State of the Steelers

First, I am no authority on the team and am just a fan who watches every Steeler's game, and attended my first game at Pitt stadium in 1968 against the Minnesota Vikings. I was 11 years old. The Steelers lost and everyone was calling for the back-up quarterback Kent Nix.
I don't really watch games that don't have the Steelers as one of the contestants, so, uncharacteristically, last night I was watching the Tampa Bucs vs the Phila Eagles, and noticed that Baker Mayfeild was very quick and decisive with his throws. He would take the snap and pivot and throw without having to scan the entire field for any receiver that might have a yard of separation.
Maybe some of you folks who watch lots of teams see this all the time, but it just reminded me of back when Ben would be known for his quick release and not holding on to the ball too long. Other times (especially in the earlier days) he would hang on to the ball and extend the plays.

So, to my untrained eye, it seems to be a function of poor offensive line play combined with inability to make quick decisions along with poor schemes and poorly designed plays.

What can bring this team out of it's Brown's-like funk?
Possibly a re-vamped offensive line, a franchise QB and coaching changes could help, but that would constitute a complete rebuild.

In short, I don't have an answer, and thought that I would see what the rest of you folks think.

 

Fire Mike T

 

Offensive line and defensive line are the main components of the issues..Need to focus all of our attention there FIRST

 

You have to start with the coaching staff. If no changes are made, then the results will remain the same. The Steelers will be competitive for a playoff spot, but not legitimate contenders.

 

Hopefully Tomlin walks away as he should. The team is at a stalemate and is stale. His vision is dated.

 

The game is and always has been won at the line of scrimmage. Control the LOS either on offense or defense ( or both ) and your chances of winning are significantly better. The problem with this Steeler team is that we havent dedicated draft picks to improve this very important aspect of being successful. Is it because we are mediocre all the time and we lose out on the chances to draft stud lineman, or are we infatuated with skill players that can make "splash plays" on "weighty downs"....it has to be one of these ...obviously.

 

Steelers trajectory is akin to be stuck in mud and gunning the gas pedal. Needs to be massive changes to the coaching staff and a process/plan to rebuild this roster. With the defense not getting younger and a slew of contracts expiring after next season, continuing on the road of insanity will just lead to them falling off the cliff that's behind them.

 

Steelers are stuck Purgatory of middle.

The Franchise can't embrace suck enough to draft at the top. .500 seasons or just barely over, just barely making it in to just get smacked, normally on the road.

Sometimes you do have to suck enough to rebuild. Look at Houston.... nailed it with some top picks that are rookies, and are in the Divisional round. Fleecing Cleveland for more picks for a rebuild speeded up that process.

Steelers walk around like we are the Steelers and we should be feared and bowed down to. Well let me tell you nobody fears us like they used to. Look no further than losing to two 2 win teams over 5 days at home with one in Primetime. At home... at home!!! Give me a break...

I will credit Tomlin on one thing he rights the ship when seasons look lost. Steelers probably had no business making the playoffs... but like he does..he rights the ship.. but then only to get smacked in the playoffs usually in a road contest. Losing 4 straight playoff games and get smacked the heck out of when your a defensive style coach is unacceptable.

Our defense is over-paid, with not enough results. No one in the NFL spends more on defense than us, but results don't add up when it counts. The only one when paid more that continues to produce is TJ Watt... Fitzpatrick paid more disappeared, Highsmith similar, and Cam Heyward is breaking down.. old.. I love the guy.. but you got to move on... its time to move it on...

We don't have a franchise QB... and lets face it.. you can say ship off Mike Tomlin or keep Mike Tomlin.. but its hard to win without this type of guy... the guy is the franchise QB.....

Was Buffalo all that better than us... well maybe a little bit... but one guy they got we don't a Franchise guy in Josh Allen. No offense to Mason... No offense to Kenny... but they aren't Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, CJ Stroud, Lamar Jackson, Brock Purdy, heck or maybe even Jared Goff or Jordan Love.
Good Franchise QBs make coaches look good. Did BB look good without Brady no... name any good Hall of Fame coach and most (outside of Joe Gibbs) had the franchise dude...

Big Ben made Mike Tomlin, heck he probably even made Bill Cowher, Bill Cowher lost all the big contests that mattered before Big Ben came. Of course you had Steller good defense, but QB is the entire X-Factor. Sure every 10-12 years we get the Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer, or Nick Foles thing but not often.

But... tired of the the Standard is the Standard BS, tired of mediocre in average... sometimes you have to either embrace the suck or just get completely lucky.

