Reflecting on recent personnel moves

Bearing in mind that all teams can make mistakes, change course, or defer transparency with the media, here are nine situations the Steelers have handled in what I found to be curious (to frustrating) fashion over the past couple of years.

On a singular basis I can rationalize most, if not all. As a collection, and in conjunction with what to me has been a disappointment of an offseason free agency period, I'm beginning to question if management is on the same page, and with a clear goal and idea of how to get there.


1. Fall, 2022: Team voices support for QB Mitch Trubisky after three ineffective performances, dismisses talk of starting rookie QB Kenny Pickett with 10 days to prepare against the Jets.

> Trubisky benched for Pickett at halftime of Jets game.

2. Summer, 2023: Team voices support of OC Matt Canada ahead of season in the face of questions over continued poor offensive performance and potential impact on QB development.

> Matt Canada fired after Week 11, becoming first Steeler coach or coordinator released midseason since 1941.

3. Fall, 2023: Pickett suffers high ankle sprain against Cardinals in Week 13. Team announces tightrope surgery will be performed in order to facilitate an earlier return.

> Despite telling reporters he was cleared two weeks later, Pickett misses final four regular season games and playoff game at Buffalo in the midst of run spurred by QB Mason Rudolph.

4. Spring, 2024: At end of season team voices support for moving forward and developing Pickett as their starting QB.

> 36 y/o Russell Wilson signed on third day of free agency. Pickett traded to Philadelphia the next day and Justin Fields acquired via trade with Chicago. Rudolph allowed to leave via free agency.

5. Spring, 2024: WR Diontae Johnson traded for CB Dante Jackson.

> Team spends summer negotiating trade for WR Brandon Aiyuk, deal falls through week prior to opening of season. Team enters season with Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, Ben Skowernek, and Scotty Miller behind Pickens.

6. Summer, 2024: Wilson named in pole position for starter's job, injures calf in training camp, and Fields named starter.

> Fields benched after 4-2 start for Wilson, who after early success regresses and leads the the team to five consecutive losses against heavy competition to end the season, including playoff game in Baltimore.

7. Fall, 2024: Team trades 5th round draft pick for Mike Williams at trade deadline. Williams was returning from an ACL tear and had posted 12 catches on 21 targets for the Jets.

> Williams would go on to have 9 catches on 13 targets for the Steelers, a span that included three games without leading target George Pickens. Williams allowed to leave in free agency after the season.

8. Spring, 2025: Art Rooney II states desire for either Wilson or Fields to return in 2025 at postseason press conference.

> Fields leaves early in free agency, Wilson a couple of weeks later, while team is heavily linked to 41 y/o QB Aaron Rodgers. Mason Rudolph returns under two-year contract.

9. Spring, 2025: Front office trades for WR D.K. Metcalf, signing him to a historic 4yr/$133M extension on the weekend leading into free agency.

> After aggressive kickoff to free agency period team follows up by signing only released players and lower-cost depth pieces despite having over $40M left in cap space.


Thoughts:

1. Some of this stuff heightens frustrations when locked in the purgatorial existence that is finishing the same way every year - since 2018 the team has logged between eight and 10 wins, save for the 12 in 2020 (which concluded with one of the most embarrassing playoff performances in recent memory).

2. The entire FO bears responsibility for the poor approach leading up to and including Ben's final years, not just Colbert.

3. Rooney's denying there was anything to be gained from hiring more coaches is an example of where the modern game is passing the Steelers by.

4. A FO seems out of touch when after giving up 300 yards rushing to a division rival in a playoff loss, it makes signing a WR and chasing a released 41.5 y/o QB it's significant offseason moves. Shades of letting Todd Haley go after the 45-42 playoff loss to Jacksonville in 2017.

5. Forget extra coaches, it's past time the team put competent base coordinators in place to run their units. Smith I'm still hopeful for, but Austin should've been out the door after the Ravens loss.

 

MT's way of manipulation? bring back a long ball QB and add another long ball WR to the one we have, to put on an offensive coordinators who's main game is to run the ball and take away the RB that would be one that could run his system better. keep and add RB's that don't really fit the OC's style and not really fix the line that would make it go. i don't see a problem here. tomlin's passive aggressive approach to manipulate his authority over every aspect of the team. this won't change until he's gone. not sure why anyone is surprised by what is going on. JMO

 

Most of the moves being talked about here involve players that were top level at one time and looks like trying to get just more ride or 2 out of them.
Williams was coming off an injury and they took a chance, didn't work. I'm not sure this points to FO not being on the same page.

