Steelers hired Brian Flores to 'help us win games,' GM Kevin Colbert says

As evidenced by the decision to hire Brian Flores, the Pittsburgh Steelers weren’t scared away by the former Miami Dolphins coach’s class-action lawsuit against the NFL, which claims racial discrimination in the league’s hiring practices.

General manager Kevin Colbert, though, said the organization wasn’t making a statement by giving Flores a chance to coach the team’s linebackers in the role of senior defensive assistant.

“It says we hired a very good quality defensive coach that can maybe help us win games,” Colbert said Monday. “Beyond that, there is nothing else to say.”

Flores, 40, was fired by the Dolphins after compiling back-to-back winning seasons that brought his record to 24-25 in three years in Miami. He named the Dolphins, the Denver Broncos and New York Giants in his lawsuit against the NFL.

Such a lawsuit could make a coach untouchable, but the Steelers ended any speculation on whether Flores ever would get another coaching opportunity.

Colbert said he had minimal input in coach Mike Tomlin’s decision to add Flores to the coaching staff. The Steelers had an opening after Keith Butler retired as defensive coordinator and senior defensive assistant Teryl Austin was promoted to take Butler’s place.

“Coach Tomlin makes every coaching hire,” Colbert said. “He will come to me at different times and say, ‘I’m interviewing so and so, do you know anything about him or could you find out some things about him.’ When he brought coach Flores’ name up as a potential (hire), I was excited about it.

“Coach Flores has been a successful defensive coordinator and head coach. The thing that’s really intriguing about Brian is he started off in the personnel world. I’m excited to get with him and see what kind of ideas he can bring to us from a coaching standpoint as well as a personnel standpoint.”

Flores was 23 when he joined the New England Patriots in 2003 as a scouting assistant. He became a pro scout before joining coach Bill Belichick’s staff in 2008. He has coached special teams, safeties and linebackers while making the defensive play calls late in his tenure with the Patriots.

Other items Colbert addressed:

• The Steelers remain open to defensive end Stephon Tuitt returning in 2022 even though he didn’t play last season, and his 2022 salary cap figure is nearly $14 million. A knee injury that required surgery, combined with the death of his brother in a hit-and-run accident, contributed to Tuitt missing the 2021 season.

“We’re very open to continuing to help him,” Colbert said. “We’ll continue to evaluate that position and his availability to us. We just hope for the best for him as he tries to come back and be a part of the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

• One thing he wishes he could revisit from 2021 was providing more experience for the offensive line in the wake of Maurkice Pouncey’s retirement, David DeCastro’s injury and the exit of Matt Feiler and Alejandro Villanueva in free agency. Guard Trai Turner and backup Joe Haeg were the only significant additions in a group that included rookies Kendrick Green and Dan Moore Jr. and second-year guard Kevin Dotson.

“If I have any regrets, it’s probably from not adding another veteran, an affordable veteran that maybe could have eased the growth time for that group,” Colbert said. “We knew it was going to be a tough year.”