The Pittsburgh Steelers were very fortunate to add a terrific young mind with Brian Flores this offseason. Flores of course was a long time coach in New England under Bill Belichick, and was eventually hired and fired by the Miami Dolphins after a few seasons. Now Flores has a law suit out against the NFL which in turn helped the Steelers land him at such a lesser role than he's qualified for in the NFL.
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
With Flores the Steelers get a coach that was dominate in his field as a linebacker coach. He gets to work with Devin Bush, and Myles Jack. Both with come with special talent. Bush is coming off a disappointing season after returning from an ACL injury that kept him out for most of 2020. Bush's struggles have been well documented, and the hope is that Flores will be able to fix Bush mentally, and physically. Jack on the other hand has had a mostly good career in Jacksonville. In his first couple of years Jack roamed the middle of a stout Jacksonville defense that went to the AFC Championship game. But from there it's been a struggle for the Jaguars. Jack signed a big contract with the Jags when his rookie deal expired, but hasn't lived up to the expectations of all those millions. So because of that the Jags released Jack this off-season.
But he wasn't a free agent long before Mike Tomlin, and Flores were on the phone recruiting him to Pittsburgh. Now Flores seems to be ready to bring another aspect of his resume to Pittsburgh. A no nonsense attitude that may be needed in the Pittsburgh locker room. Tomlin critics will tell you this has been needed for a long time as sometimes the Steelers locker room seems to be more fun and games than winning. That culture has shown up the past five years as they've failed to win a playoff game.
But with Flores in the building it seems like things could be changing a little bit, at least for the defense. After practice on Tuesday reporter Josh Rowntree from 93.7 the Fan caught up with safety Terrell Edmunds. He had this to say about Flores.
"He’s a bulldog. Just the way he talks, you can tell that he’s got the military mentality. He wants everything to be on point. He’s not letting anybody slack off. We need that."
#Steelers safety Terrell Edmunds on Brian Flores: "He’s a bulldog. Just the way he talks, you can tell that he’s got the military mentality. He wants everything to be on point. He’s not letting anybody slack off. We need that." @937theFan
— Josh Rowntree (@JRown32) May 31, 2022
Last season as the Steelers defense struggled, Minkah Fitzpatrick said that the team needed to have better practices.
“Right now there are certain things that have to change,” Fitzpatrick said to 93.7 at the time. “How we move throughout the week. Whether we get more reps in practice. Whether it’s going at a faster pace during walk-throughs.”
This may somehow be connected to what Cameron Heyward said this morning about there being more attention to detail with Keith Butler gone, and Teryl Austin as the defensive coordinator.
Hopefully Flores will be just the ingredient the Steelers need to get back to playing elite defense.