The decision that KP was not ready to be the team leader was made when he sat behind MR. Bringing in Russ, I still believe, gave KP an opportunity to learn. That situation is on both KP and the FO.

Johnson had to go. He was being a malcontent. There was a story he physically attacked his QB in the locker room. He had to go. 2-3 other teams agreed. At least we got something for him in trade.

Canada never made sense. He came in with the promise of an offense that used pure-snap motion and play action which would be beneficial for a young QB. None of that happened and we had the worst offense in the league under Canada. I don't think he has found a coaching job since being fired.

We can debate on this forum who would be better between Russ, Fields, Rodgers, KP, or Mason. Truth is none of them are good to great enough to go to war over. No big loss with any of them. This franchise is trying to maintain the status quo while trying to rebuild the offense and retool the defense. Maybe not the way WE would like, but it's the way they are going about it.

 

Lol. Yeah, that's the point.

You're rationalizing the individual moves like I said could be done at the outset. I was focusing on the top-down view - their success rate and the flailing nature of some of what they're doing.

No one's criticizing Johnson being jettisoned. It's how they attempted to replace him - first going all-in for arguably too long with Aiyuk, then giving a 5th for an underperforming Williams. That was an extreme risk, which is fine, but doesn't jive with how Khan appears now to be hoarding comp picks for 2026 when he has the money to bring in more talent.

Like Elvis said, this stuff has been going on before 2022, but I focused on the time since Khan assumed the GM role. Because while he's done some good there's a lot of the same disconnect cropping up.

 

I'm just not seeing any connection with any of the moves other than Khan. Each move is really its own thing. Just have to grade each one individually.

 

Mediocre franchise making mediocre moves, playing mediocre football, with a mediocre record, and a mediocre head coach. Pittsburgh Steelers have become the NFL version of Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes.

 

Could be worse
Like Calipari and all his blue chip 1 n done Wildcats that never won shat

LOL

 

Mediocre: of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance

Well, we haven't had a losing season in 18 seasons which is a rare feat. So, I am not sure moderate or low quality can be attached.
They certainly are not annual 4-13 finishers.
Though sometimes the occasional 4-13 is a good thing as you can retool in the draft, maybe turnover some coaches etc.
I think they been winning with names that are not the level of:
Fuqua
Bradshaw
Roethlisberger
Harris
Swann
Shanklin
Lambert
Greene
Blount
Polamalu
Webster
Shell
Woodson and others........

Our roster has been spotty. Right now we have
Heyward - Who's been great but is looking a little long in the tooth as an every down player.
T.J. Watt - Incredible game force. Dominate but it seems like we've squandered his best.
Boswell - A historic kicker.

We just don't have Faneca, or Pouncey, Bettis, Brown, Kolb....

I think were we are mediocre is in the playoffs. There is no drive to add that final ingredients to get them over the top
A power ground game to keep a Mahomes and Allen shivering on the bench.
A pass rush that gets after them when they are on the field.

I look at the current roster, as I am doing right at this moment, I see two names - Watt and Heyward that really stand tall. We have some promise in Frazier, maybe Jones and Pickens. DK hasn't played a down as a Steeler but represents so potential to be, Fautanu might be one to watch.

We got Watt with the 30th pick and Heyward with the 31st... I'd like to see some more of that magic.
We've got to get that playoff monkey off our backs..

 

Well done Thor. Although it made me just chug a whole bottle of Pepto with a JD chaser.

 

you never know when the next one will show up. who expected hines ward to be that type of player. AB. willie parker. deshea townsend. barry foster. jalen warren. many over the years stepped up. many are not known on draft day.

 

1. For sure. The real answer here is that the locker room is getting away from the coaching staff. Our "locker room leaders" have either retired or are about to. We've had quality rosters (at least ones that should be competing for a playoff spot every year), but we haven't been able to put it all together for a full season, or when it matters. That's a coaching problem. I can't fault us for trying with KP, it just didn't work. I actually liked bringing in Russ and Fields last year as a short term bridge, but we are in "try again" mode again with QB either this year or next (its looking pretty likely that its going to be this year).

