One day after Mike Tomlin resigned, Pittsburgh has picked a pair of Rams assistants as its first head coaching candidates. The Steelers have requested interviews with Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and pass game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Pittsburgh turned heads when it tapped Tomlin, then just 34 years old, as Bill Cowher‘s successor in January 2007. Tomlin went on to last 19 years in the Steel City. He won a Super Bowl, led the Steelers to the playoffs 13 times, and famously didn’t post a losing season before stepping down from the role Tuesday.
As a future Hall of Famer and a Pittsburgh institution, Tomlin will be a tough act to follow for anyone, let alone a first-time head coach. Shula and Scheelhaase don’t carry any head coaching experience, but they’ve earned strong reputations for their work on Sean McVay‘s staff. Teams in the market for head coaches have taken notice of the two this offseason.
There are nine clubs that don’t have a head coach. Seven have requested interviews with the 39-year-old Shula, grandson of the legendary Don Shula.
Chris Shula has worked under McVay in various roles since 2017, the beginning of the head coach’s tenure in Los Angeles. Shula took over as the Rams’ defensive coordinator in 2024. In their first post-Aaron Donald season, the Rams finished a below-average 17th in points and 26th in yardage. They improved to 10th and 17th, respectively, in those categories in 2025. The Rams also ranked fifth in takeaways and seventh in sacks during the regular season.
Scheelhaase, 35, is a former Illinois quarterback who began his coaching career at the school in 2015. He went on to work for Iowa State, including as its offensive coordinator in 2023, before jumping to the pros in 2024. He spent last year as the Rams’ offensive assistant and passing game specialist. McVay moved Scheelhaase to pass game coordinator duties this season.
Considering the Steelers, Ravens, Browns and Raiders have all requested interviews with Scheelhaase, it’s clear his stock around the league is rising. It helps that the Rams boast one of the game’s premier aerial attacks. Quarterback Matthew Stafford may be weeks from winning his first MVP. His favorite target, Puka Nacua, led the league with 129 receptions during the season, and Davante Adams hauled in an NFL-best 14 touchdowns.
Thanks in part to Shula and Scheelhaase, the Rams are still alive heading into the divisional round. They’ll face the Bears on Sunday with a spot in the NFC title game on the line. Whenever the Rams’ season ends, they could lose at least one of their up-and-coming assistants to a team in need of a head coach. Pittsburgh, which is looking for its fourth sideline leader since 1969, has emerged as a potential landing spot.
Would not hate this at all
Would be interesting if they went with an offensive minded head coach
Steelers are creatures of habit (bordering on superstitious). Defensive assistants all the way…
Great start to the search
I hope whoever the Steelers eventually hire starts their interview by telling everyone that the team as currently constructed is not good enough to compete for Super Bowls, and barely good enough to make the playoffs.
Have a 5 year plan of ripping it down to the studs in year 1 and then being back in contention in year 3. Easier said than done obviously and highly unlikely the Rooneys go for it. Problem is absent finding a solution at QB, nothing else is going to move the needle upwards.
If you want to make cap cuts, take all the dead money in year 1 so it’s clean for when you need to add FAs and extend the next sets of draft picks. Start Rudolph or preferably Howard and take the losses/learning opportunities.
Again the roster that he admitted so many times to shop the groceries for.
It’s time to rebuild.
Hey we got a 2 headed GM in Khan & Widldle.
Maybe a 2 headed HC. Shula for defense & Scheelhouse for offense. lol
I think you’ll see Kubiak and Minter receive requests too, among others
You bring up a lot of good points. Given Rooney’s comments today, I’m not at all sure they’re apparent to him. I hope it’s all apparent to Khan and Waddl. They have a great deal of deadwood here that they need to get rid of
90% of their problems come from not finding a long-term QB. The Bills had that issue for a decade while they drafted mid-round or brought in retreads from other teams until they made a big swing to trade up. Ol’ Man Rogers is not the answer (unless they wish to continue the cycle).
The same people who said that Tomlin was the reason they didn’t win enough and that 10-7 or 9-8 is “mediocrity” are now saying that 4-13 is just fine because obviously the roster (that he was expected to win with) is bad and needs rebuilt.
Which is it?
I think tomlin might be one of biggest enigmas in NFL history
19 years without a losing season…
But easily could say he underachieved with talent like Ben, Brown and Bell
But then also could say he overachieved in years without Ben or years like they had with Duck.
He will go down as winning games he shouldn’t have and losing games they had no business losing.
All in all I hope a few seasons from now we are not all wishing we were 10-7 and in the playoffs
@66. Its because the steelers were picking in the 20’s every year, and they need a quarterback. I guess you go with Howard and draft chambliss and see how it goes, but they probably need a couple tank years to restart everything.
The only problem is that in the recent past, they did trade up to get a guy. Twice. Devin Bush and. Broderick Jones. (To me at least, two misfires)
It’s more them misidentifying the need or thinking they were fine with what they had
I’m starting to favor no longer giving division winner home field, if a WC team has better W-L record and if a division winner is 500 or less, block them from playoffs all together and award a spot to extra wild card team, but then award the division winner who gets blocked of a playoff spot the #1 or #2 draft pick.