Steelers coach Mike Tomlin promoted two former players to assistant coaching positions Friday, and they bring 25 years worth of experience with the Steelers defense with them.
Tomlin appointed Jerry Olsavsky to coach inside linebackers and Joey Porter to coach outside linebackers.
In previous years, new defensive coordinator Keith Butler coached the inside and outside linebackers. The two openings are the only ones on the staff Tomlin had to fill.
Olsavsky and Porter know the Steelers defense and their new boss well. Olsavsky played for the Steelers from 1989-97 and spent the past five seasons working with Butler as a defensive assistant. Porter played for the Steelers from 1999-2006 and also served as a defensive assistant this past season.
Olsavsky played 10 seasons in the NFL and started 37 games for the Steelers over nine seasons. He was a starting inside linebacker on the 1995 team that lost to Dallas in Super Bowl XXX. He finished his career in Baltimore, where he played for one season in 1998.
Olsavsky began his coaching career at Thomas Jefferson High School in 1999 as a volunteer assistant coach with former Pitt teammate Bill Cherpak. He later worked in volunteer capacities at Chaney High School in Youngstown, Ohio, and Duquesne University before becoming the assistant strength coach at North Carolina in 2002. He was the linebackers coach at Youngstown State from 2003-09. The Steelers added him to their staff in 2010.
Porter played 13 seasons in the NFL. He was a starting outside linebacker on the 2005 team that beat Seattle in Super Bowl XL and ranks third in franchise history with 60 sacks. Porter left the Steelers after the 2006 season to sign with Miami, where he played for three seasons, then played two seasons for Arizona before retiring in 2011.
Porter began his coaching career as an undergraduate student assistant at Colorado State, his alma mater, in 2013. The Steelers hired him in spring 2014.
Both new coaches will be charged with tutoring recent first-round draft picks. Porter will coach 2013 first-round pick Jarvis Jones, who has three sacks in his first two NFL seasons. Olsavsky will work with 2014 first-round pick Ryan Shazier, whose rookie season was hampered by knee and ankle injuries that forced him to miss seven games.
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: February 6, 2015, 5:29 p.m.
