Scott McCurley was in high school when Mark Bruener was drafted and played in the Super Bowl as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“Legend here in Pittsburgh,” McCurley said of Bruener, who now serves as a scout with the Steelers. “Watched him play growing up.”
Little could anyone have imagined that three decades later, McCurley would serve as the primary position coach for Bruener’s son — with the Steelers.
Perhaps the final part of that equation, though, shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. After all, the Steelers have made a habit of employing the sons and/or brothers of current players and/or staff members.
Frequently in recent years, the Steelers’ roster has elements of a family affair.
The selection of inside linebacker Carson Bruener in the seventh round of this past weekend’s draft was just the latest example.
The younger Bruener sat in the same seat on the same couch in the same Westport, Wash., cabin that his father sat in 30 years and 4 days prior when each took a phone call from the Steelers informing him he was drafted by the team.
“Great story, obviously, for him and his family,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “But as I told him when we had him on the phone, we were on the phone with him because of the merits of his resume and the things that he did at UW.”
Tomlin then listed some of the highlights of Bruener’s resume: more than 100 tackles as a senior, more than 10 tackles on special teams each season as a sophomore and junior.
“It is a worthy resume,” Tomlin said. “It’s just an awesome side note that his father is a Steeler and got drafted by this organization 30 years ago.”
The journey continues … pic.twitter.com/W1oXQdHpA2
— Carson Bruener (@BruenerCarson) February 3, 2024
It’s a side note that Tomlin has told quite often over the past decade. Two years ago, Joey Porter Jr. was the Steelers’ second-round pick 24 years after his father — who would later be an assistant under Tomlin — was taken by the Steelers in the third round.
In 2022, tight end Connor Heyward was a Steelers’ sixth-round pick, becoming a teammate of his older brother, Cam, who was taken in the first round 11 years before that.
And those instances over the past four drafts don’t even take into account the bevy of brother duos who have simultaneously held spots on the Steelers roster over the past decade.
That’s no coincidence for an organization headed in spirit by Tomlin, who spends the most time of any NFL head coach on the road during the draft process. To Tomlin, getting to know the person is almost as important as getting to know his 40 time or college stat line. And if you have a character reference such as a brother or father, all the better.
“I think that pedigree (of having a father who played and scouts for an NFL team) really carries over when you see Carson play,” said McCurley, hired as inside linebackers coach in February. “I mean how smart he is, instinctive, and you can see that coming out in him on the football field.”
The Steelers value players who come from football families in part because they often aren’t shaken by the enormity of pressure moments — be it as simple as taking the field for a first practice as a pro or as high-profile as making a play with a meaningful game on the line.
“I feel like I’m just prepared for anything at this point,” said Carson Bruener, who like his father played in a game that had a national championship on the line while at Washington. “It’s something I grew up watching, watching my dad play, and something more, having him as my mentor, him as a coach and going through this whole process. It’s like that whole pressure feeling is something I don’t really feel because it’s just a second part nature for me.”
These days, the elder Bruener (a tight end as a player) spends more time on the road scouting and/or in his residence in the Pacific northwest than he does in Pittsburgh. Who knows how much time the Bruener duo will spend together at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex? Surely less than the four sets of brothers did who were on the preseason roster in 2022.
That year, twins Khalil and Carlos Davis didn’t stick with the team all year, but the Heyward brothers and T.J. and Derek Watt did. Reserve running back Trey Edmunds also was a camp cut that year — but he was teammates with younger brother Terrell — a safety — for parts of five seasons to that point.
Featured Local Businesses
From 2023-24, the Steelers employed the Herbig brothers. Though Nate, an interior offensive lineman, left in free agency this spring, his younger brother Nick remains as the top backup outside linebacker.
Tomlin, after Connor Heyward was drafted three years ago, best explained the Steelers’ tendency to acquire sets of brothers.
“You know, we value the intangible quality, and when you’re doing business with one, it probably gives you an indication about the intangible quality of the other,” Tomlin said. “We’re all continually trying to measure that which we cannot, and that probably is what drives us toward the brother game.”