Steelers represented at the Senior Bowl with coach Grady Brown

The NFL offseason comprises itself of many big-time events which fall on the calendar. There are obvious events like the start of the new league year, and the NFL Draft, but other, smaller events are significant as it pertains to analysis.

The NFL Scouting Combine might get all the attention with the glitz and glamor of a pageant, but for the draftniks out there the annual All-Star games carry a lot of significance. Why would games like the Senior Bowl and the Shrine Bowl be equal-to, if not more important, than the combine? Because it’s actual football.

Typically, at least at the Senior Bowl, two NFL teams would send their coaching staffs to Mobile, Alabama for the week’s festivities. The players would get instruction from NFL organizations, and those teams would get the inside track on evaluating a lot of the players entering the draft.

This would also be a large reason why the Senior Bowl is trying out a new format this year. Instead of two teams sending their staff to coach, coaches were selected by position. In other words, many teams will have coaches at the Senior Bowl lending a helping hand and getting a close look at the upcoming draft class.

For the Pittsburgh Steelers, they will have their secondary coach, Grady Brown, as the defensive coordinator of the National team. This per Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network:

Brown just finished his second season with the Steelers, and as Garafolo said, his secondary had a tremendous season. With Brown being under Teryl Austin last season, this was the first year the secondary was his to call his own. By all accounts, most would say he succeeded in putting a quality product on the field for his position group.

In case you don’t know much about Brown, and most probably don’t, here is his bio from the Steelers official website:

Brown previously served as either defensive coordinator or coached in the secondary at the University of Houston (2021), McNeese State (2020), Old Dominion (2019), Louisville (2018), Alabama State (2017), Birmingham Southern (2016), South Carolina (2012-15), Southern Miss (2010-11) and Alabama State (2002-07). He started his collegiate coaching career as the outside linebackers coach at Alabama A&M (2001).

While the Steelers won’t have their entire staff on hand in Mobile, they absolutely will have other coaches there and will be heavily recruiting the week leading up to the game. The Senior Bowl will take place in Alabama on Saturday, Feb 4 at 2:30 PM ET. Stay tuned to BTSC for the latest news and notes on the events leading up to the game, as well as everything else black-and-gold this offseason.