Scott McCurley will be the Steelers' next inside linebackers coach, joining new defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander as two new faces on Mike Tomlin's coaching staff. While Alexander and his energetic coaching style will be familiar to those on the South Side, McCurley is a fresh face.

What does McCurley bring to this staff? Alexander has at least spent two seasons as the team's assistant defensive backs coach. On the other hand, McCurley is much more of an unknown. And despite his near two decades of experience, this new role will an unfamiliar one: His first NFL job without Mike McCarthy.

However, it won't be completely unfamiliar territory. McCurley, 44, is a native of New Castle, Pa., and attended Mohawk High School in Bessemer, Pa., where he earned all-conference honors his junior and senior years, playing linebacker and offensive line, while also playing basketball. He played college football at Pitt, starting initially as a walk-on who redshirted his first year, then earned a scholarship after his freshman season. McCurley lettered for four years at linebacker and earned a spot on the 1999 Big East All-Academic team. He holds a unique place in Pitt football history, blocking a field goal and recording a critical fourth-quarter interception in the Panthers' 37-27 upset win over Notre Dame in the final game at Pitt Stadium.

Pitt was also the place where McCurley got his start in coaching. After graduating in 2003, he remained with the program as a defensive graduate assistant. His first job in the NFL wouldn't come until 2006 when he became a coaching administrator intern with the Packers, the first season McCarthy, another Pittsburgh area native, took over as head coach in Green Bay.

Since then, McCurley has become a true disciple of McCarthy. Following his internship in 2006, he was named coaching administrator, a position he held for two seasons. McCarthy promoted him to defensive quality control coach ahead of the 2009 season and remained in that position through 2013. During that time, McCurley earned a Super Bowl ring when the Packers defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.

Ahead of the 2014 season, McCarthy once again promoted McCurley, this time to assistant linebackers coach, where he remained through the 2017 season. The next season, McCurley was moved to defensive assistant, but was not retained after McCarthy was fired following the 2018 season. Like McCarthy, he did not coach in 2019.

When McCarthy was hired to be the Cowboys' head coach in 2020, he brought McCurley with him to coach the team's linebackers. Just as it went down in Green Bay, McCurley remained in that position until McCarthy was fired following the 2024 season and was not retained.

Through one lens, some could deduce that McCurley can only keep a job when McCarthy is head coach. After all, this will be his first NFL job without McCarthy. However, it's also important to look at some of his body of work to better gauge what type of results he's helped provide.

During his time as assistant linebackers coach in Green Bay, McCurley worked alongside assistant head coach Winston Moss, putting an emphasis on the inside linebackers. In 2015, McCurley helped with Clay Matthews' switch to middle linebacker, as he started all 16 games for the first time in his career and made his sixth Pro Bowl with 6.5 sacks and a career-high 85 tackles. In 2017, McCurley coached second-year linebacker Blake Martinez, who led the Packers with 158 tackles and 12 tackles for loss.

In his five seasons with the Cowboys, McCurley coached the likes of Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, Micah Parsons (before he switched to playing edge defender), Damone Clark, Eric Kendricks, Markquese Bell and DeMarvion Overshown. In 2020, Smith recorded 154 tackles, which ranked second in the NFL. In 2021, playing primarily as an off-ball linebacker, Parsons won Rookie of the Year and was named first-team All-Pro. Those were highly-touted players coming out of college, so their respective success could mainly be because of their sheer talent.

However, there are two cases in Dallas that show McCurley's impact as a position coach. In 2023, the Cowboys became razor thin at linebacker after Overshown suffered a torn ACL in his left knee during the preseason and lost Vander Esch for the year in Week 5. When the team didn't bring reinforcements in from the outside, they looked to Bell, an undrafted free agent out of Florida A&M in 2022, transitioning him from safety to linebacker. Bell responded, finishing in the top-10 on the team in defensive snaps while finishing second on the team with 94 tackles, along with three tackles for loss, four passes defensed and two forced fumbles.

Overshown also provides some optimism for McCurley's tutelage. After missing his rookie year with that torn ACL, the Cowboys' 2023 third-round pick finished second on the Cowboys with 95 tackles, had five sacks, returned an interception for a touchdown and had 16 quarterback pressures -- all in only 13 games. His promising season was cut short due to yet another knee injury --  a torn ACL, MCL and PCL in his right knee. Talk about your bad luck.

But to have that kind of production in 13 games after a torn ACL is pretty impressive. I liked Overshown coming out of Texas, though I projected him as a third-rounder well ahead of the 2023 draft. McCurley coached Overshown and saw his potential ahead of his 2024 campaign.

"Really, for the limited reps he gets when he gets in there, you see the physical traits that he brings to the game with his explosiveness, the way he can run," McCurley told reporters during last year's training camp. "I mean, it's impressive where he's at right now physically. I know there'll be some setbacks, this and that coming back and we're going to be smart with him, but you can really see what we missed out there with him being hurt last year."

McCurley will be coaching an inside linebacker position that includes veterans Patrick Queen and Cole Holcomb, along with Payton Wilson in his second season. Queen is the obvious leader of the group. While many are down on his first season in Pittsburgh, he still led the team in tackles and elevated the overall play of the group from where it was in previous seasons, all while playing through a myriad of injuries down the stretch. Holcomb is no guarantee to come back as the Steelers could opt to save $6 million in cap space by cutting him ahead of the final year of his contract. Regardless of what happens with Holcomb, expect there to be some sort of talk between the Steelers and Elandon Roberts about a potential reunion. Roberts indicated at seasons' end that he wants to return, though nothing has happened just yet.

The biggest impact of McCurley's performance could hinge on Wilson's growth in his second season. There were flashes of some serious potential during his rookie season, probably none more than his ridiculous interception of Lamar Jackson. However, Wilson needs to grow in his consistency as a coverage linebacker and run defender to earn a bigger role in this defense.

You might look to McCurley's work with Martinez in Green Bay and more recently with Bell and Overshown in Dallas as reasons for hope that he can help elevate Wilson and the group as a whole. While the Steelers' linebacker play was certainly better in 2024, there's still a lot of meat left on that bone. Queen is a former second-team All-Pro. While his season wasn't nearly as bad as some believe, it wasn't at an All-Pro level. Roberts exceeded expectations during his two years in Pittsburgh, but will be entering his age 31 season in 2025. If the Steelers bring him back, will he be able to replicate that performance? If Holcomb is retained, there's a huge question mark regarding how effective he can be after sustaining a gruesome knee injury that's kept him sidelined for more than a season and a half.

Linebacker's not a position that requires a ton of growth and development for the Steelers. It's a veteran group, which is probably one of the reasons why Tomlin hired a veteran coach that has nearly two decades of NFL coaching experience.

However, the Steelers could really afford to bring in a guy that can help turn Wilson from a third-round pick into a surefire home run. This is a guy who won both the Chuck Bednarik and Butkus Awards in his final season at N.C. State. The potential is real. While there are some tangible cases for optimism, McCurley's a bit of a risk in that area. After all, this is a guy that's coached in the NFL since 2006 without ever sniffing a real opportunity to become a coordinator or head coach.

This is a move that goes against some of the other hires Tomlin has made in recent seasons. Two years ago, he hired Aaron Curry to coach the linebackers, and he was viewed as an up-and-coming coach under Pete Carroll in Seattle. Hiring Alexander during this cycle fits a bit of the same mold. While there's familiarity with him, there is still plenty of upside as he's only 40 years old.

Despite the experience he brings to Pittsburgh, the McCurley hire is a bit of a wildcard. It'll be interesting to see if he can thrive when McCarthy isn't there alongside him.