{"id":170563,"date":"2026-04-20T05:29:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T05:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/170563\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T05:29:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T05:29:20","slug":"pittsburgh-already-has-the-one-thing-new-coach-danny-crossman-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/170563\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Already Has The One Thing New Coach Danny Crossman Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Pittsburgh Steelers Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman knows there\u2019s one thing a 40 time or data set can\u2019t measure: Toughness. To him, it\u2019s the basic ingredient required for anyone to play and succeed. Good news. He thinks Pittsburgh has plenty of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good thing about this team, one thing you\u2019re not going to have to bring is the element of toughness,\u201d he said via a team-provided transcript. \u201cThe element of toughness has been the Pittsburgh Steelers since I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a comment Crossman\u2019s made during past stops of a long NFL coaching career. One that began as an assistant in Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSelfless, smart, tough, available. If you have those things, you have a chance,\u201d Crossman once <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2026\/02\/the-big-book-of-danny-crossman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said of success in a 2019 interview.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Special teamers don\u2019t have to be the biggest and fastest. Many of the most successful names don\u2019t fit that bill. It requires a certain mentality to succeed. Doing the grunt work others won\u2019t, and honing your craft to gain an edge. Wide receiver Ben Skowronek is a perfect example. Years ago, linebacker Tyler Matakevich fit the mold.<\/p>\n<p>Crossman\u2019s comments about Pittsburgh aren\u2019t just self-serving. He knows the region well. Though he grew up in Philadelphia, he made his way to Pittsburgh during college. After a year at Kansas, he followed coaches Mike Gottfried and Bob Valesente to the Panthers. Crossman became a starting safety, helping Pitt win the 1989 Sun Bowl. As a senior, he was coached by a then-young grad assistant named Mike McCarthy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was one of those things, it went from yeah, I\u2019m interested, to I have to get this. This is too good of an opportunity to not have this,\u201d Crossman said of the job.<\/p>\n<p>Crossman takes over for long-time coach Danny Smith, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buccaneers.com\/team\/coaches-roster\/danny-smith\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">departed for the same role with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/a> Crossman\u2019s goal is to keep kicker Chris Boswell\u2019s excellent career on track, maintain a largely successful coverage unit, but improve the team\u2019s punting and return game. Still, couching all that in toughness is the key to making his time in Pittsburgh a success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the starting point to playing good football, and especially to be able to get where we really want to get to, which is winning games and getting to the playoffs, and then ultimately put the seventh up there on that second floor that I get to walk by every day. So, toughness, discipline, smart football is what we\u2019re going to try and play in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seventh, of course, referring to the next Lombardi Trophy. Toughness was a hallmark of the past six championship clubs and will be required for the franchise\u2019s next long playoff run. A culture that Crossman only has to continue, not cultivate, which made Pittsburgh\u2019s job attractive in the first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Pittsburgh Steelers Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman knows there\u2019s one thing a 40 time or data set&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[71630,73,75,74,1833],"class_list":["post-170563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-danny-crossman","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}