6:40AM Thursday
February 14, 2013

Reports out of Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon had coach Mike Tomlin interviewing longtime NFL assistant Richard Mann for the team's vacancy at wide receivers coach.

Either Tomlin knew Mann was his guy before the conversation or Mann knocked the ball out of the park during the talk because the Steelers just announced Mann's hiring for that job. Scottie Montgomery, their previous receivers coach, left the team last week to become the offensive coordinator at Duke.

Tomlin and Mann were on the same staff in Tampa from 2002 to 2005 and Mann served as the Bucs' wide receivers coach from 2002-2009. He was also the team's assistant head coach in 2009, but left the team after that season and has not coached in the NFL since then. Mann, who is 65, also coached the wideouts for five other NFL teams between 1982 and 2000, including a lengthy stint in Cleveland in the late 80′s and early 90′s.

The makeup of the Steelers receiving corps is up in the air with Mike Wallace heading for free agency. Mann will have Antonio Brown leading the crew regardless of where Wallace ends up, which isn't a bad place to start building a depth chart.