Steelers' Secondary Coach Grady Brown Talks Joe Haden, "We'll definitely miss him around here" 

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been putting in the work the past couple of weeks at Organized Team Activities (OTAs). The Steelers' secondary coach Grady Brown has tremendous talent to work with in the secondary with guys like Minkah Fitzpatrick, Ahkello Witherspoon, Levi Wallace, Cam Sutton, Damontae Kazee, and Terrell Edmunds. Brown sat down with Steelers' reporter Missi Matthews for an interview and talks about his "rookie year" and former Steeler Joe Haden.

Matthews asked Brown what he learned during his "rookie year" of coaching last season and what he's looking forward to in year two.

"A lot, learned a lot, you know just the difference in the college game and the NFL game is match-up oriented in the NFL and there's also the component of you play the same team more than once. You know, that's rare in college, but obviously we play our divisional teams twice and you know, we played Kansas City twice last year, so that's a different component. And learning how to be flexible in that space and being able to give multiple looks and correct your mistakes and really try to identify the mistakes that they didn't identify last time. You know because these coaches will find them, so it's been a great learning experience, but I would definitely say the match-up part of things and just playing opponents multiple times were the biggest differences from the college game to the pro game."

The Pittsburgh Steelers hired Grady Brown as their defensive backs' coach on February 16, 2021/ Louisville Athletics

On preparing for year two and working with DC Teryl Austin, Brown said:

"Absolutely and we're still a unit, you know he's a secondary coach by trade. And so, he'll remain a secondary coach, but there is more responsibility on my shoulders certainly and really just prepared the same way. Last year, you know, reflection and study offenses in the offseason, what's trending in the NFL and where can we get better. What were our deficiencies, what do we do well you know, and again what mistakes did we make last year that offenses did not capitalize on. So, a lot of my process didn't change much in terms of offseason. When the actual meeting time came, you know more responsibility there and just preparation for meetings and things like that. "

Current free agent Joe Haden emotional after play when covering New England Patriots WR Chris Hogan on December 16, 20018. That was the last time Tom Brady visited Pittsburgh. (Joe Sargent/Getty Images)

"What's it like not having Joe Haden, someone who was a veteran guy that not just in the secondary, but everyone on the defense kind of looked to, as he knew what to do?"

"Right, Joe was awesome! Let me just say that, you talk about me being a rookie NFL coach last year, Joe was awesome. He taught me a lot of those differences between the college game and between the pro game and how to approach players and everything like that. And I'll miss Joe tremendously as a person and just as a player, I mean I can't say enough great things about his personality. I don't know if he's ever had a bad day, so we'll all miss Joe, but just him being around, his energy that he brought everyday and there was an eagerness to learn. You know, he wanted to know whatever it was that I wanted, that I had to teach him. And we'll definitely miss him around here.

Check out the interview in its entirety here!

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