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. The concern with these coaching changes is whether Tomlin has decided to start making changes to his staff because he was upset with their performance during the 2012 season or if the team has forced him to make changes.
Now it could also be that these coaches did decide to leave on their own accord, but there seems to be more here. There is no question that the Steelers organization as a whole was not happy with the team’s performance during the 2012 season. The special teams, offensive line, and wide receiving core where three of the worst performing parts of the team in 2012. So change could prove to be a good thing, but Kugler was a well-respected coach and the other two were considered to be friends of Tomlin.
Therefore, Tomlin forcing these guys out doesn’t seem like what happened. After Jones left there was a report that the Steelers were expecting to have him back in 2013. Montgomery has also done a good job with the Steelers helping prepare Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown, and Emmanuel Sanders for the NFL.
So did the team force Tomlin’s hand and tell these coaches to search for other coaching opportunities elsewhere or are these coaches content with the moves they’ve made? Both options could be true, but if the team is forcing Tomlin’s hand to make coaching changes it could show a lack of trust in Tomlin following an 8-8 season. It doesn’t seem likely, however, that the team would be upset with Tomlin, who has only had one non-winning season as a head coach and who has been to two Super Bowls.
Right now the Steelers will start their search for a new wide receivers coach and they can also sign a special teams assistant. That means Tomlin could still hire two more coaches to his staff this off-season if he wants a special teams assistant. During his head coaching career with the Steelers he has had an assistant special teams coach for all but the 2012 season.
