In the moments after the Pittsburgh Steelers selected Antoine Brooks in the sixth round last month, one of Brooks’ position coaches gushed about the former Maryland safety.
A couple of weeks later, Brooks, likewise, had some good things to say about his new coaches.
“They both have got my time,” Brooks said about Teryl Austin and Tom Bradley during minicamp. “I talk to them all the time. Each of the coaches, we will talk about anything, just to get to know me.”
Brooks will be mentored by Austin as senior defensive assistant/secondary and Bradley as defensive backs coach.
Austin was added to the staff last season. The Steelers had been among a dwindling number of NFL teams that had one coach devoted to the entire secondary. In an increasingly pass-heavy league, it is not uncommon for roughly half — or more — of the defenders on the field at any given moment to be DBs, so it made sense to add another voice. The Steelers, after all, have a dedicated coach for their tight ends. They also employ separate outside linebackers and inside linebackers coaches.
The Steelers, though, do not split the duties of their DB assistants between safeties and cornerbacks. It is a more holistic and collaborative approach to coaching all of the defensive backs for Austin and Bradley, each of whom has strong local ties.
One of the most important offseason acquisitions was hiring Teryl Austin as secondary coach, adding another veteran voice to join Tom Bradley in teaching coverage techniques to the #Steelers’ cornerbacks and safeties.https://t.co/WYahOjsyLv
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) June 5, 2019
Austin was born and attended high school in Sharon and played safety at Pitt. Bradley is a Johnstown native who played at Penn State and spent 32 seasons on the Nittany Lions’ coaching staff. Five of those seasons (1991-92, ’96-98), Austin was an assistant at Penn State alongside him.
Bradley is entering his third season with the Steelers. The former Penn State interim head coach long has been known for his gregarious personality.
“He’s most definitely one of the most perfect coaches for me to be around,” Brooks said, “because he’s very energetic. My type of coach, very into a man and a person playing football and playing a sport. He’s very into men, trying to help me grow up and get them better and trying to focus on that, to get better (on the field).”
Bradley has not been made available to media since the draft. Austin said he got to know Brooks some at the Combine, saying Brooks “stood out” there among the other future draftees.
“He has a really good energy about him,” Austin said.
The Steelers see a potential versatile chess piece in the 5-foot-11, 220-pound Brooks, who was taken 198th overall after he moved from linebacker to safety during his career at Maryland.
“Really good, physical player,” Austin said. “Plays a little bit of everywhere. You will see him play down in the box, out on the slot. You will see him back some. … He is going to diagnose and key and trust what he sees and then goes. I like that about him. That is the stuff that showed up on film, and that is why we liked him and that is why we got him.”
Brooks said coaches initially have told him to focus on playing safety during his acclimation to the Steelers. The Steelers have two obvious starters at safety in Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds but have little proven, experienced depth.
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