But I think as fan base we just became too acceptable and not enough Hungry.. look at all these crazy franchises so hungry... Buffalo, Detroit, heck even Houston, they have never had a winner.... places are rocking, we had that from 2004-to about 2011, even since then its been stuck in mostly average at best.

Maybe its time for new ideas, and some new blood, but knowing Rooney he won't change anything for the shake of changing anything. I get that players like Tomlin, but sometimes... its time to move on... and start over again and bring some blood back into the fan base. Become feared and installing the fear... that this is the Steelers coming and not some average normal team.

I'm 38 and got to live through some awesome times... 2 Super bowl wins in my early 20's wonderful times.. I have two young Steelers fans now 10 and 12, too used to average play. When they think well we made the playoffs but.. its probably over in the 1st game.

Get back to winning the division get back to being feared.... but folks no matter who is coaching it probably won't matter till we get ourselves that dude again know as the franchise QB....

 

Tomlin does not have a franchise qb to cover up his mistakes.
Our defense is TJ and that is it.
Lack of depth and athleticism on both sides of the ball is obvious.
Bad drafting is finally catching up to the Steelers.

 

Easier said than done. We need LB'ers, a good CB and a safety as well. Can't get everything. I do agree though that we need to build up the guys in the trenches. But we did that with our OL and it failed miserably.

I always go back to Mike Shanahan. No matter what he had at RB or OL, he had one of the best rushing attacks in the league every year. That tells me that coaching and scheme matter a great deal. Do we have the right guys and just poor scheme/coaching?

 

In other words we need a better QB? I do not agree with that.

 

Nice.

I feel like the Steelers are stuck in the past. The game has changed.
'Loyalty' is one thing, but in looking at Matt Canada, the decision to stick with him was fatal.
Player acquisition, it's nice to have 'family' on the roster but really you want the best 53.
'Promoting from within' is also another thing but you really want the best staff you can get, it makes the Head Coach job easier.
It doesn't really feel like there is good communication between coaching and player acquisition to get players that best fit.
And again, loyalty. That friggin Punter I do not understand at all.

That's a bit of the funk I see hanging over this franchise.

 

In my opinion it's a coaching problem and has been since 2012. There are a few consistent things I've noticed in the coaching arena that I'm sure others will agree with or expound upon.

1. Poor strategy that never utilizes our strength or another team's weakness.

2. Inability to evaluate the talent on the team. Many times it's evident when a player on the bench is a better option yet he's kept on the bench.

3. Little to no discipline on the field or in the locker room. Got penalties and fines galore these days compared to past. Also have diva players causing internal problems.

4. Consistently ill prepared against weaker teams thus dropping games that lose them important momentum and seeding in the playoffs.

5. Bad clock management and coaches challenges.

These are just a few that always jump out at me. Steelers are in serious need of a different kind of leader and a x's and o's guy to evaluate strategy. You can't just come in and impose your will every game these days because the talent is just too balanced imo. I've not watched as long as you (envious you got to witness the 70's which I just missed) but that would be my quick summation.

 

Success in the NFL starts and ends with a franchise QB. It took the Steelers 26 years to replace Bradshaw, anyone who thought Ben’s replacement was going to be immediate was kidding themselves. Some franchises have never had one, the Steelers have had 2, both hall of famers (Ben will be).

 

Same here Manitou, first Steeler game at Pitt Staduim back in the 60's. Anyhow, I pretty much don't know what I'm talking about. I just can't my head around this team. As usual we come out flat. Run Harris for 1-2 yards gain, obviously Buff was goal was to stop our run game. Watching Mason I'm thinking, man it looks like he drops back 10 yards in the pocket. Like you said, Baker fires quick. Mason seems to stand back there forever. Are our receivers that well covered. Its the same old Sh*t with Tomlin, we start games with no fire like its a scrimmage, I'm pretty sick of it. Tomlin needs to go, We need new blood in there.

 

I agree we have a lot of parts that need changing, but a stud center to anchor this line for the future is a must..Also another young tackle. I believe these pieces you have to draft ..Think safety / corner maybe we upgrade through free agency..D line and middle linebacker are also musts.I would experiment with Herbig inside a little, definitely has the speed to cover and in a limited role does make plays

 

truth, but I will pull it out further. development and proper training and scheme. The holes on D, Omar actually did a decent job in trying to fill ILB, injures devastated, but where is the technique for basic tackling? Last years draft shows a lot of promise, but is where is Washington?? I get it when you say bad drafting, but the lack of communication, bad technigue, and lack of preparation starts at the top, and those guys he hires.

