Brian Flores' departure from Pittsburgh to become the Vikings' defensive coordinator left a significant hole on the Steelers' coaching staff. But, the team has found the man to help fill the void.
The Steelers announced Wednesday they've hired Aaron Curry to become the team's new inside linebackers coach.
With the hire, previous inside linebackers coach Jerry Olsavsky will not be retained.
Curry, 36, served last season as an assistant defensive line/defensive ends coach in Seattle. He joined the Seahawks in 2019 as a coaching assistant before being promoted to a defensive assistant the following season.
He began his coaching career under his former position coach, Bill Lambert, at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Curry worked as a graduate assistant in 2014 before becoming the defensive line coach in 2015 and remained at that position through 2018 before joining the Seahawks.
Yes, that means Alex Highsmith, who played his college ball at Charlotte, has already played under Curry. And, if the Steelers re-sign Larry Ogunjobi, that'll be another player on the roster who already played under Curry.
As a player, Curry was a standout college prospect at Wake Forest. He won the 2008 Butkus Award, and the Seahawks drafted Curry fourth overall in 2009. He was later traded to the Raiders during the 2011 season. He played 48 games with 39 starts and made 203 tackles, 5.5 sacks and 12 pass breakups in his four-year career.
Curry is known to be one of the biggest draft busts in recent memory, led by underwhelming performance and eventually knee injuries that prevented him from ever resurrecting his playing career. Once Curry turned his attention to coaching, things really changed for him. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Curry revealed that his motivation as a player wasn't where it needed to be. Now, as a coach, he said he wants to be the best.
While Curry doesn't bring the resume that Flores possesses, he does bring a rare blend of having coaching experience at the college and NFL levels, along with being a former top-five pick in the NFL draft. He has enough coaching experience to get the most out of all of his players, but has the added benefit of knowing exactly how much pressure players experience coming out of college and can relate to just about any player he coaches because of it.
There are plenty of good things said about Curry as a coach thus far, including Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll saying in 2021 he had been "blown away" by what Curry's done as a coach and how quickly he's done it. This fits a bit into what the Steelers already have on the defensive side of the coaching staff. Secondary coach Grady Brown is another coach that's considered to be on the rise, especially after serving as the National team's defensive coordinator at the Senior Bowl.
This has all of the potential to be a very positive hiring for the Steelers, and they need it after dealing with Flores' departure and John Mitchell's retirement after 29 seasons with Pittsburgh. In addition, Olsavsky's departure comes after serving as the team's inside linebackers coach since 2015, plus an additional five seasons as a defensive assistant from 2010-2014.
There is certainly room to add to the coaching staff. Either way, the Steelers are definitely going through some changes. Karl Dunbar, the Steelers' defensive line coach, is now the longest-tenured coach on Mike Tomlin's staff (five years).
