The Pittsburgh Steelers have gone through a lot during the 2026 offseason, and revamping the coaching staff was one of the steps the franchise had to take in order to move forward. Former head coach Mike Tomlin decided to step down after his team was eliminated from the first round of the postseason for the third consecutive season, and Mike McCarthy took his place after the organization conducted a thorough coaching search. McCarthy then began to form his own coaching staff, and only a couple of coaches were kept from Tomlin's staff in 2025, and they were the coaches that McCarthy had past experience with.
Matt Freed / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Steelers' new head coach Mike McCarthy works with newly-drafted quarterback Drew Allar during Organized Team Activities.
Past experience was a common theme throughout McCarthy's new staff. Plenty of the coaches that he wound up hiring have been on one of his staffs before, or they had been players for him earlier on in his coaching career. One of the new coaches that fit that criteria was Domata Peko, who was hired to the staff as the defensive line coach. He had been a defensive assistant on McCarthy's staff during his final year with the Dallas Cowboys in 2024. Peko then spent a season coaching under Deion Sanders at Colorado. He is now back in the NFL with Pittsburgh, which was a bit of a shock to fans.
The reason the hiring was a bit stunning was because of the rivalry between Peko and the Steelers. He played for the Cincinnati Bengals for the majority of his career, from 2006 through 2016. He was a part of many memorable moments against the Steelers, including the debacle during the Wild Card Round of the 2015 playoffs that involved Joey Porter Sr. Peko briefly spoke about that with the media on Wednesday.
"I talked to Joey Porter Jr. I've just been saying, 'What's up.' Told him to say, 'What's up' to his dad," Peko said. "That's one of them memories you try to forget."
What Peko is referring to is the Wild Card game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati that took place during the 2015 season. It all started with Vontaze Burfict's hit on Antonio Brown, and it ended with Porter Sr. on the field getting into it with Bengals players despite the fact that he was a coach for Pittsburgh at the time. Bengals players were penalized, and that moved Pittsburgh into field goal range and the Steelers won the game 18-16.
Matt Freed / Post-Gazette
Former Steelers' linebacker Joey Porter Sr. speaking with members of the Pittsburgh media.
Porter coached with the Steelers from 2014 through 2018, and he was the outside linebackers coach from 2015 through 2018. He went on the field as players were getting into it, and Cincinnati received the brunt of the punishments from the officials. It essentially won the Steelers the game, which is why it might be a bad memory for Peko. Peko was also fined for the incident, and he received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty earlier in the contest.
That might have been Peko's best chance to win anything meaningful while in Cincinnati. The Bengals won the AFC North with a record of 12-4 and were hosting the game, but the Steelers came out on top.
Steelers' Domata Peko Has To Win Some Fans Over
A lot of fans in Pittsburgh will be reasonable and be fans of Peko now that he is wearing the black and gold, but it may be understandable as to why some members of the fan base may still have some disdain for him from his playing days.
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Steelers' Domata Peko during his time coaching with Colorado in 2025.
This would almost be the equivalent of Pittsburgh hiring Terrell Suggs or Haloti Ngata, so it might take some time for fans to appreciate him as a coach. He hasn't played for the Bengals since the 2016 season, so his playing days against the Steelers should be in the rearview mirror in the near future.
What do you think of Peko's comments on his relationship with Porter Sr.? Let me know on X, @brogannoey!
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