Frank Cignetti Jr., who worked with Mike McCarthy as the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback coach in 2018, is joining the Steelers’ staff, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Mike McCarthy is adding former Pitt and IUP coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. to his offensive staff, per sources. Cignetti was McCarthy’s QB coach in Green Bay in 2018.
— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) February 2, 2026
Tom Arth is being retained as the Steelers’ quarterbacks coach, so Cignetti would have a different role this time around under McCarthy. Cignetti is currently the offensive coordinator at IUP, but he previously held the title at Boston College (2020-2021) and at Pitt twice (2009-2010, 2022-2023). He also worked with McCarthy in New Orleans, as the Saints’ quarterbacks coach from 2000-2001 when McCarthy was their offensive coordinator.
His other NFL stops include the San Francisco 49ers in 2007 as quarterbacks coach, as well as quarterbacks coach for the St. Louis Rams from 2012-2014 before serving as their offensive coordinator in 2015. He also worked for the New York Giants as a quarterbacks coach from 2016-2017. Cignetti has plenty of experience coaching in college, as he began his career as a graduate assistant at Pitt in 1989 before coaching at IUP from 1990-1998.
He left for a job with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1999 and spent time in the NFL before working an offensive coordinator job at Fresno State 2002-2005 and then becoming the OC at North Carolina. He’s also worked at Cal and Rutgers as an offensive coordinator.
His brother, Curt, is the head coach at Indiana University and just won a national championship, while his father and namesake was a longtime head coach at IUP and also was the head coach at West Virginia.
He’s worked with plenty of young quarterbacks and has familiarity with McCarthy. That’s been the theme for much of the staff so far, and it’ll be interesting to see what Cignetti’s official title winds up being. It’ll be his first NFL job since he worked for the Packers in 2018.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Cignetti’s role is one the Steelers didn’t have under Mike Tomlin. He could serve as a senior offensive assistant or some new title that the Steelers haven’t previously had. Like McCarthy, Cignetti is from Pittsburgh and has plenty of experience coaching in the area from his multiple stints at Pitt. Now, in his first stint with the Steelers and third time working with McCarthy, Cignetti will try to help spark an offense that hasn’t had much success in recent years.