{"id":423349,"date":"2026-01-22T18:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423349\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:01:07","slug":"espn-shares-league-sources-concerns-over-steelers-job-they-need-to-bump-up-salaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423349\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Shares League Sources’ Concerns Over Steelers’ Job: ‘They Need To Bump Up Salaries’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s rare for an NFL offseason to feature 10 head coach openings, and rarer still for the Pittsburgh Steelers to be among them. The unusual circumstances provide a rare glimpse into how the league values Pittsburgh\u2019s job\u2014does it stand alone as the best opening, the way a Yankees or Lakers vacancy would in other major leagues?<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s Brooke Pryor spoke to various NFL execs and league sources<\/a> to get an honest opinion of how the Steelers job is being viewed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoaches will be interviewing Steelers brass as much as they will be interviewing the coach,\u201d a league source told Pryor.<\/p>\n

Just because the Steelers have historic job stability in an industry known for churn, it doesn\u2019t automatically make them every candidate\u2019s top choice. There are a lot of challenges ahead in an organization that has been starved of a playoff win for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

Who will the next quarterback be? And what will happen with some of the veteran staples of the roster and culture, like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just coming into a lot of uncertainty,\u201d another league source told Pryor.<\/p>\n

In the annual NFLPA survey<\/a>, the Steelers have routinely been given low marks in just about every category other than their head coach. Now that variable is out the door. The middling or borderline-flunking grades of ownership, locker room, and facilities carry more weight than ever.<\/p>\n

One league exec pointed out to Pryor that those things are \u201cfar more important in college than the NFL,\u201d but they are still a factor regardless.<\/p>\n

What those things do speak to is the investment from ownership into giving the team all the resources it needs to win. Are the Steelers willing to invest in a top-notch coaching staff and any requests the new staff may have in terms of changing or updating the practice facility, for example?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are concerns about [ownership\u2019s] willingness to spend money in an effort to modernize the old-school franchise,\u201d Pryor wrote, citing a longtime coaching source.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to bump up salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The source prefaced that by saying the job is better than most around the NFL, but football is a business and money always talks. Even if the Steelers are willing to pay the next head coach a handsome salary, will they be willing to make competitive offers to help him field a staff with the right assistants?<\/p>\n

With four of the 10 vacancies filled, the Steelers are competing against the likes of the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills, both of whom already have starting MVP quarterbacks in place. They are also up against the Las Vegas Raiders, who have new facilities, Tom Brady helping steer the ship, and the No. 1 overall draft pick to potentially get their next quarterback.<\/p>\n

Some coaches may simply prefer the opportunity to hit the ground running with a quarterback plan in place, even if the Steelers offer unprecedented stability. The organization can\u2019t rely on its history forever, and the sparkle that comes with that perception may already be starting to fade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the organization has truly fallen behind in the NFL in terms of a modern operation,\u201d a league exec told ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s rare for an NFL offseason to feature 10 head coach openings, and rarer still for the Pittsburgh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[28987,352,349,1321,99],"class_list":["post-423349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-brooke-pryor","tag-espn","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}