The Pomp And Joe Show
Dulac says Steelers will not hire a former head coach to be head coach
15 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What does Gerry Dulac say about the Steelers' coaching search?
All right, Bob, I was perusing Jerry Dulac's chat today. Bill in L.A. Jerry. Oh, no, it's not Bill. Yes, it is Bill in L.A. Care to make a prediction on what type of coach you think Art Rooney will go for? Defensive? Offensive? Retread? Young or old? Jerry. Absolutely no retreads. No former NFL head coach. Defensive minded and young, just like the previous three.
Does that really... Well, Brian Flores is a former head coach. Right. Does that really have to be the qualifications here? You just eliminate that idea? Absolutely not. And I've heard others say the same. Let me just clarify one thing here, Bob. May I for a moment? Sure. How many Super Bowls have there been in the 21st century?
Chapter 2: Why are former head coaches being excluded from consideration?
Wrong. 25. Did you know that, Bob? No.
No, I didn't know 25 exactly.
25 Super Bowls. Would either one of you care to take a guess as to how many, quote, retreads have won those Super Bowls as coaches? I would say 16.
I'd say a ton because Andy Reid and Belichick have at least half.
16. You're right, Bob. That's why I didn't say wrong. Just a guess. 16 of 25. So don't tell me they can't go for a retread. Don't tell me because the implication there is they know better than everybody else. Well, then why have they lost in blowout fashion in seven straight playoff games and haven't done a damn thing in about a decade if they know better than everybody else?
They made a great pick in Chuck Knoll all those years ago, made a great pick in Cower, and made a great pick with Tomlin at least for a little while. But that was Dan Rooney, was it not? Okay, Art had something to do with it.
Art was very much involved in those searches.
Yeah, Art probably then, if you're telling me he was involved, was involved in hiring, which they basically did, Russ Grimm, until Dan said, no, I want Mike Tomlin, correct?
I mean, I guess that's how the story goes, yes.
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Chapter 3: How many Super Bowls have been won by retread coaches?
They don't want to retread. OK, so it's not just, by the way, Andy Reid and Belichick. They have nine.
Well, if Matt LaFleur became available, he would be considered a retread, but I would love to see that.
Kevin Stefanski, too. John Gruden was a retread in Oakland. He won a Super Bowl. Tony Dungy in Indy. He had coached Tampa. Tom Coughlin beat the Patriots twice. He had coached in Jacksonville before he went to New York. Pete Carroll, he had a pretty good football team in Seattle, last I checked. He had coached in New England and with the Jets. Gary Kubiak won a Super Bowl in Denver.
He had coached in Houston as their head coach. Bruce Arians had been the coach in Arizona.
He's the one that sticks out the most. And then he won a Super Bowl.
So I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear that the Steelers are smarter than everybody else and they'll go for their own young guy and they'll identify a guy who's never coached before. If the best guy coached somewhere else, I don't give a damn. And I think the best guy might be Kevin Stefanski.
at 43 years old a two-time coach of the year and I think it would be unbelievably arrogant if they don't even talk to him that's what I think because my first question if I was Art would be how did you beat us all the time in Cleveland with no quarterback let's talk for a while about that right Bob yeah I to me he would be on my list too just because of a lot of things that you've said
And again, I view Cleveland as a mess, but I don't think he was the principal mess maker. I think it was mostly their GM, Andrew Berry, and mostly on top of him, their owner, who decided without their consent necessarily to do what he wanted to do with the quarterback game that took him completely out of the mix. So to me, he was the least of their problems.
He is sort of looked at as, well, you're a Cleveland Browns coach, so that comes with a negative connotation. But... Again, I don't think he was the reason why they ended up where they were every year.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of hiring a young coach versus a retread?
Interesting. So I guess you almost have to be a defensive coordinator to get an interview here. Six of seven. Yeah.
Yeah.
