The Pittsburgh Steelers have made a lot of big moves this offseason, but some of their most important work came right after the 2025 campaign ended. After Mike Tomlin abruptly resigned as the team’s head coach, the Steelers were forced to revamp their coaching staff on the fly.
Mike McCarthy was hired to be Tomlin’s replacement, and he quickly worked to build out his new-look coaching staff. While he kept some folks in town, there are a lot of new faces on the coaching staff. One of the team’s offseason additions was Derius Swinton II, but his time with Pittsburgh has come to a surprisingly sudden end.
Steelers Announce Surprising Derius Swinton II Departure
Whenever a new head coach takes over a team, it’s common for them to rebuild the coaching staff with their own guys. McCarthy, having worked in the NFL since 1993, knows quite a few people, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he looked to bring folks he has experience with to town to come and work for him.
In the special teams department, McCarthy actually decided to buck that trend by hiring Danny Crossman to be his new special teams coordinator. Crossman and McCarthy have never worked together in the NFL, although they did briefly play together for the Pittsburgh Panthers in college all the way back in 1987. Now, they will be working to try to help the Steelers make a Super Bowl run.
Shortly after Crossman was hired, the team brought in Swinton, who was the Las Vegas Raiders interim special teams coach in 2025, to work as Crossman’s right-hand man. However, we will never get to know how this duo would have worked together, because the Steelers have parted ways with Swinton due to a violation of club policy.
“Pittsburgh Steelers and Sr. special teams coach Derius Swinton have parted ways due to violation of club policy, per league sources,” Adam Schefter of ESPN reported in a post on X.
Steelers May Need to Beef Up Coaching Staff After Derius Swinton II’s Departure
GettyThe Steelers have parted ways with senior assistant special teams coach Derius Swinton II
Losing Swinton before the season has even gotten underway is a tough blow for the Steelers, as they clearly had plans for him after they brought him to town earlier this offseason. Now, the team will have to decide if it wants to find a replacement for Swinton or if it simply wants to let Crossman run the show on the special teams side of things (which he certainly has enough experience to properly do).
McCarthy already has his work cut out for him when it comes to getting his operation up and running in Pittsburgh, so losing one of his coaches at this stage of the offseason won’t exactly make his life any easier. The good news is that the team has time to figure out what it wants to do with Swinton’s vacant role, but in an ideal world, he’d still be with the team as they begin their preparations for the new season.
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