Here's my assessment, here's how I feel

I didn't expect the Steelers to lose today's game against the Saints but I realize one of the reasons we've lost games over the past 2 to 3 years is because of what my eyes tell me:

1/ Our defense is old and slow like Warren Sapp said a few years ago. If you don't think so just watch how other teams get after it, not only after the QB but also they're able to play press coverage and man to man with success. To Dick Lebeau's credit his zone defense is and has been one of the best in the league however the age of the D hinders the ability to pass rush with the linebackers and of course we don't have the most talented of Defensive Ends at the moment in terms of rushers (they are mostly responsible for run gap stops and containment) and we DON'T have any hybrid types. A few years ago I watched from the stands on a Sunday night game when Baltimore drove down field about 90 yards with less than 2 minutes and no timeouts to win the game (sideline pass to Torrey Smith I believe). It was then that I KNEW the defense was not the same. There are not the leaders on D anymore and hopefully that changes but I'm not sure who will step into that role. We do have some pieces but clearly losing Keenan was huge. I hope Cortez, Shamarko, Shazier, Tuitt, Mccullers, and JJ work out because we are going to need to build around them with another DB, DE and a linebacker who will takeover and/or sub for Timmons. Mcclendon and Heywood are solid in my book and only getting better BUT we need a pass rush. I've gone back and forth on whether we should convince Dick Lebeau to retire because I just don't like the complexity of his defenses (sometimes players just need to play), but on another note he is Dick Lebeau and I'm sure he knows how to adjust......we just lack the talent on that side of the ball or our key players are injured. My mind tells me though Lebeau will be back and we'll be fine

3/ Offensively I will say that we FINALLY made strides to improve on what was killing us the last few years which was lack of a running game and a terrible pass blocking offensive line. The hiring of Mike Munchak HAS made a difference which has allowed me to confirm my suspicions about our QB. The O-line has overcome significant injuries over the last few years and 3 different line coaches but the arrow is pointing upward. Don't get me wrong I still want a bigger LT and we certainly need depth but we're getting there (When your RB is chewing up yards like Bell your line has something to do with that). Could we be better? sure but we sure as hell have been worse. We also have some weapons at the wide receiver position. For all those who are down on Wheaton please relax, dude can catch and he does run routes. I imagine either Lance Moore or DHB will be gone and that makes way for Justin Brown a 6"3 project. Now if they can just start using Dri Archer in short crossing routes in space to compliment the downfield speed of their receivers they might be unstoppable. We'll need a tight end to replace Heath soon and of course more depth at the RB position but I like our future

4/ Quarterback - Ben has won more games than he's lost but I count 2 this year including today that he lost. An elite QB cannot lose too many games for you. An elite QB can have a bad day, but can't MISS open targets with overthrows the way Ben does. His deep ball HAS NEVER been consistent, not with Wallace, Sanders or Wheaton (I always thought Byron Leftwich had a prettier deep ball but terrible long windup). Ben is a great QB but not elite. What I worry about is as he gets older his ability to escape the pocket will lessen until he becomes a full time pocket passer (which is when he is inconsistent). Remember Ben is usually great when flushed at making something happen BUT in the pocket he's not as dangerous and I think its because his footwork when throwing is not that great. He does what Eli Manning does quite a bit of which is throw off his back foot instead of stepping into the throw with follow through, might be time for a new QB coach. There was something to what Emmanuel Sanders said about Ben in comparison to Manning, look at the year Emmanuel is having (who saw that coming?)
Payton is arguably one of the best EVER but he STILL puts in the work heavy and hard. Jerry Rice was the best receiver ever but did you see his workout regiment (even in his final years). Wheaton will be as good as Ben makes him, so will Bryant. Antonio is already a star but who allegedly works the hardest of that group...surprise surprise.

Coaching - I've listened to the Tomlin haters blame every fumble, bad throw, etc on him and its almost laughable. I DO question some of his clock management issues and calls from time to time but I realize that he's a young coach who is growing a team and phasing out its seasoned leaders. There are times when I've said the the team wasn't ready to play but today was not one of them. Lack of quality players and Ben's bad game killed you today. Look back at the Jet loss. There was no 100 yd rusher, Mike Vick threw for less than 150 yards and outside of the 1st TD bomb he really didn't do much except kill you with his feet, WHY? because we're old and slow on defense while Buffalo who spanked the Jets a week later is not. That is a game we beat ourselves with turnovers.

For those that want to get rid of Mike Tomlin I ask the question, what current coach would you prefer to have? Belichek is an elite coach so lets put him in a class of his own for a minute and look at a few others

Mike Mcarthy - 90 - 48 - 1 (652 winning %) 1 SB, 5 division championships
John Harbaugh - 69 - 38 (645 winning %) 1 SB, 2 Division championships
Sean Payton - 77 - 46 (626 winning %) 1 SB, 4 Division championships
Mike Tomlin - 78 - 45 (634 winning % 1 SB (2 appearances) 3 Division Championships

Now name me another coach with more than 100 games with a better winning percentage? So I once again ask the question WHO THE HECK DO YOU GUYS WANT AS A REPLACEMENT FOR TOMLIN?

