Steelers Hire Valuable Former Falcons Staff Member At A New Coaching Position

The Pittsburgh Steelers are adding another important piece to the coaching staff of the newly-hired head coach in Mike McCarthy. McCarthy has worked diligently to try and to fill out his new coaching staff. McCarthy has hired assistants with NFL pedigrees and proven records. This trend continues after another hiring that is yet another example. 

The Steelers have hired former Atlanta Falcons chief of staff of coaching operations, Steve Scarnecchia. Scarnecchia is the son of legendary New England Patriots coach Dante Scarnecchia. 

Scarnecchia will likely retain a similar role with the Steelers under McCarthy. This coaching role comes with many responsibilities, including scheduling the team's meetings and football calendar, managing the football ops budget, and organizing team and staff events. 

This is yet another important addition to McCarthy's ever-growing staff. McCarthy has been busy adding a slew of new assistants and a defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham. McCarthy made it a point of emphasis that he wanted to expand the organization's coaching staff. He wants to utilize analytics and grow what was one of the cheapest and smallest coaching staff in the NFL. This hire is exemplary of the many efforts McCarthy is making to add many levels of expertise to his staff.

Scarnecchia brings NFL expertise from the Falcons and the New York Jets' organizations. He served a similar role for Raheem Morris and his staff in 2025, and the Jets from 2021-24. He will look to make a mark in Pittsburgh, joining a Super Bowl-hungry McCarthy. 

By hiring a coach in a new position like this, the hopes are for the Steelers to have a motivation to improve their football operations and quality of team events. It proves the Steelers are finally starting to come of age in terms of coaching. 

General Manager Omar Khan is seemingly giving free rein to McCarthy as he builds his staff. The investment in more coaching and better operations is a positive effort to improve the organization, as the Steelers usually rank last in similar categories when graded by the players. This is a great sign in hopefully improving this mark.

Steelers Have A Path To Bring In Elite Staff Moving Forward

The Steelers still have many holes to fill in their coaching staff moving forward. McCarthy has yet to hire an offensive coordinator and recently lost defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander to the Vikings. 

McCarthy decided not to retain most of the now-former Head Coach Mike Tomlin's staff and has recently signed James Campen (offensive line coach) and Adam Henry (receivers coach). McCarthy is still very busy attempting to fill out his staff, and this hire makes sense in the direction he wants to move with this team. 

The Steelers will look to fill the biggest hole in their coaching staff, the offensive coordinator. Some names that are circling are the New Orleans Saints quarterbacks Coach Scott Tolzien and the Dallas Cowboys' tight ends coach Lunda Wells. These young, innovative coaches look to move up the ranks in NFL coaching and will have a great mentor in McCarthy. Tolzien would be a great hire to help develop a young QB, should that be the direction the Steelers go. 

He would also be a great coach for a potential reunion with Aaron Rodgers. Wells would be great in developing the TE room in Pittsburgh, which includes many stars like Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington. 

Getting the tight ends involved was a huge gripe from Steelers fans last year, who thought the extremely talented group was underutilized. This hire would help the group develop, be utilized more, and help the ball go to all of the Steelers' potential weapons. No matter what, the Steelers are looking to improve in their quality of coaching.

What do you think of this hire? Who should the Steelers bring in next? Let us know in the comments below!

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