There’s nothing virtual about getting a chance to look the prospective job candidate in the eye.
To this point, any of the chats that Pittsburgh Steelers team brass has had with their next potential head coach have been via the modern miracle of video teleconferencing. That will change this week, when team president Art Rooney II, general manager Omar Khan and others who will make a pivotal decision will get to do so face to face.
Monday marked the beginning of the period in which teams with head coach openings could bring in those under contract by other teams for in-person interviews. Although the Steelers did not conduct any such talks Monday, they have a handful planned for later this week.
ESPN reported that Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores will be in town Tuesday. The Athletic reported that Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver will have his formal interview Friday. Former Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy is expected to have his formal interview in between.
The Steelers late Monday confirmed they conducted seven “virtual” interviews over the first six days following the resignation of coach Mike Tomlin on Jan. 13: Weaver, Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, Los Angeles Rams pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula.
Hafley, a former Pitt assistant, reportedly was hired by the Dolphins on Monday.
Because the Rams are still alive in the playoffs — they won at the Chicago Bears in overtime in the divisional round Sunday — league rules prohibit Shula and Scheelhaase from in-person interviews. Those are the Steelers’ only confirmed candidates who are employed by teams playing in a conference championship game after Kubiak’s 49ers lost to the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday.
Shula and Scheelhaase, along with any other candidate of a conference finalist, with any other team, are permitted to travel for in-person interviews next week. That is regardless of whether their current team wins or loses in conference title games Sunday. (There is a bye week headed into the Super Bowl).
Because McCarthy was not employed in the NFL this season, he was open for an in-person interview at any time.
Each of the seven names the Steelers confirmed to have met with virtually had been previously reported. The interest in McCarthy, 62, came to light Sunday.
That Flores did not have a virtual interview could reflect merely that the Steelers are intimately familiar with him after he spent the 2022 season on their staff as a senior defensive assistant and linebackers coach.
Flores, 44, joins McCarthy as the only Steelers candidates to this point who have prior head coaching experience. Flores went 24-25 leading the Dolphins from 2019-2021. McCarthy led the Packers for 13 seasons and the Cowboys for five until his dismissal last January.
All of the coaching prospects who the Steelers had virtual interviews with range in age from between 35 (Scheelhaase) and 46 (Hafley).
Extra competition for the Steelers to land their top choice came Monday with the news the Buffalo Bills were firing Sean McDermott. A former college teammate of Tomlin’s, McDermott had made the playoffs in eight of his nine seasons with the Bills. But Saturday’s divisional round loss at the Denver Broncos capped yet another year that Buffalo fell short of the Super Bowl despite perennial MVP candidate quarterback Josh Allen.