You'd think that a team also that has been running a ā they got a little bit better with Aaron Rodgers, but for several years now, a historically laughable offense might want to get an offensive guy in here. Just a thought limits, right?
I fully agree. I would go offensive minded head coach. And Kevin Stefanski is number one on my list. And that might sound completely outlandish because we saw what he did with the Browns, but he did win two coach of the years, had no quarterback and has an unstable organization. A young offensive mind like him, I think, can come in with a franchise quarterback and either 26 or 27.
And make a situation that's very murky a good one.
You know who agrees with all of us that Stefanski would be a guy to talk to is Jerome Bettis. who was on with Colin Coward, and I quote, do you have the quote or should I read it?
So I do have a clip. I don't know if he says Stefanski in here, but he does think the Steelers need an offensive-minded head coach.
Let's hear it.
I can think Mike Tomlin was amazing, and I think it's kind of time, maybe go with a young offensive guy. Are you kind of in that camp?
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Chapter 5: What factors are influencing the Steelers' coaching decisions?
And the notion that if you did hire a retread, you'd be limiting yourself as far as how many years the guy would be there. Again, I'll bring up Bill Belichick and Andy Reid. What are you talking? What are people thinking and talking about?
Bring in the best guy for the job. You have a resume that has gone through a whole bunch here in his time. At 43, I guarantee he's gained a lot of experience about how to do and not to do things in the NFL and what works and what doesn't work. He's seen it firsthand with his own organization there. To me, that's an asset.
It doesn't have to be we're smarter than everybody else. We'll discover yet another sort of low-key guy who's never had a job before and will be proven right. It doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't. I don't want you to get me wrong here, though, on the offensive mind. I think it's fine to hire a guy with a defensive background as long as you get the right offensive coordinator in here.
Like I said yesterday, it's the commanding presence that I'm after. And I also think Flores might be a good choice there. I really like him.
Yeah, I do too. Is he around the same age?
I think he's a little bit older. Let me check on that. Do you have the clip for coming up next on Fitzpatrick on Flores limits? I will, yes.
Oh, he is. He's only 44. Yeah, I was going to say he's similar to Stefanski. That, to me, is still very young in this game. Again, a guy with a whole bunch of experience that he has garnered through the years. I think that's a plus if you're trying to interview a guy. I'd rather have a younger guy who's been there, done that already.
I think that's absolutely somebody I would tap into just to see. All those guys.
I've got my favorite new candidate, Bob. I want to pass that by you coming up next. And we also have Ryan Fitzpatrick. who had a very interesting time in Miami with Flores, who's one of the known interviewees coming up here for the Steelers. And this clip, I think, will open your eyes a little bit. It's very, very interesting. Fan hotline presented by Sullivan Super Service.
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Chapter 6: How does Kevin Stefanski's coaching record impact his candidacy?
there bob i'm just saying he just said it i did bob oh my he has he has 2743 hits and he's a career 303 that's what i mean you don't have many but 219 home runs i'll put that up with harold baines absolutely in the hall of fame i think our fees numbers down if you could do you have a pencil i have a computer 219 homers 2700 and 2743 for hits
uh 795 ops and let me go to harold baines do you have those numbers limits and a career 303 batting average okay you got the homers you got everything else for harold baines no those were for al oliver al oliver is better than harold baines harold baines well yeah i knew that those are the numbers that you were giving for al oliver yeah harold baines 2800 hits 2,800.
Okay, so their hits are the same. 384 home runs. He has more home runs because he played longer. 289 average. 15 points lower. And an 820 OPS. It's the exact same resume.
Would you disagree with that? Al Oliver didn't play as long. I think he got more out of his time in the league than Harold Baines. I agree.
At the height of their powers, Al Oliver was a better player.
Yes, that's all I'm trying to say.
He should be in.
Why are we talking about that, Bob? Because the weather had 16 as a low, and we digressed just as we did with your pee test, and it took us to areas that I never thought we'd go into today.
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