2. I don't know that the approach was as "poor" as you'd think. We missed out on a couple of players that I thought we might take a shot on (Hurts was one of those). But maybe the plan was to sign a bridge starter for a few years and only take a QB when you're sold on one? We did that and missed on KP. I think we're fine to be in that position again. If Rudolph starts, this team might have a down year... but then we can sell out the following year for a QB if we like one enough. It only looks "forced" because Kenny sucked. We took a shot at a guy we liked (and I truly think we liked him) and it backfired. If we didn't like Pickett, I am pretty certain we would have rolled with Mitch and Mason for a year and then taken one in the next draft. We probably wouldn't have been bad enough to get either Stroud or Young, so we were looking at taking Richardson or Levis (or no QB at all and being ridiculed for having no plan at QB also). There wasn't a winning scenario in either instance. Sometimes you just don't get it right at QB....

3. Agree with this statement. I think our ownership is stuck in the past and it shows. We are consistently low on the rankings for owners in business practices, we continue to cling to a coach who also has had the game pass him by, and approach the NFL like we have for decades. People are different in today's world, and so is the game.... we need to start acting like it.

4. I don't necessarily buy this one... I'm not saying that the DL doesn't need help, but we also don't need to overreact to one game as well. We were a top 5 defense against the run all season. Yes, we got embarrassed on the ground, but that is a microcosm of the odd gameplan we had for the game on top of getting worn out because the offense had like 40-50 yards total at the half. We HAD to do something on offense, and I think the Metcalf acquisition was a great start. WR and QB were our biggest issues last season, so I don't blame them one bit making our most significant offseason noise at those positions.

5. Totally agree here. We are too afraid to make a "hard" decision. We had Brian Flores in the building a couple years ago. We should have just moved on from Austin and hired Flores instead. We also should never have extended Tomlin (especially at that amount). I get that these are hindsight opinions, but these are the types of things that change the trajectory of a franchise. We chose incorrectly. The sad part is that we're gonna hear the media bs of "oh look, now Tomlin is gone and you suck" type thing like us Steelers fans deserved it because we didn't love MT enough... but the reality is that Art and Mike are running this ship and they are running it into the ground. It's going to be up to Mike as to whether or not he wants to stick around and reap the fruit of his leadership. I'm guessing that he won't.

 

I get what you're saying here, but for me it extends beyond how they planned to replace Ben. With franchise QBs being notoriously hard to find/develop, one thing you can do is maintain your bedrock, so the foundation is set for whomever you put in the role. IMO, the FO continued to lean in to skill and immediate-need positions too far into Ben's home stretch. Combined with some of the misses over that span, it left the roster thin for the next man up.

Fair enough. I'm sure I'm projecting some of my dissatisfaction with the offseason as a whole onto that comment, but I also think there was a marked difference in performance against the run in the second half of the season. Likely due to the better competition and wear and tear, they gave up 1200 yards over the last nine games (including the playoff game against the Ravens) vs 785 over the first nine.

Okunjobi is no great loss, but they haven't upgraded him yet either. Cam had a very good year, but continuing to count on him to carry the line is increasingly risky. With the market now picked over the onus falls upon the draft room to find a plug and play option.

 

What if the current plan A is to ride as far as we can with Mason. Take whatever happens. Head into next year's draft with our normal selections plus 4 comp picks.


What if the current plan B is to bring in ARod and do the exact same thing? Or, insert QB name.

 

doesn't sound like pickens is going anywhere. one thing i agree with MT on.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nf...S&cvid=d321ce0c23ad40e5b90cd76f4a15fbc4&ei=12

why take away a strength for a draft pick? that's foolish.

 

Whiney assed posters here think you trade a great potential talent for maybe a 2nd round pick

Dumb ****s

 

More wins and possibly more with Rodgers

Wilson sucked for the last 6 games

And he was better than Fields

 

I see why they didn't sign any of those big name DL in free agency for like 20 million a year, I want them to double dip at DL in the draft.

 

I honestly just don't see the Steelers drafting an IDL in Round One. Granted, last season was a bit of an outlier in Troy Fautanu. Thing is, Pittsburgh had him in for a Pre Draft Visit; a major game changer.


Hopefully the team will have either Harmon or Grant for those. Next option for the Defense would be Jahdae Barron from Texas.

