The Pittsburgh Steelers will interview Washington Commanders defensive pass game coordinator Jason Simmons for their defensive coordinator position, according to Mark Kaboly , the Steelers Correspondent for The Pat McAfee Show . Former Las Vegas Raiders ' defensive coordinator Patrick Graham also has an interview scheduled. Both coaches have ties to new head coach Mike McCarthy.
Kaboly notes that Al Harris is not on the Steelers' initial list. Harris has a long history with McCarthy from their time together in Green Bay and Dallas .
Simmons coached with McCarthy in Green Bay for eight years (2011-19). Simmons, 49, was selected in the fifth round out of Arizona State by the Steelers in 1998. Simmons, who played safety, played four years in Pittsburgh before playing six years with the Houston Texans .
Before his last two seasons with Washington, Simmons was the Las Vegas Raiders' defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach from 2022-2023. Prior to that, he was the Carolina Panthers ' defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach from 2020-2021.
Simmons held several different roles in his nine years in Green Bay, serving as a defensive assistant and secondary coach (2011-2015), assistant special teams coach (2016-2017), secondary coach (2018) and defensive backs coach (2019).
Graham, 47, spent the last four seasons as the Raiders' defensive coordinator. He held the same role for the Giants from 2020-21 and the Miami Dolphins in 2019. He was the linebackers coach/defensive run game coordinator under McCarthy with the Packers in 2018 after working as a defensive line coach with the Giants from 2016-17.
Graham began his coaching career by learning from Bill Belichick from 2009-15, as a coaching assistant, defensive assistant, defensive line coach and linebackers coach.
Other coaches Graham has worked for are Pete Carroll, Brian Flores, Joe Judge, Ben McAdoo, Josh McDaniels and Antonio Pierce.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Report: Steelers to Interview Up-and-Coming Commanders Coach
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