{"id":483984,"date":"2026-02-22T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483984\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T14:56:11","slug":"despite-new-coaches-one-thing-on-steelers-defense-isnt-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483984\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite New Coaches, One Thing On Steelers\u2019 Defense Isn\u2019t Changing"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t teach an old dog new tricks \u2014 at least not easily. And for the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 veteran defense, adaptation this offseason won\u2019t come through a sweeping overhaul of terminology. The new coaching staff has made it clear the language is staying largely the same.<\/p>\n

Mike McCarthy said it in his opening press conference, and now DC Patrick Graham said the same in his interview with Steelers.com\u2019s Missi Matthews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much easier for myself and the coaching staff because we\u2019re lesser in numbers. We can learn the language as opposed to having all 45 of these guys learn the new language as we go,\u201d Graham said. \u201cWherever we can keep it consistent, because again, it\u2019s been successful here. What coach [Mike] Tomlin built, what the coaches before him built. All those guys that have been here, it\u2019s been successful. So whatever we can use the same, we\u2019ll go ahead and use the same. It\u2019s easier for us coaches to learn something new.\u201d<\/p>\n

They will need to rely on defensive veterans like T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, Alex Highsmith, DeShon Elliott and Patrick Queen to translate some of Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin\u2019s terminology. ILBs coach Scott McCurley will also be an asset<\/a> having been with the Steelers last year and with McCarthy in the past.<\/p>\n

Before you panic and assume nothing is going to change, that couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. Graham\u2019s flavor of the 3-4 defense is much different from what the Steelers put on display over the last few years. The scheme, play calling and techniques they teach will all have new wrinkles. Keeping the language the same is a smart move for a team that aims to contend now.<\/p>\n

They may have opted to start from scratch if it was a young defense, but keeping as many things the same as possible amid a sea of other team changes makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n

This will have the biggest impact with the inside linebacker group. Whether it\u2019s Patrick Queen or Payton Wilson wearing the green dot next season, they won\u2019t have to go through the process of translating everything in their head. The defensive quarterback needs to think and communicate quickly. This will help make that happen.<\/p>\n

The way McCarthy assembled his defensive coaching staff will also aid in this process. Several of the coaches worked together in the past, some for a long time. McCurley, Graham, Joe Whitt Jr. and Jason Simmons can quickly get each other up to speed, compared to teaching 45 players new terminology.<\/p>\n

Keeping the language the same isn\u2019t about clinging to the past \u2014 it\u2019s about speeding up the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t teach an old dog new tricks \u2014 at least not easily. And for the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[36787,349,206176,203396,99,222903],"class_list":["post-483984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-missi-matthews","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-graham","tag-scott-mccurley","tag-sports","tag-steelers-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483984","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=483984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}