 

Regarding the moves of the Offseason, disjointed is also a term I'd use from the Offensive perspective. Granted though, that has been going on since 2019... so I personally am not surprised by how inefficient the Offensive moves have been made. 2021 should have been the year in which people noticed how Mike Tomlin botched the entirety of the Offensive Rebuild; a Running Back with no Offensive Line in the First Round, a Tight End in Pat Freiermuth a Guard who only played five games as a Center in Kendrick Green in the second and Dan Moore (the fanbases whipping boy) in the fourth. This doesn't also account for how poorly the Offensive Line was constructed either prior to the season. James Daniels had experience at Center but was forced to play Right Guard, Kevin Dotson, who was a Pro Bowl Caliber Right Guard was now switched to Left Guard and the aforementioned Green at Center. To compound this issue, Adrian Klemm had zero business being the Offensive Line Coach. A year later, the Offensive Line had to be rebuilt again but with minimally better results; Mason Cole being the new Center despite him playing better as a Right Guard for Minnesota. For Coaching, enter Pat Meyer; the former OL Coach from the Panthers from 2020 to 2021.

2023?! Broderick Jones, Isaac Seumalo, Nick Herbig and Spencer Anderson are the new additions. With the exception of Isaac, Nick and Broderick were listed (or played in Brodericks Case) in the wrong spots.... again. It is bad enough that Broderick only had 19 games of starting experience; much lower than many, if not any, Top 15 NFL Draft Prospect has had in over a generation. To place him in the wrong spot?! Oof. Nick didn't start though due to Mason Cole still being on the team and Isaac Seumalo was the only player who played in his original spot.


2024?! Troy Fautanu, Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick. Troy and Mason both get switched in terms of positioning but Mason handled himself better than others thought given his 50+ games starting at Left Guard at South Dakota State. Troy didn't see much playing time sadly and Zach who, like Isaac, actually played in his official spot.


Now, as we head into 2025, of the five Offensive Lineman who are on the team, none of them are guaranteed a starting role in 2025; Zach Frazier included despite him being the best Center that he team has had since Pouncey retired. However, how much of this befalls on the Head Coach?! Not just him either; Kevin Colbert being a major player in this as well. Pat Meyer is also not exempt from blame for his development has been spotty at best to below average at worst. The biggest loser of all of this though is Arthur Smith. Given how horribly the Offensive situation has been handled prior to Smith's arrival, any form of Offensive Production in 2024 would have been a major upgrade from the year prior. However, the problems still persist given how disjointed this Offseason has been; D.K. being the biggest splash the Steelers have made since Minkah Fitzpatrick but still not having a QB to throw him the football. If that wasn't enough, Broderick Jones is FINALLY being put back into his original spot after two seasons of futility on the Right Side. The problem now though is Broderick will have to relearn the finite nuances of playing on the Left Side... again. How will he hold up?!?! Finally, Troy Fautanu is returning from a Dislocated Knee Injury. David DeCastro overcame this in a time in which Sports and Medicine was much different in 2011 than it is in 2025. Each player though is different.. so Troy's development will be that much more important.


Overall, @mac daddyo states a very important point; an Offensive Coordinator is only going to showcase results if he has the personnel to do so. D.K. Metcalf does fit in Arthurs Smith's Scheme but will Tomlin allow Smith to fully run his Offense?! Given how Tomlin has made prior OCs adjust their Offensive Philosophies with his desired style of Football, one truly has to question if Arthur Smith will ever get a fair shake in Pittsburgh. Never mind him, will any OC that heavily relies on the MOF be allowed to use that area under Tomlin?! Prior history says no.


In short?! Moves are being made to improve the team but they don't appear to be the correct ones based on either prior Schematic Changes or archaic notions; both even.

 

Larry O' signed a 1 year deal with the Bills for $8 million guaranteed. Who do you have replacing Larry O?

You saw what happened in the Playoffs with this run defense; are you counting on a draft pick to be a day 1 starter, or are you good with Loudermilk starting week 1. I mean F'N Loudermilk are you kidding me???

I don't have a clue with all that cap space the Steelers had and they use it to bring back Loudermilk to be the Starter. Makes about as much since as bringing back Mason Rudolf, who in 5 stars last year threw 9 Ints, to be the Starting QB of this team.



I was really hoping the Steelers would have made a play on DT Johnathon Allen after being released by Washington for Cap reasons. Torn Pec last year, caused him to miss half the season, in his previous 6 years he has averaged 16 games played per season.

 

PEDs

Mason 5 stars

 

ekuale has 21 starts in the league. dean lowry has 85 starts in the league. loudermilk has 5 starts. otomewe has 2 starts. leal. slade. lee. < two of those were draft picks.