Andy Reid? -(592 winning percentage), 0 SB's
John Fox - (567 winning percentage), 0 SB's
Pete Carroll - (564 winning percentage), 1 SB
Tom Coughlin - (538 winning percentage), 2 SB's

Maybe there's someone in college that we can go get right? How does that typically work out?
Oh I forgot let's bring back Coach Cowher, that solves everything right? If that's the case then why did we lose those AFC Championship games in our house

If we we're going to get coaches out of retirement I would rather Tony Dungy, his winning percentage vs Cowher is 668% vs 623% both with the same amount of SB wins

I predict a sweep of the Bengals, win against the Chiefs and a loss to the Falcons which makes us 10 -6, HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!

 

tomlin record count nothing he wasn't and still isn't in charge of anything , we are basically in the hand of ben lebeau and the other coordinators , almost anytime he try to put something on his own he screwed the things up .. drafting managing the clock, calling timeouts ,stepping onto the field, cheerleading his players .. he is clueless of what the things are going around him .. it's only a post game presser and immagine for the rooneys ..we need a coach feared and respected by his players .. should be some around there

 

You mean like Rex Ryan and Jim Harbaugh cause they will both be avail on Black Monday

 

careful....you make sense

 

well rex is an headcase , while i hate the harbaughs as a men but Jim as a coach is ten times better than tomlin

 

I was gonna say the same. That was a smart, deliberate, well thought out post. OVERRULED! Trade for Harbaugh from San Fran and bring in Rex Ryan as D Coord

 

What makes u think that? The niners have underachieved all year too.

 

I don't want to get rid of Tomlin. I also don't think the Rooneys are getting rid of him in the near future.

That said...

I don't like any of the ones you mention on your list to coach the Steelers.
If Coach Tomlin, for any reason, isn't our HC for 2015, his most likely replacements will be Haley or Munchak.
If looking outside, the only coach I'd be willing to take a look is Jeff Fisher. Defensive minded, aggressive, with the ability to build up from the talent he has. Actually, he'll be my front runner if I had a say on this.
If we open up the discussion to all possible candidates, of course I'd love to have Cowher back someday.

Now, again, I don't want Tomlin to leave, and I don't think the Rooneys are getting rid of him anytime soon.

 

kapernick have underachieved , did you see how he turned the franchise after singleterry ?

it's my perception but i think he is a lot tougher than tomlin and the team seems the same .. but i can be wrong ..again is only my perception ....

i like jeff fisher too

 

I don't really know if he's a good coach as I haven't seen much of the 9'ers games over the years. I will say though that his QB sucks and his GM has basically said he's as good as gone after this season. It's hard to get your team ready to play when you're a lame duck coach who is fired regardless of the outcome of the season.

 

I was never in favor of getting rid of Tomlin until this season, the reason is he is unable to correct the same mistakes that have plagued this team for the last 3 years. The secondary is still bad, maybe worse that it has ever been, the D-line isn't good and just having Cam Thomas on the field is a sign of poor judgment. The only thing that is changing is the o-line, while still bad for NFL standards, is improving but everything else is the same and having a lot of time to prepare to play a team at home and playing the way this team played is inexcusable, that is on the coach as it looks as if nothing is practiced, does this team practice more than 1 day a week? If they do then the coaching staff isn't focusing on the right things to practice. Is our defense that bad that perhaps everything works in practice and when we see a real defense, we can't compensate? That could be a problem too. D.L. has been great but it looks as if he can't come up with a scheme to make the most of what he has got, granted he doesn't have many skilled players but the same old blitzes that get picked up by all but the worst teams is just getting hard to watch and with the horrid run defense we have he hasn't come up with any type of solution, he has to go as new blood with fresh eyes is needed badly. As far as letting Keenan Lewis walk, the only way he would have stayed was for a 100 million dollar a year contract, he said it himself that it didn't matter what the team offered, he wanted to go someplace warm to play and the Saints is where he wanted to so badly that he would have taken less money to play there, so the front office had no choice as he wanted to go and you can't keep someone who is dead set on leaving for a better climate. Those coaching stats are misleading, Pete Carroll has some good talent evaluators, he went in to a horrid situation with a team that was a joke, so much so they fired a coach that had a 3 year deal after 1 season, he took that wretched team and built something good, Tomlin took a SB winning team that was handed to him and left it decay into a .500 team that struggles just to be at .500, much different set of circumstances and the stats just don't tell that story.

 

We let some quality safetys and corners slip by us while we keep drafting linebackers in the 1st round, no wonder we are horrible on the back end, and Tomlin was supposed to be a DB coach and he cant see how terrible our DBs are, very strange...

 

This is what I was mentioning in response to another post a week or so ago - needs vs. wants in the drafts. Lately, it seems the 'wants' have been winning out. It's great to have a quick linebacker. But you know what else is great? Not giving up an 80-yard touchdown pass when your team just started gaining some momentum to possibly get back in the game. I'm questioning the FO on their inability to fill the needs column.

 

exactly what I was thinking

 

There are plenty of coaches... and not available NFL "head coaches". College coaches may not know the ins&outs of NFL life but they certainly know thing or two about young players.

There may be some valid points to argue of staying away from college coaches, but right now, there are plenty of them I can think of that would bring a freshness to our stale issues. How about Jimbo Fisher or Mark Helfrich?

 

one word " injuries"