A trend is developing among the list of individuals the Pittsburgh Steelers have reportedly requested to interview for their vacant head coaching position.
As the list grew to eight Thursday, six are sitting NFL defensive coordinators.
The names with defensive backgrounds added Thursday, according to the NFL Network, were Ejiro Evero of the Carolina Panthers and Jeff Hafley of the Green Bay Packers. Later Thursday, a report from The Athletic added a coach with a surname long associated with offense: San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak.
Kubiak, 37, is the son of longtime NFL head coach and offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. Gary’s son and Klay’s brother, Klint, is the offensive coordinator for the Seattle Seahawks. The two will call plays against each other’s teams in an NFC Divisional-Round playoff game Saturday.
Klay Kubiak is in his fifth season on the staff of the 49ers under respected offense-minded head coach Kyle Shanahan. This is Kubiak’s first season as San Francisco’s coordinator.
Hafley and Evero each ran the defense for a team that was eliminated this past weekend in a wild-card playoff game, the same fate that felled the Steelers on Monday. Mike Tomlin stepped down Tuesday after 19 seasons with the Steelers.
Evero, Hafley and Kubiak join Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, Miami Dolphins defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase.
Of that group, only Scheelhaase and Kubiak coach offense. At 46, Hafley is the oldest of the seven known candidates. Weaver (by about five months) is the only other one of the known candidates older than the 45-year-old Evero.
Each of the past three Steelers head coaches was hired off a job as an NFL defensive coordinator, and each was in his 30s.
Evero — whose full name is pronounced: AY-jer-OH eh-VARE-oh — has been the Carolina coordinator for three seasons. Notably, he has served in that role under two head coaches. He also was coordinator for the Denver Broncos in 2022 and has 18 seasons of NFL coaching experience overall with six teams.
Born in England but raised in California, Evero guided top-10 statistical defenses his first two seasons as a coordinator (2022, 2023).
His first NFL job was as a defensive quality control coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2007, the same year Tomlin was hired by the Steelers as head coach.
Tomlin was on the defensive staff of Jon Gruden with the Bucs for four seasons.
Carolina this past season won the NFC South for the first time in a decade. The Panthers’ season ended Saturday with a loss to the Los Angeles Rams in an NFC wild-card game.
The following day, Panthers coach Dave Canales spoke highly of Evero in emphasizing he wanted to keep him as his defensive coordinator.
“I have complete trust in Ejiro,” Canales told the Panthers’ official website. “Love the way that he’s brought this group to play quality football together, and he’s got my full support. Love our scheme, love what we do there, and getting our guys to play together when we execute this scheme, it’s really difficult to play against, and the guys have found a way to play together, communicate together.”
Hafley, a former Pitt assistant, finished his second season in charge of the Packers’ defense, a gig he took over by way of leaving a head-coaching job at Boston College. Hafley went 22-26 in four seasons at BC.
He spent seven seasons as an NFL assistant during the 2010s but returned to the college game to be part of Ohio State’s College Football Playoff team in 2019 before taking over at Boston College the next year.
“I fully anticipate him getting one of these (NFL head coach jobs),” Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur told the team’s official website Sunday. “I would be so happy for him because he deserves it and he’s a great friend, he’s a great man, he’s a great coach. I’d hate to see him leave for us, but at the same time, that’s what this business is all about and he’s earned those opps.”
Kubiak, Shula and Scheelhaase are the only known coaches the Steelers have requested to interview that work for teams still alive in the playoffs. NFL rules dictate that interviews with such candidates are limited to virtual and no more than three hours in length.
