{"id":751408,"date":"2026-07-08T23:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/751408\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T23:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T23:16:10","slug":"didnt-enjoy-playing-for-that-dc-former-steelers-safety-gets-honest-about-teryl-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/751408\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Didn&#8217;t Enjoy Playing For That DC:&#8217; Former Steelers Safety Gets Honest About Teryl Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This time last year, Steelers safety Juan Thornhill believed Pittsburgh\u2019s defense had the potential to be one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2025\/08\/juan-thornhill-believes-steelers-defense-has-shot-at-being-best-defense-of-all-time\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">best units in NFL history<\/a>. Just a few months later, those expectations had fallen flat, and Thornhill was no longer even part of the team after being released in early November.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Thornhill is offering his opinion on what went wrong.<\/p>\n<p>In a short <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@juanthornhill\/video\/7659943425520700703\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">TikTok post teasing his next destination<\/a>, a commenter told Thornhill they enjoyed watching him with the Steelers. His response was telling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t enjoy playing for that DC,\u201d Thornhill replied.<\/p>\n<p>At the start of training camp, he told the media exactly why the Steelers signed him in free agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey bring me in to take away that deep ball,\u201d he said in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bxu3wJPnBO4&amp;ab_channel=WTAE-TVPittsburgh\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">interview with WTAE last July<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thornhill\u2019s production was already on a downward trend for a few seasons after leaving the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022, something he blamed on his usage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s why I think my production has been down,\u201d Thornhill said in that same interview. \u201cThat\u2019s why a guy like Minkah [Fitzpatrick], they say, struggled a little bit. He didn\u2019t struggle. You just can\u2019t get interceptions if the ball\u2019s not coming your way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He took pride in playing that role well, even if it meant his personal statistics took a hit. The only problem was, in Pittsburgh, he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Another commenter asked, \u201cWTF did he do in Pittsburgh?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot a damn thing because they wouldn\u2019t let me do anything but sit in the middle of the field,\u201d Thornhill replied.<\/p>\n<p>It sounds like he was told exactly what his role would be when he joined the team on a one-year, $3 million contract. But when things didn\u2019t go well, that\u2019s exactly the reason he claims he was unhappy.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Tomlin was asked about Thornhill\u2019s release shortly after it happened, and he simply replied, <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersdepot.com\/2025\/11\/play-wasnt-up-to-snuff-mike-tomlin-explains-why-steelers-released-juan-thornhill\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cThe play wasn\u2019t up to snuff.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Steelers instead brought back undrafted rookie Sebastian Castro off waivers from Tampa Bay after the Buccaneers poached from their practice squad earlier in the season.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, Teryl Austin failed to get the most out of the league\u2019s most expensive defense. The former Steelers DC deserves a lot of criticism for that reality.<\/p>\n<p>Tomlin, Austin, and the rest of the coaching staff are no longer in Pittsburgh. And Thornhill, evidently, is still looking for a job.<\/p>\n<p>If Patrick Graham and the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 new defensive staff can turn things around in 2026, perhaps Thornhill will be (slightly) vindicated.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This time last year, Steelers safety Juan Thornhill believed Pittsburgh\u2019s defense had the potential to be one of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[20788,349,99,93089,3795,15241],"class_list":["post-751408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-juan-thornhill","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-teryl-austin","tag-trending","tag-weekly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751408","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=751408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}