That 7th Lombardi Trophy is not far away...

I really believe the Steelers and this group of players is right on the doorstep of doing something great. This team grew up a lot this season even the last few weeks. Bryant took huge strides answering Ben's challenge, the linebackers such as Jones especially Shazier took some big steps. The D line lead by Cam and Tuitt looks solid for years to come. We found a solid kicker to replace an aging more expensive Suisham. And next year we will get both AB and Bell back and a solid D Williams as well. This team is close fellas it truly is I believe. Fix this secondary in the offseason and do some tweaking here and there and I truly believe that this team come next year this time will have a solid chance if hoisting that Lombardi Trophy. This team is close and I do believe down the road within the next t 1-3 seasons this team will breakthrough and is not going to be denied.

 

At first glance at the topic, I thought that we were bestowed a Mulligan and would somehow still get to play-on this year.

 

We are close, things need to fall into place injuries must be
at mininum, player aquisition at certain positions need to happen. Ben has
a 3 year window.

 

I agree. We are so close. Ben will bring home #7 before he's done.

 

when you look back at the last 10 years, man its hard to win one. the giants have won 2 and some of the other winners are not even playoff contenders now. ben gives us a chance each year and now he has the best skill players in the league. 7 is coming next year.

 

I want us to get #8 at SB 57. Easy to play up with Heinz.

 

We hope... sometimes teams get super close but can't seal.

 

I've held back from saying this and always want to remain as optimistic as possible, but any intelligent and realist person has to be thinking, what will make next year any different than this year or last year or the year before relative to potential suspensions and injuries. Young money types will always have immature moments and injuries are commonplace in the NFL with some individuals more susceptible than others (Shazier, Bell, Pouncey and even Ben as he advances in age and doesn't really change his play style). So when someone says - well at least next year we will have a healthy so in so and more experience here and there - it is in fact just a house of cards.

The key of course is to gut it out and hope the next man up is at least a serviceable replacement. We were fortunate this year in each of these areas except QB and for a while place-kicker. We did well in spite of adversity but so did NE and Denver. Cincy - not so much (lol). As Yogi Berra might say, football is 90% talent and reserves and the other half is luck.

 

yup this. There is no guarantees in football, or any sport really

 

The team has been building on the previous yrs successes for at least the last 3 yrs. If next season, the defense improves on their performance the last 1/4th of the season (including playoffs) AND the offense isn't down with injuries; this is definitely a SB caliber team. Long story short, everyone should show improvement from the 52nd man up to the GM Colbert. Then I'll have full confidence the team can go all the way.

We'll be able to tell were their at NLT the first 3-4 games of the season.

 

what bothers me is every time we don't go to the Super Bowl and the Pats do they are inching closer to matching out titles and may even get to seven before us

 

If it takes that long I'm going to bet a lot of money I won't be here to see it. But who knows, stranger things have happened.
This has been a very good year for me being able to make some lucky bets and increase my donation to Best Friends Animal Shelter to a new annual high for me. I was at $7,500.00 until I got lucky and won 5 more bets at the end of the season, including two last weekend. I dropped another $5,000.00 check in the mail yesterday. The nice thing is they have a promotion this time of year that they match any donations dollar for dollar. So the $12,500.00 winds up being $25,000.00.

That is a small drop in the bucket for them but it allows me to feel better about the promise I made.
Wish I would have been able to win the $25,000.00 Vegas would have owed me had the Steelers won the SB, but maybe next year. I agree we are close to #7.

Football is over for me so I won't be doing any posting until next football season, just looking in, off and on, to get information about the Steelers, the draft, etc. This is a great board to get a lot of different opinions, even if you don't agree with all of them, and articles about the Steelers.

 

Agree with being close, agree with not getting injuries, probably a 3 year window, but not sure about player acquisition, except for depth. The talent is there on offense if they stay healthy.

I am probably in the minority, but I think with Gay always playing above his pay grade, and if Cockrell continues to develop, and we re-sign Boykin who now has a year under his belt, and Grant can play a decent 4th cornerback, the defense will be good. In this system there seems to be a steep learning curve, just look how much better MM was this year compared to his first. With MCullers back, and Tuitt improving upon this year, I will be more surprised if this team is not in a Super Bowl in the next 2 years. Barring major injuries or AB holding out. And I think we got our alottment of injuries out of the way for the next 2 years.