Some fans need to face reality.

As a Die Hard Steelers fan I always want them to win but we are likely going to face a 2-4 year stretch of below average play. This team will be fine, it's just going to take a few seasons to get the pieces in place again. There should be some drastic off season changes though. Most of the coaching staff should be shown the door. MT will be the coach next year but he really needs to fire many other coaches. If he doesn't then he will write his own eulogy when his contract expires. Pickett will be a good QB but we need to build a team around him starting with the Oline. People need to quit thinking we need a top 5 draft pick.

Relax and enjoy the slightly rough road ahead. It could be worse. All the teams that are really good now were pretty bad at one time and some for many seasons. We will rise again. It's just the way the NFL cycle is these days.

 

Now it’s 2-4 years!? GMdot had us on track to be contenders in 2 years max. I’m right again. Two pointless wins adding 2 years to the rebuild, yikes! Not worth it.

 

Stop apologizing for substandard performance. Until Tomlin is shown the door, the standard is underachieving.

 

We might as well face reality that we aren’t gonna change until SDOT is Owner, GM. Head Coach, OC, DC, Player and laundry boy

When this happens we will finally erase the 72 Dolphins and go on a 20 year undefeated streak.

 

Tomlin wasted big bens last few good years by not being buttoned up and having discipline and now he is doing the same with our less talented teams. No reasons buttoned up team loses this game or jets game. All on tomlin

 

This current team isn’t underachieving though, they are actually overachieving.

 

I like our team, we will have to bring in some players and hit on these players.
It must be a proactive approach though, the needs are many. Not only starters
but quality depth.

 

The team has some pieces in place for the future but not many.

They have so many holes to fill its head spinning.

Some times things get stale. Colbert. Hopefully Kahn and Weidl can start to rebuild.

I do feel that Tomlin is stale as well. Not bashing. But take long hard look. And don't give me the winning seasons were lucky were not the Lions ect BS.

10 years 3 playoff wins. 10 years. Not including this season.

Most of us have different expectations.

 

These are all valid points, maybe I am an optimist? Oh my expectations are really high for the Steelers.
As I mentioned in another thread yesterday I think the Steelers did try to improve the roster last off season
It didn't pan out like we had hoped, I believe we have 6 picks in the first 100 of this years draft with that and FA
we should be able to improve roster. As far as MT goes, I am not a supporter, but I don't own the team. Atleast
3-4 coaches need to be gone after the season,

 

Wrong. The highest paid defense isn't even ranked in the top half of the league. That is the definition of underachieving. An offense that is ranked around 28th and scores 5 pts less than the league average per game. 5 wins against 8 losses. How in the hell do you get overachieving out of the garbage we've seen this year?

 

If we address the offensive and defensive lines, I think it will make quite a difference. Between this and improved QB play, I think we will start to turn things around.

 

I think the defense gets too much grief for what they have done this year. Given how inept our offense is, I actually think they are doing alright. Big picture, they are giving up 22 pts a game (ranked 14th in the league). They also had some key injuries for extended periods of time (Watt, etc).

You won’t get an argument from me about how bad the offense is.

 

Maybe. But alright isn't good enough when they have that much money invested. For that kind of coin, I'd expect top 5. They aren't getting a good return on that investment IMO.

 

We may not NEED at top five pick but it would be nice to get a STUD (assuming that is in the top 5).

 

They probably spend way more time on the field than they should. That doesn't help.

 

It was the case for the first 3 games of the year but since this time,the steelers offense even if they are terrible,are the team with the most 10 play drive or more this year,so the steelers defense is tired is a weak excuse

 

Underachieving or Overrated?

I don't disagree with you. But the local expectation was that this was going to be some difference making, dominant top 5 D. On paper maybe, but that outcome relied on Cam and Alualu defying time and playing like they had in the past, Ogunjobi being an impact player. Myles Jack and an improved Devin Bush (under Bryan FLores tutaleage) being solid ILBs, and Levi Wallace playing like Joe Haden of a few years ago. There was a lot of wishful thinking in this. And once guys get hurt, the lack of depth, really exposes this D.

Are they underachieving, sure. But I also think people overrated what this D can be.

