Steelers Lack of Spending Hurting Their Head Coach Hunt

The Pittsburgh Steelers are still searching for their next head coach. The search has nearly completed its second week, and it seems a few more weeks remain until the team's fourth coach since 1969 is known.

The Steelers face stiff competition in their search. Nine other franchises have named or will name a new head coach before Week 1 of the 2026 season. Several of those cities have significantly better rosters to work with or offer some other perk that Pittsburgh struggles to contend with.

There is one misconception that's been making the rounds, however. The Steelers are an old-school team, but they will spend when it comes to paying their next head coach. A recent article from ESPN's Brooke Pryor outlined what the next Steelers head coach will step into. Much of it is spot on, but the assertion that ownership won't spend money on the next head coach and their staff doesn't quite add up.

Rooney's Hesitancy to Spend

A justifiable criticism of the Steelers' ownership is their unwillingness to modernize. The team has been holding its training camp at a local college for years, where the team stays in the dorms of St. Vincent in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The team's facilities are consistently ranked near the bottom of the NFLPA's annual rankings. Because of this, Pryor posits that the Rooneys might not be willing to spend on a new coaching staff.

"There are signs Rooney might be hesitant to open his checkbook to increase budgets for the new staff," she wrote. "In the past two NFLPA report cards, which anonymously survey NFL players from every organization, Rooney received subpar marks in the ownership category."

The Big Difference

Over the final decade of Tomlin's tenure, this criticism of ownership made complete sense. They had a lower number of coaches on Tomlin's staff compared to the rest of the NFL. Most of that was due to Tomlin's preference and style of hiring coaches, but the criticism held up.

For the new coaching staff, however, there is one huge difference. According to a 2025 Sports Illustrated article, the Steelers paid Tomlin $16 million per year under his latest contract.

There is no way they will pay their next coach the same salary. If it's half of that, that opens up $8 million to fill out that new staff that they haven't had allocated for the past five seasons. It might not sound like much, but that amount of money could fill out an entire staff or give their new top coordinators a huge salary plus money for coaches.

Removing Tomlin's contract from the coaching staff will have a huge impact on how this staff looks in 2026. With a new coach and vision, plus about $15 million reasons, the Steelers should have no problem investing in many capable coaches to help the new head coach.