 

I'm not sure not sure if I would characterize the Steelers situation as a Browns-like funk - I mean, the franchise is still nowhere near the lows of the Browns, at least in the post-merger era. But, I otherwise agree with your observations.

I've watched a maybe 3-ish non-Steelers games this season and was during those games, I was struck by how much better some of the better teams' offenses operated. None were perfect, but compared to the Steelers offense over the mast 6 years, they could, more often than not, move the ball like a well-oiled machine

Effortlessly moving the ball is sadly not something that weve seen from the Steelers since literally the Todd Haley-era. And speaking of Haley - it seems like most Steelers fans hated the guy, but whatever one's personal opinion of him or his playcalling - the Offense actually clicked in those days. Since then, we've had one pathetically weak, bargain bin OC after another - and it shows.

Compounding that problem is the reality that our O-Line has simply deteriorated during that space of time, which has, in turn, only made the myriad of other struggles on offense 10x worse. It's improved in some areas, but greatly worsened in otalong. Mason Cole should not even be in the NFL. He might not even be fit for the XFL.

On the topic of QBs. While I don't think we have super elite QBs on the team currently, I think the scheming and playcalling have prevented them from reaching their ceilings. As such, I think that if the Steelers would if nothing else, 1) draft a top tiee center, and 2) hire an above average OC / modern scheme designer, we could probably accomplish a lot of good things even with what we've currently got with Kenny or Mason.

That is, provided that the defense doesn't stink it up like they have been throughout most of the season. Take last night for example - Mason's end zone Interception was disappointing, but it didn't have to be game altering. The ball was on the far opposite side of the field. Had the defense actually done their job and not allowed the Bills march down the entire field for an easy TD, the outcome might have been different. I know the topic is more about the offense, but I'm mentioning it because offenses - no matter their level of talent - won't be able to function without a defense to cover up inevitable mistakes when it matters.

Josh Allen might be the best QB in the league, but he had literally more turnovers than any other player at that position in the league, yet our defense couldn't force a pick the entire game - but Mason is getting reamed for one. Deep playoff runs require a consistent effort from D because no QB is perfect. Mason isn't, but neither is Allen - yet all year, our defense has tended to make even mediocre QBs look almost flawless.

None of that is to say that we shouldn't be looking for a franchise QB - like others here have noted, a franchise QB is a must if the Steelers ever want to start winning SBs again - but that should only come after we have a competent OLine and Defense, imo. Beyond that, I think most of the way the organization handles things, and probably almost the team's coaching staff and assistants (up to and including HC) will also have to change. Barring that, our trajectory might actually very legitimately start looking like that of the Browns.

 

I could not agree more. We should absolutely be thinking about drafting a top center and fixing the defense before we even consider moving up to get a franchise QB. I think until then, we should just roll with what we've got and hope for the best, but expect the worst. An major organizational shuffle should also be in the cards. No QB, no matter how great, is going to flourish with the coaching staff that we currently have. Ownership is also a major problem, but that probably ain't changing anytime soon.

 

I may have been a bit premature with my comparison to the Browns, but the Steeler's play calling is (to my mind) very predictable. Run, Run, pass, punt.
I was calling out the plays before the snap yesterday afternoon.
If someone like me knows what's coming, then the other team surely does too.

I guess things would be different if (whichever) quarterback had a little time to set his feet.

 

I didn't really want to make this thread about accountability, but, I guess that may be part of the problem as well.
Maybe it's just because I am old and don't really know how young people are brought along, but , even though I never played too many organized sports, if I would have acted like some of our players, I would have been benched or off the team.
Has Tomlin lost the locker room, or is it just the way all sports are now days??

 

Don't think much needs to change outside of an offensive coordinator.

Defense get healthy. Draft.


If Tomlin goes, fine. Stays, fine. Need to get rid of double A play calling. Need creativity.

They have weapons.

 

kidding. Think HC needs changing.

 

I fully agree with comparison to the Browns. Sad part is that the Browns now are more like Steelers of old, and sadly, Steelers are like the Browns of old.

 

Haven't you been saying that Ben is the reason Tomlin has lost so many play off games?? Or am I wrong?

Tomlin freaking wasted Ben's prime cause Tomlin freaking sucks and has no clue how football works. Splash plays and weighty downs are just dumb and stupids concepts for a HC to have.