Rooney and the Steelers now find themselves in a largely unfamiliar place as one of nine teams seeking to fill a head coaching vacancy this cycle. Pittsburgh has famously only had three head coaches since 1969: Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Tomlin.
Their search for the fourth has already begun. They may be expected to follow a traditional recruiting timeline — “it’ll take weeks, at least,” according to Rooney — but they won’t necessarily be looking for the same archetype they’ve worked with for the past 55 years. They also won’t consider anyone from the current staff for the job, Rooney added.
“We’re going to be an open book in terms of, you know, who we look for and the roster we build,” Rooney explained. “So, yeah, can I sign up for another Chuck Noll, or another Bill Cowher, or another Mike Tomlin? Sure. But, you know, somebody that we think fits that mold would be great, but right now, we’re not going to narrow the box too much.”
The roster is obviously a factor in the formula to find the next coach. Quarterback is a huge question mark that has lingered since Ben Roethlisberger retired in 2022, and general manager Omar Khan also needs to find a way to keep his defense — which includes several senior mainstays — competitive.
Rooney isn’t aiming to change Pittsburgh’s power structure with a new coach, instead trying to replicate the same chain of command that worked for Noll, Cowher and Tomlin, which could eliminate some candidates seeking autonomy (or something close to it) from consideration. If any franchise has earned that right, though, it’s the Steelers, a club that has long stood as a model of continuity in the ever-evolving landscape that is the NFL.
Rooney seems to believe the Steelers’ approach is very attractive to aspiring coaches and expects the new hire to keep them competitive, just as Tomlin did during his 19 seasons. Pittsburgh State will undoubtedly be a topic of discussion in coaching interviews, Rooney said, but won’t be used as an excuse for a step back in 2026.
“I’m not sure why you spend a year of your life trying not to fight,” Rooney said. “Your roster is the same every year. It changes every year. So you deal with what you have every year. Try to put yourself in a position to compete every year. Sometimes you have the horses, sometimes you don’t. But I think you try every year.”
With their first coaching job since the George W. Bush administration, the Steelers will have to push themselves even harder in the coming weeks.