Juan Thornhill Fires Back at Former Steelers Coach: ‘I Didn’t Enjoy Playing for That DC’

Juan Thornhill didn’t hold back when asked about his time in Pittsburgh. The veteran safety, who spent part of the 2024 season with the Steelers before being cut, made it clear he wasn’t a fan of defensive coordinator Teryl Austin.

“I didn’t enjoy playing for that DC,” Thornhill said, according to Steelers Depot.

Thornhill joined the Steelers hoping to lock down the starting free safety job, beating out Miles Killebrew in camp. But things went sideways fast. In his brief stint with the team, he managed just 38 tackles (23 solo, 15 assisted) and looked lost at times in coverage. The breaking point came during a game against the Minnesota Vikings, where Thornhill recorded a single tackle before the Steelers decided they’d seen enough.

Pittsburgh cut him loose and grabbed rookie Sebastian Castro off waivers from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t sugarcoat the decision.

“The play (by Thornhill) wasn’t up to snuff,” Tomlin said. “And Castro was available to us, and we went through the team development process with Castro. We thought he had a good camp, good preseason, and he played his tail off in that practice against the Bucs. That’s why they stole him from us and we had an opportunity to reacquire him. It was an opportunity to get him back.”

Thornhill didn’t stay unemployed long. He signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars practice squad shortly after his release. But his comments about Austin suggest there’s some lingering bitterness about how things ended in Pittsburgh.

Austin spent three seasons as the Steelers defensive coordinator from 2022 through 2024 before taking a senior defensive assistant role with the Arizona Cardinals. His defense in Pittsburgh had its moments but never quite reached the level fans expected from a franchise built on defensive tradition. Thornhill’s comments add another layer to the narrative that Austin’s tenure may have been more frustrating than effective for some players.

Thornhill has bounced around the league since entering the NFL. He’s played for the Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns, and now the Jaguars, with a brief, unmemorable stop in Pittsburgh. The Chiefs were where he had his best years, including a Super Bowl win. But his performance has dipped noticeably since then, and his criticism of Austin might sound like sour grapes to some fans.

Still, Thornhill isn’t the first player to speak negatively about a former coach after leaving a team. Whether his struggles in Pittsburgh were his own fault or a bad fit with Austin’s system, the result was the same. He’s gone, Castro’s in, and the Steelers have moved on.