 

The roster is in poor shape but it can be turned around quickly if the front offices uses its resources wisely. They have good draft capital and they also have cap room to work with and lots of ways to clear more if needed. The upcoming draft in 2023 is absolutely critical, with three picks inside the top 50 they need to find quality starters, ideally at key positions like LT and CB.

Kenny Picketts progression is a huge variable in the medium term. If he turns in to a viable QB they could be very competitive again sooner than people think. I don’t know what his ceiling is but they need to protect him better and give him a chance to develop. Even average pass blocking will be fine, the left side of the line is so bad right now that I don’t think he can be property evaluated.

 

There is a lot of unknowns with the franchise.

Its hard to judge Omar Kahn and Andy Weidl because they took over the reigns post Colbert's retirement.
So these two haven't ran their own draft or free agency period.

So far I can't disagree with Omar's moves. Trading Claypool I will agree with. He got a good return and we probably have 3 picks in the top 40 picks (maybe 50 picks depnding on how rest of season turns out).

Omar was in charge of giving DJ his contract. DJ has been a bit disappointing this season. Especially when your making $18 million a season and have scored zero touchdowns in 13 games.

So the DJ contract is a little up in the air unless he performs better.

But you have to be convinced that Kenny is your man, Najee is your guy, and George is the real deal.

If you believe that then you spend these picks on fixing the trenches, offensive and defensive line.

If you hit on guys like that, and Kenny, Najee, Pat and George progress then you might see a quicker turn around.

But if the picks don't work out quick... then could be a long road, especially if Kenny and the rest of the talent positions don't progress to the next level.

As far as coaching.... you know Rooney won't can Tomlin.... Tomlin won't quit... he likes it all too much.

But.. the got to do something with the staff... quit using retreads and stop all the hiring from within...
Open up the check book get some good coordinators in here.. and lets see what we can do...

But all in all it comes down to Kenny Pickett.. this is a hard league to win in with out really good QB play.

Whats Buffalo without Josh Allen... the Bengals without Joe Burrow.. the Chiefs without Patrick Mahomes... Ravens wit out Lamar...

When you have players like them... they make up for lot of rough patches of your team.. just like Big Ben could do... a good QB makes average talent good talent.. good talent great talent...

 

Agree Tomlin will be the coach next year. However things aren't going to really change much until he is gone. Remember Ben carried him and the team for years. Now he has no one to fall back to.

 

some fans are children here, that is obvious.

others are just pure homers - my brother is one of them. We are in a bad spot for years to come.......some of us saw this coming since 2017, 2018. Ben was aging fast. Tomlin was losing playoff games to teams we should have beaten. It will be some dark years in front of us. Still love our team and will watch, but won't give them my heart any longer, that is for sure!!!

 

I tend to agree with OP. A huge problem is the damn injury problems. Could happen to any team I know. You could have the QB of the future but a few shots to the head and you have to start all over.

 

ALL TEAMS have injuries

next please.

Rats beat us with their 3rd string in the 4th Q.

 

I am not sure if I agree with you. I think this is more than just about getting new pieces. I truly believe we have some schematic issues and coaching issues. I am not sold on our defensive scheme at all. We have thrown a lot of money and players and coaches at fixing the defense yet we are still struggling in that area. The offense I would agree is developing.

 

This off-season will be one of the most critical in a long time. The draft and free agency could add huge pieces to the team, think how we picked up Bettis or Farrier as examples. If we swing and miss badly it can set this team back 5 years. I go back and think about Mendenhall quitting, Shazier going down, then our diva receiver and running back coupled with draft misses vs wins and finally crappy coaches that never adjusted to a veteran disciplined team to young players that needed total discipline. Stir all that up and ultimately we have what we have. We cannot afford to miss this year, we have to find guys that are ready to play or can quickly develop into top players. Troy even struggled at first and there was bust talk with him so patience is needed to a degree. We just cannot be the Pirates and go cheap either on good free agents (not old players that we hope have one last gas, e.g. we don't need the Jordan on the Wizards, we need him from the bulls) or coaches. The work starts with having a beast of an offensive line and a defensive lines that can consistently put pressure on the QB independently of the blitz. Lastly we cannot afford any diva BS in the locker room, zero tolerance of it (Tomlin if you are here NOTE TO YOU!).