One of the questions the media asked Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II recently was about the size of the Steelers coaching staff size. It’s fairly common knowledge that the Steelers coaching staff is one of the smallest in the NFL and a point of contention for fans.
Rooney downplayed the disparity but we wondered just how much of a difference there is between the Steelers and the best of the NFL. And by best, we are using the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. The two teams squaring off in the Super Bowl in less than two weeks.
The Steelers list 19 coaches on their website not counting the team’s strength and conditioning coach. By comparison, the Chiefs have 28 coaches on their site and the Eagles have 25 coaches.
Is this enough to make a difference? The results on the field say yes. A greater division of labor between the offense and the defense seems to yield better results on the field. In particular, both the Chiefs and Eagles have their own individual run game and passing game coordinators while the Steelers have neither. Given how much the Steelers offense struggles, these positions feel like a no-brainer.
