Ok Am I Missing Something.

It's irrational to think they will compete for a title next year. Given the pieces this team already has, it's also irrational to think the bottom will completely drop out. I suspect the answer is somewhere in the middle which is where fans expectations should be. As long as all of the new pieces fit together, they won't have to throw the puzzle against the wall and start over.

 

Since you brought up the Patriots, let’s look at the whole picture.

As others pointed out, they’ve gone 8-9, 4-13, and 4-13 the previous seasons. The Pats benefited from a cupcake schedule this year plus many years of abysmal playing to stockpile talent.

And since you set the bar at winning a playoff game within 3 seasons, the Pats have zero playoff wins the past 6 seasons. That includes when they were 12-4 with Belichick and Brady and still lost to the last seed 9-7 Titans.

(With the way the Texans are playing, there is a decent chance of the Pats being bounced by a WC despite being the 2nd seed.)

 

Not to play devils advocate, but I think you might be suggesting that it hinges on QB? The QB that Cowher wanted to pass on for a guard (Andrews)?

 

QB is obviously important here’s to hoping Will can be the next great one.

 

What the **** have the Steelers won exactly the last 15 years? They’ve been losing.

 

How could anyone watch CJ Stroud the other night and think he’s beating a functional football team? Plus I believe Nico Collins is out.

 

(I fixed mentioning their win last week before reading your post.)

I did mention they had many years of below-average to bottom-feeding play to stock up their roster.

Maybe the Pats are peaking at the right time. But I suspect they are the team that struggled to beat a Burrow-less Bengals team.

 

This is why even though some of these guys tried to tell me “nobody cares about non losing seasons” sure you don’t.

 

I don’t think they are winning it all necessarily but they can definitely beat the Texans.

 

Agree 100 percent. I hear people say Tomlin won with Cowher’s team, especially pointing out Ben, but Cowher had him for three years and he wasn’t even Cowher’s pick.

 

i think with the right hires the team might surprise. let's be real here, the roster probably won't change a ton. plus there are 12 draft picks coming. i think most of us can agree with some better game planning, play calling, and better coaching the team might actually be a little better. i am also sure many of us can agree that the play calling and play design hasn't been the best over the past 3 or 8 years or so...

i am not saying the team will win more games right away but they might be more competitive even in the games they lose. how many games were throw away games because the team always came out flat against competition they were expected to beat? if you can turn some of those games around the win total might not be that different honestly.

 

But Cowher coached him up!

 

I think we're definitely aiming for the 49ers/Rams/Seahawks model. Shula appears to be the prime candidate and the rest of the field looks like candidates they're interviewing to make it appear that they're casting a wide net. Klay Kubiak doesn't call plays and is more of an OC placeholder, and Scheelhaase never called plays as well, so I'm just not seeing them as candidate and the DC line-up just seems even worse. Flores seems like a guy that can possibly be the DC at least.

I don't know how our current players fit into this model or how much roster retention there will be. I don't think they'll be aiming for a bunch of 30+ guys in FA, but I think we'll definitely see some NFCW guys added to the roster.

 

It will be humorous if we end up at 10-7 next season and either miss the playoffs or lose in the wild card round. Not because I would want that, but because all the people screaming for change, change happens, and the result is the same. That will be funny to me. I love irony.

 

We need to tank for a year or two. Status quo is why we’re in this abyss. 10-7. Not anywhere close to a title; however, far from a good draft pick. Don’t know what else to say.