Reason For Change

A graphic to show why the Steelers had to make the change from defensive HC to offensive HC:



Some other things of note:

• The offensive decline is decades in the making with more seasons falling out of the top half of the league.
• The defense has been a cornerstone of the team and typically one of the better ones, no surprise.
• Noll's defense was in a constant decline after its '70s heydays. Going from the top ranked defense to one of the worst Steelers defenses.
• Noll rebuilt the defense after the '70s in a short time but had a terrible draft in '91.
• Steelers had a good draft in '92 and Cowher returned the defense to top 10.
• Tomlin should have kept Haley as OC.

 

The NFL is geared toward offense.
A guy like Dick Butkus would spend all his career suspended.

 

That's one of my biggest gripes with the nfl these days. Along with the refs dictating games the neutering of great defensive play is a real downer. I love to watch great defensive play over shootouts but I'm a steeler fan and probably in the minority.

 

Offense sells tickets sadly. Defense still wins Championships but how to construct said defenses in an Era where it is heavily Offense is merely step one. Step two is finding the Coordinator to orchestrate that talent. Step three is having consistency.


As for the Steelers ability to adapt?! They did technically multiple times; the Killer Bs Era being their best iteration. Of course, that didn't end well at all. Now, AR II is pushing all his chips in the middle of the table for Double M. Whether or not that works is dependent on a number of factors.


Step One of course is nabbing that guy at QB.

 

I'm not sure that Step One is nabbing that guy at QB. It's certainly the most important and most difficult step. But I think Step One is building up the offensive line, in preparation for eventually finding that guy. Step two is putting the weapons in place. Because even a mediocre QB can have a VERY good season with a great O-Line and great weapons.

 

MM signed a five year contract. If the Steelers don't win significantly in the postseason in that timeframe then I think the search for a new HC will be underway again.

 

I’m surprised at the 5 years but he is an experienced head coach

I do not think a young guy moving up would have gotten that

 

I stated finding that guy specifically as Pittsburgh has achieved that aspect of building the trenches already; on paper anyway. Seeing it play out is a different story. Regardless, even if the trenches are not fully solved, still have to find that guy all the same.


Look at the Indianapolis Colts. They have had a Top 5 to Top 10 line for quite some time now. They haven't found that guy and, as a result, have been stuck.

 

Change, ain't nothin' stays the same
Unchained, yeah, you hit the ground runnin'

 

My first reaction to this chart...it's not hard to see the years when Ben missed games in Tomlin's tenure.

Second reaction...the combination of Mitch and Kenny under center was a black hole of offense.

Almost like the QB >>> HC.

2010 - 12 games
2012 - 13 games
2019 - 2 games (Ben/Mason/Duck/Mason)
2021 - 16 games...but post-injury ben.
2022 - No Ben...Mitch/Kenny
2023 - No Ben...Kenny/Mitch/Mason
2024 - No Ben...Fields/Wilson
2025 - No Ben...AR

Interstingly, Ben missed a bunch of games in 2015 (11 starts) and 2016 (14 starts) but didn't suck on offense.

 

Yes...and no. If you have a conservative, bland, play-for-a-FG-a-quarter offense, you won't beat any team in January unless you have the best defense in years (like top 3 in the decade). If you have a conservative D or just a bad D, you need an above average offense.

The Steelers had neither the past 7+ years. Defense was above average often, but never great. It was exposed as easy to plan against, judging by the results the past 7+ years. We know the offense has sucked for almost that long, but the defense hasn't been any better. We gave up like 200 points the past 5 playoff games...embarrassing. To wild-card round teams, not the AFC champs either.

 

One of the games that Ben did not start in 2015,he come in off the bench very early vs Browns and he had like 380 passing yards and 3 TD!

2015 was the year that the steelers were at their most aggressive and they had 6 games in a row with 30 points or more in the second half of the season and several of those games was against great defense like Seattle,Denver.If Ben would been healthy all season long,possible the steelers would finish with the number 1 offense

 

It took a few years but Haley had that offense humming. Too bad Roethlisberger had to be a malcontent and have the guy fired.

 

Could you imagine if Deebo played in this era? He'd be fined every week.

Oh wait, nevermind.