The Steelers filled an opening on their coaching staff with the hiring of Eddie Faulkner as the team's new running backs coach. Faulkner comes to the Steelers from North Carolina State.
"We are excited to announce the addition of Eddie Faulkner to our coaching staff," said Coach Mike Tomlin. "We've got a young, talented group of running backs who will benefit from his guidance, and we look forward to getting him in the building to start our offseason work."
Faulkner has a good nucleus to work with as James Conner is coming off a Pro Bowl season where he rushed for 973 yards and 12 touchdowns, despite missing three games. Faulkner coached current Steelers running back Jaylen Samuels.Under Faulkner's guidance, Samuels finished his N.C. State career as the school's all-time receptions leader with 202 career catches. Samuels also earned All-ACC honors twice, and finished third in the ACC in 2017 with 16 touchdowns.
"Coach Faulkner's leadership, knowledge, and motivation empowered me to achieve my desired goals at N.C. State," said Samuels. "We're all excited to have him in our RB room in Pittsburgh."
Faulkner, who has 17 years coaching experience, held multiple roles at N.C. State, with his title being tight ends/fullbacks and special teams coordinator from 2013-18, as well as the school's recruiting coordinator.
Prior to arriving at N.C. State he was the tight ends coach at Wisconsin in 2012, and running backs/special teams coordinator at North Illinois in 2011. Faulkner spent eight seasons at Ball State where he began as a graduate assistant (2003-04), running backs/special teams (2005-08) and offensive coordinator/running backs (2009-10), as well as interim head coach at the end of the 2010 season.
Faulkner is no stranger to the Steelers organization as he was with the team as an undrafted free agent during training camp in 2001.
Faulkner played college football at Wisconsin where he was a member of two Big 10 Championship teams, rushing for 1,064 yards in his career.
