5 Mike McCarthy replacements for the Cowboys that aren’t Sean Payton

3. Brian Flores, Senior Defensive Assistant, Pittsburgh Steelers

Brian Flores got a raw deal with the Miami Dolphins. In three seasons, he was 24-25 as the head coach with two winning campaigns back-to-back in 2020 and 2021. Miami did miss the playoffs in each of those years but that was due to the AFC being stacked rather than a failure from Flores.

Despite the success he had, the Dolphins fired him in the offseason. Flores later sued Miami as well as two other teams and the NFL itself for bias in coaching searches.

While Flores didn’t land a new head coaching job this year, he did end up in an excellent spot as the senior defensive assistant and linebacker coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not only will he work for one of the best-run organizations in the NFL, but he will also get to learn from head coach Mike Tomlin.

The Steelers’ current head coach has never had a losing season in 15 years and is beloved by his players. Flores is also well-regarded, as pointed out by Myles Jack, who loves how much Flores understands the game.

Another reason to believe in Flores was the way he got the most out of his team despite there being a lot of background noise. While they were starting Tua Tagovailoa, the Dolphins were constantly said to be targeting Deshaun Watson.

There were also reports that Flores himself wasn’t sold on Tagovailoa as the future of the team. Even so, he ignored all the noise and led his team to some success. Dallas, which always has a lot of noise, could use such a calming presence.