Pittsburgh Steelers to confirm replacement of offensive coach as Bruce Arians retires – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach, Mike Tomlin, said on Friday, January 20, 2012, that his assistant, the team’s offensive co-ordinator, Bruce Arians, has retired from his role in the team, effective immediately.
The confirmation of the news from the coach comes after more than a week of speculations about Arian being expected to call it quits from the game and the team.
“Bruce Arians has informed me that he will retire from coaching", Tomlin said in a statement.
"I appreciate his efforts over the past five years as the team's offensive coordinator and for helping lead our offense to new heights during his time with the Steelers. I am grateful to Bruce for contributing to our success and wish him nothing but the
best in his retirement".
Arians spent as many as five years at Pittsburgh with Tomlin in charge of the coaching department. He had joined the team back in 2004 as a wider receivers coach and was promoted to the defence co-ordination duties later on in 2007.
The assistant coach was also a subject of discussions around his possible exit from the game due to his health problems in 2010. He survived against the odds and coached the offensive line of the team for yet another year.
2011 was not one of the best times for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offence as they finished the year at the overall 12th position on the league table.
Most of the time, earlier, they had finished among the top 10 strongest offensive lines around the league.
Tomlin did not say anything further on the issue, including their search for a replacement to Arians.
The team has a tradition of promoting its staff to different and higher positions and it could be expected that the offensive coach’s place would be filled through such a measure.
Arians becomes the first official to part ways with the Steelers after the end of the National Football League (NFL) regular season.
The team has performed reasonably well in the season and it was seen less likely for them to pursue a major reshuffling at the management or squad levels.
The team finished the season atop the American Football Conference (AFC)-North Division as they were tied at the score of 12-4 with their divisional arch rivals, the Baltimore Ravens.
At the end, they lost to their competitors due to the tie breaker advantage, having lost against them twice in the season.
It did not affect their chances of reaching the playoff round of the league. They finished the postseason run with a loss in their very first game against the Denver Broncos.
With less likelihood of rebuilding of the team to the extent some of the other teams in NFL are, none of the other staff and players have left the Steelers or been released by the team.
Tags: