{"id":26498,"date":"2025-02-16T08:58:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T08:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=26498"},"modified":"2025-02-16T08:58:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T08:58:01","slug":"afc-north-coaching-updates-ravens-browns-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=26498","title":{"rendered":"AFC North Coaching Updates: Ravens, Browns, Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<strong>Ravens<\/strong>\u00a0defense got off to a slow start last year, and though they were able to finish strong down the stretch, disappointing veteran safeties and underwhelming linebacker play contributed to the team finishing second to last in pass defense. The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/02\/ravens-notes-johnson-santucci-ricard-rosengarten-jackson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">team hired<\/a>\u00a0<strong>Tyler Santucci<\/strong>\u00a0to act as the new linebackers coach after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/01\/chuck-pagano-coming-out-of-retirement-to-join-ravens-staff\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">moving on f<\/a>rom\u00a0<strong>Mark DeLeone<\/strong>, and they continue to make changes to defensive coordinator\u00a0<strong>Zach Orr<\/strong>\u2018s coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>Assisting Santucci will be\u00a0<strong>Matt Pees<\/strong>, who\u00a0has been named\u00a0assistant inside linebackers coach, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic. Pees rejoins his father, senior advisor\u00a0<strong>Dean Pees<\/strong>, after working under him for two years in Atlanta. After three years as defensive assistant for the Falcons, the younger Pees spent 2024 as a defensive analyst (advance\/special projects) for the Bears.<\/p>\n<p>In the secondary, the team has\u00a0moved on from\u00a0secondary coach\u00a0<strong>Doug Mallory<\/strong>, per Zrebiec.\u00a0Replacing him, in a sense, will be\u00a0<strong>Donald D\u2019Alesio<\/strong>, according to Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports, who has been with the\u00a0<strong>Chiefs<\/strong>\u00a0for four seasons, the last three as safeties coach. In his three years at the job, he molded\u00a0<strong>Bryan Cook<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Justin Reid<\/strong>\u00a0into starters. He\u2019ll now work with star safety\u00a0<strong>Kyle Hamilton<\/strong>\u00a0and whomever the team brings in (or back) to play alongside him. Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports that D\u2019Alesio\u2019s title will be\u00a0defensive backs coach.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few more coaching updates from around the AFC North:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>Browns<\/strong>\u00a0announced a number of\u00a0changes to their coaching staff\u00a0yesterday. We already were aware of the additions of\u00a0tight ends coach\u00a0<strong>Christian Jones<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0assistant defensive line coach\u00a0<strong>Adam Morris<\/strong>, as well as the shifting of\u00a0<strong>Bill Musgrave<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0quarterbacks coach. The new information includes the shifting of assistant special teams coach\u00a0<strong>Stephen Bravo-Brown<\/strong>\u00a0to assistant wide receivers coach and offensive assistant\/run game specialist\u00a0<strong>Nick Charlton<\/strong>\u00a0to pass game specialist. Additionally, Cleveland has hired\u00a0<strong>Ben Wilkerson<\/strong>\u00a0as assistant offensive line coach after he served in the same role for the Jets last year before\u00a0being let go. Joining Wilkerson as an assistant offensive line coach is\u00a0<strong>Sanders Davis<\/strong>. Davis has spent the last six seasons at Rice University, with the last four being as offensive line coach. This will be his first NFL coaching job. Lastly,\u00a0<strong>Kyle Hoke<\/strong>\u00a0has been hired as assistant special teams coach. A 13-year veteran of collegiate coaching, Hoke will debut in the NFL, after stops at Western Michigan, Army, South Carolina, John Carroll, Texas State, Indiana State, San Diego State, and Texas A&amp;M.<\/li>\n<li>The Ravens aren\u2019t the only AFC North team making changes to their secondary and linebacker coaching staffs. We learned a week ago that\u00a0<strong>Gerald Alexander<\/strong>\u00a0was being\u00a0hired as the\u00a0<strong>Steelers<\/strong>\u00a0secondary coach, and we questioned the fate of sitting secondary coach\u00a0<strong>Grady Brown<\/strong>. ESPN\u2019s Brooke Pryor informed us this week that Brown\u2019s\u00a0contract was not renewed. The Steelers saw inside linebackers coach\u00a0<strong>Aaron Curry<\/strong>\u00a0depart for New York, and per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, they will\u00a0replace him with\u00a0<strong>Scott McCurley<\/strong>. McCurley spent most of his coaching career in Green Bay from 2006-18 before eventually following\u00a0<strong>Mike McCarthy<\/strong>\u00a0to Dallas, where he spent the past five seasons coaching the likes of\u00a0<strong>Leighton Vander Esch<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Jaylon Smith<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>DeMarvion Overshown<\/strong>, and, of course,\u00a0<strong>Micah Parsons<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Ravens\u00a0defense got off to a slow start last year, and though they were able to finish strong down the stretch, disappointing veteran safeties and underwhelming linebacker play&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - 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