STEELERS FIRE BOB LIGASHESKY

The 46-year-old product of Sto-Rox and IUP was let go today by the Pittsburgh Steelers, officially the third member of the staff that will not be back in 2010, joining retired QB coach Ken Anderson and fired O-line coach Larry Zierlein.

The move is no surprise, as Ligashesky's special teams unit had a horrible season, surrendering four kickoff return TDs in a five-week span and finishing the year ranked 30th in kick coverage. Punt coverage was not much better, ranking 24th in the NFL.

Gerry Dulac's PG article floated the name of Bobby April as a replacement, and I would be down with that. April was recently let go along with the rest of the Buffalo Bills staff, and he waived the final two years of his deal so he could be free to negotiate with other teams. He was the Steelers' coordinator in 1994-95, and also oversaw the units of the Falcons ('91-'93), Saints ('96-'99), Rams ('01-'03), and Bills ('04-'09).

Steelers fire special teams coordinator [PG]

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CHANGES COMING TO STEELERS STAFF

As surprises go, this isn't exactly on the level of the Tiger Woods saga, but nonetheless, ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting pending changes in the Steelers' coaching staff following their 2009 freefall.

Changes are expected with Pittsburgh's special teams coach Bob Ligashesky, amongst others.

Other coaches that could be in trouble in Pittsburgh include offensive coordinator Bruce Arians and offensive line coach Larry Zierlein.

A telltale sign of a great coaching staff is one that gets picked clean by the rest of the league after the season, and that's never been a hallmark of a Mike Tomlin team. Look at the old Bill Cowher staffs - they were basically breeding grounds for future NFL head coaches. The only current Tomlin coach I've heard mentioned in the running for another job was running back coach Kirby Wilson for the UNLV job a few weeks ago - not exactly the same as losing Jim Haslett to run the New Orleans Saints, or Dom Capers to coach the Carolina Panthers.

This team won a Super Bowl and returned all their major coordinators - that's virtually a rarity in today's football culture. Even the Super Bowl runner-up lost their offensive coordinator to another NFL team. While it's true that the window has closed on Dick LeBeau's head coaching career, Arians has never been a hot property as a head coaching candidate, and at 57 has probably seen his window close as well. The league is skewing towards younger, energetic, workaholic coaches, not 57-year-old lifetime assistants. Perhaps Tomlin should look for a few ladder-climbers when making up the 2010 coaching staff. It's certainly worked out well in the past for this organization.

*By the way, be sure to watch ESPN's embedded video, where Cris Carter points out at the 2:41 mark that "it's hard to impose your will on a team, and that part has caughten up to the Pittsburgh Steelers." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Source: Steelers staff on shaky ground [ESPN]

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