Steelers move on from WR coach Ike Hilliard, hire Frisman Jackson from Panthers

The Pittsburgh Steelers hired a wide receivers coach Tuesday without previously mentioning the position was vacant.

Frisman Jackson, who spent the past two seasons with the Carolina Panthers, was announced as the new position coach. He will replace Ike Hilliard, who spent the past two years coaching the Steelers receivers.

A team spokesman said Hilliard’s contract was not renewed.

Jackson, 42, was a former wide receiver with the Cleveland Browns. He has three seasons of NFL coaching experience, spending one year with the Tennessee Titans in 2017 and his two seasons with Carolina that were sandwiched around two years in college at Baylor. In 2021, he was promoted to passing game coordinator with the Panthers.

At the collegiate level, Jackson also coached at Temple, N.C. State, Northern Illinois, Akron and Western Illinois.

With the Panthers, Jackson oversaw the development of wide receiver D.J. Moore, who caught 159 passes for 2,350 yards and eight touchdowns over the 2020-21 seasons. In 2020, Moore (1,193 yards) and Robby Anderson (1,096) were one of only two wide receiver duos to top 1,000 yards receiving.

Jackson’s NFL playing career consisted of 34 games with the Browns from 2002-05. He caught 40 passes for 490 yards and one touchdown.

The decision for the Steelers to move on from Hilliard wasn’t surprising even though coach Mike Tomlin made no indication at the end of the season that he was going to let any of his position coaches go. Tomlin, though, expressed dissatisfaction with the play of the receivers in the 42-21 playoff loss at Kansas City.

While Diontae Johnson enjoyed his first 100-catch, 1,000-yard season in 2021 under Hilliard, he also was plagued by drops late in the second half of the year. Second-year wide receiver Chase Claypool regressed from his rookie year, finishing with 59 catches for 860 yards and two touchdowns. He had 62 catches, 873 yards and nine touchdowns in 2020.

Hilliard also didn’t have JuJu Smith-Schuster available for the final 11 games of the season because of a shoulder injury. And fourth-year receiver James Washington finished with 24 catches for 285 yards and two touchdowns, his least productive season since his rookie year.