Former Steelers Offensive Lineman Trai Essex Offers Steeler Nation His Dark Horse Candidate For Pittsburgh's New OC

The Pittsburgh Steelers' hunt for a new offensive coordinator is well underway and the names of potential candidates are flying. It is not just the media or the fans that are speculating, but past players as well. Former Steelers offensive guard Trai Essex recently polled his followers on X to ask them who they thought should be the top choice. He offered his opinions and even included a "dark horse" candidate. 

Initially, there were thoughts that the Steelers might promote from within. That has been their habit over the past several years. Prior Offensive Coordinator, Matt Canada, had only been with the team one year as a quarterbacks coach when he was given the promotion. He replaced Randy Fichtner, who was also a promoted quarterbacks coach. 

Canada seemed ill-equipped to handle the large task of running a professional offense. After two and a half seasons of watching the offense struggle to move the ball up the field, he was finally let go after the team's Week 11 loss to the Cleveland Browns. It was no surprise that Quarterbacks Coach Mike Sullivan and Running Backs Coach Eddie Faulkner were named co-offensive coordinators to finish the season. 

Steelers Needs Lead To Exciting New Names

Essex now co-hosts a SteelerNation podcast called Pod Me Up with Rich "Rody" Rodawalt. On a recent episode, they discussed the hottest topic in Pittsburgh, the offensive coordinator hunt. This allowed Essex to share the three most realistic candidates that were named in his X poll and what he thinks of them, as well as his "dark horse" candidate.

He said that there were lots of names that were a pipe dream. There were coaches that were named as desirable candidates that cannot or will not take a job in Pittsburgh as the coordinator. However, there were lots of others that made a lot of sense. 

The first one was Klint Kubiak, who is the passing game coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. Essex believes this is fueled by how successful second-year quarterback Brock Purdy has been. He does caution that much of that offense is the brainchild of Head Coach Kyle Shanahan, but other coaches off his tree have made a name for themselves. 

"I'm on board. I like Klint Kubiak. I think he's obviously masterminded some pretty good schemes as far as the passing game is concerned. But I also like another guy there, Brian Griese."

Essex mentioned that while Brian Griese only has two years of coaching experience, he is a former player. Griese was a part of a Super Bowl-winning team backing up John Elway. Essex mentioned that while he was playing in the NFL, he had three different offensive line coaches: Russ Grimm, Larry Zierlein, and Sean Cooper. 

The coach who taught him the most was Grimm, who was a "hog" from the then-Washington Redskins, now Commanders. Grimm was a critical piece of one of the best offensive lines in the history of football and helped Essex transition from college to the pros like no one else could. 

"I will tell you why, him having that experience, being a Super Bowl Champion, playing on some great teams, you can't get that experience just from coaching alone. The fact that he did it as a player, how it resonates with the offensive line room, you can't recreate that."

The last choice was Byron Leftwich. Essex said he likes Leftwich for a lot of the same reasons as Griese. He's a former player who helped the Steelers win a Super Bowl. On top of that, he helped the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win a Super Bowl recently as a coach, with Tom Brady at the helm. Leftwich knows what it takes to win and he has a great relationship with Head Coach Mike Tomlin. There has been talk around the Pittsburgh media circuits that Leftwich has been ruled out as even being an option. Rodawalt says that he doesn't understand that line of thinking, and Essex agrees. 

Essex then got to his "honorable mention," a fourth candidate that he likes: Eric Bieniemy. 

He believes that Bieniemy took a lot of heat for what went wrong in Washington, when really the system there is so broken, no one could succeed. 

"He did what he could with Sam Howell. EB was able to get that out of him. The main reason I want to bring him though, is probably the reason he probably isn't a head coach. He's a little rough around the edges. He challenges players, he gets in the face of players, I think we need that. We absolutely need that."

Essex said the offense lacks real leadership. The closest we have is running back Najee Harris, but he is at the beginning of his career too. The team needs a "bona fide" leader. He believes that Bieniemy can help usher that change in and give the wide receivers a bit more discipline, which he feels has been lacking the past few years.  

He thinks that it would be the way to minimize the "drama" we have had on offense. Essex said that Tomlin would back Bieniemy running the show and getting guys whipped into shape. Tomlin trusts his coordinators and would give him full reign.