The Tampa 2 defense was all the rage in the NFL last year, when Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith — both Tampa 2 practitioners — met in the Super Bowl.

Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Mike Tomlin also used the Tampa 2, a defensive philosophy in which four linemen rush the quarterback, three linebackers drop into short pass coverage and two safeties are each responsible for half the field if the quarterback throws deep. Tomlin’s defense played so well that when Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher retired after the season, the 34-year-old Tomlin was hired as his replacement.

But when Tomlin arrived in Pittsburgh, he didn’t bring his defensive philosophy with him. Instead, Tomlin retained Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau and the zone blitz defense that LeBeau has perfected in 34 years as an NFL assistant, including the last four as the coordinator in Pittsburgh.

LeBeau’s defense is different from Tomlin’s. In LeBeau’s defensive schemes, the linemen are mostly responsible for stopping the run, the pass rush comes primarily from the four linebackers, and the safeties play all over the place, blitzing on one play and covering a receiver 30 yards downfield the next.

Even though it was his mastery of the Tampa 2 that turned Tomlin into a head coach, Tomlin has delegated the defensive game plans to LeBeau. Tomlin didn’t just keep LeBeau on his staff; he kept the defensive assistants who worked under LeBeau last year, too. The Steelers’ defensive line coach, linebackers coach, and defensive backs coach are all holdovers from last year’s staff. That kind of continuity is rare for any NFL team, but it’s particularly unusual for a team with a new head coach.

But Tomlin was smart to keep things the same, because all of the Steelers’ personnel decisions in the draft and free agency in recent years have been predicated on getting players who fit into LeBeau’s defense. Troy Polamalu, for instance, is the perfect safety for LeBeau’s zone blitz. Fans recognize Polamalu for his ferocious hits and his unruly hair, but what truly sets him apart is his intelligence. The LeBeau defense allows Polamalu to read the opposing offense and roam all over the field based on the offensive formation he sees, whereas safeties have much less freedom in the Tampa 2 defense. If Tomlin had ditched LeBeau’s defense for his own, he would have neutralized one of his best players.

The same is true with the Steelers’ front seven, where the personnel is well suited for the 3–4 approach that LeBeau favors. Tomlin’s Tampa 2 defense doesn’t rely on pass rushing from the inside linebackers, but removing that tactic — which is a staple of LeBeau’s zone blitz — would be a waste of the talent on the Steelers’ roster. Inside linebackers James Farrior and Larry Foote are both good pass rushers, and nose tackle Casey Hampton does an excellent job occupying the opposing center and guards to free up space for Farrior and Foote to blitz. If Tomlin had imposed his scheme on the Steelers, they would have lost one of their most potent defensive weapons.

Tomlin deserves credit for having the humility to recognize that his system isn’t bigger than the team itself. It would have been easy for Tomlin to pull rank — he is, after all, LeBeau’s boss. But during the off-season, the head coach became the student and the coordinator was the teacher. Tomlin spent his first weeks as Steelers coach watching game tape with LeBeau, asking questions, taking notes, and generally trying to soak up all the knowledge he could from his assistant, who was an All-Pro defensive back more than a decade before Tomlin was born.

The Tomlin–LeBeau pairing has the makings of a feel-good story, but it will only turn out that way if the defense succeeds on the field, and this Steelers unit does have one big problem, at cornerback. Starters Deshea Townsend and Ike Taylor struggled last season, and the Steelers surprisingly failed to add any cornerbacks in the off-season. When the Steelers take the field against the Cleveland Browns Sunday, those two cornerbacks are two big question marks. But there’s no question that Tomlin and LeBeau will have their defense ready to play.